Another Jamaican opportunity....

[HL]

Last August while horseback riding in Jamaica, I noticed that there were large amounts of almond growing wild ...

On another occasion, stopped by a roadside stall--(under an Almond Tree) to 'wash my heart'. I immediately started to forage on the ripe Almond. The lady, Miss. Dimples... saw my interest in the nut and said. "mi can chop some a de jry one fi you enuh".

"Sure I replied....

I said to my secretary on both observations that Jamaica could make the Almond a local cash crop.

Look:


'Jah Fire' is nuts over almonds

[Reggaedoc]

Or is it?. The dread is certainly very ambitious and should be encouraged, as long as he undestands what he is getting into. No disrespect intended. You see the plant we have in Jamaica, and the rest of the tropics that we call almond, or tropical almond, botanical name Terminalia Catappa, is quite different to what the world gets in cans, and covered with chocolate etc. That is Prunus amygdalus. It is a member of the prune family, easily raised commercially, and not readily, if at all, found in the tropics. If the dread is talking about our 'almond', T. catappa, then the questions would be 1) is there enough quantity available of a consistent quality for a commercial venture. 2) Is the cost of labour for procuring the final "nut" from the fruit low enough for this to be a financially viable product. Remember as a youth, the amount of effort that we had to exert in 'pounding' almonds to obtain a few pits. To make almond drops, almond butter, almond meal for porridge etc on a commercial basis will require a lot of workers pounding 'almonds' 24/7. The nut that the rest of the world calls almonds, P. amydalus does not require this effort, and it is cultivated commercially. Our almonds grow wild, mostly in coastal areas, and if I were to guess, most of those trees may close to 100 years old.

[Assasin]

The biggest cost is the labour cost. The fact is we get away with not planting anything. This is how the Scientific research council and the UWI comes in. Find a speci that bear on a more regular basis and it maybe easier to crack. Create a product and research if there is a target market for it.

As HL say we rather siddum and wait on massa god fi mek his Almond drop and then we pick it up. IF Jah fire can pick the Almond and do the labour and sell it he actually make 100% markup on it. The opportunity cost of his time is sitting and doing nothing.

[Mosiah]

A di hardest ting fi buss open di almond seed to get to di likkle kernel. a suh it name?! after all dat work, sometime di kernel fly gone, or get crushed itself by di rockstone! nuh worth it!

but i am sure if it were to be commercially exploited we would come up with better ways to extract it. have to!

[Mosiah]

who knows the medicinal value of our almond compared to di boasy one whey Reggaedoc a talk bout? di cure fi cancer mighta all inna it and wi nuh know! where is the research? UWI?!?

[Reggaedoc]

UW who?. I dont think you understand how Jamaica run. Before the authorities do that, they would rather go to England, bring in an idiot from the Faculty of Botany, London University, pay him couple million well for 6 weeks of consultancy. This, to a clown who the first and last time he ever saw a tropical almond tree was in the 1960's when he was vacationing with his family in 'British Honduras'. Him come fe advise yu, but yu hafi teach him bout the plant. In the end him try fi introduce the temeperate zone almond which fails and drain all the nutriients from yu soil rendering the soil useless for the next 100 years. Him run way with $2M US him get for drinking tea and whiskey at Devon House, and Half Moon every day. Car and driver included. While we could have gotten the appropriate knowledge from a freshman at the University of Madagascar, where our almond is native, for free. But the Madagascans them too dark coloured fi know anything, no mind the fact that they have been living with the plant for over 2000 years. A so it go every time bredren. Growing up stupid under the Union Jack is a b!#ch.

[Mosiah]

UW who?. I dont think you understand how Jamaica run. Before the authorities do that, they would rather go to England, bring in an idiot from the Faculty of Botany, London University, pay him couple million well for 6 weeks of consultancy. This, to a clown who the first and last time he ever saw a tropical almond tree was in the 1960's when he was vacationing with his family in 'British Honduras'. Him come fe advise yu, but yu hafi teach him bout the plant. In the end him try fi introduce the temeperate zone almond which fails and drain all the nutriients from yu soil rendering the soil useless for the next 100 years. Him run way with $2M US him get for drinking tea and whiskey at Devon House, and Half Moon every day. Car and driver included. While we could have gotten the appropriate knowledge from a freshman at the University of Madagascar, where our almond is native, for free. But the Madagascans them too dark coloured fi know anything, no mind the fact that they have been living with the plant for over 2000 years. A so it go every time bredren. Growing up stupid under the Union Jack is a b!#ch.

you and mi faada coulda reason.

how yuh nuh talk bout di fenke-fenke report him lef gi people, wid di bad word structure and grammar, despite him English background?

[Reggaedoc]

I know. English is a foreign language for most of them anyway. But dont tell some of our friends in ja that.

[Don1]

hmmm... so you mean foreign doesn't automatically mean SUPERIOR??.....

this is quite disturbing to contemplate

mek mi read di Hard Talk interview again..

[Karl]

UW who?. I dont think you understand how Jamaica run. Before the authorities do that, they would rather go to England, bring in an idiot from the Faculty of Botany, London University, pay him couple million well for 6 weeks of consultancy. This, to a clown who the first and last time he ever saw a tropical almond tree was in the 1960's when he was vacationing with his family in 'British Honduras'. Him come fe advise yu, but yu hafi teach him bout the plant. In the end him try fi introduce the temeperate zone almond which fails and drain all the nutriients from yu soil rendering the soil useless for the next 100 years. Him run way with $2M US him get for drinking tea and whiskey at Devon House, and Half Moon every day. Car and driver included. While we could have gotten the appropriate knowledge from a freshman at the University of Madagascar, where our almond is native, for free. But the Madagascans them too dark coloured fi know anything, no mind the fact that they have been living with the plant for over 2000 years. A so it go every time bredren. Growing up stupid under the Union Jack is a b!#ch.

Reggaedoc yuh a talk lacka 'di gova-ment' duh dat areadi?
Dat duh?

Just curious!

[MdmeX]

A di hardest ting fi buss open di almond seed to get to di likkle kernel. a suh it name?! after all dat work, sometime di kernel fly gone, or get crushed itself by di rockstone! nuh worth it!

but i am sure if it were to be commercially exploited we would come up with better ways to extract it. have to!

Not to mention how much time yuh bruise yuh finger, just trying to get to di likkle kernel

[Assasin]

a wha the rhatid unnu a talk bout? Unnu caan bruk Ahman?

[HL]

Reggaedoc: that's a well stated response to my post.

I am aware of the commercially grown cultivar of almond. For that reason, I said '.....make the almond a local cash crop'.

The Haitian brand (Tree Ripe) ackee retails for $6.00,.... all the Jamaican brands retail for over $13.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Reggaedoc, I perished the thought of Jamaica going commercial with this unique nut.

Jamaican leadership does not have the WILL to do anything of real commercial value.

The Chinese (I see) are teaching Jamaicans how to grow sugar-cane. The Spanish is teaching Jamaicans about hospitality and tourism.

And oh, ....Mosiah have the gall to ask why i am so bittah!!!

[Assasin]

"The Spanish is teaching Jamaicans about hospitality and tourism."

No we actually teaching them. Recently one of the big Spanish Chains just produced a video using their local Jamaican staff to use in their Brazillian hotels. They stole everything from Butch and Issa(them do a chiney man pon dem).

[Reggaedoc]

HL and Assasin dont even mention the hospitality industry, because that is the pits. Hotel Executive Director retire and haas to go back to his hell hole in europe, Jamaican assistant manager gets ovelooked. He has a masters in hotel management from UWI. They go to europe and bring a German, Austrian, French, or British clown with a high school degree and a surf board, whose only experience was as a doorman or desk clerk in Monaco. The jamaican teach him everything, this while the idiot is barely literate. The idiot gets appointed to Executive director, and the Jamaican with the masters becomes food and beverage manager, or events planner, whatever that is. The Jakan still has to do the work of Executive director. The white man goes to all the Governor General's balls, gets the house overlooking the airport, car with driver, 2 maids, 5 gardeners, direct line to the minister of tourism etc. Realizing that he could not have achieved this in his wildest dreams, in any meritocracy, he cant help but want to remain forever in this paradise on earth. The same one which is hell to the jamaican with his masters. So the clown marries a wannabe-white Jamaican, gets automatic citizenship, have couple children. Children who cant pass GCE end up in some second rate school in Miami, sniff coke, surf, and party for 4 years then returns to Ja, with the sense that he is better than everybody darker than him. Gets a job in the same hotel, dad appoints him food and beverage manager, and the jamaican with the masters becomes head of house keeping... and on and on, while the Jamaican courts and politicians/policy makers stand idly by with the blank stare of stupidity on their faces, drinking whiskey with the same idiot who is keeping his people in the underclass. Talk about apatheid. Its fu@#ed up.