The Betty Black Blog

Jamaica has been for centuries one of the wealthiest countries in the region. Correction: make that “had been” as, over the last forty years or so, we have been losing that distinction. The world recession has made the situation even more obvious. Now I’m no economist, nor would I want to be, but it seems [...]

There is likely no Jamaican, at home or in the wider diaspora, who is not familiar with the name of J. Wray and Nephew, distillers of Appleton Rum. But have you ever stopped to wonder who the Nephew was? Well for those who don’t know, Mr. Wray’s nephew was Col. Charles James Ward CMG, one [...]

In 1988, the World scratched it’s head in wonder. A Jamaican bobsled team in the Winter Olympics? But it doesn’t snow in Jamaica! The original team of four became the stuff of legend; there was even a Disney movie, Cool Runnings, about them. We’ve seen successive bobsled teams over the years. Since 2007 we’ve also [...]

In the hills of St. Ann, high above Ocho Rios on Jamaica’s north coast, lies Lydford. The earth is the bright red that signifies the presence of bauxite and it was here that major bauxite mining was done and here that a community of those that worked in the industry grew. Lydford is also great [...]

Jamaicans have opened up our hearts and our wallets to help Haiti. Our minds have turned from our own woes with the realisation that, just a stone’s throw away, is a neighbour who makes our problems look insignificant. We text, we write cheques and we drop supplies at ODPEM. But then we watch CNN, etc. [...]

Young Ian, the teenager at Campion, knew exactly what career he wanted to pursue. He wanted to be in movies, but not in front of the camera. The youngster, with a talent for art and a love of Star Wars, wanted to go into special effects so it was no surprise that, in 1985, he [...]

The eyes of the world have been turned to Haiti over the past two weeks since unfathomable damage was done by a 7.0 earthquake on 12th January.  We wonder what has made Haiti so poor. Certainly their history before 1804 was the same as the rest of the West Indies. Then we read Sir Hilary [...]

Similar but Different
We would expect that two countries close both in geography and culture would have similar foods. It is therefore no surprise that neighbouring Jamaica and Haiti have similar cuisine. There are many indigenous fruit, vegetables and native animals in common. Canoes of the early Tainos plied back and forth between the two Islands. [...]

The telethon will be broadcast here (if I’ve done the codes right)

J$670, US$7.70, E5.35, Y699. That is the weekly income of the average Haitian. We bandy about the phrase “Poorest Country in the Western Hemisphere” as we would “the Tallest Building” or “the Longest River” without really stopping to think what it means. We tend to transfer ideas to things we know and most of are [...]