http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com Random Thoughts from an Overloaded Mind Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:40:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Long a staple of Jamaican bush medicine, aloe vera, aloe barbadensin, aloe vulgaris or sinkle bible, one of three hundred aloe members of the lily family, is touted by some to be a miracle cure-all. While it might not be the universal remedy of bush medicine repute, the entire world ... http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com/2010/06/29/the-medicine-plant/ Recent events have only served to underline the insidious manner in which crime has worked its way through the length and breadth of our beautiful Island. We have sat still for so long ignoring the obvious or saying “It’s just the criminals killing each other, nothing to do with us.” ... http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com/2010/05/25/we-the-problem-we-the-solution/ Just a short five years ago on August 29th 2005, Hurricane Katrina almost destroyed the United States Gulf Coast. In fact parts of New Orleans and other cities in the region remain ghost towns to this day. Now something worse than Katrina is heading for that very same area, but ... http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com/2010/05/02/unnatural-disaster/ Today, April 22nd, is the Fortieth Anniversary of Earth Day. This very important event was started in the United States in 1970 but by 2000 had gone International. We as Jamaicans have a very bad habit regarding many things. We talk a lot about our problems: crime, garbage, drought, the breakdown ... http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com/2010/04/22/earth-day-in-jamaica/ I’m pretty sure that there are very few Jamaicans, at home or in the wider diaspora, still unaware of the amazing Newton Marshall’s running of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Newton and his team have been slogging on with (I’m going to say it) dogged determination and have now passed ... http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com/2010/03/14/raising-a-glass-to-newton/ [caption id="attachment_710" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Chile's position in green on the Globe"][/caption] On Saturday morning there was an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in central Chile. Stop right there! Remove all pictures of Haiti from your mind. instead if this had happened in the United States or Japan for we are not referring to ... http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com/2010/02/28/chile-and-haiti-a-comparison/ 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 ... http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com/2010/02/23/the-king-is-dead/ 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. ... http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com/2010/02/17/mr-wrays-nephew-and-his-legacy/ 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 ... http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com/2010/02/12/jamaica-no-snow-no-problem/ 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 ... http://blog.jamaica-allspice.com/2010/02/10/its-a-dogs-life/