Jamaica Riot Erupts After Police Shooting

[smallprint]

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20031025_1447.html

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica Oct. 25 — Thousands of Jamaicans rioted near Montego Bay's airport Saturday, burning buses and blocking roads to protest the killings of two elderly men by police in an alleged shootout.

Police fired guns in the air and used tear gas to disperse the protesters, who numbered about 4,000, but the crowds regrouped, tossing bottles at officers and preventing them from clearing moving burned vehicles from the roadways.

...

Later, police said officers were carrying out raids in the community when they came across six men, at least one of whom was armed. The armed man tried to stop the taxi and a shootout ensued. The two men in the taxi were innocent victims and the two recovered weapons did not belong to them, police spokesman Ionie Ramsay-Nelson said.

...

Protesters set a fire at the road leading to the nearby Sandals Montego Bay resort, preventing people from entering or leaving, independent RJR radio reported.

end

[villager]

1. there was another riot in Montego Bay...

...recently, where two civilians were killed, and one policeman injured...

[hackwriter]

2. Jamaica doesn't need this....

Jamaica's tourism industry, for all that it's grown, still hasn't really recovered from the 1975 election riots. For all that more tourists are the victims of crime in St. Thomas than in Jamaica, the latter still has this reputation of being "dangerous." There have been skirmishes between locals and police, many involving gunfire, for a long time in Jamaica, usually mostly in Kingston and in the areas tourists don't go; so no one cares.

That this one occurred in Montego Bay, which is THE major point of entry and egress for tourists, is not good. It just makes people less likely to visit Jamaica and less likely, if they do, to venture off the grounds of all-inclusive resorts. This then hurts the small businessman, which concentrates even MORE of the country's wealth into the hands of people like Butch Stewart, who owns the Sandals and Beaches hotel chains, and the Issa family, who own the Superclubs chain, and the Spanish Riu hotel chain, which is finishing its second property in Negril and is supposed to be building two more.

[ret5hd]

3. who owns the "couples" chain?

we just returned friday from jamaica, using the montego bay airport. we stayed at the "couples negril" resort.

we asked locals (taxi drivers, waiters, etc) about jamaican politics, but they seemed pretty closed mouthed on this subject. maybe it is just our (wifes and mine) gringo openness on political subjects, but they really didnt want to talk too much about it. But the last PM any seemed to have respect for was the one in office about 1977 (i think). He was seen as being for the "people".

we did find out that free education stops at grade 7 or 9 (i forget). get the poor ready for manual labor, then kick them out.

A taxi driver told us the average wage was $1500 (american) annually.

we also discovered that class lines do not necessarily break across race lines...some of the largest landholders are black, and some of the richest in jamaica are rastas.

this was the most beautiful place i have ever seen. the people of this country should be rich. the dollars that pour in from around the world (we heard german, brit, swedish and u.s. accents and languages) should provide at least a H.S. education for all.

the people were beautiful, smiling and singing all the time (especially when they thought no one was watching, or talking to their own). they radiated the essence of the phrase "we shall overcome".

[Terwilliger]

4. was it Michael manley?

look into the history of Bob Marley a bit

[SOS]

6. Michael Manley

was the PM of Jamaica in the 1970s. He was popular with the Jamaican people, but not with the CIA.
The US felt that Manley was "too close" to Cuba and decided to arm the JLP. The JLP is the party of Edward Seaga (also known in JA as cia-ga). The 76 election was a civil war with hundreds dead in Kingston. The JLP was armed by the CIA by trading marijuana for guns. The pot was flown to Miami on CIA planes which were then reloaded with guns and flown back to JA.
But Manley won in 76. At the time the JA dollar was 2-1.
After 4 more years of destabilization and covert action, Seaga won in 1980. Seaga was the first foreign leader to visit the new US president Reagan. Reagan soon announced the Carribbean Basin Initiative which lent a ton of money to JA. Things got better at first as the money was spent, but the money was all loans.
Now JA is crippled by massive foreign debt. The JA$ is now 45-1. The "free trade zones" are now filled with imported Chinese laborors who work for no money behind razor wire. Chiquita is working hard to undermine the UK-JA banana arrangement, which will destroy the banana industry in JA. For more on this topic, rent the film "Life and Debt". Powerful, informative and beautifully shot. Also Timothy White's Marley biography "Catch a Fire" covers the 70s in detail.

[markses]

5. Typical

From the article:

"A senior manager, who refused to give his name or confirm the report, said all guests at the 244-room resort were safe and probably unaware of what was happening."

I've been through Montego Bay, and I find this somewhat hard to believe, given Sandal's location with respect to the airport, but it really is typical. Most tourists fly into Montego Bay, then take buses to resorts in either Ochos Rios or Negril. The abject poverty that surrounds you on the way to these posh resorts is incredible, and the death glares given by those standing on the side of the road may as well be dry-snipes. And yes, of course, the country could not survive at all (in this particular version of global economy and power, anyway) without the tourist industry, but there is something extremely unseemly about the whole business. Pampered Westerners driving through the some of the worst poverty in the world one their way to smiling drunk vacations. Probably unaware of what was happening. This statement is probably more true than he knows.