Activities are warming up in Jamaica as we approach the summer with its high points of the 50th Anniversary Celebrations of our Independence. And, in the words of Tinga Stewart, Jamaica's 1981 Festival Popular Song Competition Winner, with the song of the same title, "Nuh Wey Nuh Betta Dan Yard".
Jamaicans living overseas have already begun to make their travel arrangements so as not to miss the highlights in July and August. Some have already made their visit home based on the travel time most convenient to them, and have been able to participate in the activities which have begun; the Barrington Watson Retrospective and the CCRP (Caribbean Community of retired Persons) Legacy Awards, to name just two.
Yes, all eyes and ears are focused on Jamaica this year, and hearts are anxious to be a part of the excitement. But it is not just now that Jamaica has been seen as a mecca. When I was attending the University of the West Indies in the mid-seventies, there was a student from the U.S. who explained that the reason he chose to study here was because the stars were all aligned and a 'light' shone on Jamaica that made this place magnetic.
So too have many of our guests here at Neita's Nest said that they had always wanted to come to Jamaica or, that they want to live in Jamaica. Sometimes they cannot articulate why, but there is something telling them from their very first day here that they want to stay. Of course, being in love with my own country, I am so touched to hear this.
I remember one guest from North America, and of African descent, saying that she wanted to live here because this is the first country in which she has ever been, where she is in the majority, race-wise. Something bothered her however. "Why is it", she came home and asked me one day, "that I look like everyone else, yet they look on me and know that I am a foreigner?" I chuckled before I could answer. My mind immediately went back to a morning that I dropped her off at the Institute of Jamaica on East Street to do some research.
I watched her as she walked off. There she was looking very much Jamaican, dark-skinned, kinky-haired and full-some. The dead give-away however was her child-like wide-eyed gazes as she turned her head slowly from side-to-side, taking in all the sights and sounds of downtown Kingston as if she had just gone through the wardrobe into Narnia.
Jamaican women don't walk like that, I explained to her. We walk purposefully and are focused on where we are going. And, perhaps she would not normally walk like that had she not been mesmerized by being in Jamaica. The sweet end to it all, or beginning of it, depending on which perspective you choose, is that she did return to live in Jamaica.
I remember this little anecdote because I read today that The Independent, a British-based newspaper, in a recent survey has named the "20 best places" to be a woman for one reason or another, and Jamaica is among the countries listed. As reported in Jamaica's Daily Gleaner on March 6, Jamaica has the highest ratio of women in high-skilled jobs, like legislators, senior officials and managers.
This survey finding is as much heartening as it is food for thought. I can clearly remember the public excitement around the first female member of the Jamaica Defence Force, the first female Jamaica Omnibus driver and many other firsts for women in Jamaican society.
So here is a question for another independent survey. Is there any correlation between our purposeful walk and our confidence to walk through those glass ceilings and take our rightful places?
Food for thought.
Jamaicans living overseas have already begun to make their travel arrangements so as not to miss the highlights in July and August. Some have already made their visit home based on the travel time most convenient to them, and have been able to participate in the activities which have begun; the Barrington Watson Retrospective and the CCRP (Caribbean Community of retired Persons) Legacy Awards, to name just two.
Yes, all eyes and ears are focused on Jamaica this year, and hearts are anxious to be a part of the excitement. But it is not just now that Jamaica has been seen as a mecca. When I was attending the University of the West Indies in the mid-seventies, there was a student from the U.S. who explained that the reason he chose to study here was because the stars were all aligned and a 'light' shone on Jamaica that made this place magnetic.
So too have many of our guests here at Neita's Nest said that they had always wanted to come to Jamaica or, that they want to live in Jamaica. Sometimes they cannot articulate why, but there is something telling them from their very first day here that they want to stay. Of course, being in love with my own country, I am so touched to hear this.
I remember one guest from North America, and of African descent, saying that she wanted to live here because this is the first country in which she has ever been, where she is in the majority, race-wise. Something bothered her however. "Why is it", she came home and asked me one day, "that I look like everyone else, yet they look on me and know that I am a foreigner?" I chuckled before I could answer. My mind immediately went back to a morning that I dropped her off at the Institute of Jamaica on East Street to do some research.
I watched her as she walked off. There she was looking very much Jamaican, dark-skinned, kinky-haired and full-some. The dead give-away however was her child-like wide-eyed gazes as she turned her head slowly from side-to-side, taking in all the sights and sounds of downtown Kingston as if she had just gone through the wardrobe into Narnia.
Jamaican women don't walk like that, I explained to her. We walk purposefully and are focused on where we are going. And, perhaps she would not normally walk like that had she not been mesmerized by being in Jamaica. The sweet end to it all, or beginning of it, depending on which perspective you choose, is that she did return to live in Jamaica.
I remember this little anecdote because I read today that The Independent, a British-based newspaper, in a recent survey has named the "20 best places" to be a woman for one reason or another, and Jamaica is among the countries listed. As reported in Jamaica's Daily Gleaner on March 6, Jamaica has the highest ratio of women in high-skilled jobs, like legislators, senior officials and managers.
This survey finding is as much heartening as it is food for thought. I can clearly remember the public excitement around the first female member of the Jamaica Defence Force, the first female Jamaica Omnibus driver and many other firsts for women in Jamaican society.
So here is a question for another independent survey. Is there any correlation between our purposeful walk and our confidence to walk through those glass ceilings and take our rightful places?
Food for thought.
