No Problem Mon!

We have all seen this new "controversial" VW commercial, that persons are referring to as "racist" and "offensive". But in case you haven't, see below.

The truth is, the fact that it's getting so much negative attention is just really grinding my gears. So here's what I think about it.

Offending Americans?

Here's a quote from an article in the Huffington Post that I found quite interesting:

"Some U.S. critics have described the pregame Super Bowl ad from Volkswagen of America as offensive and culturally insensitive, apparently seeing the commercial that hit the web on Monday as an echo of segregation-era depictions of white people posing as happy-go-lucky black folk."

First of all, why are white Americans finding this commercial offensive? Secondly, why are they reading so much into it? These folks have gone as far back as the segregation-era on this thing! Come on man, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks didn't go through all that trouble for us to be fussing over a Super Bowl commercial! But then I think to myself, as I usually do when situations like these occur: Maybe these white folks are feeling guilty for all the ills of slavery and segregation, and thus feel the need jump to claims that this simply entertaining commercial is in fact racist, just so that they can declare themselves as non-racist. Think about it.

Brand JAMAICA

Now, to all the Jamaicans who find this commercial offensive: News Flash! Jamaica is a brand! Yes, like Tommy and Gucci and Chanel. Ok, well maybe not in that literal sense, but you get the idea! As terrible as the state of our economy is, Jamaica has a lot going on for itself. Case in point: Usain Bolt, Bob Marley, our food, our one-time bobsled team, our beaches, our ATTITUDE. So tell me now, do we get offended when any of the previously mentioned things are used internationally? I didn't think so. If I can recall correctly, we were all over the moon with joy when we saw the grand amount of non-Jamaicans sporting our colours and waving our flags at the London Olympics last year. Might I ask how much different this case is with this commercial?

Let's turn the tables 

Jamaicans are famously known for mimicking accents. As the yuletide season has recently passed, I'm sure many of us were witnesses to this fact via the ever entertaining Greetings from Across the World.....or whatever the name of the programme is. If you go down to Negril, Montego-Bay, Ocho Rios, or any other popular tourist destination right NOW, and present yourself as being a foreigner, not even so much a white foreigner, I guarantee that you shall receive the latest twang from any Jamaican you may come in contact with. In fact, a friend of mine shared a commercial on Facebook (see below) that so wonderfully depicts our "sell out" nature. And I ain't never heard nobody making a fuss about it or saying it's offensive. So let me ask again, what's the problem here? 

Get over it!

At this point I would just like to urge all those who have taken offence to take the timeless advice of a very extraordinary man: get over it! There was no need for this thing to be blown to such negative proportions. Right now this is an enormous tourism boost for the country and I can only hope that Jamaica capitalizes on it. 

I know that many others can agree with me when I say that as much as I hate to hear our accent so terribly butchered, it gives me a sense of pride that out of all the hundreds of countries in the world, they chose the Jamaican accent to imitate. 

It's a  simple little commercial. With people mimicking the accent of a simple little country. So what is the problem, mon?

For My Mother; May I Inherit ALL Her Strength

Bonne Maman in French is roughly translated to granny or grandmother. It's also the name of a brand of preserves and jellies and jams and cookies and tartelettes and madelines and meringues and SO many other awesomely delicious things! I mean, they are absolutely addictive! One cookie and I was hooked. I even wanted to take home a few things from France, but the day before I went to the airport, I opened my suitcase and took out all the awesomeness I had packed to take home to my friends and family (sorry friends and family) and I sat on the floor of my neat and bare little room, and ate them all. ALL.

Disclaimer: I am currently suffering from FWS (France Withdrawal Syndrome) so please pardon my seemingly manic rant about sweets.

Anyhow, the subject of this blog is not the awesomeness of Bonne Maman. Today is in fact my mother's birthday and for today, I would like to loosely translate Bonne Maman to Good Mother. Because that's what my mother is. Actually she's an awesome mother, and that's not only because she raised me to be so awesome, but because my brothers are also kinda awesome too. Ha. But really, I know most children will say that their mother is the best and the most awesome and all that jazz, because hey, it's your mother we're talking about here. But, I must let you all know that MY mother is THE BEST and THE MOST AWESOME.

I've seen a post on Pinterest that says something to the effect that how a parent speaks to their child will be the little voice in their head when the child grows up. That is an absolute fact. My mother would always say "feast today, famine tomorrow" when we would want to eat everything in the house all at once, especially those days when she went to the supermarket. And, I must say that I still have that urge whenever I get home from the supermarket, but then I hear that little voice in my head saying "feast today, famine tomorrow" and I just put back the Doritos and the Chippies and go eat a banana and drink some water. 

My husband also gets his fair share of the little voice. He's the kind of fellow who does a basic search. Meaning, if his eyes don't fall upon the object of his desire immediately, it's lost. So he then pleads for my help to find it. And I usually do, because it's usually just beneath what he swooped his eyes over two seconds ago. Then I will hand this "lost" item to him and say "you never look for anything", slightly altering my mother's version: "You children never look for anything!"

Little voice aside, my mother has made quite an impact on me, thanks to the monumental tasks she would always willingly take on when I was a child. At any given moment during my childhood, there were other people living in our house. There would be WIC/NCU students who were boarding and there would also be either a cousin or a child of a family friend (or both) who would be staying with us for a while. Sometimes years. And everybody loved Aunty Joan. Even now, if you go to our house, the situation is still the same. My mother is my definition of selfless. 

Sometimes I marvel at the things my mother had to do. I wasn't a bad kid. Neither were my brothers. But, let's just say we were a handful sometimes. She never blew a fuse, but we were always properly disciplined and it was always done with our best interest in mind. I think about the times before we had a washing machine. My mother would always do ALL the laundry (she'll still do mine if I ask) which included but was not limited to: my brother's ENORMOUS jeans, all of our school uniforms, all of our sheets and bedspreads, all of her clothes.  And she'd do all of it by hand. To this day, I can barely rinse out one of my husband's shirts. A Mother's power I tell ya.

My father died when I was three years old. My brothers were eight and seven. We never grew up with that father figure per se (though my older brother would really try....and we had our uncles) but twenty years later, I don't feel at a loss or at a disadvantage for not growing up with a father. My mother was enough. And she still is. We're talking about a woman who had to raise three children-and most times another two or three-all by herself. Working one job. And this ain't the greatest job out there, if you know what I'm saying. Because of her, I am who I am today (and so are so many other people!) and I know that when the time comes, I'll be an awesome mother too and she'll be an awesome bonne-maman.

So today, I'd like everyone to join me in saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most awesome mother in the world!!!

Waxing Philosophical

For those who may not have heard, Jamaica is, for lack of a better term, going down the drain due to the country's insurmountable debt. Now I'm no political aficionado, but I'd just like to paint an image of what I think is happening to my once lovely little country.

Yeah. Image painted.

Just imagine Barack is Portia and the flag is Jamaican. I can't comment on whether or not that's what's gonna happen to the US, but I can certainly say that this will be Jamaica's fate unless one, or all of the following happens:

1. We get a new Captain who can miraculously turn the boat around.

2. The river freezes over.

Moving right along.

I have a Bachelor of Arts in English. I am almost 100% fluent in French. I speak a little Spanish too. I'm smart (didn't make Honour Roll....wasn't really trying anyway), I'm efficient and I'm quite productive, if I may say so myself. So why don't I have a job? See paragraphs 1 and 2.

I never grew up around elderly folk but I'd always hear the saying "tek yuh han' tun fashion". And brethren, that is absolutely what I've been doing and what I encourage those in situations similar to mine to do. For those who don't understand the saying, it means that you should use your talents or resources and make something that will be useful or beneficial to yourself and others. Of course some will say "I don't have any talents" and "I'm not good at this or that" but notice I also said resources. Find something that people need (or sometimes want) and find a way to get it to them.

A friend of mine introduced me to black soap. I love it. I call it "The Healing of the Nation". It's so awesome I decided to tell some other friends about it. Turned out they love it too. As fate would have it, black soap isn't that readily available here in Mandeville, and where it is available, it's a rip off. So I decided that I would source the black soap and make it available for my friends (and all my future customers!) at a reasonable cost. So I guess you could say I'm a black soap retailer. 

I was lucky enough to be born to a mother who sews very well. It would have been a shame if it turned out I wasn't cut from the same cloth (see what I did there? lol) but luckily enough, I was. Though I still can't cut a piece of fabric that straight. In any case, I can help myself. I literally take my hands and make fashion. Mostly for myself, and sometimes for others. I wouldn't say it's a booming business, but it has the potential.

What else do I do? I write. I'm actually working on a series of short stories and a script for a short film. I'll let y'all know how that goes. I've also recently taken up photography. It's something I've always loved but I never really had the resources. Now that I do have the resources (a Canon 7D-love that camera!) I've pretty much taught myself, with the help of my dear husband, and the awesome communities over at Google+, I recently shot a wedding, all by myself! And thus grows our company: iKon-GFX!!

Just to be clear, all that was not to be boastful, but to illustrate that you've got to use your talents and resources to make your life better, especially when you live in a country that ain't helping you out. I've also been very inspired by Kimroy Bailey, another young Jamaican who has decided to use his talents and resources to create a better life for himself, and eventually for Jamaica.

So to all of you who seem to be in a rut, stuck at home, blogging now and again because you have nothing to do, you hate your current job, you wish you had a job to hate, you want to make some money, you want to do what you love, take my advice: TEK YUH HAN TUN FASHION!!!

Vegetarians Anonymous

Hi. My name is Shari. And I'm a vegetarian.


Tomorrow will mark one week since I quit meat. It's been hard, but I think I can do it. I still prepare chicken for my husband, and though he eats it right before my eyes, I eat my vegetarian lasagna and savour every bite. So far, I've only had one minor craving: for a chicken-cheese patty from Tastee's. I think I'm doing pretty good overall though.

Thanks for the support

New Year......New Ish

Happy New Year!!!

So it's 2013 and there are no flying cars. Heck, there aren't even any fully electronic cars ( but if there are please lemme know). We don't have super heroes, cyborgs, robots doing our jobs (who really wants that though?) and there are no micro-chips implanted in us (again, if this stuff is real let me know!). Anyhow, so many of our (somewhat childish) expectations are unfulfilled. But were they even realistic to begin with? Maybe, maybe not. So let's talk about some realistic stuff.

It's a new year so we tend to have new expectations. We want different things to happen. We want better things to happen. The truth is, nothing really changes, except the date. Nothing magical happens on New Year's Eve. New Year's Day doesn't come with a Get Out of Jail Free Card or Pass Go and Collect $200 Card. We're still the same people, our situations are the same and saddest of all, our bank accounts are usually the same. So what do we do? We make resolutions and plans and all that jazz. And then we hope that just by making them, we have a better chance of them coming true. I can admit that I'd religiously make New Year Resolutions back in the day. And then I'd never see them again until it was time for the next batch of resolutions. But for the past few years, I haven't made any resolutions per se, but in my mind, I knew what I wanted to happen and I knew that I had to do things differently. Some call it making goals, some call it resolutions, some call it plans. Whatever works for you.

Writing down your resolutions or keeping them in mind really doesn't get the job done. It's a total change of attitude and perspective. It's something that's gonna have to happen everyday. So instead of waking up and heading straight to Facebook, you have to actually take your Bible out and read it, if your resolution is to become more spiritual. It ain't gonna happen if you only do it on Friday night. If you want to get in shape, you better start drinking that water and doing those sit ups. The "summer body" ain't gonna happen if you start half-assing some exercise routine in June. If you want to save, you guessed it! You have to actually SAVE the money. Notice the verbs here? All these plans and resolutions are things that we have to DO.

So for 2013, here's what I'm going to DO:
1. Keep myself and my husband happy.
2. (Try to) Be a vegetarian.
3. Keep it real.
4. Do what I love.
5. Wait on the Lord.

Pretty simple huh? Yep, that's just me.

So, before this gets too preachy too quick (and ain't nobody hate preachy like me!) I'd just like to wish you all a prosperous 2013!

As the year progresses and we look back at 2012 "Don't look where you fell, look where you slipped"