NINE MILE, Jamaica — Napa and Sonoma have their wine tours, and travelers flock to Scotland to sample the fine single malt whiskies. But in Jamaica, farmers are offering a different kind of trip for a different type of connoisseur. Call them ganja tours: smoky, mystical – and technically illegal – journeys to some of the island's hidden cannabis plantations, where pot tourists can sample such strains as "purple kush" and "pineapple skunk." The tours pass through places like Nine Mile, the tiny hometown of reggae legend, and famous pot-lover, Bob Marley. Here, in Jamaica's verdant central mountains, dreadlocked men escort curious visitors to a farm where deep-green marijuana plants grow out of the reddish soil. Similar tours are offered just outside the western resort town of Negril, where a marijuana mystique has drawn weed-smoking vacationers for decades. "This one here is the original sinsemilla, Bob Marley's favorite. And this one here is the chocolate skunk. It's special for the ladies," a pot farmer nicknamed "Breezy" told a reporter as he showed off several varieties on his plot one recent morning. While legalization drives have scored major victories in recent months in places like Colorado and Washington state, and the government of the South American nation of Uruguay is moving toward getting into the pot business itself, the plant is still illegal in Jamaica, where it is known popularly as "ganja." . . . continue reading>> Jamaica violence 'linked to US drug market': Jamaica's most-wanted man, Christopher "Dudus" Coke, is finally in police custody, after attempts to capture him in May led to clashes in which scores of people died. Many on the Caribbean island of Jamaica attribute its propensity for drug-related violence to passenger traffic travelling from the US to Jamaica. For a number of years, flights known as "Con Air" have taken off from American airports carrying convicted Jamaican criminals who have been deported to the land of their birth. In 2007, a report by Jamaica's Ministry of National Security traced a tripling of the annual murder rate - from 542 in 1990 to 1,674 in 2005 - to these involuntary returnees. And it is certainly true that the fractured relationship between Jamaica and the US - exacerbated by drugs and with the UK acting as the third point of a triangle - is one reason why Kingston is a dysfunctional city. Tivoli Gardens, the stronghold of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, is a fiefdom of the Jamaica Labour Party. Since it was built 40 years ago, replacing a wasteland of zinc squatter shacks with no sanitation, its denizens have voted JLP in overwhelming numbers: In the 1993 election, the party won 99% of votes in the area. . . continue reading>> The Feature Documentary on Her Life (Fundraising) Today renowned poet and activist Sonia Sanchez turns 79 years old, and today also marks the launch of the Kickstarter campaign for BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, the upcoming documentary focused on telling her life story. The feature film, which takes its title from Sanchez' second book of poetry, is intended for broadcast and will look at "Sanchez as a writer and at the groundbreaking artistic and political movements she embraced and influenced. At the heart of the film are her powerful words that often segue into song or chants, and at times are accompanied by music and even dance. Her work is read by Sanchez herself, and others including Ruby Dee, Nikki Giovanni, Ursula Rucker, Haki Madhubuti, Ayana Mathis, and John Bracey Jr." Artists including Questlove, Talib Kweli, Ursula Rucker and Jessica Care Moore will also appear in the film. The documentary, was previously covered last year when it received a grant from the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Fund. After three years in production the filmmakers, Barbara Attie, Janet Goldwater and Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, have now turned to crowdfunding to raise $55,000 in completion funds. Find a preview of the film in the Kickstarter pitch on the webpage (click link below), and to donate visit the campaign page HERE . . . (Source of article: http://blogs.indiewire.com) Ezili’s HLLN tells the non-colonial narrative on Haiti and promotes self-sufficiency not NGO dependency. Zili Dlo is an HLLN project for clean water, renewable power, cultural education and skills transfer for Haiti HLLN’s Zili Dlo is a Haiti-led, Haiti-capacity building humanitarian program to make renewable energy and clean water/sanitation access a reality for the poorest and most marginalized rural and urban communities in Haiti through relevant high-tech skills transfer and indigenously relevant culturally grounding education. This video was made from a collection of still photos of our works and shows our first four peasant rural mothers who will solar electrify two remote villages and run a mini power plant at a community energy center for their community. Zili Dlo is life and health for Haiti. Zili Dlo cultural orientation, identifies Haiti riches, wonders and famous landmarks for our peasant solar mothers to be informed ambassadors of Haiti during their six-month (Sept 2012 to March 17, 2013) course in solar power at Barefoot College in Tilonia, India. The video is interspersed with Haiti riches and treasure- a constant and often-repeated Ezili Dantò/HLLN theme to counter the exploitative colonial narrative on the “natural poverty” of Black Haiti. In fact, the opposite is true. Haiti or Ayiti is, along with Cuba, the oldest (over 1 billion years old) landmass in the Americas. The land is rich with every conceivable wealth. Take, for one, Massif de La Hotte or Lake Azuéi as detailed in the video harboring fauna, flora and animal species in patterns not found anywhere else in the world. The biggest caves in the Caribbean, like the Grotte Marie-Jeanne at Port-A-Piment, are in Haiti. Haiti possesses the largest and richest heritage of cave art in the Caribbean, and probably the most important collection in the Americas. – (http://on.fb.me/16XBfb3) >> continue learning Slavery was brutal and horrendous for those who lived through it, but some viewers of the movie “12 Years a Slave” weren’t prepared to see that history accurately depicted on the silver screen. Although moviegoers enjoyed Quentin Tarantino’s DJango Unchained, some were unable to sit through Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave.” During a premiere at the Toronto film festival this weekend, some viewers left the theater, unable to stomach the h****r that slaves were forced to endure. In the end though, those who watched the film gave it a 10 minute standing ovation. The movie was taken from Solomon Northup’s memoir, which recalled his horrendous experiences after being sold and separated from his family. Northup was born a free man but taken hostage by people pretending to offer him a job. The film, which is scheduled for release in October, stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup,Benedict, Cumberbatch as Northup’s first master, and Michael Fassbender as his second. Ejiofor is already being mentioned as a possible Oscar nominee his powerful acting in the film. The film puts the most gruesome aspects of slavery on display. “I love the film,” says Ejiofor. “I think it’s a really strong piece of work. But I also want people to come to it without all the buzz and the hype and this and that. It’s a story of a man going through an extraordinary circumstance. And I do feel it needs to be engaged with in its own quiet, reflective way.” Source of news article: www.yourblackworld.net |