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SHAWT SHAWT:-A SHAME, PRIDE,BUDDY, BATH etc.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOUNTY KILLER


mmhmm

Full ‘Marks’ For Ja-US Relationship

Published: Sunday | June 12, 20110 Comments

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

AFTER PULLING off what has been described as a major coup for Jamaica during Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s visit to the US last week, Audrey Marks, ambassador to the United States (US), has fired back at sceptics and critics who frequently claim that the country’s relationship with the US remains weak.

Under Mark’s direction, Golding was hosted by influential members of a Senate committee, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a move aimed at “advancing bilateral discussions between the two countries”.

“Yesterday (Thursday), I got the Senate to meet with the prime minister,” said Marks.

“It is an important message to send to Jamaica that it is the first time in more than 20 years that a prime minister of Jamaica had been able to meet with officials at this level.”

Buoyed by her success, Marks hit back at cynics who, since she assumed the position of ambassador a year ago, have been suggesting that the Ja-US relationship continues to be tenuous.

“There is absolutely no rift,” declared Marks. “The relation is strong. We are working well together on a number bilateral issues.”

The ambassador suggested that the prime minister’s visit highlighted an unprecedented show of support to Jamaica by the US Congress.

‘just fantastic’

“Last week, the Senate was in recess, and this week, the House was in recess, so to get this (meeting) is just fantastic,” she asserted.

The Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate, which met with Golding, is the lawmaking body that oversees important decisions that affect the hemisphere.

“The committee reviews and considers all diplomatic nominations and international treaties as well as legislation relating to US foreign policies,” Marks said.

The revocation of Mining Minister James Robertson’s US visitor’s visa had served to fuel the speculation about the PM’s US visit.

Marks conceded that diplomatic discomfort had emerged from the request by the United States to extradite accused drug don, Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

“But we (Jamaica and the US) have been approaching our differences in a spirit of goodwill,” she argued.

The ambassador declared that it is past the time for critics and sceptics to get over the so-called Jamaica-US impasse.

“Clearly, there were differences on that matter,” she asserted. “We have passed the extradition matter. This matter was dealt with a year ago. We need to let it go.”

Marks said Jamaica and the US are working on major areas of strategic importance to both countries at this time.

“The US is supportive of our agenda and we are having positive communication as can be seen from the public remarks of the secretary of state,” she added.

Marks has served exactly one full year in office, having officially taken up her post in June 2010.

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SHIRLEY AGEN! INTERSTING DOE

AT LEAST THIS INSTALLMENT INTERESTING…………YUH EXPLAIN YOUR BRIDGING??? lol…

Are black women less attractive than other women?

Are black women less attractive than other women?

By NADINE WILSON All Woman writer

Monday, June 06, 2011

 

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AN article carried recently in Psychology Today questioning the perceived unattractiveness of black women has reignited debates of racism and has fuelled international outrage.

The piece entitled Why are black women rated less attractive than other women, but black men are rated better looking than other men? has since been pulled from the magazine’s website following its appearance on May 15 this year. But this has not stopped public criticism of the editors of Psychology Today or the author of the piece, Satoshi Kanazawa, a Japanese evolutionary psychologist.

 

Sociologist Dr Orville Taylor says the bleaching phenomenon is not about people trying to become white, but about people establishing a pattern of beauty that they aspire towards. In this AP photo, from a story titled, Skin bleaching, a growing problem in Jamaica, Mikeisha Simpson poses for a portrait in Kingston. Simpson, 23, hopes to transform her dark complexion to a cafe-aulait- colour common among Jamaica’s elite and favoured by many men in her neighbourhood. She believes a fairer skin could be her ticket to a better life, so she spends her savings on blackmarket concoctions that promise to lighten her pigment.

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Kanazawa concluded, based on a study in which several persons were interviewed, that black women were objectively less attractive than white, Asian and North American women, though they “subjectively consider themselves to be far more physically attractive than others”.

“Black women are significantly less physically attractive than women of other races,” said Kanazawa, who works at the London School of Economics.

“The only thing I can think of that might potentially explain the lower average level of physical attractiveness among black women is testosterone. Africans on average have higher levels of testosterone than other races,” he explained.

The claim that blacks are unattractive, while offensive and backward, has not come as a surprise to at least two local academics who said that years of independence from slavery has not changed people’s perception of blacks.

Neither does it surprise counsellor Carla Brookes, who said the way some black women behave, dress and act fuels a perception of “the fat, loud video model type with loose morals”.

“You can’t blame people sometimes for judging us the way they do,” Brookes said. “We cuss, we fight, we’re loud and we act like we’re proud of it!”

Noted Sociologist Dr Orville Taylor said the “seasoning” blacks underwent during slavery has caused many to look at blacks in a negative light, despite our achievements since independence.

“I am not surprised by any type of survey or psychological research that points to negative self-imagery (especially) when you juxtapose that against the bleaching phenomenon which is not about people trying to become white, but about people establishing a pattern of beauty that they aspire towards,” he said.

He explained that like a curry stain, the effects of slavery which saw many blacks humiliated and exploited under European rule cannot be reversed overnight.

“In the United States, it is perhaps a little bit worse, believe it or not, because at least in Jamaica, we managed to achieve something called national identity and status. Black Americans wear this kind of marker where they are called something else, they are called African Americans. Nobody walks around and talks about European Americans or Caucasian Americans,” he pointed out.

Lecturer in the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of West Indies, Mona, Horace Williams, believes that while more blacks are now embracing their ‘nappy’ hair styling, signalling, “an impression of updated appreciation”, there is still a strong indication of a lack of appreciation of self.

“Persons are marketed differently. They wear their hair in a sort of style that speaks to a mimicry of appreciation, but in fact and indeed, there is really no appreciation of self,” he said.

“I really believe we haven’t really gone anywhere different, it is just a matter of new marketing, but same old problem,” Williams noted.

Although the black women in Kanazawa’s study considered themselves beautiful, Dr Taylor has found that blacks in the Caribbean have perpetuated this general belief that something is wrong with how they look.

“It must be seen in the same context of the black hair phenomenon that we use even today. We make jokes that people’s hair look like ‘kiah’ and we make jokes about people’s hair looking like grains of [pepper] or scotch brite. We make those kinds of jokes and we still associate, and I suspect the psychological studies will show as well, we still associate black and ugly,” he said.

“When a very, very dark woman with distinct African features is good looking, they tend to say in a normal way, even when people are not trying to be offensive, ‘oh, she looks nice for a black girl’ or ‘she is a nice looking black girl’. It is almost never said that this is a nice looking brown girl.”

While the study found black women to be unattractive, the same study concluded that black males were considered more attractive than Asian, white and North American men. This finding too does not come as much of a surprise to Dr Taylor who believes this belief is a subtext of colonial discourse where the wives of the white plantation owners or overseers sought out black men for sexual satisfaction.

“They always show stories of the wife of the plantation owner or overseer bringing in the Mandingo through the back door or having sex with the gardener,” said Dr Taylor.

“The idea of a virile man was also part of the stereotype and that has always been engrained in our minds to incorporate a notion of this animal-looking thing, this strong black man, a little bit less than the human, but more than the animal, a stud. The word stud is not a flattering word, but we have embraced it,” he said.

The fact that women are now embracing their natural hair more is a good indication for Dr Taylor that we are slowly accepting various aspects of our blackness, but he doesn’t expect a full acceptance of our black features anytime soon.

“It took several hundred years to evolve in a negative way, so it’s going to take a long time as well for that to change,” he said.

Meanwhile, Williams also believes that it is going to take a while for people to truly accept black features as opposed to just using it as a “marketing strategy to mimic appreciation”.

“The appreciation of black features, I am not sure that time has healed that,” he said. “What has changed is the media marketing and a broader context in which multi-culturalism is fundamental to any type of institutional advancement, educational, work [and] otherwise.”

 

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/allwoman/Are-black-women-less-attractive-than-other-women_8949970#ixzz1P3zD2xAd

 

GOODMORNING

Am I Beyond God’s Forgiveness?
by Jim Clark

Did you ever think you were beyond God’s forgiveness? Russell Ford has befriended hundreds of men who believed that lie. Yet God’s grace showed them otherwise. When I read his story this summer I was struck with the beauty of Christ’s forgiveness and the miracle of God’s awesome grace.

Russell Ford has watched many of his friends die. It’s an integral part of his most unusual ministry. Ford is a chaplain for Death Row inmates in Boydton, Virginia. He knows he can’t save men’s lives. But he can lead them to the One who saves souls. Ford works with men who have committed gruesome murders. Some of them refuse to accept Christ’s forgiveness. But thankfully, some do. He has helped several brutal murderers become repentant pilgrims. Men like Alton Waye. He was convicted for killing a sixty-one year old woman. Even other death row inmates found Waye to be particularly mean. As with others, Russell Ford taught this man the gospel. Months passed and yet Waye didn’t seemed to change. Then days before his 1989 execution, this murderer’s demeanor had suddenly reversed. Ford walked Waye’s cell and found him singing spirituals. He had decided to accept the pardon from Jesus. The night before he was executed Alton Waye, the murderer, confessed his faith in Jesus and was baptized. Twelve members of the death squad witnessed God’s miracle of redemption. After the baptism, they all joined hands, singing “Amazing Grace” and reciting the Lord’s prayer.

No one is beyond Christ’s forgiveness. You may think, “But I feel so unworthy. I’ve failed God so terribly.” Listen, we’ve all failed. We’re all sinners. The great apostle Paul called himself the worst of sinners. And yet Christ showed him mercy “as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.“ (1 Timothy 1:16, NIV)

When you’ve really blown it with your life. When you just can’t shake this feeling that God won’t forgive you, the place to go is Jesus. As I think of the stories of Jesus interacting with “sinners” and religious leaders, I’m reminded of the stark contrast between His interaction with each group. So often those who knew they were wrong before God were often the ones most attract to the Lord. While those who believed their religious balance sheet put them in the black locked horns with this One who claimed to be the Messiah.

 

Jesus extended the realm of God’s mercy.

I’ve just finished an outstanding book on Jesus by my favorite author, Philip Yancey. It’s entitled The Jesus I Never Knew. His chapter on the revolution of grace unearthed for me a fresh new glimpse at the approachable nature of Jesus. As he peruses the various encounters Jesus had with the unsavory people of his day, Yancey makes these observations:

“In word and deed Jesus was proclaiming a radically new gospel of grace…In short, Jesus moved the emphasis from God’s holiness (exclusive) to God’s mercy (inclusive). Instead of the message ‘No undesirables allowed,’ he proclaimed, ‘In God’s kingdom there are no undesirables.’ By going out of his way to meet with Gentiles, eat with sinners, and touch the sick, he extended the realm of God’s mercy.”

As I read of the grisly crimes of these death row inmates, I caught myself thinking the words of the pious Pharisee in Luke 18. Then I read Chaplain Ford’s reminder: “Christ died for all of our sins. These men committed terrible sin, but they are not beyond God’s love.“ Aren’t we all guilty? Paul states clearly that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. “For there is no distinction to be made anywhere: everyone has sinned, everyone falls short of the God’s plan.“ (Romans 3:23) In a sense, everyone of us is on death row. Until Jesus opens the door locked by our sin and acquits us of our crime against the Holy One. We all can be pardoned because Jesus “went to the chair” for us. Everyone of us. “A man who has faith is freely acquitted in the eyes of God by his generous dealing in the redemptive act of Christ Jesus.“ (Romans 3:24)

We can learn a lot from Alton Waye, the death row inmate. He discovered that the grace of God was not out of his reach, no matter how badly he sinned. And neither is it out of reach for all of us. Look again at Jesus. Look again to Jesus. His life and sacrifice for us shout out the timeless good news-an eternal pardon is awaiting anyone who comes to the Father through faith in His Son. He’s the author of radical grace, the grace that truly can set our souls free.

When you feel you’ve outsinned God’s grace, remember this: your forgiveness doesn’t depend on your worthiness, but on what Christ has done for you at the cross. He loves you. Receive that love and new start today.

 

 

 

DID YOU JUS CALL YOURSELF A ———?

DI NOSE A GALLOP…SHIRLEY YUH TUN GOSSIP MERCHANT NOW? DI ONLY HOLE WHEY DIG WAS YUH NOSEHOLE….YUH SI HOW LIFE FUNNY DOE…YUH WHEY MEK DI TROUBLE A TALK BOUT OLE DIGGERY…SPATULA NOSE SHIRLEY COME WID DI GOSSIPS MI WAA HEAR IT…WHA ELSE?WHEY YUH SEH YUH TINK KILLA WAS AMERICAN?? DASH IT SHIRLEY DASH IT

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