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October 07, 2005

Jamaican Violence

From Ian, I thought some of my non-overlapping readers might get a nice dose of Ja reality from this:

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20051006/lead/lead1.html

FOR MANY residents of Barnes Avenue in St. Andrew, the screams of 10-year-old Sasha-Kay Brown, as she attempted to escape the fire which eventually took the lives of her grandparents, her aunt and herself, will live with them forever.

Tearful women told The Gleaner yesterday how they heard Sasha-Kay crying out for help, until her voice faded in the blaze which destroyed the family's five-bedroom concrete house near Maxfield Avenue, yesterday morning.

Dorcas Brown, her husband Gerald, their daughter Michelle, along with Sasha-Kay, were trapped inside the building, after heavily armed gunmen fire-bombed their house about 3:00 a.m.

Neighbours who attempted to assist the young girl were fired at by the gunmen.

PLEADING FOR HELP

"The little girl climbed up on the grill and called out the names of almost everybody who lived on Barnes Avenue, begging them to come and help her," said a woman who spoke with The Gleaner.

"But (when) we ran out of our houses and tried to assist her, the gunmen fired at us. The last thing we heard the little girl said was that the fire was burning her, then her voice just faded."

The charred remains of Sasha-Kay and her grandmother were found on the veranda while in another room were the burnt bodies of her aunt and grandfather.

...

"Me daughter should never lose her life so," the 26 year-old mother of three said.

...

Head of the West Kingston Police Division, Deputy Superintendent Delroy Hewitt, has linked the fire-bombing and death of the four family members to an ongoing gang feud in the community.

"We believe the fire-bombing is a reprisal to an incident in which a man was shot and injured. The injured man is now hospitalised under police guard," said DSP Hewitt.

The feud is between men from Barnes Avenue and Ramsay Road.

Posted by griffjon at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)

October 12, 2005

Lighter side of Ja

To balance out the story from the other day, here's a piece from the Star, as seen in BoingBoing, of all places:

http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20051006/news/news1.html

DARAIN HOUSEN HAS not taken off his hat for the last 20 years. He bathes, he sleeps and does everything possible in it. It is a perfect fit.

But unlike other hats, his is not made of cloth but from the very hair on his head which is why it cannot be removed.

Housen has been sporting his 'natural hat' hairstyle for the last 20 years. The 40-year-old barber who lives in Somerset, St. Thomas said he came up with the idea after some of his friends decided to wear hats to a party but he could not find one to wear.

Posted by griffjon at 04:38 AM | Comments (0)