The seemingly out-of-control crime in Jamaica, and the wide-scale violence that has swept western Kingston as the security forces go up against heavily-armed gunmen who’re hellbent on protecting Tivoli don man, Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, is truly a sign of trying times here in Jamaica. Here are our top 10 songs for trying times in Jamaica.

1. One Love – Bob Marley’s eternal anthem; can’t we just get along
2. One Blood – Junior Reid’s 1980s anthem for peace
3. Heaven Help Us All – Luciano’s lyrical plea
4. Lord Give Me Strength – Luciano’s powerful words for us to have the strength to face another day
5. Lord Watch Over Our Shoulders – the late great Garnett Silk calls for help from the most high
6. Serious Times – Gyptian’s 2005 breakthrough hit is very applicable now
7. Protect Yuh Neck – Tarrus Riley says beware and protect yourself
8. Help Father God Help – gospel artiste Omari couldn’t have said it better
9. No Guns To Town – we wish Natty King’s words would become reality
10. Gash Dem – Chuck Fenda says gash and light the wrongdoers

If you’ve got suggestions, thoughts or feedback regarding our list of the top 10 songs for trying times in Jamaica, please feel free to post them below.

Many persons in Jamaica, particularly some in the rural areas, are very superstitious .. about matters related to day-to-day life, love, marriage, medicine, death and more. Here is our list of the top 10 Jamaican superstitions.

1. Black bat (moth) – if a black bat (moth) or moth lingers around a particular person, it means that one of his or her relatives has died, and the ‘duppy’ has come back in the form of the insect to inform them.
2. Don’t open an umbrella inside your house – if you open an umbrella in your house it will bring bad luck and you will not marry.
3. Don’t break a thing during a wedding reception – if anything is broken during the wedding reception, the marriage will be an unhappy one.
4. How to leave a wake – when leaving a wake, simply touch the person who should leave with you. Do not announce it verbally, or else the ghost (of the person for whom the wake is being held) will follow you home.
5. More on how to leave a wake – when you’re heading home after a wake, walk backwards and spin around three times (a ghost can only walk in a straight line).
6. Pregnant women should not climb fences – if a pregnant woman climbs over a fence, her child will grow up to become a thief.
7. Navel string – at birth, the child’s navel string must not be allowed to fall on the floor. It must be guarded by the mother and buried in the ground between three days and a year after the birth of the child. A tree is to be planted in that spot; it will be known as the child’s navel string tree, and if it is damaged or destroyed the child must be compensated. If the property is sold, a new tree must be planted for the child from the sucker of the original tree.
8. Widows and widowers must wear red underwear – in order to prevent their dead loved ones from coming back to have sexual intercourse with them.
9. Lucky child – a baby boy who resembles his mother will be lucky, and so will a baby girl who resembles her father.
10. Saying goodbye to the dead – In order for the spirit of the dead to not return and haunt any family member, they must all say goodbye to the corpse, and every child must be lifted and passed over the coffin while its name is said. No tears are to fall on the body, or the ghost will return to haunt the mourner. The body should also not be kissed or the teeth of the kisser will rot.

If you’ve got suggestions, thoughts or feedback regarding our list of the top 10 Jamaican superstitions, please feel free to post them below.

It’s a brand new year, a brand new decade, and we firmly believe there are some really bad habits and things that Jamaicans should leave behind for the new year, or resolve to improve. Here’s our suggested list of the Top 10 Jamaican New Year’s Resolutions for 2010.

1. Less murders – our country is so small, so beautiful, the people generally so warm and friendly, but why do we have so many murders every year? We need to resolve to bring sanity to this high murder rate situation.
2. Less crimes – murders aside, there are too many other crimes being committed all across the island. From praedial larceny to rapes and assaults, our courts are unreasonably overburdened. Jamaica needs to have less crimes in 2010.
3. Less hard driving and road hog behaviour – why do we have to drive so fast and aggressively, why don’t we want to yield and give a smile to our fellow motorist? We need to do better.
4. Less matie business – yes, good men seem to be hard to find in Jamaica, but why do women lower themselves to the gutter and fight over a man? Why is infidelity generally the order of the day? We need a change.
5. More Government accountability – over the years there have been far too many scandals and questionable circumstances by our elected officials. We were promised a change when the JLP won the general elections a couple years ago but it seems that was all talk.
6. Less of the ‘beggy beggy’ mentality – in Jamaica, begging no longer seems limited to roadside vendors. People at all levels are holding out their hands for a hand out. Have we no pride?? Why not work hard for what you want to achieve or gain?
7. More generosity for worthy causes – there are genuine charities and organizations here in Jamaica that need our charity … orphanages, the Salvation Army, among others. Give willingly. Your reward one day will be ten-fold.
8. Cleaner music – is Jamaica’s music truly gone to the dogs? If it’s not, then it’s pretty close to that point. We need more uplifting and empowering dancehall / reggae music for 2010. This gutter slackness and gunmanism that seems to be the new dancehall order needs to stop!
9. Work harder and smarter – 2009 was rough, but 2010 is going to be DREAD for many of us. We need to work harder and smarter to help ourselves, our families and even the Government to overcome the economic nightmare currently facing Jamaica.
10. Less badmind and grudefulness – take the red out your eye and focus on working hard to achieve your own goals and dreams.

If you’ve got suggestions, thoughts or feedback regarding our list of the top 10 resolutions that Jamaicans should adopt for 2010, please feel free to post them below.

Jamaican men love to express themselves to women, whether quietly in her ear, or bellowing down the road at her as she walks past. Some are controversial, some are funny, but here’s our list of the top 10 terms of endearment that Jamaican men use for women.

1. Baby / Babes / Bebe – Yuh ah mi baby
2. Baby Love – A derivative of #1 above, but more meaningful because apparently he’s in love with her too.
3. Hotness – when hotness a gi wey, you get it first.
4. Empress – derived from the words of Rastafarians, but especially used if the female’s hair is natural.
5. Goodas – from the 1990s, Frisco Kid said “only Goodas gyal come from Portmore”.
6. Sweetie / Sweetness – a long-time term that’s still going strong.
7. My girl – ‘my girl, beg yuh ah talk nuh’.
8. Ooku Bit – little Miss ‘ooku bit’, also slang for ‘tight’ the vagina is.
9. Fluffy – used for big girls who look good.
10. Boo – the impact of North American hip hop culture on Jamaica is clear here.

If you’ve got suggestions, thoughts or feedback regarding our list of the top 10 Jamaican terms of endearment for women, please feel free to post them below.

There’s no doubt that we Jamaicans like to use “colourful” language, particularly when we’re shocked or surprised. Below is our top 10 list of Jamaican expressions of shock or surprise.

1. Rhatid (or raatid)
2. Rass (or raas) – sometimes followed by a ‘claat’ or two
3. Bombo (or bumbo) – usually followed by a choice of ‘claats’
4. Jeezam – usually said by itself or with the word piece, i.e. ‘jeezam piece’
5. Yuh lie – or ‘yuh too lie’
6. Jah know – usually said by itself or with the word star, i.e. ‘jah know star’
7. Puppa Jezas – especially popular among rural area Jamaicans
8. Lord a mercy (or lawd ah massy) – derived from ‘Lord have mercy’
9. Box cover
10. Backside

If you’ve got suggestions, thoughts or feedback regarding our list of the Top 10 Jamaican expressions of shock or surprise, please feel free to post them below.

Over the last few days, Jamaica has been rocked by two high profile resignations – that of the Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Derick Latibeaudiere, and the other being Hardley Lewin, Commissioner of Police. Here’s our list of the Top 10 high profile resignations in Jamaica over the past few years.

1. 2009 Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin – resigned as police commissioner with immediate effect, sending shockwaves through a country that’s already shell shocked from an overwhelmingly high crime rate.
2. 2009 Derick Latibeaudiere – resigned as Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, causing much concern in financial and economic circles.
3. 2009 Trevor MacMillan – he was brought in as Minister of National Security in the Jamaica Labour Party government to help bring crime under control, but he was forced to resign in April 2009 as the country’s crime rate continued to spiral out of control.
4. 1992 P.J. Patterson – those who were around then, will remember the “Shell Waiver Scandal”. Then a minister in Michael Manley’s PNP government, Patterson made a questionable approval of a governmental waiver on oil import duties for Shell company. It caused an uproar and he was forced to resign, stating famously however that “I Shall Return”. And return he did, to be prime minister of Jamaica the following year.
5. 1995 Bruce Golding – following the whole JLP ‘Gang of Five’ saga and after a series of run-ins with party leader Edward Seaga, Bruce Golding resigned from the Jamaica Labour Party in 1995, and formed his own party, the National Democratic Movement. He would later return to the JLP fold.
6. 2007 Rodney Davis – he was appointed President & CEO of Cable & Wireless in 2005 and went toe to toe with main rival Digicel in the marketing war. In August 2007 however, he was forced to resign with the official word being that the change was needed in order to strengthen the firm’s management and profile.
7. 2006 Vin Lawrence – said to be one of the most powerful non-elected public officials in successive People’s National Party (PNP) administrations, Vin Lawrence was forced to resign from the board of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and all public sector boards, as the Sandals Whitehouse hotel scandal unraveled.
8. 2007 Colin Campbell – he was forced to resign from his positions as Information and Development Minister as well as general-secretary of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP), as the Trafigura scandal unraveled and it was revealed that he received certain questionable political donations on behalf of his Party.
9. 1993 Hugh Small – it was a surprise to many when he resigned as Minister of Finance in 1993, but some have speculated that it was a preemptive move given that the new Prime Minister (P.J. Patterson) seemed to be grooming Omar Davies to take his job.
10. Barry G – it is said jokingly that the famed disc jock, Barry G, has worked at every radio station in Jamaica. Particularly in the 1980s and 1990s he was in the news regularly as he left various radio stations (including JBC, RJR, JBC again and Power 106) for varying reasons.

If you’ve got suggestions, thoughts or feedback regarding our list of the Top 10 high profile Jamaican resignations above, please feel free to post them below.