A view from Kingston

I was going to post something writerly this week, but I just can't. By now, most people know about what's been going on in Jamaica. Kingston and Spanish Town have pretty much been on edge. My part of town has been quiet. It usually is. It doesn't matter what's going on - violence, hurricanes, whatever - we usually fare better than everyone else. But, like I said, Kingston is still on edge. We could hear gunfire and explosions from our apartment. And we could see huge clouds of smoke in the distance.

A lot of people got days off from work, and kids got school off too, but I doubt it really felt like a day off for them. Some kids had to go to school because of exams. Exams are stressful enough, but under these circumstances it must have been terrifying. Other kids missed exams because their neighborhoods were close to the madness. The supermarkets were crammed. I think some parts of town still have a curfew. The things that could get back to normal started to get back to normal on Thursday, but there's this sense of unease, and things aren't even really resolved.

I don't want to get into the politics of all this, because it's complicated, and I already spent the week shouting at the TV - usually at one of our idiot prime ministers (past or present, doesn't really matter), or at the people who wanted to die for a criminal. Ah, see, I just started getting into the politics of it. It's inescapable. I guess my point is that this has been a strange week.

Photo courtesy SXC