Copyright © 1998, 1999, by Arawak Enterprises. All rights reserved.
During the April 20-22 gasoline riots in Jamaica,
people remaining in their homes and people in other countries
were swamped with the images of ‘men biting dogs’ --
that is, rare events selected to highlight the drama in the unfolding
developments. Looking at the city of Kingston as a whole, those
images represented less than 5% of the whole situation, in our
opinion. This opinion is based on what we saw while driving around
town on Friday, April 23rd, and on the taxi driver’s remark
that he was surprised at how much the TV kept taking viewers back
to the same specific locations that he knew well.
The photos presented below were taken that same day. Generally,
streets and businesses in locations that had no quick walking
access to a very poor neighborhood were untouched or scarcely
touched. The middle and upper-class residential neighborhoods
were entirely untouched, and here one will find some truly palatial
homes (as the photos below show) -- wonderful targets for a under-class
run amuck. In fact, we had nothing even close to that sort of
behavior.
Major intersections where shops could have been destroyed.
Click on any thumbnail photo below and a much larger version of the photo will appear on your screen. Some of the pictures are large files. If the retrieval of a file to your screen seems to be stalled, just click on the Reload button of your browser. Your patience will be rewarded with views of Kingston that few tourists get to see. Use the Back button of your browser to return to this page.
The up-town business area, with many modern buildings, was largely untouched. The much older downtown business district also had little incidence of roadblocks and looting. The following are photos from the up-town business district -- New Kingston.
Click on any photo below to see a much larger version. Use your Back button to return to this page.
In the next two photos we approach an area that still contained roadblocks not yet cleared. Notice the marked change in the quality of the structures in the neighborhood.
Moving back to the areas with the homes of middle- and upper-income folk, we see a dramatic contrast. Some of the following photos show palatial homes in the hills in the rear sections of the photos.
Click on any photo below to see a much larger version. Use your Back button to return to this page.
Copyright © 1998, 1999 by Arawak Enterprises. All rights reserved.
