Growing up in Jamaica I always heard that black women who enter relationships with white men are either doing it because they lack self esteem, they want him for his money or they want 'pretty hair children'. In 2015, some of these same conclusions are drawn whenever we see interracial couples walking hand in hand and settling down to get married. I've noticed a trend in which young black ladies  after migrating have ended up settling down with a white man. Are good black men becoming a rare commodity or have our black women given up on our black brothers? I'm not here to judge anyone and I for one could care less about the skin colours of couples. I've just come to observe that our young women are opting to settle down with white men. I decided to speak to a couple of black young ladies to get their views on this issue and this is what they had to say. Shanice: I'm currently in a relationship with a relationship with a white man. I chose him because he offered ...

Everyone seems to have all the advice to give you to keep your relationship together but not so much advice is found after the relationship has come to an end. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is moving on too soon after a relationship is over. Today, I'm going to highlight some of the dangers of moving on too soon without giving yourself enough time to heal. ✅ After the end of a painful relationship you are in a very vulnerable state and people could end up taking advantage of your situation. They may initially appear to be a comforter but slowly make their moves and before you know it you think you have fallen in love.  ✅ The ending of a relationship sometimes seems women running to the first open arms and end up engaging in risky sexual behaviour. Engaging in these risky sexual behaviour post break up will have you feeling regretful later on and leave you with not the best of reputations. ✅ One of the biggest dangers of moving on too quickly is that you still have yo...

I wrote on this topic before but I guess I will have to touch on it again. It's that time of year again when pageant talk is in the air and young Jamaican ladies are strutting their stuff to be selected to be the new miss Jamaica. As per usual, the photographs of the young ladies auditioning are posted on social media and the social media world voices their opinions. The same type of comments can be seen every single year. Young ladies are called ugly, fat or not Jamaican looking. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and once you put yourself out there you will get criticized. My main issue however, is when young ladies are told that they don't look Jamaican like. How exactly does a Jamaican look? Is our motto out of many one people not understood by those in our society? Then there are those who say that we have never had a black skin young lady represent our country and my view on that is that they are newcomers and don't really follow the pageants.  My suggestion howev...

As seems to be the case these days social media is the outlet to air every and anything. People would rather address their partners via social media, discuss family matters via social media and apparently bash their neighbours on social media. The social media world is buzzing today due to Usain Bolt's neighbour publicly bashing him for some of his bad habits. Yes, if these allegations are true they should be addressed immediately. However, I don't agree with the outlet in which she decided to use to get the story out there. If my neighbour threw something in my back yard I'm going to knock on their door and tell them about it I'm not going to take it to social media. If her neighbour was not a public figure I guarantee you she would not take this to the media. People will do any and everything to bring down the perception of people in the public. For the hundredth time I'm going to implore people to discuss their issues privately because once you put it out there e...

Walking on the streets of Jamaica these days one will notice an increase in people on the roadsides begging. Many times we walk pass them and ignore their cries for help because either we don't have it to give or we believe they will not use the money for good. These conclusions are indeed good ones as we can't give what we don't have and many of those who beg will indeed waste what they are given. This morning, while sitting at home I heard a knock coming from my gate. I hurried to see who it was, it was a young lady who said good morning and asked to speak to my mother. When my mother came to speak to her she began to share her skills with us. She said she could do rope twist, braids, lock hair,cornrows and anything to do with hair. She went on to tell us that she was traveling all the way from Portmore looking for something to do. She told us her prices were as low as $500 to do cornrows depending on the size. At the present moment both my hair and that of my mother'...

So once again the world is buzzing to this new challenge called the Charlie Charlie challenge. My stance on this is very simple no spiritual quotes or scriptures. The world apparently has an obsession with jumping on to to idiotic concepts. This challenge is just the latest in a long line of challenges that are nothing but things for people with idle hands to do.  For the past couple of weeks I've been doing a read one book a week challenge. I shared the challenge on several social media sites and not one person decided to join in. The young in our world find the idea of silly challenges more attractive than they do actual challenges that will add substance to their lives. Our young people are very impressionable so they will soak up any and everything that they see around them and that is very alarming for our world. The reason why it's even more alarming now is because the good is starting to become a rare commodity in our society. Chalłenges such as this one just highlights ...

Apparently, the in thing is to say that the world is either filled with only fake people or you can trust anybody. Yes, I do agree that more and more these days we are surrounded by people who continually to show themselves to be untrustworthy.  From people who have little to nothing to people who have all the riches in the world people are proving to be hard to trust. Because of this perception relationships, business and everyday interactions have become somewhat more difficult. When you meet someone for the first time they tend to bombard you with more questions than usual. For those in relationships their partners are more skeptical of the things they do and say. For business owners they have to watch their employees keenly while employees have to be careful of those they work for. My question however is if everyone is speaking out about the increase in untrustworthy people who are those people who are indeed still trustworthy? Believe it or not there are still people in this w...

I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me. Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she filled the palm of her hand with a little water and held it before me, and said this: "You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It symbolizes Love." This was how I saw it: "As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to remain there, it will always be there. Ho wever, if you attempt to close your fingers round it and try to posses it, it will spill through the first cracks it finds. This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet love...they try to posses it, they demand, they expect... and just like the water spilling out of your hand, Love will retrieve from you. For love is meant to be free, you cannot change its nature. If there are people you love, allow them to be free beings. Give and don't expect. Advise, but don't order. Ask, but never demand. It might sound simple, but it is a lesson that may take a lifetim...

The photograph attached with this blog post shows a wasp on a flower. I took this picture a couple years ago in my mothers garden for a photography assignment. Today, while going through old photographs I stumbled upon this beauty.  Many times I've been stopped by people who say that I tend to focus too much on the negative aspects of my island. So today I decided  that perhaps I will venture into some of its beauty.  My country is a very beautiful island and what I actually do love most of all is the happiness of the people. I can find so much peace by just looking at the nature around me but this also makes me question how much do we still love and appreciate the beauty of this beautiful island. We spend so much time selling off its rich resources or spending time polluting it with our disgraceful practices. The beauty of Jamaica is with us now but will it still be with us for our children to enjoy in the future? Why is it that we claim to love our country so m...

In recent times I have seen a lot of people on social media posting about finding the right partner and settling down. We all had dreams growing up of the fairy tale wedding and the happily ever after. With each passing day are we all not seeing that we need to put these fairy tale ideals aside and start living in the real world. Firstly, the idea that the ring needs to be perfect for the proposal to be perfect. Newsflash there doesn't even need to be a proposal or an engagement period. Secondly, the continued addiction to looking at wedding dresses and venues will set up yourself for a lot of disappointment later in when you realize it's unrealistic to spend so much money on the ceremony. Why are so many christans so eager to get married? Is the temptation of sex before marriage getting to you and you need to rush the process? When you go to a church as a young lady it's as if the young men have never seen a young lady before, the desperation radiates from their bod...

Everyone is struggling with something or another and we all look for answers in either things or people. When we are vulnerable we sometimes tend to forget to properly analyze the source that we take our advice from. Believe it or not these days there are a lot of people who will take advantage of your vulnerable state and feed you with the worse advice at the time when you need the best of advice to help you move forward. Many people have ended up in far worse situations than they started out in just because they quickly ate up the advice of others. Everyone is different and different strokes work for different folks. Someone may have the best of intentions but that particular advice isn't the best for the person that you are. When we are vulnerable we have to still be very careful about the people who we decide to take life changing advice from because at the end of the day they aren't the ones who have to live with the consequences.

This poem was inspired by the current problems that Jamaicans are having with the scheduled increase in passport fees. I've been looking at the comments of many Jamaicans who seem rather incentive about the issue but I just smile because one day I might just find themselves in a position where they may finally understand why so many have taken this so hard. Passport Saga By:Saccheen Laing The sun hot bad man  Look how long me stand up in a this line just cause me can't afford the 2000 extra dimes Oh God man I'm sure this is a crime Just to get a new passport I have to endure all of this? One week notice them give us and never expect the bomb rush and the heckle and beckle   The head of PICA lock up tight tight a enjoy her a/c While the heat from the sun a terrorize we The flight of the poor shall go on No little mercy on us who only get the little 5grand  Just to show that I am a Jamaican man I wake up from before the sun rise above th...

It's a year when the world is looking forward to the upcoming World Athletic Championships. We here in Jamaica are excited as usual to see our track stars take the world by storm. As the build up to the  world championship continues some have become alarmed as to whether our athletes will be able to deliver the brilliant performances that we have come to expect. I however, am not alarmed and is excited at the prospect of the sensational new Jamaican starts that I'm seeing coming to the front of the pack. I love the sport of track and field and tune in from the basic school to the senior level. When I see the determination on the faces of the youngest in our society as they put out their all to become victorious it gives me a sense of hope that despite all the negativity that often surrounds my island the sport of track and field continues to provide an oasis to bring unity amongst all of us. During the boys and girls championship season we see school ties on coaster bu...

In times gone by the definition of a trophy wife was that of a  young, attractive woman married to an older, more powerful man. His role in the relationship is to be her sugar daddy and provide her with power and material wealth. In several circles this definition still stands but in majority of circles it as simply become a man just parading a very attractive woman on his arms. Her main attribution is that of her looks and every other quality is down played. The scary part of all of this is that an increasing amount of women are going after such titles, they are quite comfortable with just being with a man for her looks and nothing more. Perhaps you aren't looking at it from this angle but when you get a trophy you are very excited about it for a while you put it on the highest pedestal you dust it down and you try your best to keep is safe. After a couple days or months you walk by it and you don't even remember to wipe it down. The excitement is now a thing of the past its g...

In our daily life journey interactions  are something that either helps us or breaks us but either way we seem to always be in search of some form of interaction. In recent times, we see more and more posts 'no new friends' 'can't trust anybody' ' world is filled with fake people' but I started to think more deeply into this and came to the conclusion that perhaps we expect too much from people. We expect that our friends will always be there for us that they will always have all the answers to our problems. We feel as if they should never do anything to have us questioning the friendship and things should always be perfect. Do we often forget that they are humans just like us? are we able to provide all the things that we expect from them? We expect that our partner will always be the most romantic, the most understanding, the most loving every single day of the relationship. There are days when I don't even feel like seeing anothe...

There are days when I just look back and think to myself are people really as happy as they claim to be or is it just about making it seem like they are. In recent times I've noticed that suicide has been on the increase especially amongst young people. People who we would consider to seem to have it all together and were enjoying life. Before spending so much money to attend events,go to expensive restaurants and hotels you should think about the reasons for which you are doing it. Clearly people are just spending so much money to convince others that their life is perfect when behind all the social media hype their lives are filled with sadness. If people could see through the images you post what would they really see? Many of us do our best to ensure that we have the best equipment to capture the moments in our lives while we allow the essence of the moments to pass us by. After a long vacation the first thing some of us do is ensure that we post all the pictures for people to ...

The earth shakes and we know it's another earthquake How much more can we really take? Flashbacks of dead bodies laying in the streets People digging through rubble for something to eat My heart becomes still as my pot and pans begin to shake What have we done for us to have yet another earthquake? My family members are still missing and yet more destruction has come When will the sorrow in our hearts be able to quiet down? The pain in the eyes of the children who stand close by We peep through the holes in the walls as we see people running by The churches lay flat, houses begin to crack Even bodies already resting are now risen and lay beside us Our country continues to get worse as the shake comes once more Have mercy on us please as we prepare for the earth to shake with deadly force The world looks on as if they can't believe  Quickly charities have formed to try and meet our needs As we pray for help the walls continue to shake  The world holds their breath as Nepal can...

It's so easy for us to complain it's like we do it everyday. Are we more thankful for the blessings we have no matter how small they seem? It seems to me that more than ever people are more ungrateful than they are grateful. No matter how bad things are always remember that they could be much worse. Our house isn't big so we complain rather than be thankful that we have a house. Our pay cheque is small so we complain rather than be thankful that we have a job. Our skin isn't flawless so we complain instead of be thankful that we still have our skin to protect our bodies. Our body isn't sculpted perfectly so we complain instead of being thankful that all our body parts are still functioning. Our world is very ungrateful and we can never seem to be satisfied no matter how many blessings we have. This week I ask of you to be thankful for something everyday no matter how small it may seem.

Close your eyes and imagine a world without the love of a mother When things are hard and we can't seem to  find the answers  Just whisper the problems to mama and she would always provide the answers Whenever we fell down she was the one to lift us high and tell us "Hush nuh mind mi chile" Learning was always a must no matter if the cost of the books were sky high " Work with what you have my child, better will come in a little while" When food was short she never allowed our bellies to rumble  Out of the smallest of flour she made big dumplings for the community to devour Is there anything greater than a mothers love for a child? Even the beatings we got we can smile about now The beatings taught us discipline and respect We had to say good day or good night to whoever we met Mother's arms were so comforting it took all the burden away Mother's smile was so reassuring that she was the best remedy for my pain Mother...

Mother's Day is coming up a do many of us are either excited to show our mothers how much we love them or we will spend the day thinking about the memories that we shared with them while they were with us in this earth. Many of the life lessons that we go by each and everyday we were taught by our mothers whether they be good or bad. These days many mothers seem to use their child as more of am accessory than a vessel to be fed with the right nutrients needed for both physical and mental prosperity. For those who perhaps aren't aware as mothers it is important for you to do the best you can to teach the best values to your children. There are those who have mothers who have neglected their responsibilities completely and they are left to learn on their very own. For these individuals it's important that we who belong to the wider society impart knowledge to them as best as we can. Teaching your child is very very important but many of us either forget what we were ...