Jamaica Education Then and Now

There is nothing Jamaicans like to talk about when they get together than the Socioeconomic and political state of the country, well except their past Primary and High School experiences, the glory days when we had not a care in the world, fun was our mission and the mission was fun. For the most part the person we are today was shaped by the schools we use to attend and the friends we use to hang out with coupled with the type of education system that existed in those days. A system that instilled pride in who we are and what we are about, a system that not only gives us a sense of the world we live in but who we are in relation to that world, who we are as Jamaicans, our goals in life, our responsibilities towards our country, ourselves and our fellow man, we were told that we are our brothers keeper. If the current generation was supposed to learn from the past generation, then why is our country in the state that it is in today and continues to head in the wrong direction, where did we go wrong as a people, why was there a disconnect from the values of the past and today’s generation.

We were very competitive when I was growing up but that competition was not based on material possessions. We had no video games and most of our entertainers operated with in the certain moral code, they had no bling and could only sell themselves using raw talent. Back in the days we took pride consuming local made products since we had not developed this barrel mentality you see today, the same mentality that ultimately destroyed our manufacturing base. If you wanted a pair of trousers you either bought it directly from a store, who sourced it from local manufactures or buy yourself some pants lengths (cloth) and took it to the tailor, he would measure you and build it, custom made, a “win win” situation for Jamaica. In school our competition was based mainly on accomplishments, even in Primary school it was about whose ticky (a tick mark placed on your work by a teacher, if it was correct) was bigger, kids could be heard teasing each other about who got a bigger ticky, later on this competition was extended to grades. These days it seems to be all about blackberry, IPads and Xboxes, electronic gadgets whose yearly version number go up with their price. Back in the day our bling was a darkers (sunglasses), a pair of clarkes wallabees and your pants length, that's it you were now trashed out and ready for day fetes and Teen Jam at Tropics.

In Jamaica then and now wearing a uniform to school is the norm, most boys wear a khaki shirt with a pair of epaulettes or a tie and khaki trousers, with brown or black shoes and socks unless you were in sixth form then you were allowed to wear a white shirt with a tie. Most girls would wear a blouse with pleated skirt or blouse with a tunic. There was nothing else we could wear to school unless we had a letter from our parents asking the school to excuse our non standard attire, you had to present this letter to every class you entered.

We had nothing else to show off with except our grades and our attire, how we presented ourselves.We competed constantly trying to get a better grade than others in our class and we competed with how neat and clean our uniforms were, in primary school we even competed on how shiny we could get our desk, bringing to school wood polish, a coconut brush and a cloth to clean and shine our desk and the classroom to maximum effect. When we could no longer compete with kids in our class we competed with kids in other classrooms and when we could no longer compete with kids in other classrooms, we competed with kids in other schools. At regular interval the entire school was let out to help clean up the school yard, students would sing out loud while they work to make the school clean and tidy ...

“Bits of paper … Lying on the ground ... Make the place untidy... Pick them up ... Pick them up ...”

I remember spending hours ironing my uniform trying to get the seam just right, so sharp and straight, it could cut paper, spraying the seams with various liquids then in slow motion pressing the hot iron into them, our shoes so shiny it would be dangerous to look directly at it without protective eyewear and a white undershirt that glisten in the sun, was the only non standard part of the uniform we were allowed to wear. I remember watching my older sisters preparing their primary school uniforms they wore dark navy blue pleated skirt with navy blue bloomers and a very white blouse. Their uniforms would be washed and doubled starched before spending hours ironing their skirt pleat by pleat, their black or brown shoes shined to military precision and finished with a black, brown or navy blue socks rolled neatly down to their ankles. I will always remember my older sisters and their friends in high school, how neat and lady like they were, how they carried themselves meant a lot to them, how they stand, sit, walk and talk was very important, very lady like, a trait that is still with them to this very day. Various school badges was also allowed to be pinned to shirts or blouses these we wore with pride, the school badge, the house badge, form caption and a prefect badges was pinned on the left of your shirt, it was all very military. Jewelry was not allowed and would be confiscated for the rest of the school year, you were not even allowed to wear elastic bands.

We not only had pride in how we looked but we had pride in our school, we were aware of the fact that how we behaved on the street could reflect badly on our school and as such a conscious effort was made to remove all labels that would identify our school, if we were about to do something that would bring shame on our school or displayed proudly if we were about to do something that would bring great pride to ourselves and school. It was not uncommon for bigger students to publicly reprimand other students outside of the school yard, I remember sitting in the class room when a fellow student reported another student in my class for doing something that brought shame to the school, he and the principal searched every class room until he could identify the offending student, who was put on display during the next morning's assembly.

All our schools are represented by an emblem, a flag, a school motto which could be in Latin, English, French or some other language depending on the history of the school and during morning assembly it was not uncommon to hear the singing of the school song, loud with pride for our sinister opposing school to hear because like Sherlock Holmes they were our Moriarty, our archenemy. The morning assembly was held in a chapel or school hall, various issues were discussed, information provided or public discipline given and house point standing read out aloud followed by the Lord’s prayer, the national anthem and the school song. The members of the cadet would raise the national flag and the school flag sometimes. Emphasis was placed on pride, pride in one’s self and pride in one’s school and pride in one’s country. It was not uncommon to leave the chapel inspirited and ready for the day’s challenges.

Within our school we had Houses, when you start school for the first time you were assigned a house, each house have a colour, a house badge, an emblem, the names of the houses was sometimes taken from Greek mythology or English history. Various members of the student body along with one or two teachers were selected to sit on the house committee. On display in the common area was a score board, it showed the point standing of the various houses, every student that belongs to a house could affect the point standing of that house, if you did something good, then the teacher might add points to your house and if you did something bad they could deduct points from your house. Every morning in assembly a report was announced on who caused points to be added or deducted and you were either congratulated by your fellow students or kicked up the bum for point deduction, one minute you are walking along then all of a sudden someone shouted “Bum Him!!”, to which one student grabbed your legs the other grabbed your arms and students from far and nears would come over to kick you in the bum while bouncing you off the ground a number of times, then you were dropped, discarded like garbage. The house committee could negotiate with the school to organize events in order to earn extra points for your house, for example we would clean up the school yard or class rooms, put on a car wash and donate money to charity organizations or to the school. In school Merits, Demerits and Detentions was given out base on performance and behavior and they could affect your house point standing.

At the end of the school year we had a sports day, where houses compete in track and field events, during this competition supporters wear the house colour, wave the house flag and banter each other, we wrote songs and cheers, practiced these days before the main event then unload them against our opponents, singing as loud as we could to drown them out. Points won from the sports day would be added to the points accumulated throughout the school year to decide the winner, so your house could get the most points at the end of the Sports day but would still lose because the members of your house had a bad disciplinary record or did not do enough community service over the school year. It was in your vested interest to engage your fellow house members and prevent them from doing harm to the reputation of the house.

From intra-school competition to interschool competition, schools competed with other schools to see who would be the Greatest School the world had ever seen. The now famous Boys and Girls Championship is a yearly event but back then they were separate events, The Boy Champs and The Girls Champs. We were let out early to attend the boy’s champs but had to sneak out early to attend the Girls champs, it was the yearly cat and mouse ritual between teachers and students with the latter trying to evade the gauntlet of teachers’ hell bent on keeping you in school and away from a stadium full of girls. When we got to girls champs we were like peacocks on display, extra neat uniforms with school badges, epaulets or ties and your T-Square if you had one, all on display for the girls to see. When you attend an all boy’s school you do not get a lot of chances to be around so many girls, so when you are in a stadium filled with girls from almost every girls high school from across the island it becomes very important that you are well presented because competition was very stiff, since boys from every other boys school was present and accounted for. Certain boys school and and girls school would also form pair bonds, brother and sister school in which case they would keep various events together.

Lets also not forget the annual school BBQ which was a family event as students were given tickets to sell to family and friends. For entertainment the BBQ committee would try to get a well known bands and invited entertainers would entertain the crowd.

High Schools in Jamaica also compete in a national general knowledge competition called School's Challenge Quiz and for your school to win this most valued prize was the pride and Joy of everyone who supported the school, this was an academic achievement for the entire school and we all made sure to be home on time each night to watch this event.

Some Yearly School Competition:

• The Boys and Girls Championship (Track and Field)
• School's Challenge Quiz (Knowledge Base Competition)
• Manning Cup Football Competition (Football)
• Walker Cup (Football)
• Olivier Shield (Football)
• daCosta Cup (Football)
• Grace Shield Schoolboy Cricket Competition

My sisters attended The Queens High School for girls, (motto: Virtute et Sapientia Floreat - May she flourish in virtue and wisdom) so that was my main stomping ground, then there was St. Hugh's High School (Fidelitas- faithfulness) which my aunts and cousins attended over the years, not to mention Holy Childhood, St. Andrew High School, Immaculate High School, Alpha Academy all schools rich in history and tradition that everyone was proud off.



Small example of boy’s school:

• Calabar High School(CBar), 1912, Motto: “The Utmost for the Highest, Colours: Green and Black” there was no rivalry bigger than KC and CBar,
• Kingston College(KC), 1925, Motto: “The brave may fall but never yield”, Colours: Purple and White
• Jamaica College(JC), (1789, Floreat Collegium, Fervet Opus in Campis, May the College Flourish, Work is Burning in the Fields
• Wolmer’s High School, 1729, Age Quod Agis, The oldest school in the English speaking Caribbean

Small example of Coed schools:

• Ardenne High School, 1927, Motto: “Deo Duce Quaere Optima, WITH GOD AS GUIDE, SEEK THE BEST, Colours: Blue and Gold
• Campion College, 1960, Motto: Fortes In Fide et Opere, Steadfast in Faith and Good Work, Colour: Red and White

List of Schools in Jamaica

Just to name a few “Kingston” schools because in the rural areas we also had some powerhouse schools that rival any school in Kingston, for example Munro college, Manning's, Hampton High School. Most of our schools are great institutions, rich history and tradition with a proven track record in discipline, building the great men and women of our times. These schools created ladies and gentlemen, where respect, pride and a desire to achieve, to build a nation was the corner stone of their development.

Over time, some of these schools have lost their luster, their brilliance, no longer the movers and shakers of Jamaica’s education system like much of Jamaica they now perform mediocre and marginal while appealing to the lowest common denominator of our society, more likely to turn out Dancehall DJs than Doctors. What I dislike about the old boys association of some of these schools including my own, is their over emphasis on sports and not on academics, nine out of ten emails I get from this organization are emails requesting money to support sporting activities which is a direct reflection on society today trying to throw money and fix what is popular, not what is required. On my last visit to my high school I was surprised/shocked /dismayed to see the dilapidated state of the school, the louver windows was dirty, broken or missing, the desk and chairs broken or missing, the classrooms filthy, I do not understand where these kids sit when they come to school, the state of the class room was disgusting and the tools to aid learning broken or missing but I keep getting emails for money to support sports.

A Former Prime Minister of Jamaica and other high Government officials all attended my high school, including movers and shakers in Business and finance, Academia, the Clergy, Politics and law not to mention Sports, Arts and culture but yet the school continues to decline. In comparison a High school like Campion College just have to pick up the phone and several of their influential successful alumni /alumnae would build another wing or donate computers and supply furniture, the fundamentals of schools like Campion College is well in place. While Campion College does compete in all sporting events they do not see it as the beginning and end, that is not what is important to them, they lead this country on SAT scores and 98% of their graduates attend 4 year colleges and Universities. They are the top performing school in the Entire Caribbean both in CAPE and CSEC (pass rate 100%), they understand their purpose in life, their alumni understand the purpose of the school and the parents and parent teachers association understand the role they must play, everyone understands that the purpose of Campion College is to educate kids and prepare them for the future. There Alumni are the movers and shakers of Jamaica, taking their place in various halls of power from politics to finance to manufacturing.

However what every school, including our top performing schools fails to do is prepare our kids to be Jamaicans, nation builders. Our kids are prepared for life outside of Jamaica, our schools are staging ground for export, they leave school with little or no civic pride, no love for Jamaica as we no longer instill these values in them. We have for some time now stop teaching civics in school but our kids can tell you the local government structure of New York and London to great details, they know their rights under the American constitution and they live in Jamaica, they can recite every amendment to the American Constitution but knows next to nothing about their rights under the Jamaican constitution much less tell you what is in the Jamaican constitution or the structure of the Jamaican Government. At some point in our history we decided to devalue what it means to be a Jamaican and we tell our kids that Jamaica does not matter, that all they need is their passport and a visa, we tell our kids they must leave in order to make a life for themselves, most do just that and never return, the brain drain continues. I would really like to see a study done on what percentage of the exported ones actually return home to make a contribution to the Nation Building process. Most of our upper class Jamaicans who go abroad for school do return because they quickly realize that outside of Jamaica they are nothing, just another face in the crowd, nothing special and their advantage, lifestyle and specialness comes from being in Jamaica, as they say "ugly girls have uglier girls as friends because they stand out more".

Gordon Butch and other dignitaries 

break ground for the Campion College Jonathan Stewart Library Media Centre

Campion College Jonathan Stewart Library Media Centre

The thing that bothers me about the education system today is that the pool of good schools is getting smaller and smaller as the educated class isolate just a handful of selected schools, cutting only a few from the heard, while turning their backs on the rest, allowing them to run wild, run free. They realized that they only need a hand full of good performing schools as staging ground for child export while leaving the others schools in the hands of the Political class who also only send their kids to the few selected schools. The Political Class cares nothing about the other schools, paying lip service to education as a way to get re-elected. Even the alumni associations that represents the failing schools do not send their kids to their old high school, as everyone is trying to get their kids into the hand full of selected special school.

Clovis Toons 

Nepotism
OK so you went to school and did everything that was asked of you, you study hard and pass all you exams. You graduated High School with honors and did what every Jamaican child is expected to do, grab your passport, get a visa, migrated to the States and enrolled in a college, after 3+ years you now have a couple of letters behind your name, yup you now have a degree and one or two years work experience but now you are coming home to Jamaica to get a job based on your qualification and engage the Nation Building Process, you create the best resume and started sending them out and …wait for it..... NOTHING, not even a response to say you did not get the job.

What you immediately find out is that the Jamaican society does not roll like any other societies, your resume and your degree means diddly squat in the scheme of things, it is about who you know, which circle you moved in, what high school you went to, who your father is and what connection he has, but you went to Wait-A-Bit District High school and now you are trying to get a Job from an upper St. Andrew person who stocked the entire company with his relatives and old school friends, what to do, what to do.. You either, stay and try to break down the door of opportunity barricaded by nepotism or move to Canada like everybody else from Wait-A-Bit District High school and any other obscure high school that is not in the Selected Circle, you are not in a position to drop name and you cannot make that all important phone call, all us Jamaicans have to make at one point or another, this is Jamaica's lost, turning our backs on good human resource but one's man reject is another man's pride and joy.

Lets say you are heading to the bank to deposit or withdraw some money, how do you go about that then, well you can do it like the plebs, walk into the bank and stand in the line of death, at the mercy of the teller and hope she does not put up that next window sign because it is lunch time and she must pick up the kids from school OR from the comfort of your home, you pick up the phone and call the old school chum, the now manager of the Bank to inform him or her that you are on your way, once you are outside the bank you make a quick call and you are met and shuffled into the office where you are able to conduct your business like civilized human beings, this is how we roll, Pretentious and consumed by our own self-importance.... excuse me, pardon me, important person coming through..

Here is another scenario a Jamaican migrates, enrolled in college and got his or her degree, after the degree they then get a Job in a fortune 500 company, America's finest and worked there for a couple years but yard is calling you, you must return and you have massive plans. You have been working in a first world country, filled with first world experience and every molecule, every cell in your body in vibrating at a first world pace, you have a first world attitude towards work, on time, start early, finish late, eat on the go, meetings, plans, implementations, you are getting paid to do a job and will do it to the best of your abilities, in order to climb the corporate ladder.

You cannot wait to get back home and show those lazy locals how it’s done, what is required for first world development, work, work and more work. So finally the day comes, you arrive in Jamaica and hit the ground running, everything must happen yesterday (frustration starts to set in), you have no time for this small island foolishness. You tell everyone that Jamaica needs more people like you and they agree with you, nod and smile but day turns into weeks into months and years and over time each molecule, each cell in your body begins to move, vibrate to a different island beat…. “Ring the alarm another sound is dying ... by Tenor Saw”… comes to mind.

Jamaica is like a drug, you want to change it, crank it up a notch but it always end up changing you, you are trying to vibrate at a speed that is not consistent with the other people around you, Jamaica vibrates at one frequency and the first world vibrates at another, soon one molecule after another starts doing the rub-a-dub and before you know it you are in sync with the yard vibes and start to keep up the same almshouse you vowed to eradicate. You are now going to Hellshire beach on a Monday with your work colleagues  for a lunch of Festival and fish, feeling the cool Caribbean breeze, sipping a Red Stripe and declaring that your boss in not even paying you enough to get up in the mornings, so a 3 hour lunch is perfectly in order... Any way I digress....

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So when did this disconnect between the old education system and the new education system take place and why did this disconnect happen?  Social scientists need to sit down and study the transformation that took place over the years, examine the state of the Jamaican mind, what change and why? I have made a few observations myself but the experts really do need to take a deeper look at our society and the fickle minds of the people.

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"School systems in developing countries are being ransacked by teacher recruitment agencies to fill staff shortages in England. Jamaica is the latest to feel the effect. Last year 600 teachers left the island to work abroad, mostly in the USA and England. More have already gone this year. One high school head teacher told the BBC the recruitment raids amounted to "Rape and Pillage".

UK 'poaching' Jamaican teachers

"British-Caribbean parents are choosing to send their children back to the West Indies for a more traditional education. In the second of our articles from Jamaica, we spoke to one such family and asked what more might be done to raise the achievement of black boys in British schools."

British pupils sent to Jamaican school

"Boys of African-Caribbean origin fare badly in England's schools - and are more likely to be excluded for bad behaviour. So some teachers, mostly white, went to Jamaica to learn how schools there do things."

London teachers' Jamaican lessons

Former Prime Minister's High School force to close because of rat infestation

Jamaica College

Immaculate High School Girls

Holy Childhood High School 

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Jamaica's National Prayer

Let us give thanks for all God's goodness and the wonderful heritage into which we have entered:

Response to each petition: We give thee thanks, O God

For Jamaica, our island home, the land of our birth -

RESPONSE

For the majesty of our hills, the beauty of our valleys, and the flaming loveliness of our gardens

RESPONSE

For the warmth and brightness of our days and the calm and peace of our countryside

RESPONSE

For the rich heritage of our people coming for many races, and yet one in purpose, in achievement, and in destiny, and for the dignity of labour and the service given by every citizen of our land

RESPONSE

For freedom, just laws and our democratic way of life

RESPONSE

For the high privilege and responsibility of Independence and for bringing us to nationhood

RESPONSE

For our parents, teachers, religious and other leaders and all those who in every walk of life are helping to prepare us for responsible citizenship, and for all those who are giving voluntary service in the public interest

RESPONSE

For the poets, artists and thinkers and all who create in us the vision of a new and better society

RESPONSE

For our godly heritage, the example of Jesus Christ and the sacrifices of our fathers in the faith

-------------------
National Pledge

Before God and all mankind, I pledge the love and loyalty of my heart, the wisdom and courage of my mind, the strength and vigour of my body in the service of my fellow citizens; I promise to stand up for Justice, Brotherhood and Peace, to work diligently and creatively, to think generously and honestly, so that Jamaica may, under God, increase in beauty, fellowship and prosperity, and play her part in advancing the welfare of the whole human race.

-------------------

National Song

I PLEDGE MY HEART

I pledge my heart forever

To serve with humble pride

This shining homeland, ever

So long as earth abide.

I pledge my heart, this island

As God and faith shall live

My work, my strength, my love and

My loyalty to give.

O green isle of the Indies,

Jamaica, strong and free,

Our vows and loyal promises

O heartland, ‘tis to Thee.

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The Jamaican National Anthem

Eternal Father, Bless our Land,

Guide us with thy mighty hand,

Keep us free from evil powers,

Be our light through countless hours,

To our leaders, great defender,

Grant true wisdom from above,

Justice, truth be ours forever,

Jamaica, land we love,

Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica, land we love

Teach us true respect for all,

Stir response to duty's call,

Strengthen us the weak to cherish,

Give us vision lest we perish,

Knowledge send us Heavenly Father,

Grant true wisdom from above,

Justice, truth be ours forever,

Jamaica, land we love,

Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica, land we love

More about → Jamaica Education Then and Now

Global Warming and Body Warming Are Caused By ACID

Global Warming and Body WARMING ALL Caused By Environmental, Dietary, Respiratory and Metabolic Acid!

The above picture is the acidification of blood which
causes degeneration of the red and white blood cells,
internal blood clotting and chaining of the red blood
cells. This condition of the blood leads to light headedness,
cold hands, cold feet, forgetfulness, muddle thinking or
brain fog, stroke, heart attack, tumor formation and
internal bleeding, just to name a few

I have been studying the acid/alkaline conditions of the
blood for over twenty-five years and have determined
that all sickness and dis-ease or body warming is caused
by the over-acidification of the blood and tissues.

Scientists have been studying the acid/alkaline
conditions at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

Natural carbon dioxide vents on the sea floor are
showing scientists how carbon emissions will affect
marine life.

Dissolved CO2 makes water more acidic, and around
the vents, researchers saw a fall in species numbers,
and snails with their shells disintegrating because of
the increase of acid C02.

Writing in the journal Nature, the UK scientists
suggest these impacts are likely to be seen across
the world as CO2 levels rise in the atmosphere.

Some of the extra CO2 emitted enters the oceans,
acidifying waters globally.

The only way of reducing the impact of ocean
acidification is the urgent reduction in CO2
emissions.

"These same principals of acidification of the
ocean also apply to the acidification of our
body and the causative reason for the increase
in cancer, heart disease, diabetes and all other
degenerative diseases," states Dr. Robert O. Young,
a research scientist at the pH Miracle Living Center.

"Studies have shown that the seas have become more
acidic since the industrial revolution," states
Carol Turley. of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

Research leader Jason Hall-Spencer from the University
of Plymouth said that atmospheric CO2 concentrations
were now so high that even a sharp fall in emissions
would not prevent some further acidification of the
ocean.

"It's clear that marine food webs as we know them are
going to alter, and biodiversity will decrease," he
told BBC News.

"Those impacts are inevitable because acidification is
inevitable - we've started it, and we can't stop it."

Corals construct their external skeletons by extracting
dissolved calcium carbonate from seawater and using it
to form two minerals, calcite and aragonite. Molluscs
use the same process to make their shells.

As water becomes more acidic, the concentration of
calcium carbonate falls. Eventually there is so
little that shells or skeletons cannot form.

The oceans are thought to have absorbed about half
of the extra CO2 put into the atmosphere in the
industrial age. This has lowered its pH by 0.1
pH is the measure of acidity and alkalinity.

The vast majority of liquids lie between pH 0
(highly acidic) and pH 14 (highly alkaline); 7
is the midpoint of the pH scale. Seawater is
mildly alkaline with a "natural" pH of about
8.2.

The IPCC forecasts that ocean pH will fall by
"between 0.14 and 0.35 units over the 21st Century,
adding to the present decrease of 0.1 units since
pre-industrial times."

Around the vents which Dr Hall-Spencer's team
investigated, in the Mediterranean Sea near the
Italian coast, CO2 bubbling into the water forms
a sort of natural laboratory for studying the
impacts of acidified water on marine life.

Globally, the seas now have an average pH of about
8.1 - down about 0.1 since the dawn of the
industrial age.

Around the vents, it fell as low as 7.4 in some places.
But even at 7.8 to 7.9, the number of species present
was 30% down compared with neighboring areas.

Coral was absent, and species of algae that use
calcium carbonate were displaced in favour of
species that do not use it.

Snails were seen with their shells dissolving.
There were no snails at all in zones with a
pH of 7.4.

Meanwhile, sea grasses thrived, perhaps because
they benefit from the extra carbon in the water.

These observations confirm that some of the
processes seen in laboratory experiments and
some of the predictions made by computer models
of ocean ecosystems do also happen in the real world.

"I can't count the number of times that scientific
talks end with 'responses have not yet been
documented in the field'," said Elliott Norse,
president of the Marine Conservation Biology
Institute (MCBI).

"This paper puts that to rest for several
ecologically important marine groups."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
suggests that without measures to restrain carbon
dioxide emissions, ocean pH is likely to fall to about
7.8 by 2100.

This suggests that some of the impacts seen
around the Mediterranean vents might be widespread.

"I think we will see the same pattern in other parts
of the world, because we're talking about keystone
species such as mussels and limpets and barnacles
being lost as pH drops," said Dr Hall-Spencer.

The IPCC suggests that some areas, notably the
Southern Ocean, might feel the impacts at lower
concentrations of CO2.

Last month, scientists reported that water with
CO2 levels high enough to be "corrosive" to marine
life was rising up off the western US coast.

Bottom water naturally contains more CO2 than at
shallower depths. This scientific team argues
that human emissions have pushed these levels
even higher, contributing to pH values as low 7.5
in waters heavily used by US fishermen.

"If [pH 7.8] is a universal 'tipping point', then
it indicates that sections of the western coast
waters off North America may have passed this
threshold during periods when this upwelling of
waters high in CO2 occurs," commented Carol Turley
from Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), who was not
involved in the Mediterranean Sea study (PML is
not affiliated with Plymouth University).

Organisms such as coral are also damaged by rising
temperatures, and studies are ongoing into the
combined effect of a warming and acidifying ocean.

Seagrasses were among the few beneficiaries of
more acid waters. There is much to learn. And
during the coming week, scientists will announce
the inauguration of the European Project on Ocean
Acidification (Epoca), a four-year, 16m euro (£12.5m)
initiative aiming to find some answers.

Studying the impacts may prove easier than doing
anything about them.

"The reason that the oceans are becoming more acidic
is because of the CO2 emissions that we are producing
from burning fossil fuels," observed Dr Turley.

"Add CO2 to seawater and you get carbonic acid;
it's simple chemistry, and therefore certain.

"This means that the only way of reducing the future
impact of ocean acidification is the urgent,
substantial reduction in CO2 emissions."

According to Dr. Young, "ocean acidification is
the macro view of our oceans becoming sick and tired
and the primary causative factor in global warming.
The death and extinction of marine life is the result
of this acidification which can be prevented with
alkalizing measures."

"Body acidification is the micro view of our
internal oceans becoming sick and tired and the
primary causative factor in body warming or
all sickness and dis-ease. The death and extinction
of the human race will be a result of an over-
acidification of the blood and tissues due to an
inverted way of living, eating and thinking. This
is what scientist have determined happened to the
extinction of the Mayan Race. We can prevent all
sickness and dis-ease (cancer, heart dis-ease,
diabetes, etc.) and the potential extinction of
the human race by learning how to maintain the
alkaline design of our body. These life changing
and life saving principals are taught in our
pH Miracle books, DVD's and CD's."

To learn how to maintain the alkaline design
of the body and prevent sickness and
dis-ease go to:

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DeLiRiouS NY......part 1

Those trucks in the street
Is it really Monday?
Time to find some trouble again
Make a bid for romance while the dollar stands a chance.
Dumb love in the city at century’s end

Those trucks in the street…

Opening lines patently familiar to a New Yorker - clarion call signalling it's time to get up and slog through yet another week.  Taken from the theme song for the movie "Bright Lights, Big City" (United Artists, 1988). The movie is based on Jay McInerney’s novel of the same name (NY:1984) about an unnamed protagonist seeking escape from his reality in mid-1980s postmodernist New York City. Not only was he living in postmodernist New York City, his story is contextualised in a timeframe in which postmodernist aesthetic and thought was coming to a festering, carbunclous head.

I found myself singing that song as my subconscious yet again registered images of pop culture peeps and storefront mannequins adorned with fluorescent costume jewellery and accessories, stud belts, leg warmers, electric blue shoes and eyeliner, skinny jeans, stiffly moussed/gelled big hair, neon clothing…and that’s just the guys.

OMG…is society now undergoing an 80s redoux?? (groan!)

Is that what’s responsible for the Footloose remake and ‘Greed is Good’ Wall Street 2? (sigh!)

Will 80s nostalgia kickstart round 2 of the Postmodernist movement? (sound of me slitting my wrists...ok not really)

Postmodernism is a portmanteau of ‘Postwar Modernism’. Postwar Modernism > Postmodernism > PoMo is a movement that began in America in the late 60’s - early 70’s. The ideologies that define the movement emerged as a reaction against the previous Modern era and its tenets, particularly those of functionalism and an adherence to tradition and clarity of function. Postmodernism rejects such rigidity and further, believes that Modernism failed to deliver on many of its promises, including that of creating utopia.

PoMo stretched across the turbulence of the 60s, the conflict and frustration of the 70s to the angst, cynicism, greed and excess of the 80s. It encompassed the visual arts (Andy Warhol’s Marilyn, Campbell’s Soup), the literary arts (McInerney’s novel, Beckett’s Waiting for Godot), architecture and music.

A snapshot of this tri-decade changing world distilled in the experiences of one man can be felt in the 4 minute run time of Steely Dan’s Kid Charlemagne which chronicles the rise and fall of uber iconic, counter-culture Bear (Owsley Stanley III): famous 60s “cook”, Grateful Dead audio engineer and unflappable LSD innovator and mass marketer:
  

        Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl
        You turned it on the world
        That’s when you turned the world around…
        Did you feel like Jesus?

The post Viet Nam conflict/psychedelic freewheeling 60s era of free love and free drugs (escapism) help define the threshold between Modernism and Postmodernism. Somewhere along this time line the party was over. Society changed. Post war boom led to double-digit inflation & rising unemployment:

        All those DayGlo freaks who used to paint the face
        They’ve joined the human race
        Some things will never change.

        Son you were mistaken
        You are obsolete
        Look at all the white men on the street.

Kid Charlemagne is the flagship track from the album Royal Scam, issued in 1976.  NB the album cover: 

Man, seen from a worm’s eye view, obviously down on his luck, he grabs a nap where he once would wait to board a train (that’s a bench you find in a train terminal) to go to work in a big skyscraper not unlike one of the four fearsome looking zoomorphed skyscrapers ready to make a meal of him.  The metaphor needs no explanation.

An eerily similar image is found in Rem Koolhaas’ retroactive manifesto, Delirious New York, 1978. (Dutchman Koolhaas studied architecture at Cornell in the early 1970s.) Here we see anthropomorphed Chrysler building (William Van Alen, 1930; Art Deco) in bed with Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb, Harmon, 1931; Art Deco).

The zoomorphisation of NY skyscrapers is a psychological projection of human fear felt in the Postmodernist era.  It represents a certain trepidation of Man being swallowed up by them and what they represent (unbridled capitalism).  A portent of things to come.  Even the buildings themselves see the sick joke.  All brace for the paradigm shift.

 
[The worm’s eye view is a common meme used in photographs of people and buildings; especially NY shots.  Those who don’t really know what they’re looking at think it’s cool.]

In the PoMo world, Capitalism is now codified as ‘The Man’ who now controls society.  We all now work for The Man. 

Capitalism and Architecture

Many PoMo buildings serve as metaphors.  Much of it reflects a disenfranchisement with (International Style) Modernism and the failure of its manifesto: ie, to create utopia in the post war (WW2) era via designing better cities and better buildings wherein people would live.  PoMo archtecture was quickly adopted by corporations to serve as symbols of wealth and power.  The late 1980s brand of capitalism focussed on product information and images rather than the thing that the image represented.  Image was reality.  Art for commerce, no longer for art’s sake (Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup series).  This fostered a climate where buildings were fighting for their own identity which fuelled a return to ornament, which came in the form of weird cross references: eclecticisms and the real being substituted by simulacra.  To what end?

Philip Johnson's AT&T Building, 1984

Cabinet by Thomas Chippendale c 18thC

Elevation. AT&T Bldg

Two iconic PoMo buildings, both located in NYC, are Philip Johnson’s AT&T Building and his Lipstick Building.  Both reference typologies not found in architecture, especially the International Style which is modernist.  The former looks like an 18 century cabinet (see Thomas Chippendale) and the latter like an elliptical tube of lipstick (see woman’s make-up bag).

'Lipstick Building', Philip Johnson, 1986

The buildings are ambiguous (a hallmark of PoMo thought and architecture) and give no indication as to what types of functions are performed in them.  Form definitely does not follow function.  (ie, the AT&T building is not furniture headquarters, and the Lipstick Building is not a cosmetics headquarters, but boy do they stand out!)  This type ambiguity is a snub at the Modernist corporate aesthetic and famous Modernism axiom attributed to Bauhaus modernist Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: "Form follows function". 

One might ask: Why design these type buildings? It’s what society wanted.  From architect Philip Johnson, self proclaimed corporate “whore”:

 

“I’m a whore.  I do what the developers pay me to do…while Mies would rather be good than interesting, I’d rather be interesting than good.”

Interesting.

What's that now, Philip??
Mies & PJ with a model of the Seagram
nb Mies 'claiming' his bldg by placing his hand on it

The Seagram Building, not two blocks up from the Lipstick building, is a classic example of the Modernist corporate aesthetic:  Rectilinear box, lack of ornamentation, self referential, use of industrial materials (the thin mullions - vertical strips that divide the windows - are in essence  I beams), economy of materials: columns, floor plates, glass curtain wall ‘skin or enclosures.  The interior of the building is travertine and even gold plate, but rendered in a non showy, non ornamental way. 

Seagram details

Seagram Building, 1958. MVDR & PJ

How many people would guess that the Seagram Building was done in 1958?  Good is timeless, Philip.

Though designed by both Philip Johnson and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Seagram is essentially all Miesian in approach, form, look and feel (Mies was the king of the glass box). Johnson was primarily responsible for the interior architecture.  Incidentally, Mies and PJ parted ways after designing this building.  Clash of ideologies between the whore and the purist.

If one believes that the role of an architect is to articulate our environment enabling a literal comprehension  of society, then Postmodernist architecture succeeds at this.  If modernism wanted to underscore the fact that architecture must grapple with the society of its time, postmodernism highlighted that this too must include an articulation of societal flux and uncertainty.

Post war (WW2) environment led to pre war (WW3?) angst and anxiety. The political climate created a sense of unease and dread:  The Cold War was still being fought.  There was constant talk of nuclear war.  The word “superpowers” came into being.  Everywhere there seemed to be the feeling of an impending threat of total annihilation at the push of a red button, with the ‘lucky’ ones inheriting a blasted, pockmarked, toxic earth, or a cyber-punk world of degraded society littered with cool gadgets.  Common images of NYC in that era were of sidewalks thick with yuppies (a Postmodernist word), heads bobbing up and down as they marched en masse to or from work in their trench coats and sneakers & stockings (???); blank faces masking the loss of control and exuding disaffected, collective cynicism.

We cut to this blonde  

Dancing on a mirror

There’s no disbelief to suspend

It’s the dance it’s the dress

She’s a concept more or less

Dumb love in the city at century’s end

Back to our Postmodernist protagonist.  The dust cover of the novel shows the protagonist headed in the direction of the Odeon cinema.  ‘ODEON'  marquee is done in streamline moderne  – the tail end of the art deco movement (WW2…1945). This type architecture is juxtaposed on the other side with Minoru Yamasaki’s and Emery Roth & Sons’ large, looming gothic modernist World Trade Centre twin towers (completed 1970 – 1971). The skyscrapers dominate the right side of the book’s cover.  Midground we see a tiny little Beaux Arts building (representing the Classical architecture of the Greeks and Romans and its insignificance to the Postmodernist era).  Back turned to the audience, thus effaced (it’s a historical no-no to have one’s back to the audience), we get the sense of following him.  Following him in his trench coat.  Following him around in his little NYC world.  Following and watching.  As we all know, the sense of being followed or of being watched produces a fair amount of angst.  We the reader, therefore engage in producing this angst that overshadows his life.

 

Weighted down with the death of his mother, his wife leaving him, and a seemingly illogical emotive reaction to a stranger: a pregnant woman in a coma, the protagonist struggles to balance his day job at a New York lifestyle magazine as a fact checker (juxtapose this with Orwell’s protagonist in Nineteen Eighty-four who is a ‘fact eraser’ for the State newspaper) with his escapism played out on the nighttime club scene, which includes lots of girls and ‘lifestyle' or 'recreational' drug usage. 

Nobody’s holding out for heaven

It’s not for creatures here below
We just suit up for the game
The name of which we used to know
It might be careless rapture

He is centrally located between symbols of work (big corporation embodied by the Twin Towers) and play (embodied by the cinema, which is also a means of escapism).  How does one achieve Homo Ludens in a Postmodernist society? Though it may seem like it, peel back the layers and one realises that the protagonist's recreation is not fun. 

While we become acquainted with him and get a peek into his life I’m sure it escapes some readers’ attention that he has no name!  He is effaced and self-effacing, as the novel is written in second-person narrative; a Postmodernist (rehashed) literary tradition:

You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of morning.  But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy.  You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head.  The club is either Heartbreak or The Lizard Lounge.  All might become clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder.  Then again it might not.

                                       Bright Lights, Big City. NY: 1984, p 1.

He tries to look for escape from within the very environment from which he wants to escape.  As he attempts this he (we) realise that his situation isn’t singular.  It is Postmodernist zeitgeist, which in many ways could be interpreted as dystopic (yet another parallel to Orwell's novel). 

I too have felt the discomfort and sense of unease and of not belonging; a lack of a sense of identity whilst studying in NY during the tail end of the Postmodernist era.  Though primarily based outside NYC, forays into the city would sometimes produce this sensation.  Sometimes.  I always thought this was the result of being a stranger in a strange land.  Decades later I now realise that even ‘native’ New Yorkers felt this way.  Postmodernist zeitgeist.

Obsessed with the Male-female paradigms of love (of all things: LOVE?!?!): mother/wife/expectant mother, our protagonist keeps moving, travelling through this architectural landscape going through the motions of work-consumption-work-recreation-escape-work-consumption-escape-…aware of his disconnect and his inability to get it right, proceeding in an unending cycle of cynicism and resignation to his perceived lack of control over his life and its regnant ambiguities.

Scratch the cab

We can grab the local
Let’s get to the love scene my friend
Which means look, maybe touch
But beyond that not too much
Dumb love in the city at century’s end.

Dumb love in the city… .

       - Torsdag

YouTube video of Century's End.  Soundtrack to 'Bright Lights, Big City'. DonaldFagan, 1988.

More about → DeLiRiouS NY......part 1