The battle for Kingston - Who are the real gangsters?

Being half Jamaican, I’ve been following closely the major news story of civil unrest in the capital Kingston. The government has faced violent attacks in response to its attempt to capture the alleged drug dealer Christopher ‘Dudas’ Coke, who's wanted for extradition to America for drug trafficking offences.

I read an excellent article on this story in the Guardian entitled ‘The battle for Kingston’ you can read it here.

It's an interesting story as at first glance it looks like the Jamaican government trying to arrest and capture a notorious drug dealer. The more you read, you begin to realise it’s more complex than that and involves the murky world of politics and organised crime tangled together.

It's not often you get news stories from Jamaica high up on the news agenda. I know drug and gang crime are notorious on the island, but this story seems to have an added dimension.

Perhaps it's because Christopher 'Dudas' Coke doesn't appear to be you run of the mill 'Yardie' gangster! Although he's allegedly been involved in gun and drug trafficking between the America and the Caribbean, he's also spent years developing political contacts on the island, as well as becoming a hero to the poor in his local community of Tivoli Gardens.



BBC report on the unrest.

Politics and crime have always been closely linked in Jamaica, ever since the island gained independence from the UK in 1962. It's widely believed that many of the gangs that run the ghettos or garrisons of Kingston are in the pocket of politicians.

All the gangs in Kingston have links to the two main political parties, the JLP (Jamaican Labour Party) and the PNP (People's National Party. I've heard that the gangs and political parties have such close links that its unlikely that one could survive without the other.

After independence, both political parties started building housing projects in different parts of Kingston to house their supporters. Disputes between the parties emerged over land in the capital, which lead to increased tensions and violence. Very quickly Kingston became segregated along political lines, with areas affiliated to one of the parties.

Gangs then moved in and took control over the garrisons, many of whom were backed by the politicians who looked to the gangs to guarantee votes in general elections.

This is the context to the problems that are happening now. The Jamaican Prime Minister, Bruce Golding is from the Labour Party. They were responsible for building the garrison of Tivoli Gardens, Golding is also coincidentally the sitting MP for Tivoli Gardens.

Having tried for nine months to stop the extradition of Coke to America, it looks like he's now made a u-turn after rumours that he was pressurised by Coke himself to stop the extradition taking place.

Golding's now in a really awkward position. His use of force to try and capture Coke suggests he's trying to show that he's not in the pocket of the gangsters. But at the same time it now looks hypocritical for him to target one the biggest gangsters or Dons, when for so long he and his party have been conspiring with them.

One of the main things that strikes you about this story, is why so many people want to support a gangster like Coke, to the point where they're prepared to fight and die for him?

The intriguing thing about Coke is how he's more then just an alleged drug dealer. He's taken on many of the responsibilities you'd expect from a politician!

Reading in the Sunday Times they reported how he's provided schoolbooks and uniforms for the children in Tivoli Gardens. Paid for healthcare, given food to those that needed it and provided jobs.

I read this thinking, you can’t help but respect someone who has that kind of power and influence and has put it to such good use. The Times also said that petty crimes like theft are almost non existent as his posse act as the local neighbourhood police.

In the Guardian they said such actions are normal for ‘Robin Hood' style gangsters like Coke. It helps them win the support and loyalty of the communities they control. They essentially take on the role of the state or government in providing welfare provisions.

If I was from such a neighbourhood, I can imagine that I wouldn’t care if someone was a alleged drug dealer; if they can guarantee safety on the streets and provide housing, and some form of welfare then so be it. These people have no confidence or faith in politicians who they see as being the real criminals.

From my limited knowledge on the problems of Jamaican society, it looks as if successive governments have abandoned many of the poorest in society, and it's left of vacuum which has been filled by gangs who act as government. No wonder the likes of Coke have so much support from people.

After years of politics and organised crime being tied together it's going to be extremely difficult now for the government to suddenly impose its will on the gangs and the communities the gangs control. You can only see more violence and unrest taking place, but some sort of break with the past has to occur at some point.

Jamaica's one of those societies where many people don't see a great deal of difference between politicians and drug dealers, they're all gangsters in once sense or another. There are no good or bad guys. Everyone's got a bit of dirt on them.

If you're interested in finding out more about Jamaica's gang problems, you should check out Ross Kemp's 'Gangs of Jamaica' which gives you an idea of the culture and history of Kingston's gangs.

Rugby and football - Two sports, two different worlds!

I was down in Twickenham yesterday. I went to watch the rugby, it was the Guinness Premiership final between Leicester Tigers and Saracens. It was an entertaining game with Leicester snatching victory at the death 33 - 27.


Although I consider myself a rugby fan, it was only the second live game I've been to. My first game was to watch England v Australia about 18 months ago. As a football fan who's been going to matches for 20 years, watching rugby is a completely different sporting and cultural experience. It seems the two sports will always be polls apart.

There's this huge cultural divide between football and rugby in this country. One which won't be bridged anytime soon. In my own personal experience there's been many occasions where football fans have looked at me almost with contempt as if to say 'What!...You're into rugby?'

You tend to find many people are either for one or the other, with a lot of football fans I know actively hating rugby. I seem to be in that small minority who appreciate both sports but for different reasons.

It's no surprise in this country, you still get that sense of lingering class prejudice that influences the types of sports people like.

One of my friends from work, a self styled 'working class hero' suggested I was abandoning my working class/football roots by going to the game!

For me, the main difference between the two sports is this. Football is the people's game, it always has been and always will be. Rugby on the other hand is the sport of Middle England.

Football is about letting out all your frustrations, showing your tribal instincts for club or region. Rugby is all about self discipline, control and decency. I never heard any bad language on Saturday, everyone's so polite and agreeable which is strange when you consider how aggressive and at times violent rugby is on the pitch.

Sitting on the train from Waterloo down to Twickenham. I looked around the carriage and quickly noticed what I call 'rugby looking people'. It's hard to describe this look, but as a football fan you'll instinctively know who they are because you never see these types at football matches.

About 10 minutes before the train was about to leave, a couple of boozed up lads got on the train. One was wearing an 80s casual style beenie hat with an England St George's cross on it. They were your classic looking football lads.

These lot couldn't be going to the rugby could they?

Seeing as they all had quite strong Cockney accents, I thought perhaps they'd taken the wrong train and got lost on their way to Wembley to watch Millwall v Swindon in the League One Play off final.

But no I was wrong, it turns out they were going to the rugby after all. I sighed to myself as the one cockney lad sat opposite me and next to a classic looking 'rugby type'. I thought this is going to be a very long train journey to Twickenham.

It was actually quite amusing as I watched the football/rugby culture clash unfold right in front of me. I did start laughing to myself when the Cockney lad began chatting to the rugby chap and said without any shame:

'I don't even f*cking understand rugby..Who's playing?'

He later revealed he was a West Ham fan from Essex! How typical!

Before the game I spent a few hours drinking in a various pubs, similar to football. The difference is that at football you tend to drink in town centres, or you end up in a pub in some grimey inner city ghetto! I'm thinking Tottenham or West Ham away here!

At Twickenham I was drinking on the banks of the river Thames! That tells you all you need to know!

We got to the ground about 10 minutes before kick off. I'd decided that as a Midlander I should support Leicester, but I found myself appreciatively clapping whenever Sarecens scored a try or penalty. The whole rugby politeness thing was rubbing off on me.

Even though the game was between Leicester and Saracens, you still had loads of people wearing various rugby shirts for other teams. Some wore England tops, whilst I spotted other club tops for teams like Northampton, Wasps, and Harlequins.

This would be like going to an FA Cup final between Chelsea and Man Utd, but finding that various people in the crowd were wearing Spurs, Villa or Liverpool tops. You know that would never ever happen at football.

I enjoyed the match, although I have to concentrate a lot watching live rugby. You don't have the tv commentary to tell you what's going on, particularly during the scrums and rucks.

It looked like Saracens were heading for victory when they scored a penalty to make the score 27-26 with only 4 minutes to go. But straight from the kick off Leicester went and scored a try that won the game.

Saracens would have been kicking themselves by letting victory slip away, but I don't get the impression that the average Saracens fan was too gutted in the way that most football fans would be.

That's perhaps one of rugby's strengths and weaknesses in comparison to football, in that you don't have that level of intensity in supporting and watching your team.

Football is at times like being on crack cocaine, intense highs and depressing lows and varying points. Something we can look forward to with England in the World Cup next month.

Sometimes I've hated being a football fan. Like many fans, I've been sick of the endless disappointments and frustrations. Watching rugby you'll never really have the same low points as a fan of football.

Occasional I don't mind this lack of emotional intensity with rugby, but then I can't imagine rugby ever giving me the same emotional high as football. Not that I get many highs as a Birmingham City fan!

This isn't a 'which is better? football or rugby post'. I just like the contrast between the two. Football will always be 'the game' for me, but rugby is a good alternative now and again. I'm always learning something new and enjoy the novelty of it all.

If you're one of those football fans that hates rugby, you have to except that rugby is completely different to football and has it's own qualities. If you except that, you might just start liking it a bit.

Currently listening to...

Lupe Fiasco - I'm Beamin


The Roots - How I Got Over

Have you seen the elephant parade?

For those of you living in London, you may have noticed a number of highly decorated elephant sculptures dotted around the city.

I pass a couple of them on my journey to work as I walk across London Bridge, down to South London.

They're part of a public art/charity appeal aimed at raising awareness of the plight of Asian elephants. There's meant to be 250 of them in London, but I've only managed to spot three so far!

Keep your eyes open for them!

I like a bit of public art, and they've raised the awareness of the Indian elephant. I hadn't realised that there numbers had been decreasing so rapidly.


The Elephants have been painted and decorated by artists and celebrities. You've got until July to catch a glimpse of them, as they're due to be auctioned off at Sotherby's.






Here's some more elephants I later discovered!

What's happened to diversity?

No, I don't mean the winners of last year's Britain's Got Talent! I'm talking about diversity within our new coalition government.

It's impossible not to notice the distinct lack of women in the new government, and as for the so called 'Obama generation' of bright new ethnic minority MPs, there's only Baroness Warsi representing things in the new cabinet.

It's not just the media that's been highlighting this disparity, I've had conversations with people who feel the same way.

Some people will moan this is typical white middle-class male bashing, but you can't deny that at the top level of government, you're mainly going to find white middle-class privately educated men running things.

In many professions in this country, it looks like diversity is on the decrease.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's lost count of the number of cultural diversity and equality training days I've been on during my time in work.

These days my first reaction of being told I have to go on one of these is:

'not another one. What more can I possibly learn about diversity?'

But in saying this, it still appears that real diversity is elusive as ever in many professions.

I've been a little sceptical in the past about the whole diversity issue. Yes you want offices, industries and professions to represent society, but sometimes I wonder whether certain groups are in a realistic position in regards to numbers to be considered for many professions.

I live in London, arguably the most diverse and cosmopolitan city in the world, but this diversity is rarely represented in my working life. This is especially true in many of the more middle class professions.

I've always worked quite closely with lawyers and barristers. For the sake of my argument I could say I don't meet many male barristers from Bangladeshi or Afro Caribbean backgrounds.

Is this a lack of diversity? Is it the fault of employers not making enough effort? Or is it because there simply aren't enough people from these backgrounds, studying law, training to be lawyers and applying for jobs?

If it's the latter then the issue of diversity needs to spread its focus onto education, and social mobility.

Returning back to the election, clearly more efforts need to be made. I've read that in our new parliament 35% of MPs were privately educated, even though only 7% of the population attend such schools, around a third of MPs went to Oxbridge including 15 members of the cabinet. There are 511 male MPs and only 139 women. It's a very narrow base to draw your political class from.

When we talk about diversity, you have to look at the whole picture. You need more women, ethnic minorities, but you also need people from working and lower middle class backgrounds. You also need people who haven't all been educated at our elite universities.

You have to provide people with the channels to enter professions like politics, which aren't really open to many people. You have to make people aware that politics is something which can be open to them.

I don't have a definitive answer on how to solve things, but my initial thoughts make me think we need to get more people involved at a local level. That way they can be introduced into the political culture. If they have the talent and drive then hopefully they can progress up the party ranks.

My second point returns back to the issue of education and social mobility. These are key components in any equality debate and should open up greater avenues for people from different backgrounds.

I'm not always convinced as to how well educated some young people are these days. It's ironic that we have more people going to university, gaining academic qualifications but yet so many professions are a closed shop. Appearing to only be available to select groups of people.

As for social mobility, does it even exist anymore in the UK? You were probably more likely to make it into government coming from a working class background 30 or 40 years ago then you are today.

The problem doesn't just apply to politics, you can say the same about law, medicine, journalism and most media industries.

A lot of the time politics is presented as this elitist interest, when in reality, politics is everyday life for many people. As we saw with the election debates, if politics is presented in the right way people will be interested.

If the make up of our politicians both at local and national level reflects all of society then I'm sure it will encourage more people to get involved.