Eat A Food

Before I inadvertently acquire legions of enemies, I'd like to preface this by saying:

 I really do. The people here have been warm and welcoming, I feel at home. Strangers go out of their way to do nice things for me and I'm appreciative. Disclaimer aside I'm ready to tackle this issue. This 'eat a food' mentality *in my best yardie voice* UNO MUS STAP IT. It's not cute.

For those of you who don't know, the 'eat a food' mentality is basically a hustling mentality. You do whatever it is you need to do to get a dollar. There is no particular focus on planning for tomorrow, it's all about immediate gratification.  Many people with this mentality have been forced into it through being born into poverty, having few marketable skill sets and no other means to service. Conversely, some people are just well...greedy and ruthless. They yearn for material possessions and seek out the quickest, least labour intensive route to acquiring them. The latter are the types of Jamaicans I have qualms with.  

As an Antiguan in Jamaica I'm sometimes seen as easy prey. Unscrupulous taxi drivers hear my accent and try to charge me fares that could buy enough food to feed the same amount of multitudes Jesus fed in Galilee. This is no exaggeration. I need you to take me seriously here.One particular driver attempted to charge my friends and I 10k JMD (100.00 USD/270.00 XCD) for a charter that another driver charged me 1k JMD for.  When we expressed our ire the price went from 10K to 6K, to 3K before finally deflating to 1.2k. His explanation for his skulduggery was that he's a Jamaican, he love money and all Jamaicans thief. Oh really now? No sir. YOU love money and YOU thief. I suggest, in the words of Bruno Mars- you "tell the devil I said hey when you get back to where you're from". I hope all that money you love can buy you a cool glass of water in hell.

Since I'm ranting, I'll tell you about the fisherman who demanded I give him 1k JMD for taking a picture of his fish. Fish that I didn't sully in any way shape or form, fish that I did not even get to eat.

Fish that I didn't sully in any way,shape or form, fish that I did not even get to eat.

When I refused Mr. Man screw up he face and tell me how HE shame a ME. Wait. What? He's ashamed of me...because... he tried to take advantage of me.... I'm still not entirely sure I'm capable of understanding what happened, but there you have it he and the taxi man both tried to 'eat a food' at my expense. Now Jamaica, imagine both of these men doing the same things to at least one foreigner a week. Then imagine each of those foreigners going back home and relating their experiences. That's how you get bad reputations that reach further than neighboring Antigua and Barbuda. In some cases, I'm preaching to the choir, but if the choir is the majority then you're the ones who can actually do something. All the wonderful, honest, hardworking Jamaicans out there the onus is on you to counter this negative perception. Find the root cause of the 'eat a food mentality' and stamp it out.