Interesting connections

From the Daily Star, June 1, Lebanon politics section:

Separately, international talks are being held behind closed doors over the possibility of deploying UNIFIL troops along the Lebanese-Syrian border, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported on Thursday.
"This issue will be a priority after the UN Security Council approved the creation of an international tribunal," the report said. "Due to the current security developments in Lebanon, firm measures need to be implemented to monitor the border in a more efficient way."
Meanwhile, the UN's Lebanon Independent Border Assessment Team started its evaluation of bordermonitoring capacities along the Lebanese-Syrian border. The team's work should be completed in two weeks, the CNA report said. The team arrived on Monday to evaluate reports of arms smuggling across the Syrian border in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. It was dispatched following the council's presidential statement of April 17, in which the council asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to send an independent group to assess security measures along the Lebanese-Syrian border.
The team is led by Lasse Christensen of Denmark and is composed of experts from
Algeria, Germany, Jamaica and Switzerland.

more jamaica

jamaica

some more pics.

also, some jamaican ways to announce (in bars, shops, etc.) that no credit will be given to customers:

'MR CREDIT IS A BAD DISEASE. BUT DON'T WORRY, YOU WON'T GET IT HERE'

'NO MORE MR CREDIT. HE DIED IN A CAR ACCIDENT ON HIS WAY IN FROM THE JAZZ FESTIVAL'

???

Jamaica

by the way. this is my getaway from everything having to do with war, lebanon, last summer, etc. it's working!



at miami airport. the immigration people weren't as friendly as this guy and had a lot of intelligent questions about the lebanese, syrian, jordanian and egyptian stamps in my passport (my favourite: "so what is it that you DO, ma'am?", or maybe: "so how was the middle east, ma'am?"). this of course after the iris and fingerprint scans. nice.




downtown kingston is scary!!


on top of blue mountain peak


lynette, owner of coffee fields, runner of whitfield hall guest house, generally the boss of the show


yes. at long bay.


at dicky's - a small rastafarian restaurant. please note the carefully folded napkins with ganja motif.


a "man trap" from the days of slavery. oh my.