TY - BOOK AU - Thomson, Ian, TI - The dead yard: tales of modern Jamaica SN - 9780571227617 AV - F1887 .T46 2009 U1 - 972.9206 22 PY - 2009/// CY - London PB - Faber and Faber KW - Moral conditions KW - fast KW - Politics and government KW - Social conditions KW - Travel KW - Jamaica KW - Description and travel KW - 21st century KW - History KW - 1962- N1 - Includes bibliographical references (pages 350-356) and index; (Black man) in Hammersmith Palais --; Trench town mix up --; Strictly come dancehall --; Slaving --; Massa day done? --; I've got to go back home --; Forward unto Zion --; Maximum black --; Stranded on death row --; The Negotiator --; Blood and fire --; Revival time --; Don't call us immigrants --; English upbringing, background Caribbean --; Everything crash --; Nanny knew best --; The Killing of a Chinese shopkeeper --; 007 (Shanty Town) --; Sitting in limbo --; Police and thieves --; Night nurse --; Scotland Yard --; Herbsman hustle --; Investors in people ('Cargo') --; Lord creator --; Life of contradiction N2 - "Jamaica used to the source of much of Britain's wealth, an island where slaves grew sugar and the money flowed out in vast quantities. It was a tropical paradise for the planters, a Babylonian exile for the Africans shipped to the Caribbean. Since independence in 1962, it has gradually become associated with a new kind of hell, a society where extreme violence has become ordinary and gangs control the areas where most Jamaicans live. Ian Thomson's brave new book explores a country of lost promise, a country that most older Jamaicans in Britain cannot recognise as their own. Once a beacon of optimistic third world politics, the island is now sunk in corruption, hopelessness and drug wars. Jamaica's music was once the lilting anthem of idealists everywhere; now it is a repetitive glorification of homophobia and violence"--Global Books in Print ER -