To some he is a fisherman, but to Jamaica he’s more. He is revered as an elder of wisdom by Port Royal residents, but he is one of Jamaica’s unsung heroes of the 21st century.

The sea feared by many has been second home to ‘Mani’ Blake. Like other Port Royal residents his staunch commitment to the area, despite deathly threats of storms and hurricanes, is not suprising, as they claim they rise from the sea. And even more for ‘Mani’ Blake a life of adventure emerged, as from the sea, the main source of his livelihood, he earned a spot in noted history.

The fisherman for over 50 years, often diving into the bowels of the sea, has for four years of his diving experience, made significant contributions to world history, at least where Port Royal, Jamaica is concerned.

Uncovering hidden secrets of Port Royal for the pages of history books, and walls of museums, ‘Mani’ Blake was among divers who years ago joined an expedition led by Robert ‘Bob’ Marx, an undersea archaeologist. Their shared purpose during the 1960s to 1970s was in retrieving anything that told tales of the history of Port Royal from their muddy burial, under the sea.

Despite the shifting caused by nature, especially the further burial of the city by the 1907 earthquake, the team retrieved enough artefacts for display across the world.

The challenges they faced were not many, but critical, and included lack of proper equipment, which was often the cause of ‘Mani’ Blake’s ear drums bursting from the pressure under sea. Often times he suffered bleeding eardrums, but he along with Wayne and Popeye, were one with the sea, enjoying their visits to the city that existed down under. He eventually were furnished with a scuba tank and frog mask from Marx, which enabled him to increase his diving time from 5 minutes to hours. He continued for only $1,300 fortnightly.

‘Mani’ Blake’s retreived artefacts from the sunken city include chalk pipes, onion bottles, gold and silver coins, utensils, silver plates, swords and clay pipes.

I’ve seen some excellent PhotoShop retouching work in my various media roles, but the one on the cover of the latest W magazine isn’t one of them! It shows actress Demi Moore in a stunning outfit that flatters the figure of a 47 year old mother of two.

However, take a closer look at the photo and you’ll see a large chunk of her left hip (our right) has been digitally removed. She’s a mutant! Click here to see a bigger version of the photo.

Maybe the general public isn’t all that interested in the technicalities: if things look okay to them they’ll probably accept it.

But in the eyes of professionals this is like having a piece of manure on your face in public which many can see but is not saying anything to you.

I suspect this photo mutilation will not stop the public from gobbling up the magazine though. It’ll be interesting to know how this issue sell, as compared to the other 11 issues from this year.

If December’s sales figures are greater than at any other time then that’s saying something. It would confirm the public at large needs better appreciation of art, media and manipulation!

I’ve been hearing the name Lady Gaga for quite some time now but I chose to ignore it because she didn’t sound like the kind of artist I wanted to invest any time in.

The press blew her up into this kind of strange, bizarre, oddity in the same mold as a latter day Grace Jones or even a Bjork. I simply had better things to do than to waste time on that kind of stuff.

That all changed when I took up a Facebook friend’s challenge to watch her video Bad Romance, all five minute, seven seconds of it. Somehow I felt I was going to be disappointed, but here goes…

It looks like one long commercial, echoing shades of the previously mentioned Grace Jones (and Madonna) in its wackiness, with elements of Village People and socio-erotic imagery strewn throughout amd at specific points. I largely don’t really understand it and feel that the images and the lyrics are at counterpoints to each other. In other words we’re not really seeing what is being sung about.

Such juxtaposition usually hints at something deeper and darker behind its structure which seem to be confirmed with the final shot at the end where Lady Gagy, cigarette alive in her hand, lies on a bed that looks like it’s been bombed with the charred, skeletal remains of a male the victim of whatever did the bombing, lying near Gaga. It’s quite disturbing yet visually interesting to watch.

Creepy…

This is not meant to be a disrespect to Elton John nor his fans, but, after 12 years it’s dawned on me that the tune he performed in tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, was actually quite an unworthy effort, in my view.

Maybe it fitted the mood of the times, capturing the depth of feeling that swelled up around Britain at the time, but today it feels woefully…inadequate.

Given Elton’s immense ability as a composer/songwriter one thinks using but the biggest challenge he would have had to face was performing live without crying at the ceremony. How taxing would merely reheating it up then dishing it out would have been? Elton could have done better. Princess Diana, a woman loved by so many.

At the very least an original song would have been fitting, not one previously written to honour attractive but pill-dependent drinks tippling Hollywood actress like Marilyn Monroe. Then again maybe Elton was making some kind of obscure connection between the two blondes from opposite side of the poind. We’ll never know. What we do know is that the Diana loving public deserved better for pretty much the same reasons as above.

Maybe there simply wasn’t enough time to compose something completely new, but the thought came to me after a drea, just how instantly forgettable a tribute it was, in my opinion, to Diana Princess of Wales. I suspect many of you probably won’t even remember the title of the song, let alone the melody.

And that is precisely my point!

“Candle in the Wind” is the song Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote in 1973, a requiem for Marilyn Monroe, who had died 11 years earlier. In 1997, John performed a remake of the song as a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales who died that year. This version reached No. 1 around the world, a much greater success than the original, but was it a fitting tribute to Diana?

[Maybe it took me so long to reach my realisation because I too, though not a royalist per se, could've been caught up in the emotional upheaval on hearing about Diana's tragic death in an horrific car crash in Paris.]

(1) Homosexuality is officially an illegal activity in Jamaica and anyone engaging in such acts can (and are) prosecuted. Interestingly, the offence of buggery is covered under Section 76 of Jamaica’s Offences Against the Person Act which outlines that it is illegal even for anal intercourse between a man and a woman in addition to sex between two men.

(2) The island is very steeply religious and practitioners take their religion seriously. There are as many rum bars as there are churches in Jamaica!

(3) Jamaica’s culture is to fire bu’n anything it does not like, agree with or feel is too alien to its own sense of reality.

(4) Homosexuality is still very much regarded as a white man’s activity among most people.

(5) There is a strong, vibrant anti-homosexual culture in the island.

(6) Jamaica is the land of Rastafarianism and fundamental rastas condemn such 'babylon' activities, often citing the bible as justification for its opposition.

(7) Seeing two people of the same sex acting outwardly affectionate with each other enrages the spirit of most Jamaicans. Many can (and do) tolerate the idea of individuals doing whatever they want in the privacy of their own space but not right under their noses!

(8) Jamaicans love their bibles a lot and right there in Leviticus it clearly says: “men shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, that’s an abomination.”

(9) The word “battyman”, the most offensive term for homosexuals, has become a status symbol and certain crowd pleaser among entertainers and politicians alike! Its almost like shorthand for laughing at homosexuality yet interestingly sometimes those laughing the hardest among the crowd are the biggest homosexuals ever!

(10) There are many hypocritical people who because of their positions or status in Jamaican society, cannot or will not come out of the closset with their homosexuality for fear of being harmed in some way, given the prevailing climate against the practice.

Can you think of any other reasons or have you got an alternative view on homosexuality?