PLEASE NOTE: when trying to link to the sites below put http before the links:***
Jamaican Consulate
60 Avenue Foch
736 Paris
FRANCE
Tel: 331-45-00-6225;
Fax: 331-45-00-2063
HON.CONSUL:MR Albert BICKEL
Just an anecdote, the first time I set foot in the land of the baguette, cheese and red wine, the customs officer took one look at my passport and said,"Ah Jamaique, Bob Marley, one love!" (not like in Miami or the UK, huh!)
Since at the time my French was rather rusty, to say the least, I just smiled while wanting to tell him that Stone Love, Tony Matterone and Mighty Crown now have some wicked sessions going on...
Ah, Jamaica and the French... nuff love, but unfortunately, it's all underground. The mainstream media only mentions us on Marley anniversaries and often without mention of developments since.
The underground is pretty vibrant, with guys like Nuttea,Kossity and PierrePaulJacques (who discovered the music in prison! that's another story).These guys know the who's who in the music industry in Jamaica and have been in Jamaica to record albums (back to the roots I guess). There are a few specialised stores also selling red, green and gold items of all sorts.
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Another anecdote, the 98 world cup with the Reggae boyz was an opportunity to hear all the really stupid stereotypes. Canal + was then the avant-garde tv channel and there was a report on Jamaica, the journalist, (like the majority of European journalists)had an obsession with (other nations') poverty, (when they visit Brazil, they go to the favelas, never to the middleclass homes where people live better than they do!). He visited only ghetto areas and made a big point of mentioning that the salary of the reggae boyz then was "only" about 4 000€. I, obviously, couldn't let it pass, I wrote them a caustic letter, reminding them of the 4 or 5 million French people living under the poverty line, not to mention the fact that the purchasing power in Jamaica for 4 000€ is 10 times what it would have been in France!
Ok, don't get me wrong, the French are great, but... They have this superiority complex (it's a European disease actually), they believe that they are the only nation blessed with a Culture (with a capital C) and that if a country is less than a gazillion years old it has no history AT ALL. Collectively, they have an obsession therefore with Greece and all that OLD ruins and the nexus of pleasure for the French man is to live in an old house with limited indoor plumbing, (it's an acquired taste, a bit like roquefort), because said house belonged to some long dead stuck in the ass Count or some such...
But this site isn't about French bashing it's all one love...
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Jamaica Tourist Board Paris
32 rue de Ponthieu, 4th Floor
F-75996 Paris
France
Phone: 0 (1) 44634201 Dialling from USA/Can.: 011 33 (1) 44634201
Fax: 0 (1) 42256640 Faxing from USA/Can.: 011 33 (1) 42256640
Email: jamaicaf@worldnet.fr Talking about the tourist board, in my opinion, a lot more could be done to market the island in France. There is a big Italian market, for example, in spite of the language barrier, but the French, though fascinated by features of the island, are not encouraged enough to visit.
If you're interested in visiting Jamaica, contact the webmaster, for direct links to real people...
A Quick quiz
1. Jamaica was colonised by
a. The Americans
b. The British
c. The Spanish 2. Besides music and sports, Jamaicans have excelled internationally in
a. selling marijuana
b. instilling fear in the hearts of wasps
c. Politics 3. The American secretary of state Colin Powell is
a. of Jamaican origin
b. don't know, don't care
c. Bob Marley's first cousin 4. Jamaica is located
a. too far away
b. in Africa
c. In the Antilles
(ans: 1.b; 2c; 3a; 4 a or c; if you got more than one correct, hell, you know more than the average French guy...)
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