It continues to be hard for me to see all Jamaicans painted the same way. There is as much diversity here in Jamaica as anywhere else when it comes to classes. Yes, there may be different percentages of rich, middle class and poor, but they all exist.
Everyone's experience regarding Jamaica is different, and mine obviously hasn't been the same as others that have lived here (though I know a lot of others who don't post on message boards, etc. that do have very similar experiences to my own). It's shocking to me the total surprise that I get from so many people when I tell them that my husband is both Jamaican, a business owner and a professional. Like those things can't go hand in hand. I swear, it seems so many people expect me to be married to a ganga smoking rasta with no real job, no real education just hustling on the beach.
My experience here has also been different than many women show on these boards. I have friends (and even male friends) that I can 100% trust. I will say, I have very few friends, a lot of people I associate with, but few I will call friends, but I was like that in the US too, I choose to have just a handful of close friends. The point is, I can trust them. They have earned my trust (mind you, these friends I can trust are NOT those I met while vacationing in Jamaica).
I lived alone for 4+ years out of the 6 I've been here. During those first years no man ever "flexed" in the yard for me, I was in charge of my house, my yard and what when on in it. Hell, even still my husband doesn't really flex for me, and I don't want him to (I'm too damn independent for that). I never felt in danger not having a man that "showed" himself and flexed on my behalf. I've gotten very little harassment (note that I didn't say NO harassment but very little). Especially where I live now, in a working class community outside of Negril rather than in Negril. If I didn't want to get charged more than things, I would ask around about what the proper price should be for something before going to the vendor or person doing the task so I go in educated. I also don't feel like I have to always get the best deal. Sometimes yes, I want it, but for a service, if I think it's worth more than the "going rate" I'll pay more. If someone tries to take advantage, that's a different story however.
I also don't subscribe to the fact that you have to fit in this tiny box for Jamaican men to love and respect you. What I mean by this is that I've seen so many lists of things that you have to do, or can't do in order to have a decent man. Well, I'm here to tell you, if my husband is out of town, my dogs sleep with me (and my husband is WELL aware of it). I don't wash my rice (neither does my husband or my mother in law who are both Jamaican), I can cook chicken soup, brown stew chicken and curry chicken and that is the total extent of the Jamaican cooking I do (I do sides as well and I I do cook other non-Jamaican food), the list can go on and on and on of the sterotypes I hear of what you have to be to be considered a good mate or a decent person in Jamaica.
I have several Jamaican friends who could care less about their car and would much rather spend there money enjoying life whether it be going out for a nice dinner or traveling or what have you.
Now, I'm not saying Jamaica has been a bed of roses for me, it hasn't. It hasn't all been easy, I've seen and experienced things here that I wouldn't wish on people from seeing someone die on the road in front of me to hearing the gun shots that killed someone and watching him be loaded into a car to go to the hospital, to walking into a shop right after it was held up at gun point, to knowing way to many children who have died from a number of things from being hit by cars to cancer that was misdiagnosed for months. I lived next to someone who we would hear being beaten and she would beg my roommate and I not to call the police, I've seen a man in a very public place try and beat his girlfriend, and the list could go on forever.
I know some very rich people, I know some very poor people and I know some people in the middle. Thinking that everyone in Jamaica is just poor as poor can be and all have the same experiences and perspectives is highly skewed. Not everyone lives on family land in a tiny board with no fences.
One more note, on my little rant that may include some things dealt with in this message and others that probably weren't (sorry for that). When I chose to come to Jamaica I chose a type of lifestyle. If I came here and ended up out in the bush with no running water, no electricity having to cook over a wood fire there is no way in Hell I would be here I would have gone back to the US. As an American I made the choice to live here and to live as I do (not the highlife by any means, but with electricity, water, cable, internet, etc.) and if I couldn't live how I was comfortable I would have gone back to the US because I, just as all other Americans living abroad, have the choice to go back.
I'll be the first to tell you I was as ignorant as ignorant could be on the truth of what Jamaica was before moving here, I doubt I could fathom a rich or middle class Jamaican. I had hardly seen outside of Negril. My eyes have been opened wide and there is a lot more too it than many ever see.
Please, please please let all Jamaicans be represented.