The Gilling Papers

09/02/2026

I can tell you honestly that the inside of the police station was not a place I visited during my boyhood. To me, it was a scary place. Although I grew up knowing Mr. Cowie, he was only a blue-seam officer, so he did not create any fear. A red-seam policeman did.

As I grew up as a boy, the two most official services in Oracabessa were the police station and the post office.

08/26/2026

There is a saying among Jamaicans that I first heard on a sitcom sometime in the late 1980s, maybe three or four years after I arrived in the United States:

08/21/2026

I have followed Jamaica’s long and often contentious debate over republican status for many years: whether we should become a republic, how the transition should occur, and what a genuinely Jamaican Constitution should include.

08/14/2026

I woke up yesterday morning to images from Cooper’s Pen in Trelawny that disturbed me deeply.
Homes were being bulldozed.
Not little makeshift structures that had appeared overnight. Not four blocks laid on an empty piece of land the evening before. These were predominantly concrete homes. Some were substantially completed. People had lived there. Beds were inside. Stoves were inside. Clothes, furniture, photographs and the ordinary possessions that make a structure a home were inside. According to media reports, approximately 20 houses were demolished.

I woke up yesterday morning to images from Cooper’s Pen in Trelawny that disturbed me deeply.

08/10/2026

Few issues in Jamaica produce as much confusion, frustration, and emotion as access to our beaches. One person says, "All beaches in Jamaica are public." Another says, "The hotel owns that beach." Someone else responds, "Nobody can own the beach because the foreshore belongs to the Crown." Then comes the most practical question of all: "If it belongs to the Crown, why can't I walk onto it?"

I Grew Up With the Beach as Part of Community Life

08/08/2026

This is not an argument that Sanchez, Wayne Wonder, Busy Signal, Sizzla Kalonji, Capleton, Beres Hammond, Leroy Sibbles, Derrick Morgan, Rita Marley, Morgan Heritage, or Third World are undeserving of national recognition.
They are accomplished artistes who have made significant contributions to Jamaican music.
My question is different.

Part I — What Exactly Are We Measuring?

08/08/2026

I love the work of Dr. Sue. A genuine Jamaican author and poet.

Jamaica 64
A big achievement fi sure
We is one God blessed Island
And a deh all a we come from.

Whether directly or indirectly
We consider we self Jamaican
Dats why days like today
We commemorate wheh we come from

We in the diaspora
But we heart deh a yard
We stay yah and help out
Cause we know tings still hard.

Talk bout hard…nooo sah
Mi heart proud fi how unno rally after Melissa
As Busy Signal say…’we love Jamaica and we naw sell out!

Tony Rebel beg we fi help him Big up Jamaica - we land of wood and wata.
Him say…di system might no proper.
But we love the vibez the food and the culture! - Nuh true

Buju speak fi a lot a we when him sing - no matter where in the world I go…I am a Jamaican!
And though nuff of us caant agree with Eric Donaldson - that ‘this is the land of my birth - I will never leave her shores and I will never run away….’
Still …we believe in the black the green and the gold always!

So in the words of Chronixx - “just smile for me Jamaica…I’m here for you Jamaica.”

Look man…We likkle but we talawa
And have nuff fi give thanks fa
So as we celebrate Jamaica 64 - United in Celebrating Resilience
Mek we clap we self fi we pride and brilliance.

Unno Walk Good
And May Good Duppy walk wid unno - God Speed!

Dr Sue 8-6-26

08/06/2026

I have always tried to be in Jamaica during the Independence season, between July 27 and August 12.
Why?
Because Jamaica’s Independence was never meant to be a single day…

I have always tried to be in Jamaica during the Independence season, between July 27 and August 12.

07/31/2026

I cannot honestly say that I remember the announcement of Jamaica’s first National Heroes in 1969. I was young then. What I do remember, however, is growing up during the era of pounds, shillings, and pence, and later watching Jamaica transition to dollars and cents.

I cannot honestly say that I remember the announcement of Jamaica’s first National Heroes in 1969.

07/28/2026

Dr. Adrian Stokes deserves commendation for bringing Jamaica’s persistent challenge with boys’ educational outcomes back into the national conversation.

Dr.