Question: I currently reside in the US as a Naturalized US Citizen, from Jamaica. Would I be considered a First Generation American? Activity: Come up with one or two sentences that define/s Jamaica in relation to Caribbean. Learning Objectives: 1. To critically formulate and present a concept of the Caribbean in relation to its position in history which has given rise to its present reality. 2. To begin to trace Caribbean Thinking through its process of coming to be, moving beyond Independence and the tensions between competing political thought in Jamaica – capitalism and socialism. 3. To begin to develop a critical and academic frame within which to provide commentary and contributions on current issues of society and identifying media that facilitate these expressions.  This lecture aims to facilitate an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of Jamaica in relation to the Caribbean, one where the internal and personal interacts with the external. Like Keith and Keith, they agreed that Jamaica has suffered under colonialism. Yet, they contended for a picture of Jamaica that was independent of its socio-economic position and experience. Maybe as a way to forget the reality of its vulnerabilities so as to boast about something else that gives pride and joy. Indeed, although at first the students struggle to come with an original concept of Caribbean for themselves, they still sourced and provided a definition that gave them great pride about Jamaica – its size, its influence and popularity as a leading island in terms of its worldwide appeal and fame from Bob Marley, Merlene Ottey, Usain Bolt and Jerk Chicken. Nevertheless, the consensus was that Jamaica is still a society divided along class lines. This was important as one student pointed out that his movement from one class to the next and from the rural to the urban has adjusted his experience and his ideas about Jamaica, which changed his perspectives. This supports what Norman Girvan had written in his “Reinterpretation of the Caribbean” in “The Caribbean Reader,” indicating that to define Caribbean is a matter of context and perspective.  The Caribbean Reader begin their perspectives on the Caribbean in Grenada, in 1983 when Maurice Bishop and his People’s Revolutionary Army met their demise. This was juxtaposed with the invasion or penetration of the US by their Navy Seals who provided the support that sought the local conflicts among the peoples that crushed the nationalist and democratic socialist intentions of the nationalists. Keith & Keith, Dale Johnson all scholars of the postcolonial write in their projects how the US penetrated the Caribbean through their various machineries. To promote US style ideologies. This was not free of local assistance who were opportunists hoping to cash in as elites or representative/house slaves in the local. Like Europe’s strategy of trickery, making the same deals with all the African tribes which created further chaos in Africa which led to its plunder and domination, the penetration by supporting a few created a local tug-of-war. That was evident between the Manley and Seaga governments of the 1980s, which defined Jamaica. Nevertheless, the students agreed at the end that Jamaica has been given tremendous opportunities and investments. But has squandered it through nepotism, connectionism and corruption. The students alluded to their own experiences, associations, studies showing Jamaica’s corruption index, the NIA & Dr. Trevor Monroe, UK report on Jamaica being on UK crooked politician Radar as evident to support their conclusion that the country has mismanaged its investments and resources.  In the end we concluded that we are not a human race in the sense that we are racing against each other.  But if we think in terms of race, then the reality of the Caribbean and the black position within that racial thinking suggest that we lost the race of time. https://theneoliberal.com.