Ria Bacon: editor & writer

Linguist with wanderlust,
From the hills of New Guinea to the halls of the Sorbonne,
From the beaches of Bassam to the fields of Friesland,
From the catacombs of Rome to the Blue Mountains of Jamaica.
From the heather of the Veluwe to the dust of Dakar ...

Currently resident in the Land of Sea with a small tribe of kids and Mr B.

Tweet Blender

Currently translating a manual on how to make a handpump. Background research takes ages but gives great feeling of learning something new.
1 week ago
@RiaBacon helloooo! i've been suffering from exactly the same problem.
2 weeks ago
@lucypepper Good to hear from you. Real life is getting in the way of my virtual self. Maybe I should outsource the overworked part.
2 weeks ago
Fat tax now! RT @AP In 20 years, some 42 percent of the U.S. population will be obese, new government report says: http://t.co/ImZK2ETt -EF
2 weeks ago
@RiaBacon i read that as: Fresh post... random outbreak. Need more sleep.
2 weeks ago

Stet in a cloud

Ria fotografia

Photo Galleries

Now hear dis!

FYI

Stet means "Let it stand" and is used by editors to indicate that the original text should be left untouched.

...in Arcadia ego is a pun on a painting by Poussin.

Stet is a proud member of


    expatriate

Contact

Ria[dot]Bacon[at]gmail.com

One step forward, two steps back

The first item on the 8 o’clock news on CVM TV this evening was the parliamentary committee debate on the Offences Against the Person Act, in particular, marital rape. This might seem like old news in other parts of the world, but here in Jamaica, there remain laws left over from Victorian times that are

Continue reading One step forward, two steps back

Bank on an M-16

Teller: I’m sorry, Sir, but this line is for Gold Card holders only. Policeman: And M-16 holders? Teller: … That’ll do nicely, Sir.

Gun Street Girl

Best headline of the year so far:

MAN RUN OVER WITH MOTOR CAR, SHOT, ESCAPES

(source: Jamaica Observer)

It’s a fairly typical report of street crime in Jamaica, relying on unsupported interviews with the nearest person at hand, vague and incomplete police statements and victims that disappear, never to reappear.

I’d been scanning the local

Continue reading Gun Street Girl

Gone crazy gone mad

Following the previous post about poor service, I felt I should balance it with a post about how difficult it is to run a small business in Jamaica, particularly when it comes to getting a loan. Shortly after we arrived in Jamaica last year, we considered taking out a loan to buy a car. Our

Continue reading Gone crazy gone mad

Ye have not because ye ask not

Last week’s news in Jamaica was dominated by the wage negotiations between the police and government. As with public sector workers elsewhere, the police did not actually go out on strike; instead they used a tactic, and a term, I have not heard of before: the “sick-out”. In effect, over fifty percent of the police

Continue reading Ye have not because ye ask not