Look here Ladies & Gents, it’s all very well to talk about
GOOD FOR JAMAICA, GOOD FOR YOUR POCKET
&
TAKE BACK JAMAICA, KINGSTON IN PARTICULAR, BY FINDING THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE THAT ARE FREE (OR NEARLY)
but you and I know we aren’t taking back anything if we don’t TAKE BACK THE PEOPLE!! And as a man said recently, ‘hungry people will mash up the environment faster than ‘development”. Therefore, at tax time, do something philanthropic & enjoyable with your tax write-off funds in Jamaica (or anywhere the spirit moves you). Cash or kind, combine a holiday or personal entertainment with giving back to reputable/longlived productive NGOs, charities and good causes. May I suggest:
My favourite – The Alpha Boys School (producer of the majority of our world class musicians, this place is integral to music education & history in Jamaica, – I mean the Skatalites & back up to the likes of Louis Armstrong! Should be UNESCO world heritage if you ask me!! Since 1890 odd!!!). Keep your ears glued in 2014 and if it comes off, be prepared for a SKA/ROCKSTEADY NIGHT BLOWOUT with the kind support of COUNTRYSIDE PANYARD…(Escapade No. 7 on ROUTE KINGSTON KICKS!!!)
Click the these links and discover!!
BOOK A TGIF TOUR OF ALPHA BOYS, A CRADLE OF SKA, WITH WATA!!
THERE’S ALSO:
The Pineapple Ball (Well…not really, dress for a ball and enjoy yourself to popular and
Caribbean music). Last quarter of the year.
The Area Youth Foundation (Arts, Culture & Performance from the inner city, weaving ‘garrison communities’ together. They’ve performed for Prince Charles and worked with Emory University & Wole Soyinka.)
The Jamaica Environmental Trust
Jamaicans for Justice
The Salvation Army in Jamaica, one of the few facilities for the blind in Jamaica.
Jamaica Society for the Blind
Jamaica Special Olympics movement
Campion College teachers fund. This peculiar public school mixes uptown and downtown, is one of the island’s top 5 and produces national and world leaders. Think the ‘Jaipur Leg’ & Disney art directors, etc., etc. (We do not pay our teachers well so choose any school you like and stipulate your funds are to be used to benefit the teachers.)
Shaggy’s Dare to Care ‘elegant dancehall’ benefit, early year, for Bustamante Children’s Hospital, Jamaica’s only specialist paedie facility.
The Mustard Seed Foundation (Catholic facility, education and trade training)
Lister Mair Gilbey & Jamaica Assoc. for the Deaf network of schools for the deaf, & facility for restoration & preservation of rare/old books. (I dream of seeing a scholarship line to Gallaudet).
The Branson Centre for Caribbean Entrepreneurship
Tammy Browne’s ‘spay the strays’, animal programme
The Jamaica Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Etc., etc., etc.
If you have business dealings in the US & Jamaica, try this guy re sorting out your tax returns – conscientious, straightforward, knows his business, won’t rip you off, an eye for strategy that can save you money, was with H&R Block, is a town treasurer, has a couple of pretty famous clients (like patients, you don’t go broadcasting names). I think of him as a ‘Jamerican’ as he lives/works in both places.
Bob Cleaves Tax Consultant
136 N Main St
Barre, VT 05641
(802) 476-8080
(876) 283-9365