Jamaican self-censorship

This is an update (09/04) on the submission to Carnival of the Vanities, which was hosted on August 10, 2005.

The submitted post is entitled: "Former Miss Jamaica preggers...so what?"

I visted the site on which I had found some insider commentary on the story by Carimac students. I wanted to add some weight to my story by combining comments from a wide cross-section of society. On August 10, as I was checking the link, I found out that the post, and the comments were deleted from the blog site. Today (05/09/04), I went back to her site to check for posts and found that her blog was removed from the public listing/deleted.

When I stumbled upon her post, quite by accident I had let the blogger (I'll call her Ms. Carimac) know that I was very intrigued by the "news". I also revealed my blogger nickname and site address here on blogspot. Her response to my comment was to gloat about aiming to please.

She may be distressed to learn that her decision to remove herself from blogger intrigued me to learn more about her. I now know (a) her full name, (b) her e-mail address, (c) her MSN sign on, (d) her former high school, (e) her age and (f) her faculty at the UWI. All that information gleaned in less than 10 seconds of amazing Google. She has left digital footprints all over the web, which might not be a good thing because other people might do malicious things, like sending her spam e-mail. I have not posted her name because I feel that she is a victim of her desire to be in the spotlight. She also has a right to protect her good name, and to retract statements that she prefers not to have out in the open.

I would like to thank her for giving me very valuable scoop in the first place.

Ms. Carimac's action is an example of the Jamaican fear factor I was talking about. This is the same kind of mentality I described in an earlier column. Of course, I probably should have protected her identity but it would have seemed as if I had made up the entire thing.

People will whisper all sorts of things, but when it comes to taking responsibility for it, they're afraid they might fall out of favour with the people they are talking about. Is it that Ms. Carimac is afraid she won't be invited to yacht parties, or Bible study groups at church?

I found out that Ms. Carimac is a Christian who condemns strippers and strip clubs and emotionally blackmails her stripper classmates by taking the moral high ground.

It's interesting that she didn't think about the same moral high ground before spreading rumours on Ms. Beavers and one of her classmates on her website. Christians shouldn't be allowed to have convenient lapses in their values. That's what "loving thy neighbour" is all about.
I have this message for Miss Carimac, who has unwittingly learnt about the universal accessibility of the internet (and non-password protected websites):

If you have a blog with your own photo and real name on it, you should take responsibility for what you say. Don't remove your blog from the web. Own up to what you've said. If you write gossip about people who are in the news, didn't you expect that people would read your posts and then quote you? As a media studies student, you must be aware that anything you create electronically can be quoted. If not, then people who use your words without saying they were yours are in breach of copyright.

Do you remember that photo your friend stole from your website? You got upset with him for taking your copyrighted work and not giving you credit for it, and he apologised. This is what I did when I attributed the comment on your blog to you. I wasn't being malicious. Instead, I was giving you the credit for your comments instead of stealing them. You can't be selective in seeking after attention from what is posted on your blog. You have to embrace everything!

As you have probably learnt, being famous does have its drawbacks.

It doesn't matter anyhow, because the comments are saved forever on the Former Jamaican's blog.