Jamaica’s Godfather : ‘Dudus’

I lived and reported from Kingston, Jamaica in 2003 and 2004, it was brilliant in many ways- going dancing to Passa Passa, Weddy Wednesdays, Asylum, Sumfest was great.  But it was also very hard – the expense and hardship, the crime and violence, poverty and injustice.  I have another blog Jamaica Salt where I post all my Jamaica thoughts, please click to have a look at that.  

In 2010, there was a big story brewing.  The Don of Tivoli Gardens – a man called Christopher Coke, known by everyone as ‘Dudus’, who ruled one of the most notorious of Kingston’s ghettos – received a warrant for his arrest from the USA for gun and drug smuggling.  The government were stalling on complying with the extradition request.  Many questions were being asked.  How far were the government complicit in a powerful criminal network making lucrative profits from the drug trade?

Barricades are up in Tivoli Gardens as residents vow to die for Dudus

Rumour and tensions were high.  People were feeling jumpy.  No-one wanted to talk about Dudus in public, such was the hold he had over locals.  Some were fearful of his reputation as a criminal drug lord who showed no mercy to his enemies.  Others, from Tivoli Gardens, were fiercely loyal to him and spoke eloquently about his Robin Hood persona – using his wealth to fund school books and uniforms and business loans to the city’s poor.

Mugshot – Dudus following his arrest.

Eventually he gave himself in, but not until the government led a bloody shootout into Tivoli Gardens, killing many people in their path.

Listen to the documentary – Jamaica’s Godfather 

Listen to the From Our Own Correspondent – FOOC Jamaica

See the photos – View the slideshow

Chicago Dog Fighting

One of the very first documentaries I made for the BBC World Service was nominated for a Foreign Press Award, about the ex-dog fighters who were trying to stop kids following in their footsteps, amidst the violent backdrop of everyday life.

Jigga the Dog

I went to South Side Chicago for the second time in my life, the first time was a year earlier when I was running the BBC World Service’s citizen journalism project and I met the most inspiring woman I’ve ever met.  Her name is Jean Hill; an ex-teacher and grandmother, she runs a project helping kids in her neighbourhood, called ‘Imagine Englewood If’, a place for kids to do homework and learn new skills whilst at the same time running a gardening project and campaigning about really important stuff like lead poisoning.

So I get a cab to the place where the guys are training some dangerous dogs.  I’m meeting the dog trainer, Jeff Jenkins who has given me some advice – to stand back and stay calm.  I’ve admitted to him that I don’t like dogs at the best of times and these ones have got some serious anti social behaviour issues. One guy comes with this huge black dog barking, aggressive, pulling at the leash.  I reach over with my microphone trying to ask the guy holding him back some questions – does the dog get into fights?  ‘yeah when he was a puppy he got into fights and now people come up to me on the street asking me if I want to fight him’.

It’s a world where dog fighting is connected to a lifestyle involving gangs, drugs and prostitution says a youth offender who has been enrolled into animal welfare classes as a condition of his custodial sentence.  When people are getting shot and killed on their front porches, where is the harm in dog fighting?

You can hear and download the programme in full here  – Assignment, Chicago Dog Fighting.

Download the programme for free – Chicago Dog Fighting.  

Look at more photos – View the Slideshow