About The Book: The end of the Second World War has signaled a growth in British and United States demand for Jamaican bauxite, agricultural and manufactured products as well as some categories of services. The result is in an expansion of the port facilities in Kingston and rapid growth in industrial activity, sending signals of job availability in the capital. In response, hundreds of thousands of rural folk begins the drift into the city, their thoughts riveted on the promise of a better life. Most discover that Kingston is far from the panacea promised, and apart from the non-availability of jobs, housing solutions are virtually non-existent leaving many to join the burgeoning throng of squatters in the city western belt. This is the environment that exists in Kingston, Jamaica at the beginning of 1950 and Top Rankings provides a gritty, edge of your seat look at "Inner City" life in the island's capital during this developmental period and beyond. It chronicles the birth of the ubiquitous bad man in socio economic and political Jamaica and provides a trail of the exploitation of factions within these communities, showing the nexus between the disparate groups that together makes up this melting pot of Out of Many, One People. The book traces many of the issues of a growing city population in the early years, largely neglected by the country's policy makers whose only interest is ensuring that the island's power structure remains in their hands. For this few, the concern is about preserving a status-quo that only serves their own interests while they exploit those below whose votes are needed to keep them in power. Top Rankings; A Chronicle of Jamaican Badness outlines the exploitation of those who live on the fringes of the society to keep their own numbers loyal and in check, and provides a ring- side look at how this sets neighbor against neighbor and becomes the mechanics of social our deconstruction which still haunts Jamaica to this very day.
About the Author: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Richard Hugh Blackford grew up in Jamaica during the late 1950's to the turn of the century and had a ring-side seat to the socio-political events that not only shaped the course of the islands development but provided the canvas on which this story has been painted. He was educated in Jamaica at Kingston College and Camperdown High Schools and later attended the College of Arts, Science and Technology where he received a Certificate in Marketing. He then went on to the University of the West Indies where he completed a Bachelors degree in Management Studies and years later read for a Masters degree in Education at the University Of Phoenix, Arizona. His education not only informed his business foundation but exposed him to the critical issues that shaped the island and impacted his social and political consciousness. To this end he has written as much from his personal experiences as he has from the historical developments in the island over the period.