Source: AI
Introduction
Jamaica was a somewhat peaceful country, the scammers, druggist and shottaz of the early to mid 2,000s had mostly gone into hiding with the introduction of digital IDs and central bank digital currencies. I remember in 2030 once the world came off physical money completely, dons started dropping out like baldpates at bird bush. The money was so easy to trace that not even a mobile VPN, frequency blockers or burner phones could save them. The money was traced form the "clients" they scammed in North America right back to the push cart vendor in the ghetto. And most of the times the "people" the scammers were talking to weren’t even people. Nothing got pass Bobylon. It became the literal web in which we all got caught and the spider would devour anyone who went against its rules.
The only good thing was there was some peace, but it reminded me of living in Japan. I did my degree in Computer science at Tokyo University and while the country was peaceful, a gloom of blue around many people let you know they weren't genuinely happy. When I came back to Kingston, that same smurf blue could be seen on the sunshine faces. The street vendors who once got away without paying taxes on their sales could no longer get away with this form of survival. Many went back to the old ways of bartering to avoid the system as much as possible.
But of course the old massa names remained wealthy through the transition and became even more influential. Who would have thought the cashless society, digital IDs and AI would take hold so fast. We should have seen it coming, we did but we weren't prepared. How would you prepare? That is the question the rich and the poor answer differently.
For once the government was in full control not needing the gun toting shottaz to carry out their dirty work. In fact, they got rid of most of them with the help of the US government but more so, the asset freezing technology the central bank digital currencies came equipped with.
"Bombolcaat dem freeze Foota, him cyah do nothing now"
The word freeze, cold and ice took on a whole new meaning.
The few shottaz who remained weren't your average drive by shooting thugs, they were much more sophisticated and were birthed at the tail-end of the lottery scam era, right into the digital currency evolution.
Click here to read New Kingston Town : Part 1.
I had the idea to write a fictional story about Jamaica in the not so distant future.The story while fictional feeds off of my predictions. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
It looks good - reminded me a little of Marlon James, different voice but just as lyrical and full of imagination. (He's a fabulous writer but so brutal, and he comes across so nice and laughing in his podcast 😂).
Look forward to more, it's nice and noir for me 🙂
Marlon James, nr dr heard of him but did some research, interring stuff, I shall dive deeper and get some inspiration. Just feeding a few lines from one of his books makes me want to kick it up a notch 😂
Tranga pokoe (meaning: powerful song)!
I haven't been up to date with news from Jamaica though, so a bleak prediction like that hit hard. Especially when it comes to violence and gangs.
Though I hope for a better world, especially for the developing countries, it only looks to get harder. "Faith, hope and love" is what I try to keep in mind.
Thanks. I just through the song it at the end as it matched the ending. Nice action to the storytelling mi thinks.
Interestingly after writing this I saw an article out of Jamaica about ATM and brinks truck robberies and the discussion to go fully digital because of all the crime. Looking for the article know and kind find it.
Yeah I rather pivot to the positive of faith, hope and love myself but I got the inspiration to write this kind of fincjinak story, like a warning ⛔️. Interesting of thinking how things could go as we have a forward looking perspective on it all.