Jansport Backpack

In the regional news last week we learned about an entire class of grade 10 boys at Cornwall college in Jamaica who were arrested over a missing school bag.  The drastic action by the police can be debated from several angles, the one which pricked BU’s interest is the value which students today place in brand – in this case – a brand name bag.

Just a week earlier Barbadians read a media report which detailed that brand name backpacks for school are being sold for as much as $350. Further investigation by BU turned up that one of the more popular and expensive backpacks is the  JANSPORT brand. The bag is retailing in Barbados for more than $200.00. An online search suggests that the same bag retails in the USA in the price range of BBD50.00 to BBD75.

It is a dark place we find ourselves. Our societal values have plummeted to a level where parents succumb to the wishes of their preteen children to outfit them with backpacks of such great value. What can we do if our parents have relinquished their responsibility? The chickens are coming home to roost.


  1. @Sargeant

    What are you saying?


  2. I wish some will curt


  3. Onions
    I just delivered the coup de grace and now you back for more it’s more like this.


  4. Man
    You is bare mr.comey man…Look my souse ready…I gone

  5. millertheanunnaki Avatar

    @ old onion bags | September 29, 2012 at 11:35 AM |

    The miller packing a 12 gauge shotgun even if half-loaded.
    Ask BAF. he knows the miller credentials.

    Don’t mind Sarge. He already crossed over to the other side and not even Viagra can return him to the land of the erect living.
    I was just looking for company. After all, two half-dead men don’t make one whole dead man even if only 12″+6″ = 18″ instead of 24″.


  6. I do not know what a Camel Toe Fete is
    So it is possible that those in charge of Radio did not know either.
    Dennis Johnson –put your hands in the air
    Some serious shit happening bout the place.
    Was always kinda funny in Barbados because of the nature of the society


  7. West Indies to beat Sri-Lanka
    in —-Road—tennis


  8. Well Veoma should know what camel toe is all about.


  9. @David
    Well Veoma should know what camel toe is all about

    If your identity becomes public don’t buy any green bananas they won’t have a chance of ripening, that is really hitting below the belt. I could think of a few people who will be looking for you, Hants & I are available as body guards we have “Canadian experience”

    Wuh en catch yuh en pass yuh, nex ting “skin out” fetes will be advertised on de air.


  10. @Onions:
    I worked [say again] worked at a Record Sop from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. after school to help pay for my tuition. [Classes ended at 1:30 for me] So I was able to buy [at discounted prices] my Grand Funk and Dennis Coffee. LOL.

    @Sgt. Pepper:
    Not in charge of radio …. or anything else for that matter [except myself]


  11. sorry Onions – *Shop*


  12. There is no bigger glutton for punishment than the Onions.I will bet my last dollar that he is married to a dominatrix.How long ago was it that islandgal 246 cut your ass worse than hammie la cut braddie’s?Better yet like a red headed step child,or even better like a rented mule.Ah think dat one suite you de best.


  13. @ Hammie t
    Boy where you learn such BIG WORDS from?….Who help you find that one in the dictionary?Imagine a coelenterate like you that now barely able to walk bout calling out derogatory doggie dumplin…..you guh long


  14. LOL @ Old Onions
    Man you like a centipede. Everybody only saying ” kill he kill he” when they see you 🙂
    Bushie dun with that though. Turning over a new leaf and being nice to old onions.
    Have a nice evening OO.


  15. Like throwing water in the sea Bushman….. Alike Wickham…they are going to HATE him EVEN MORE affa tomorrow…. duz call we PROPHETS OF DOOM..instead of digging out the wax and listen..

    ..Besides I dun know somebody piles duz ‘act up’ when polls hard to fathom….Old fool


  16. why?because they are watching American TV where they never get to be.
    and they are looking for status as you adults in barbados look for status in what car you drive.
    you have taught your own children to be consumers of the 5 % that tell us what o drink, eat wear .you are all robotic consumers just the way the 5%set it up to work.brilliant.i i jump of a cliff will you jump too?you first.!lol


  17. Here is to all the lamprey…


  18. All bets on for a moderate swing between 5 – 7%…that would push the whole wash pan…..juckin board as well down to Sailor’s Gully….Get your Nations tomorrow….it will not disappoint some….


  19. Need to go back in bridgetown and check your prices again jansport bags are not selling at that price as noted in your piece but Northface and Fox Quiksilver at $370 and lower jansports were selling at $65 dollars.


  20. @Crazy

    Maybe it depends one where you shop? Hard to see a bag which retails in the USA for USD30.00 selling for BBD65.00. However we note that there are different styles which may account for the variance you mention.


  21. @ David
    She is correct. The Jansport is but an imitation …I also wanted to know where your price came from…best thing is to recheck


  22. old onion bags | September 30, 2012 at 10:41 AM |
    @ David
    She is correct. The Jansport is but an imitation …I also wanted to know where your price came from…best thing is to recheck
    …………………………………………………………………………………..
    Its not really about quality, but how much that we are able to brag that we paid for it.


  23. Seven months is a very long time,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,So much can change,positive,,so much can dull present neuro receptors,,,,,like water dripping on an otherwise impenetratable stone and eroding it slowly,,,,,The DLP must stay their course and repetively through positive in your face ads declare that their presence is NOW and Tomorrow.


  24. @Boy Blue | September 30, 2012 at 4:13 PM |

    “Its not really about quality, but how much that we are able to brag that we paid for it.”

    it is usually the poor who brag about how much they paid for something and how expensive it was, while the rich usually brag about how much money they saved in getting something cheaper but with quality. i fail to understand why the poor love to put their money into a businessman’s pocket instead of a bank. i marvel every Christmas when i look around my neighbourhood and rarely see Christmas lights (i live in what is considered a white area of Barbados) then i pass thru a poor area and u know what? almost every house is laden with Christmasx tree lights. i could on and talk about the curtains that are hardly changed in my area in comparison to those in poor areas


  25. i marvel every Christmas when i look around my neighbourhood and rarely see Christmas lights
    ************************
    Oh shoite !

  26. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Pinkie | October 1, 2012 at 8:22 AM |
    ‘..i marvel every Christmas when i look around my neighbourhood and rarely see Christmas lights (i live in what is considered a white area of Barbados) then i pass thru a poor area and u know what? almost every house is laden with Christmasx tree lights.”

    There are no real native white people in Barbados. They are all tarred with the same brush and can only pretend to pass for “white” in apartheid Barbados. Let them go to England or Europe and see how they would be treated; as “Coloured” like you Pinkie.

    The reason you don’t see Xmas lights in your neigbourhood because these so-called pretend white people don’t believe in the crap about white baby Jesus and the whole big lie called Xmas.

    Whereas poor stupid black people have been fed a big lie to programme them into parting with their hard earned money at the altar of materialism called Father Xmas with the holy family and the three wise men laden with presents.


  27. millertheanunnaki | October 1, 2012 at 9:23 AM |

    “There are no real native white people in Barbados. They are all tarred with the same brush and can only pretend to pass for “white” in apartheid Barbados. Let them go to England or Europe and see how they would be treated; as “Coloured” like you Pinkie….”

    do not be bitter if they are white…the majority are NOT bajan whites but ‘foreigner’ white…got that?

    “The reason you don’t see Xmas lights in your neigbourhood because these so-called pretend white people don’t believe in the crap about white baby Jesus and the whole big lie called Xmas.”

    i disagree, these same neighbours attend church, they just do not spend their money on such things as Christmas lighting on the outside of their homes. i will not say much here but that there is a poor Barbados, the Heights and Terraces Barbados, the Middle class, the rich white Barbados, etcBarbados

  28. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Pinkie | October 1, 2012 at 1:33 PM |
    “do not be bitter if they are white…the majority are NOT bajan whites but ‘foreigner’ white…got that?”

    Me bitter if they are white? Listen Pinkie, I worked and lived among real (foreigner) white people a large part of my life. I just see them as just people who should be treated with respect as long as it’s reciprocal.
    I have even been intimately close to some if you know what I mean.
    To use a cliché, ‘some of my best friends are foreigner whites’.
    Anytime I see white people going to church I would go there too because they are the only people going to heaven since god , the angels, saints and the holy family are all white and I want to go there too.

  29. Smooth Cholocate Avatar
    Smooth Cholocate

    @Pinkie

    i agree with u, i see it every single year around christmas and i wonder why would a poor or middle class person take their money and dump it into the rich man’s hands with simple comments such as ‘yuh cann eat de money’

  30. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Smooth Cholocate | October 1, 2012 at 6:16 PM |

    I also wonder why would such a small 2×3 country with such small make-over congested mule cart roads that owe people overseas so much money and begging tourists to come would want to import such expensive high-powered cars like Mercedes, BMWs Audis and Range Rovers while at the same time using very poor quality fuels from Trickidad.

    To make whom rich? Where are the people going to drive 3-4 L motor cars? In the sea to St. Lucia in less than an hour?

    When you Look at B you must first look at A.


  31. wunna getting of in left field wunna prejudicious showing

  32. Smooth Cholocate Avatar
    Smooth Cholocate

    @millertheanunnaki | October 1, 2012 at 6:33 PM |

    people do it because they want a false sense of wealth


  33. fyi

    Bags just $300 pieces of carpet

    By Antoinette Connell | Tue, October 02, 2012 – 12:01 AM

    I’ve always vowed that nothing I pay more than $200 for will touch the ground.

    That includes shoes. Therefore you will find me searching out bargains for classic or stylish footwear.

    Fortunately for me, I have a system and a sister. Doubly fortunate, like me, my sister is of average foot size, has a nose for style and is instinctively drawn to a bargain. More importantly, she tends to overshop just a wee bit in that department.

    This is where I come in.

    On the occasional trip overseas to her home, my first stop is the closet. Sometimes she will willingly give up some pairs. At other times she will promise me if she doesn’t wear them that she’ll pass them my way. When it comes to her shoes I have the patience of Job. I once waited five years for a pair of classic shoes she had.

    Folks, you’ll understand why if you ever see me in them.

    In 2010 after a particularly extreme raid of Ann’s closet I didn’t buy a single pair of shoes for two years. It just didn’t make sense. I should explain that her talent for shoe selection also extends to handbags but I don’t benefit from the fallout as much there.

    My “ground rule” is the same for bags.

    Therefore I was struck on Sunday during my church’s scholarship service to hear senior teacher Sister Carol talk about $300 pieces of carpet. That was her comparison for some of those $300 North Face bags which sold out before the start of school and had store owners wishing they had ordered more.

    Three weeks into the Christmas term and the must-have expensive bags were now littering the classroom floors, trampled by the indifferent students. Does that make any sense? An $80 bag would endure the same hardship.

    Week three had passed, my church colleague was at pains to point out, and as a teacher she should know how crucial that time is for a student.

    I ask, with all the consternation in the world: What parent would allow a child to hold them over a barrel for a bag? As a parent I cannot come up with a scenario in which a child says he/she is not going to school unless they get a special brand of bags or shoes.

    The authorities need to find the delinquent parents and charge them well before a term or two have passed. Isn’t someone supposed to be monitoring these situations and alerting the relevant department?

    If the recent charging of parents is anything to go by, then a great deal of damage is already done by the time the authorities intervene. The children are out of school for months before anyone is moved to act. Who is to blame for that piece of delinquency in passing on the information?

    In a matter of years some parents will look back, probably jokingly, at the time little J didn’t go to school because of a bag. By then it will be too late to instill discipline in the adult version.

    J will no doubt become one of those children that will cause mainly mummy sleepless nights until the law intervenes. Mum or dad will have no choice but to say take him/her away for the sake of their health and sanity.

    Then J will have no choice in what he wears or eats or where he sleeps.

    • Antoinette Connell is the DAILY NATION Editor. Email antoinetteconnell@nationnews.com

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