Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter

Members of the Hong Kong delegation (from left): Grace Yee, Chan Wai Yin, Prof Lisa Leung, and Prof Chan Shun Hing hang out at the reception hosted by Prime Minister Bruce Golding for delegates to the Crossroads conference at Vale Royal last Thursday.

There was a United Nations vibe at Vale Royal last Thursday, as delegates for the seventh Association for Cultural Studies' (ACS) Crossroads Conference got to see Jamaica; outside the lecture rooms.

The conference, titled Of Sacred Crossroads, brought together persons from various nations, to discuss matters dealing with cultural studies.

All present

It seemed that nearly all of the over 400 international delegates who came in for the conference turned up for the reception.

Jamaican style

The delegates not only got a good dose of Jamaican music from the Hummingbird Steel Band, but also some real Jamaican food, some of them trying the escovitched fish and the jerk chicken and pork for the first time. But the biggest helping of all was of the hospitality meted out by locals.

Guest out

Guests out included Argentine Ambassador Mario Pino and wife Fanny, Canadian High Commissioner Denis Kingsley, Head of the European Union in Jamaica, Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi-Alemanni, St Kitts and Nevis High Commissioner Cedric Harper and wife Barbara, former Prime Minister Edward Seaga and wife Carla, Prof Joe Pereira, Prof Barry Chevannes, Prof Neville Ying, Prof Ed Baugh, Clinton Hutton, Gavin Myers, Dr Jonathan Greenland, Ian Andrews, Deborah Hickling, Vivian Crawford, David Shields, Elaine Wint-Leslie, Dollis Campbell, Sancia Bennett-Templar and Dimario McDowell.

Dr Sonjah Niaah (centre), the brains behind bringing the conference to Jamaica, chats with Basil Smith, director of tourism and Sandra Gabriele, assistant professor at the University of Windsor, Canada. - Photos by Winston Sill/ Freelance Photographer