Bhuttu’s in Benzes

Diary, 15 November 1995

Men and women want to possess the products of modern systems of order and progress without wishing to pay homage to their subliminal values. Without, for instance, recognizing the medicinal value of work as the investment needed for the dividend of pleasure, without knowing what delight it is to swim in anonymity, and without the ability to see the car as a measure of (social) effort. In Jamaica at least, cars are evidence of the miraculous, not the product of effort. Nor are they the reward of effort. If they are, that part of it is disguised. They are juggernauts of modernity, hierophanies of the effortless. There are cars here which are completely covered in gold and an oil–like substance that reflects psychedelic colours. Underneath the cars there are green or blue disco lights that make the car appear to be floating like a UFO. I want a car like that. The Mercedes Benz is a liturgical instrument, a mobile altar with imaginary wings. Inside real men drive like angels.

The word Bhuttu means vulgar.