News

OMG! The Christopher 'Dudus' Coke extradition saga and the ensuing anarchy unleashed across parts of the island have done more than put people on edge; it has also got them tweeting, texting, facebook-ing and BlackBerry messaging like nobody's business.

"Oh no! What's happening in Jamaica? This place is looking more like Iraq than my island paradise!" wrote one confessed Facebook addict in Kingston, in a post made on Wednesday.

Helen Shirley, a 36-year-old business owner from St Andrew said she gets most of her updates on the situation in Kingston from Facebook and messages from friends on her BlackBerry.

"When I get up in the mornings there are already dozens of messages on my BlackBerry. That's how my friends and I keep in touch in this hard time. We send messages to each other to find out if each other is okay. Sometimes we get information about what's happening on Facebook and on BlackBerry before I even hear it on the news," she said.

A service called On the Ground News was recently launched on Facebook and already has more than 5,000 members. The aim of the service is for Facebook-ers across the island to share their thoughts on the extradition affair and for those close to the action to tell what they are witnessing.

And as the saga drags on, the word continues to spread across the Internet.

Christopher Coke, an accused Jamaican don who, it has been reported, hates the limelight, is now a bona fide Internet celebrity. A Google search for 'Christopher 'Dudus' Coke' on Wednesday produced 2,530,000 results, many from International media houses like The New York Times and the The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, a similar search for 'Bruce Golding' produced 274,000 results.