I'm coming to Kingston, Jamaica, to take a look at what one of the finalists is doing, and to do research for an article I am writing for one of the competition supplements. The finalist is travelling with Valentina from Panos London (www.panos.org.uk) and they have already been here for five days so I have a lot to catch up on.
Panos promotes the participation of poor and marginalised people in international development debates through media and communication projects. I am going to take a look at the work of Panos Caribbean, and talk to a few journalists who work with them.
Evening rush hour is just starting, as the photographer Caroll and I meet up in Kingston. It's hurricane season, but although my flight from London was smooth, Caroll, who's just arrived from New York, wasn't so lucky. She reports plenty of passengers calling loudly for the help of Jesus as the plane bumped its way through the airpockets of east-coast USA.
It's hot and humid here, with heavy grey skies that threaten rain, and the traffic crawls towards the city. It's poor here – much poorer than I anticipated – and the one-storey buildings that line the road in this downtown area are heavily reliant on rusty corrugated iron. Some, in ruins, have no roofs, and greenery is growing up the walls. People's clothes are very raggedy and some are standing around despondently.
Uptown, where our hotel is, could not be more different. There are skyscraping office buildings, houses behind metal fences, and hotels with barriers and guards. Kingston is a very urban, vibrant city, chock a block with traffic and shopping malls. But Kingston roads are, apparently, places you aren't supposed to walk around. Everyone – from Jamaicans in the UK to people at Panos to various guidebooks – tells us to beware.
I'll find out more tomorrow.
Sue George is an editor at Guardian Creative
