Anthony Bourdain
Bourdain soaks in the mystique of Bond, James Bond, in Jamaica
Anthony Bourdain, CNN • Updated 25th March 2015
Up next
(CNN) — How quickly it's all over. And yet, already, begun again. This Sunday's "Parts Unknown" marks the end of yet another season and we tried for a soft landing in Jamaica.
I'd like to thank veteran field producer, Josh Ferrell (hopefully you follow his exploits on Twitter @TheMagicalGiant), for heroically volunteering the use of his mighty buttocks for our carefully crafted Bond-inspired cold open. I sent him and the crew to Margaritaville with every intention of depicting the place as a blight on paradise, but the boys apparently had a wonderful time.
British spy Ian Fleming fell in love with Jamaica, built a cottage and wrote one James Bond novel a year from the island
I stayed behind that day, lounging about Goldeneye, Ian Fleming's former sanctum sanctorum, where he wrote all the Bond novels, getting familiar with the feeling of owning a grotto and drinking many excellent rum punches.
Thanks also to Chris Blackwell, owner of Goldeneye, creator of Island Records, legendary mentor to Bob Marley. Superb host. Raconteur. Man with a plan and a vision.
The show concerns itself, among other things, with who "owns" paradise.
Increasingly, everywhere -- whether New York City, Venice, the Jersey Shore or Jamaica -- people who grow up adjacent to water, to idyllic views, lovely beaches, traditional architecture, can no longer afford to live there. Their homes, their neighborhoods are, in the modern economy, the harsh reality of present day, "undervalued."
Anderson Cooper speaks with Anthony Bourdain about his trip to Jamaica for the latest episode of Parts Unknown.
Traditional ways of life, like fishing, seem quaint anachronisms when the simple fact is that you can make a lot more money carrying a golf bag for a tourist, or making blender drinks at Margaritaville.
Is that a bad thing? So many places I look -- even in America, we see a transition to a service economy. Like the Jamaican fishermen we talked to, moving away from the things we once did. We are increasingly a nation in the business (in someone else's words) of "selling each other cheeseburgers."
Are there any bad guys in this equation? I don't know.
Jamaica has a harsh past and an uncomfortable present. In spite of its spectacular and captivating beauty, it is a place that's easy to romanticize. But one shouldn't, I think, do that.
Like a lot of our shows, we come to no neat conclusions. Only more questions -- which is, I suppose, conclusion enough.
We are already well underway shooting another season. Hope you liked this one. Thanks for watching.
