So, I decided to wait a little bit before posting because I was hoping more information would have come about by the time I wrote this, but unfortunately there hasn't been much. However to get straight to the point, this past weekend has been marked with the resignation of both the Commissioner of Police (Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin) and the Governor of Jamaica's Central Bank (Derick Latibeaudare), and some of the people in the finance ministry as well. Now you may be confused and ask me, why I would label my post as mass resignations when only 2 people have resigned, but you would then ignore the scale of both jobs.

The Commissioner of Police is THE head of the police force. There is nobody above him except the Member of Parliament in charge of national security and the prime minister and governor general. He's the go to guy, the real mckoy, etc., and he just up and quit. The next question which would of course be important is "why?", and then this would normally be answered by "in a statement from the former commissioner .....", but guess what, none of the above happened.

We can all speculate that the government and the commissioner were at ends with each other and he decided to say "screw it, I'm going home", but we have no proof of this. This is a statement without any facts to back it up. However I do have one interesting tidbit of information, in a clip today on a local radio station a statement was made by a government minister saying that they were and have always been dissatisfied with Lewin's performance. Wait what? Why was this never communicated to the public before now then? Is this some feeble attempt to slander Lewin's name to save face by the government? Poor show guys. The other thing is, I dont think its a matter of Lewin becoming frustrated by the crime problem or anything like that, mainly because... well he's a soldier. Have you ever dealt with a soldier before? Literally THE most stubborn people on the planet, and you are telling me the head of the army (I would assume the king of stubborn... of course among his other qualities), just quit because he's frustrated...? Sounds fishy.

The other issue at hand is the governor of the bank of Jamaica. Yet again this is the head honcho here, if he decides that he wants all the money in Jamaica wired to his private bank account, he could probably do it. Yet... he quit. Wait what? Yet again no explanation. All critical thinking people out there would therefore ask what the heck is happening out here?! Have we all gone crazy or something? He has been the governor for quite some time now, through thick and thin, 2 gas crises', the creation of finsac, and the devaluation of the dollar from roughly 30 to a US dollar to now 90... and he quits in the middle of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, the same body that royally screwed Jamaica in the 80's and 90's and somehow we are still trying to negotiate with them... but that's for another post I wont go too far into that.

So now we have the country going into a period that can only be described as "getting screwed part 2: finishing the job", and the people on top seem to be making their way out. Oh just to add, thanks to the governor leaving, the country's financial rating according to standard and poor has also fell to a CCC, to understand this better, just imagine a credit rating of 120 and how much you can do with it. I try to be very objective in my views... but maybe just maybe we should just ask the people in power to follow the example of Latibeaudare and Lewin and get the hell out of government...

Just something to think about...

So, dancehall artist Vybz Kartel might have a pierced tongue, so what? It’s his tongue and if it pleases him and his woman, why shouldn’t he. I think what we should be really critical about is the lyrical content of his music. Personally, I shudder at the thought of getting any part of my body pierced but then again that’s just my preference.

Too often we get caught up in others opinions and believes, when in reality it really does not matter. We are influenced by our elders and piers into believing that something may be good or bad or that certain actions have meanings which may not be so. For instance I was told that if you had a tattoo then automatically you were ‘bad’. I also remember when men first started wearing earrings; I was told that homosexuals wore them to signal to other homosexuals. Whether that was so at the time or not, the fact is that now it’s just a fashion statement. Another example is the anklet. I remember being told that only prostitutes wore them. If that was true now, then most of my friends are prostitutes. I don’t think so.

The sad thing is that many of these perceptions stay with us. To date the biggest turn off for me is a man wearing earrings and I still will not wear an anklet even though I known they are simply fashion statements. I try not to judge people when I see them with a tattoo however somewhere at the back of my mind the thought is there that this is someone I need to be careful of.

Vybz Kartel and his probable pierced tongue is another of these things which is really no bodies business but his own. My greatest concern is that he is very influential on our young people. Body piercing can be very dangerous if not done in an hygienic environment with sterile equipment and by a professional.

I will admit that I’m not a member of the ‘in crowd’. I do believe however that it’s important for us to try not to allow preconceived notions cause us to judge one another negatively or cause negative behaviour. We all must be informed and make informed decisions.

Nuff Love

More controversy in the dancehall as it seems that the artist known as Vybz Kartel has pierced his tongue... or so the rumours say. Personally I dont know, I've seen the video and I dont know... it looks fairly sticky on the teacher's side as I'm pretty sure I see something that looks like a tongue piercing in his mouth. But I really dont think he could be that stupid.

For all who dont know, Vybz Kartel is a top artist in dancehall currently and he is well known for his sexually provocative and also his aggressive badman lyrics as well. Now another thing I should add for people who dont know as well, is that once you portray yourself as a badman, there are certain things you just dont do. And if you are brave enough to actually do it, you make sure nobody else knows you did it because that can tear apart credibility and in Jamaica and as a Dancehall artist, credibility is key!

With that in mind lets go back on the issue at hand, would Kartel really pierce his tongue? I have to wonder, you see dancehall artists are not exactly known for their intelligence, and while there is nothing wrong with piercing one's tongue (after all its your mouth and your choice). one has to look at the connotations attached to piercing the tongue. The first of such connotation is that anybody who pierces their tongue openly practices oral sex. This is not just a Jamaican thing, this is a world wide thought.

BUT, oral sex is something that a badman just doesn't do. That's a career ending activity right there(just a few levels above being a homosexual), in fact the mere act of insinuating that somebody participates in oral sex is enough to get somebody ridiculed publicly. So knowing this, Vybz Kartel being in the position he is in, cannot afford to be associated with "bow-cats" (nickname for people who participate in oral sex).

Simple deduction states that anybody with half a brain wouldn't do such a thing as pierce their tongue knowing this... But the video says something else.

I have to sigh as I write this post as it instantly forces me to categorize alot of Jamaicans as stupid. I really dont want to, I love Jamaica, and by extension I love Jamaicans. But every now and again some Jamaican abroad does something that forces you to bury your face in your palms, or slap your forehead and release a homer-esque "doh". Today we have Marlon King.

Marlon King is a Jamaican footballer who plays striker who was signed with premier league team Wigan Athletic and had a contract worth US$58,000 a week. The man is clearly making enough money to be satisfied in life and if he continued to play with the form he has been would probably even be in standing to make even more money. But no, King is not satisfied to play football and be rich, instead he wants to spend a year and a half in prison. Of course it must be something he wanted to do. Why else would someone jeopardize their career just to grope a couple of girls. If you are that sexually dissatisfied, go buy a prostitute, or better yet flash your money around and try to attract some goal diggers, these women exist everywhere you know (I dont mean in anyway to demean women).

Sorry I started to rant, so lets look at the event. Apparently just hours after celebrating his wife's pregnancy and scoring a goal in a match, King went to a bar where he was shunned by two women for whatever reason. He then proceeded to try to grope these women and an altercation followed where King broke one of the women's nose.

Now if this isn't stupidity in its prime state I dont know what is. Why oh why would you not only sexually assault these women but actually punch one of them in the face? I dont even know what to say, I'm just angry and disappointed at King's behaviour and I hope that he learns a valuable life lesson in the process. It seems history is bound torepeat itself as King as already been to prison numerous times.

But maybe... No I HOPE King's defense is correct, that he really wasn't in the bar that night and it was a mistaken identity. That way he wouldn't be as stupid as I'm making it out to be and I would apologize without question. But as far as the court says, he's guilty and he should definitely pay for it.

The homosexual situation in Jamaica is definitely more and more widespread and definitely alarming (if you are as intensely homophobic as alot of Jamaicans are). Recently there was a reported drag queen situation in May Pen where a man was using the services of what he thought was a female prostitute, only to find out luckily before he went to far that the "woman" was actually a man. He was quite angered and a fight ensued but luckily the police was closeby and able to prevent any loss of life. This situation has proven to be quite hilarious to many jamaicans while some have found it alarming and angering.

The JFLAG group (a local gay rights group) has argued that the treatment of the "lady" by the police was inhuman and should've been better. However this argument has been shot down quite quickly as there have been no complaints by the "lady". But this says to me that JFLAG is getting desperate in its fight for gay rights in Jamaica and to me has proven disrespectful to the Jamaican police force and they are who should in fact be shunned. This however points to another argument where the gay rights groups are being more discriminatory than the people who are discriminating against them.... but thats a whole other kettle of fish.

The people who are also angered by this are the ones who are angry at the growing number of and the growing outwardness of gays in Jamaica. People say that it has gotten to the situation where gays are now able to even solicit sex in public dressing up as women... Before I continue btw, I just needed to add in this note that jamaicans really only have a problem with male homosexuals as lesbians are quite prevalent and are not facing as much fire as the males are... This situation has gotten many people scared and are making people increasingly uncomfortable in public.

Personally my say is this... I dont believe that homosexuality is right, sorry, I just dont see how 2 men or 2 women being together is natural or makes any sense (im not even going to get into the biblical argument). However, I dont have a problem with people being gay IN PRIVATE! If two men want to enjoy each other's company, go forth but do it privately. I dont believe that children should be influenced by a situation where 2 men are publicly showing affection. I also believe that this should also be applied to this drag queen situation as well. The "lady" should have told the man from the beginning that he/she wasn't in fact a lady and this would've solved all problems. If a man wants to have sex with another man though, keep it in your yard. I dont mind the nighttime activities because children really shouldn't be out at night in the first place. So to me all this talking and activity - much ado about nothing.

In November 2008 the Jamaican Government entered into a deal with American Airlines (AA) that still has most Jamaicans totally baffled. The deal was for Jamaica to guarantee AA funds if the revenue derived from their flights between Jamaica and Miami, Chicago and Dallas fell below a specific target. In exchange Jamaica would be guaranteed capacity from those destinations to Jamaica. According to the Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, although they were entering into the deal the chances that they would have to actually pay was very unlikely.

Now this kind of arrangements is not new. Many countries make these deals with airlines however it is done to get tourist from places where they believe there is a market and where the tourist has no alternate air lift. If AA thought that they would do well, why would they have needed a deal to continue operation on those routes? Did no one in the Tourism Ministry think of this?

Air Jamaica is the National Airline of Jamaica. At the time of the deal they operated several flights daily to Miami as well as Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They also operated several flights a weeks to Chicago. The question then is, why didn’t the Jamaican Government secure its National Airline on the routes that they already operated rather than pay a competitor.

Now AA has said that there was a decline in bookings and the airline recorded a shortfall of US$1.5 million up to July 31 this year. Than being the case the Jamaican Government could be called on to pay more than J$133 million to American Airlines as part of the revenue-guarantee airlift agreement. Those figures by the way represent traffic over the summer period when air travel is usually at its peak. Historical data tells us that September to November is always much slower. Despite all this the Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, is still maintaining that Jamaica may not have to pay out any money.

‘Duh……’ Do the math people. If I know that I will be paid for my product/service one way or the other all I have to do is drop the price. It doesn’t matter if I collect from the buyer or a guarantor. Hopefully after the guaranteed period I would have built a loyalty base and can raise my price after. Never mind about the competitor, if they have to drop their price to compete with me, so be it.

One has to wonder what the Tourism Minister is really doing. Where does he get his facts and who if any one is advising him? He keeps painting this fabulous picture re tourism in Jamaica while the industry is truly hurting. Sure some hotels might have a decent occupancy levels, but at what price. All our properties are on sale 30 percent and up. They are even offering locals some great deals just to keep their doors open. The thing is the cost of accommodation has not gone down. In fact it might have escalated.

Not to mention the fate of our National Airlines. No one seems to know and if they do, no one is talking. Word is that the current Business Plan by the present CEO, Mr. Bruce Nobles is showing positive signs. It is too late? The pilots seem to think not. Anyway that’s another story.

So anybody who still lives in Jamaica and reads the gleaner, watches and listens the news and/or walks on the road will have seen or heard that nearly everywhere you look you will see two or 3 policemen walking on the road. This is definitely a welcome change as in my opinion the increase police presence will serve a number of factors one of which was not included in the press releases by any of the media houses.

All of the news has been pointing to the fact that the Police will be used to Detect and Deter crime. Of course we see this definitely, petty theft will definitely be on the downward slope because a policeman will almost always be nearby and thus will be able to jump to action... But what I believe everybody is forgetting is the fact that... Jamaicans generally are not that happy with the police force anymore. It just doesn't happen, everytime that most Jamaicans see a policeman, the first comment made is almost 95% of the time negative. If the police is driving through traffic with a siren they always "have nothing to do", a police man walking downtown is always "looking for a bar" or "looking for somebody to trouble"... This is really what alot of Jamaicans feel.

What I think the increased police presence will do is make more people feel comfortable around policemen and maybe even appreciate the work that they do more. This is important because as we all know community policing is really important to the force. Because finally we might just be able to get out of the entire "informer" mindset that we have... but this is of course another might and not a definite yes or no.

But while I do appreciate the work of the policemen I do have to revert to the reason why I put "useful" in my topic name... How useful will this police presence really be? There have been findings already in Montego Bay where numerous firearms and knives were found but to me in accordance with the massive crime problem that we suffer this is just minor assistance. But as the saying goes, "every mikkle mek a mukkle" (spelling , how would you spell that anyway?), or maybe I should use the ever present "one one cocoa full basket", that could possibly be more relevant. But the fact of the matter is, this is a good first step to take... The only issue is how do we get rid of the corruption of the police force, because as people get more comfortable with the police, the police get more comfortable with people... and the cycle continues...

On the topic of informers, I would guest that if someone saw a rather large man beating a woman at a bus-stop out of the three options put forward a) Ignore it and act as if nothing happened b) call the relevant authorities to the situation, trying to get as much evidence (photos etc) of the crime or c) try to stop the act, c, tying to stop the act may be the option against the law.
I must say I fully agree that an informer is certainly not a bad thing; however the reality is that people are afraid. The phrase ‘informer fi ded’ is not one to be taken lightly. Too often we have heard and seen where persons are killed because they are willing to talk. There are also no guaranties of protection from the law.
So, would I act, the truth is until you are faced with the situation you really don’t know. I remember being held up at gun point. When the gun man tried to grab me, I took off like Bolt, jumped over a six foot fence and got away. Normally, there is no way I could jump a six foot fence.
As a nation we definitely are in a dilemma. ‘Dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t.’ I really do hope however that we can all find the will to do the correct thing before it’s too late.

As I sit in my criminal law class I was presented with a situation which forced me to think hard on the Jamaican Psyche. Specifically the saying that we all know called which goes by the phrase - Hear and Deaf, See and Blind. For the unitiated out there, this saying simply means that. Things which you hear you should simply pretend you are deaf even though you clearly heard it, and things which you see, just pretend you are blind and you didn't see it.

This is something which carries across the Jamaican landscape quite regularly because as has been reported for years now, people who witness crimes rarely if ever report it. This is quite simply because of a fear of being called an informer or being sought out by the criminal offender and being harmed. While I can understand the fear of being harmed by a criminal offender, especially with the seemed failure of the Jamaican witness protection program (if any such thing exists). I cannot understand the fear of being called an informer.

An informer is certainly not a bad thing, this person has information, and informs the relevant authorities of the information. I dont see how this can be regarded as bad, maybe as a child if you tell your mother that your sibling stole some candy despite the fact that this affected nobody at all, then being called a taddle-tale (for the foreign readers) can be seen as bad. However if you see a man assault another man on the street with a stone or a knife, then maybe it makes sense to call the police and let them know that hey, this guy did a bad thing.

But what I cannot understand is where this culture came from, I doubt it would be something historical, though I can see how it can be linked to slavery I dont see why it would be something that is so perpetrated in our modern society. Jamaica being the society that we are, should be praising people who inform on criminals instead of berating them and giving them titles.

I put forward the following question to you however reader: If you see a rather large man beating a woman at a bus-stop do you a) Ignore it and act as if nothing happened b) call the relevant authorities to the situation, trying to get as much evidence (photos etc) of the crime or c) try to stop the act

As I just learned by the way... one of those may be against the law, guess which one

While we are on the topic of gambling in Jamaica, I could not resist elaborating on the game of chance, Cashpot. Cashpot is a form of lotto where only one number is drawn. It is played three times a day, Monday to Saturday and has literally taken over Jamaica. Those of you who live here, known exactly what I mean. A lot of our people, especially the working class, eat, sleep and dream Cashpot. It’s the first thing they think about in the mornings and the last at nights.

First of all there are rakes. Everything that happens to you or those around you is a rake. For instance you are driving to work and several dogs run in front of your car, that’s a rake, you ‘haffi’ buy number 11 for dog. Or you walking on the street and a man call to you, that is another rake. In that instance the number depends on whether the man was a black man, a white man, a Chinese man or a police man. They each have a different number. As I said before, it doesn’t have to happen to you. If a family member or a friend should buck their toe or knock their heads, that’s also a rake. In the instance of the foot, make sure to find out if it was the left or right foot, as they represent two different numbers.

The next sure things are dreams. There is a number attached to almost anything and everything. You have to be careful how you talk about your dreams as any Cashpot enthusiasts within earshot is sure to run out and buy the associated number. What puzzles me is the reasoning process in deciphering dreams. How I see it, there are numerous numbers that could be derived from any one dream. For instance a dream in which you go shopping. The number could be the item(s) bought, or where they were purchased, or what you were wearing. So which number do you buy?

‘Follow on’ is the next sure thing. This one is hard to explain but I will try. Basically it depends on the last number drawn. Example if the number was 23 representing black man, the next number could be 16, young girl. Why? Because black man love young girl. Never mind that each number represents several things. It never fails to amuse me to hear, “A shouda did know sey a that di a come”.

The final qualifier for Cashpot numbers is that the number could ‘whappi back”. That one is easy; it means that the last number is repeated. Although some might find all this very amusing the truth is that it’s gospel to many others. Some keep records of Cashpot numbers and religiously purchase daily. Some will go as far as to tell you that many days Cashpot “gi dem a food”. So, is it right or wrong, it’s not for me to judge. The fact is that many have come to depend on it.

Nuff Love