It’s July So It’s Hot: Wednesday, July 2, 2014

The drought tightens its grip, and World Cup fever is higher than ever in Kingston town. The weekend was sickly hot – and quiet, as we buried ourselves in football. Meanwhile…tons of news! Here we go…

Former Police Commissioner Owen Ellington resigned effective July 1, 2014. (Photo: Gleaner)

The Police Commissioner resigned/retired: Commissioner Ellington announced his resignation (or retirement after 34 years) with almost immediate effect. Deputy Commissioner Glenmore Hinds is now Acting Commissioner. Various theories have circulated as to the reason or reasons why. There are question marks. One former senior policeman believes that politics was behind the resignation. Ellington says he is retiring to allow investigations into the alleged “death squad” of policemen in Clarendon to proceed “without any perception of influence or interference on his part.” Meanwhile, one of the suspects in the investigation was arrested in Canada. The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) will not comment. We will hear more, in due course.

Mme. Lagarde paid us a visit: There was a flurry of excitement last week as Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrived in Jamaica. She left lots of statements and speeches in her wake. Here is the text of her speech (in which she quoted St Lucian poet Derek Walcott: “The future happens, no matter how much we scream”) at the University of the West Indies (UWI), The Caribbean and the IMF—Building a Partnership for the Future http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2014/062714.htm  Everyone did their best to read between the lines.

Jamaican broadcast journalist Dionne Jackson Miller (left) interviews IMF boss Christine Lagarde in Kingston last week.

Her television interview with RJR’s Dionne Jackson Miller was remarkably friendly and – yes, frank. “I’m not here on a publc relations blitz but to discuss substantive issues,” said the elegant IMF head, leaning forward in her chair with elbows on knees. Just an odd factoid: Reading her bio, I discovered that the IMF head is a former member of France’s national synchronized swimming team. In another life!

Money matters: No sooner was Mme. Lagarde out of the country than Jamaica sold $800 million of dollar bonds in its first overseas sale since 2011, according to Bloomberg News. The bonds are due in 2025 to yield 7.625 %.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr. Winston De La Haye.

Decriminalize it: Cabinet today approved the bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana (ganja). Not all members of the medical profession are happy about it. Consultant psychiatrist and Deputy Chair of the National Council on Drug Abuse – NCDA (a government agency) Dr. Winston De La Haye says,“Each night, on Ward 21 (University Hospital of the West Indies) we see four to five patients who need admission, primarily with cannabis-induced psychosis, and we can’t admit them because Bellevue (the country’s main specialist mental health hospital) is full, Ward 21 is full.” Once legislation is passed, Dr. De La Haye asserts the health system will be even more overburdened. The NCDA only supports marijuana use for religious or medical purposes or scientific research. A bit of a conflict here.

An example of one of the signs held up by church members at Sunday evening’s rally. If you can actually make sense of it.

And the churches were empty on Sunday as the fundamentalist “Christian Soldiers” (see my recent post) – a new group called CAUSE (Churches Action Uniting Society for Emancipation) was on the warpath. Waving Jamaican flags (yes, they are defending Jamaica against evil foreign powers!) they drove from the UWI campus and then packed Half Way Tree in Kingston in their thousands. Perhaps they all got free food and drink, as at political rallies. I am sure they were very happy with the day’s events, and the media duly turned up, so they got plenty of publicity for their anti-gay tirades. One thing we do know – this issue has certainly galvanized our fundamentalist friends, like no other.

An anti-gay church rally attended by thousands at Half Way Tree, Kingston this evening. (Photo: Twitter)

St. Thomas, a largely rural parish, has thankfully recorded a big drop in what they call major crimes; murder is 60 per cent down. However, they are concerned at the very high rate of sexual crimes. This is something the God Squad mentioned above are apparently not concerned with.

Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, is responsible for health issues in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). (Photo: Gleaner)

“Cool it”: The Jamaica Civil Society Coalition issued a statement urging everyone to just calm down, noting that we need to turn down the volume knob a touch. St Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister (a medical doctor) Denzil Douglas, who is responsible for health matters in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), has also responded in a calm and sensible way to the religious group’s calls for something to be done. He is quite knowledgeable on this topic, pointing to CARICOM’s focus on reducing stigma and discrimination, and noting same-sex marriage has never come up for discussion in the region.

A political twist? Is the anti-gay lobby trying to manipulate things with an eye on the next general election? I hear that Opposition Leader Andrew Holness was welcomed from the podium at Sunday’s meeting – he did not actually speak. Some speakers on Sunday were heard urging those gathered not to vote for the People’s National Party.

Child labor is alive and well in Jamaica – you only have to look at Kingston’s streets to know this. Labour Minister Derek Kellier says 16,240 children are involved, but that is a very conservative estimate. Our “God Squad” does not, of course, concern themselves with such matters. The “gay agenda” is far more pressing. However, I am delighted that Member of Parliament Raymond Pryce invited members of CAUSE to the launch of a new initiative on violence against women. What a smart move. Yes, there are other issues…heterosexual ones.

A Jamaican morgue attendant uses a gurney to wheel a body for an autopsy. The island has no modern national morgue. Photograph: David Mcfadden/AP

The state of our morgues: Yes, I know this is a grim topic, but the UK Guardian has printed a piece on this subject reported by Associated Press correspondent David McFadden. Why can’t we fix these never-ending problems? This is an old, old story in many ways; about as fresh as the decaying corpses. But as human rights activist Yvonne McCalla Sobers comments in the article, this is an issue that affects the poor and disenfranchised, so has been of no concern to successive governments. Read more here: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/28/jamaica-murder-rate-morgues

Sheer horror:  A few nights ago, CVM Television aired what appeared to be raw amateur video footage of a mob killing in a Kingston community. Women were there. Children were there. The man tried to get up, fell down, twice. As he lay prone they placed tires on him to set them alight, but there was a cry that the police were coming so everyone scattered. It was agonizing, and so shocking I couldn’t sleep that night. Human rights activist Susan Goffe commented online: “What lessons were taught to the children in that crowd, some of whom participated in the mob killing?” I wonder if anyone has been arrested; are the police now studying the video?

Young tech entrepreneur Gordon Swaby says the blocking of Viber and other VOIP services by Jamaican mobile providers is a backward step, and I agree. (Photo: jamaicans.com)

Blocking VOIP: Both our telecoms providers, Digicel and LIME, have blocked Viber, a VOIP service – and Digicel has blocked Skype – from their mobile networks. I agree with tech entrepreneur Gordon Swaby that this is a huge backward step that will actually stymie many tech startups, app developments and so on in Jamaica. LIME says it made the move “in order to maintain network quality for our customers.” No comment.

The drought: After an almost non-existent rainy season, and with El Niño threatening to reduce the number of storms this summer, government agencies are saying there will be no “significant” rainfall for the rest of the year in Jamaica. This is frightening, but this crisis has been creeping up on us all year. We need more focused media coverage and more information and advice from experts – scientists, not just government officials telling us the dam is 70% empty. And the government has been less than proactive on the water crisis we now face.

A map that our friends at the Jamaica Meteorological Service just tweeted – drought forecast for Jamaica for August. Kingston and eastern Jamaica is particularly dry.

“Big ups” to… 

• Jamaica Constabulary Force, who today tweeted a photo of a senior citizen who was apparently lost. I do wish they would make much more use of Twitter for this purpose – it would be such a good service. They could tweet pictures of fugitives, missing people and much more, and this would encourage citizen participation and support from the general public. I will always retweet, so I hope they will continue.

Tessanne Chin’s debut album, “Count On My Love.”

• Ms. Tessanne Chin, whose first album, “Count on My Love,” is doing really well on iTunes. Check it out!
• The Ministry of Education and its fairly National Parenting Support Commission, which had a public meeting to educate people on  not beating your children (sadly, pretty much a national pastime in Jamaica). It’s a start; there’s a long way to go.

A reading session in Granville, St. James. Go to http://www.gofundme.com/a80dy8 to donate for the Summer Arts Workshop in this under-privileged community.

• The Granville Reading and Art Programme in St. James needs support for its Summer Arts Workshop. Please look at their crowd-funding site and consider donating something (see photograph for the link).

• Two young men, Corve daCosta and Sean Bennett, who organized the brilliantly successful tweet up for Social Media Day on Monday. It was a terrific occasion! I plan to post a few photos tomorrow. The Jamaican “Twittersphere” is vibrant and includes a wide variety of Jamaicans from varying backgrounds and walks of life. It’s a great community. Thanks also to Minister of State Julian Robinson for coming to talk to us about the importance of social media and technology. Minister Robinson is by far the most adept user of Twitter in the Jamaican political sphere. He “gets” it.

• A lovely Jamaican children’s book, “Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune” by Diane Browne, is now available on Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/Cordelia-Finds-Fortune-Diane-Browne-ebook/dp/B00L04GCIO/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1404179943&sr=1-2&keywords=diane+browne I remember this from my early book selling days in Jamaica.  Do go and buy!

Olivia “Babsy” Grange, Jamaica Labour Party Member of Parliament and Opposition Spokesperson.

Get well soon: Opposition Spokesperson on Gender Affairs and veteran Member of Parliament Olivia “Babsy” Grange was hospitalized today. We are not exactly sure how serious her condition is but hope she will be back on her feet soon!

My condolences for all those left behind, at home and abroad, after the cruel and violent deaths of these Jamaicans. I do not even know the name of the poor man who was killed by a mob last week, so cannot record it here.

Keith Murray (Murrain?), 54, Duncan’s Pen/Spanish Town, St. Catherine

Courtney Manning, Caymanas Bay, St. Catherine

Ian Williams, 16, Gregory Park, St. Catherine

Wesley Hall, 46, Woodford, St. Andrew

Lincoln Jones, 25, Nutfield/Islington, St. Mary

Alverine Huell, 46, Mt. Oakley, Portland

Albert Thompson, 55, Kensington, Portland

Keith Murrain (as the UK Daily Mail spells his name) or Murray was murdered soon after arriving in Jamaica from the UK.