Days Away from Christmas: Sunday, December 22, 2013

 

I am trying to slow down for Christmas. Forced to, actually, by the lingering flu. I am happiest lying on the couch watching movies (I watched all the “Alien” movies in succession on Sundance Channel this week and concluded – as I already knew in my heart – that the first one was by far the best…)

But I am also happy writing my blog, and am taking the opportunity now to wish all my faithful readers the happiest of holidays, wherever in the world you are. I’ve so appreciated your comments, too. Please keep them coming!

Tessanne gets a warm welcome on arrival at Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport. (Photo: Bryan Cummings/Jamaica Observer)

So Tessanne Chin, our beautiful songbird, returned to Jamaica Friday evening on a private jet sponsored by telecoms firm Digicel. Now everyone wants a piece of Ms. Chin. Government officials were there to bask in her reflected glory (although politicians had nothing whatsoever to do with her success in winning “The Voice” talent competition, of course. But anyway). Tessanne will perform at an annual concert, “Shaggy and Friends,” in Kingston on January 4. Shaggy, who has all the right connections, was instrumental in getting Tessanne this amazing overseas exposure.

Thanks to Orville Richard Burrell (better known as Shaggy) for helping Tessanne Chin along the way…

Christmas shopping: It hasn’t been a great season for retailers this year apparently. But we always leave things to the last minute, so Christmas Eve will be the day of sales. Having worked in this field in Jamaica for several years, I recall the almost manic intensity of that last-minute rush! Some retailers are getting clever: MegaMart, for example – a warehouse-type store in Kingston and Montego Bay – is open “24/7” and is offering vouchers for people shopping between 2 and 6 a.m.! Actually, it makes sense. No crowds, only drunken party-goers and security guards to contend with…

Not broke, just…broke: Meanwhile Jamaica Chamber of Commerce President Francis Kennedy says Jamaicans are “not broke” this Christmas – just “ultra-conservative” in their spending. I wonder if some people know that it is actually possible to be broke. Very broke.

This contract business: An awkward issue has emerged, and Information Minister Sandrea Falconer had to put on her sternest voice as she went into damage control mode at a post-Cabinet press briefing Wednesday. But the Minister was, apparently, out of the loop on the matter of the awarding of J$733 million worth of housing contracts to Cenitech Engineering Solutions Limited. It transpired that the National Contracts Commission had already deregistered Cenitech because of various breaches – a fact that the Office of the Prime Minister says Cabinet was unaware of when it approved the awards on December 2, ratifying its decision on December 16. See the Jamaica Information Service website for its explanation. (Question: Is Cabinet a rubber-stamp operation?) This was a severe lapse in communication among government departments, at the very least. Note on Cenitech – from website: CEO George Knight was appointed in April 2013. Prior to this, he worked on major projects (including the Palisadoes and JDIP) as a senior engineer at the National Works Agency for many years.

Information Minister Senator Sandrea Falconer.

Out of business: A shrimp farm (Caribbean Aquaculture Limited) in Old Harbour, St Catherine, has closed its doors due to a combination of factors. These are praedial larceny (a fancy term for stealing, or “tiefing”) as well as high electricity costs; but primarily, a huge increase in duty on the importation of feed and shrimp larvae. What to do? Is there any way one could use local feed and larvae? I don’t know enough about the shrimp business to have all the answers. All I know is that 88 more Jamaicans are out of work for Christmas…

Richard Hart at his home in London. Professor Rupert Lewis called him “the most consistent Caribbean activist.” He received a Gold Musgrave Medal in 2005.

PNP founder dead, age 96: Richard Hart was a founding member of the People’s National Party (PNP) in 1938. He has an interesting political biography. Mr. Hart was one of the “four H’s” who were expelled from the party in 1954 due to their alleged communist leanings (the other “H’s” were Ken Hill, Frank Hill and Arthur Henry). He was re-admitted in 2001. He lived in Guyana and Grenada for a while, and then in London for many years, practicing law. In fact, he left the Caribbean thirty years ago, departing after the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983. His name may not be familiar to many Jamaicans, especially younger generations.

Website recommendation of the week: Do you know theroot.com ? There’s an interesting article for us on the Jamaican side, by U.S. academic Henry Louis Gates. Look it up: “Did my Jamaican kin descend from British loyalists in America?”

And on the sports scene there has been another West Indies batting collapse, Asafa Powell‘s drug hearing comes up next month…and my team Arsenal Football Club has been nudged off the top spot in the English Premier League (after many weeks) by the rampaging Luis Suarez (and the rest of his team, Liverpool Football Club). Hopefully it’s only temporary. We face Chelsea tomorrow… Nervy times.

Me and Thierry Henry at the Emirates Stadium in north London last year… Diehard Gooner! (My photo)

National Security Minister Peter Bunting. (Photo: Gleaner)

Arrested: The police have stepped up their operations against alleged lotto scammers, arresting sixteen of them in several raids in St. James, Westmoreland and Trelawny this week. Let’s hope they can charge some of them, and that the charges will “stick.” And talking of crime, Minister Bunting has noted that his Ministry of National Security will concentrate on crime prevention next year. I am all for that. Community policing – yes, the way to go. And the Citizens Security & Justice program – keep that going. More drama this week… The Financial Investigations Division (led by former Jamaica Constabulary Force anti-corruption head Justin Felice) arrested an attorney, Dawn Satterswaite and two other women this week; they appeared in court on money laundering charges in connection with a convicted Jamaican drug kingpin named Andrew Hamilton.  Gunfire erupted in Rockfort, East Kingston, and in Windsor Heights, St. Catherine this week.

Nice car…This Mercedes-Benz motor car was seized by the police at the Central Sorting Office in Kingston Friday in connection with the money laundering investigation. (Photo: Norman Grindley/Gleaner)

This is what passes for Jonkunnu these days. (Photo: Paul Henry/Jamaica Observer)

Christmas note: This photograph supposedly depicting Jonkonnu characters “Pitchy Patchy and Belly Woman” in Kingston this week has so much wrong with it. Jonkunnu is a band of masqueraders that perform in Jamaica around this time of year. It’s a fascinating tradition, which has sadly declined in recent years. The one on the right is not Pitchy Patchy (who is multi-colored with strips of cloth), but an attempt at Jack-in-the-Green. And Halloween masks for faces? N.O.!!

And in The Economist… An article by our Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. It’s a pleasant little PR piece, telling the world that “Jamaica faces 2014 with confidence.” The article is called “Sunrise over the Caribbean.” All kinds of stuff is rolled into it, including climate change, HIV/AIDS, the IMF, and of course how we can translate our sports and culture into economic benefit. There is the usual complaint about Jamaica being classified as a middle-income country, so we can’t get so much money (we would rather be called poor). But among all the “hurdles” and “challenges” there is no mention of the Elephant. You know, the one in the Room. Crime/insecurity.

Christmas bouquets to the following:

Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison (left) presents gifts and other well needed supplies to Director of New Hope Children’s Home Amanda Williams at the home in New Green, Manchester on Tuesday. The Office of The Children’s Advocate also hosted a treat for the 30 wards of the State.

Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison, who donated supplies and hosted a Christmas treat for the children in state care at New Hope Children’s Home in New Green, Manchester, recently. Let’s do all we can for our children!

MegaMart (yes, the 24-hour supermarket mentioned above) for employing graduates from the Stella Maris Foundation’s skills training program – situated in inner-city Grants Pen. Thanks for giving them the opportunity.

Shauna Fuller for her efforts to raise awareness of the terribly debilitating women’s disease, endometriosis. I knew very little about it (I have to confess) before I attended a tea party at King’s House recently for Shauna’s BASE Foundation. Much more to follow on this…

All those who took the DELF and DALF examinations in French this year, whether they passed or not. I passed the DELF B-2 level (pause to pat myself on the back) but I was puzzled by the fact that so few successful candidates actually turned up to collect their certificates and have their photo taken with the French Ambassador at the Alliance Française de la Jamaïque, this week. This is a valuable qualification from the French Government. It was mostly the young ones who did not show up. I guess they had something better to do?

Recipients of the DELF and DALF Certificates at various levels in the French language at the Alliance Francaise de la Jamaique this week. (My photo)

The marvelous KC Chapel Choir.

Do go see and hear… The Kingston College Chapel Choir, who will be giving concerts with mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis at the University Chapel, Mona, at 5 p.m on Sunday; at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Molynes Road, on Sunday, December 29, at 5 p.m.; and at St John’s Anglican Church Hall, Milford Road, Ocho Rios, on Sunday, January 12, 2014, at 4 p.m. They are really a beautiful choir.

Fourteen of the nineteen police divisions have reported increases in homicide rates this year. The total stands at 1,130 to date, compared to 1,063 in the corresponding period last year (RJR reports). There have been especially large increases in St. James (from 145 to 163) and Westmoreland (from 66 to 87). These are painful numbers. And we must not forget all those who are mentally and physically affected by violent crime – the victims, and their families and loved ones – who are left behind and are suffering. My condolences to all… 

District Constable Paul Whyte, August Town, St. Andrew

Christiana Golding, Bond Street/Denham Town, Kingston

Unidentified man, Dumfries, St. James

Killed by the police:

“Paul,” August Town, St. Andrew

“Heavy Hand,” August Town, St. Andrew