It’s that peculiar time of year in between the Emancipation and Independence holidays when I get the sense that no one really feels like working. It is quiet, the rains have gone away as quickly as they arrived, and the concept of garbage collection has, once again, completely disappeared. Two truck sightings passing up, then down the street, but neither deigned to stop at our gate. Over two weeks’ worth of garbage is piling up – and smelling stronger every day.
Joining forces: Minister of National Security Peter Bunting made a major announcement today. He is beefing up the Government’s fight against organized crime and corruption in the public sector by merging two entities: the police Anti Corruption Branch and the Major Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Task Force. The new entity is the Major Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA). Confused? Yes, it is a little muddling. The new agency will gather information from a number of government agencies, and will report directly to the National Security Council. It will also expand its focus to include “facilitators of crime” – lawyers, bankers, family members and the like. Local media are calling it a kind of Jamaican FBI. Jamaica Defence Force Colonel Desmond Edwards will be the interim head. This is part of a long-term plan, the Minister says. Glad he is thinking long-term. So let’s see how it goes.
MOCA has a new website: http://www.mocajamaica.org and is on Twitter @MOCAJamaica by the way.
Back to school troubles: There is a reported shortage of Measles/Mumps/Rubella vaccine on island, ahead of the new school year; at least one pediatrician has a waiting list. Children cannot attend school without an up to date vaccination record. Parents will also feel the pinch as the price of school books will rise by about 26% this year. Admittedly, they will not have to buy so many, as the Education Ministry has rationalized schools’ ridiculous, extensive book lists. Most school books are imported – and mostly from the UK – and the Jamaican Dollar is still declining so the price increase is hardly surprising. I hope parents will buy second-hand or organize book exchanges with others.
Can we expect the Health Ministry to give the Jamaican public any more information on Ebola? Apart from the information the media has managed to extract from it, of course. We are glad to hear Ministry officials are “monitoring the WHO website” though. So are we. But…the WHO has been reporting that Ebola is out of control? Let us not spread panic, even if the WHO sounds deeply alarmed. Meanwhile in Haiti, authorities are using text messages and Whatsapp to send information regarding the disease to the public. Oh! That’s a good idea!
Still burning… There was a major bush fire on Jamaica’s north coast yesterday that raged for hours. The wetlands at Pear Tree Bottom were on fire (or what’s left of them, after the major Spanish hotel construction destroyed most of that once-beautiful area). I understand, too, that the Negril Morass (another wetland area) is also burning. And after gorgeous showers for two consecutive days in Kingston, the weather has gone back into no-rain mode. Tropical Storm Bertha ignored us, preferring a trip to the Bahamas and beyond. The drought continues, and the air quality in Kingston continues to decline (dust, smoke, pollution).
The Denbigh ritual: The parish of Clarendon has suffered the most (and continues to suffer) from the drought, and photos of the annual agricultural show show a pretty barren ground, dominated by one particular sponsor’s booths. It has changed a great deal since the days when we used to go with our young son – he was always so afraid of the bulls. The usual speeches by government officials wearing the usual awful hats (thank goodness the Governor General wasn’t wearing one) took place in front of the usual inattentive crowds. The Jamaica Agricultural Society is partnering with the Fire Brigade and others on a campaign to stop the pervasive practice of “slash and burn” – which has made all our bush fires much worse. And the government is telling farmers to plant drought-resistant crops.B
All this scrambling around campaigning and trying to find quick solutions to environmental issues that have plagued us for decades is laughable. To me, it’s a case of too little, too late. The same applies to the panic over water supplies. Message to Government: The writing was on the wall, years ago. We didn’t care. Now forests are burning.
“No food shortage”: Acting Agriculture Minister Derek Kellier is having a bit of a warm time. His recent declaration that there was no food shortage because of the drought has been roundly rejected. When a radio station interviewed farmers in various parts of the country, they all said production was down; some were standing in empty fields. The price of produce is soaring, so people are buying less and eating less of it. Food shortage? No way. We are already starting to import more food (even tamarinds, and coconut milk!) The economy will be affected in short order. Denial doesn’t help us.
And what’s with the power cuts, JPS? Are these drought-related too? Could we all get a little more proactive, please?
Environmental scientist Dr. Barry Wade is the new chair of Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), with a reconstituted board. The vibes seem positive. Time to move on with all the important human rights work out there. I wish the new board well and believe JFJ deserve the support. We need them!
Words are important: Journalists use words. They are the tools of the trade, aren’t they? Pardon me, then, if I object to a tweet from an experienced journalist that a “mad man” had disarmed a policeman in Half Way Tree and shot and injured some passers by. A shocking episode, indeed – but still not a reason to choose inappropriate language to describe the incident. But then, this seems to be a growing tendency. One journalist was talking about a “cripple” too, recently. And of course for the Jamaica Observer, the term “homo” has become second nature, especially in headlines.
Arrogant fans: Jamaican athletics fans have in the past been irritated and upset by the boasting of American athletics fans regarding the prowess of their sprinters. Jamaicans take their athletics seriously – track and field that is, but mostly track. Now that Jamaican athletes are dominating most major meets, some Jamaican fans are behaving exactly the same way the Americans did.
After the relay finals at the Commonwealth Games (and Usain Bolt won the 4 x 100 meters single-handedly) some Jamaicans were scoffing at the efforts of the other competitors online. “The English didn’t really expect to win, did they?” they sneered. How disappointing. Anyway, congratulations to all the competitors. And to Jamaica’s “Sunshine Girls” (the netball team) who won a bronze, right at the end of the games.
My sad condolences to the loved ones of these Jamaicans, whose lives were taken from them brutally over the past few days:
Patrick Roberts, Cross Roads, Kingston
Ram Nagrani, Stony Hill, St. Andrew
Natasha Valentine, Brooks Level Road/Golden Spring, St. Andrew
Unidentified man, Woodside, Clarendon
Franklyn Brown, 67, Chapelton, Clarendon
Colin Lynch, 51, West End/Negril, Westmoreland
Wenzel Heron, 53, West End/Negril, Westmoreland
Horace Brissett, 35, Westmoreland
Saskaya Brissett, 20, Lilliput, St. James
Petchary's Blog 
Well, thanks for taking my morning sentiment. Now, I need another tack 🙂
No FBI. As Dionne JM pointed out, we are not a set of federal states needing an over-arching body to bring jurisdictions together… It’s a bit more than a bit confusing. It seems like a task force, but Mr Bunting doesn’t like that term. Snyway, he says we don’t need to worry that all is being done under proper stature. WARNING! Hold on to your wallet!
Jamaicans are not big on politically correct terms and say like they’ve seen it for decades, so good luck trying to stop use of ‘madman’. As for the other terms, be gals that the street terms don’t get onto the pages.
As for fans’ arrogance, I think I’d give an ease. We are little and have had to put up with nuff dissing from the US and the UK can’t be given a break after years of colonization 🙂
Great read.
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Thanks a million, Dennis. Sorry I took your morning sentiment!! Well, of course the FBI analogy is not accurate as we don’t have the same system, but I think the media was trying to say that it will be something over-arching. I think he will have to make legislative changes though to back it up. We shall see, and thanks for the warning! Re: the sports fans – OK, maybe I was a little harsh. But does that mean as we are smaller than UK and US we have to puff out our chests even more? And what if our competitors were a small country like Barbados, for example? I am sure the fans would have scoffed at them in exactly the same way… Ah well. Thanks for the comments!
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On the fans, I think what was happening, judging from Twitter, was reaction to English commentators, who naturally pump their teams’ chances, and don’t take account of fact that feed may be worldwide. We could get by that with the visual feed and our own commentaries.
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Yes, I know that always happens. We do the same thing. We used to get a “Caribbean feed” with commentators from what used to be CANA or whatever on TV for sporting events. Don’t know what happened to that…
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