Mid-week and mid-month, there is much to ponder. The news so far has raised many puzzling questions to which we must be able to find answers.
Co-Chair of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) Richard Byles is wondering why there isn’t more investment in Jamaica. Why, we have been passing all our IMF tests like good boys and girls! We have proven ourselves, haven’t we? Dear Mr. Byles, I can think of at least two words starting with the letter “c” that might account for this. The first one, corruption, seems to be a word that both public and private sector officials shy away from. When did you last here anyone say it out loud? There is also crime (always a deterrent). Oh, and a third, a friend reminded me – cronyism, which goes hand in hand with corruption.
Missing the mark: Mr. Byles also reported that for the first time since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program started the Government’s primary surplus fell short by $4.6 billion in February. The Finance Ministry says we will be back on track for the fiscal year 2014/15. However, Government revenues are showing some worrying signs (this was mostly put down to shortfalls in Companies Tax and General Consumption Tax). Let’s remember what President Obama said last week, though. We need economic growth. Growth!
An ISIS recruit, or not? A fifteen-year-old Jamaican boy was arrested in Suriname on Saturday. He was en route to the Netherlands and, Surinamese authorities alleged, heading onward to Turkey and thence to ISIS. His family’s story (confused and contradictory at times) is that he was going via the Netherlands to see his mother, who lives in the UK, to avoid the visa requirement. The boy from St. Mary (which has a sizable Muslim community) is back in Jamaica and being questioned by the police in custody; his lawyer is seeking his release. He has not been charged with any crime. The Office of the Children’s Advocate is monitoring the situation and looking at whether there is any basis for concern that our disaffected youth might be drawn to ISIS. National Security Minister Peter Bunting, who has made no statement on the case to date, recently dismissed as groundless suggestions by a U.S. Marine Corps General that ISIS was recruiting in the Caribbean. A smooth-talking representative of Jamaica’s Muslim community also denied any knowledge of such a thing. We shall see if this leads anywhere, or nowhere. But don’t underestimate these ISIS people, Minister Bunting!
I ♥ Chocolate: I heard a radio conversation yesterday with an enthusiastic woman who spoke about the potential of Jamaica’s cocoa industry – much neglected over the years, and especially since the closure of the Highgate Chocolate factory. Musson Jamaica acquired Highgate in 2004, but it was wound up in 2007. Just like our Blue Mountain coffee, we constantly hear that our cocoa is among the best in the world; yet we cannot develop it to its full potential. The Jamaica Cocoa Farmers’ Association, formed quite recently, has focused on setting up “micro-factories.” What is the status on these? Meanwhile there is a small local firm called Mount Pleasant Chocolatiers that is actually manufacturing in Jamaica (its products include cocoa butter and spa products, too) so there’s hope.
Meanwhile, let’s not make excuses. The Grenada Chocolate Company, founded in 1999, produces “tree to bar” organic chocolate, beautifully packaged and exported to Europe, the United States and Canada. With its “green” philosophy, I found the coffee farm and factory an appealing tourist attraction. So marketing woman – let’s stop talking about the bureaucratic hurdles, produce great value-added products and get some exports going! Problem is we only have half an Agriculture Minister. Mr. Derrick Kellier doubles up as Labour and Social Security Minister. How is that working out for you, Mr. Kellier?
Another squabble has broken out in the increasingly shambolic Jamaica Labour Party (JLPP). This is is unbelievably irritating and just plain stupid. We need a strong Opposition – not one that we all laugh and shrug our shoulders at. Stop!
Meanwhile, back at the tyre stack… Bright and early Monday morning, a thick, dark plume of smoke rose above the city. Déjà vu? For residents of Westbrook Avenue near a tyre storage facility (illegal) not far from Riverton City dump it was hell. First, they said, they had a huge mosquito breeding problem from the tyres. Then it was set on fire. Officials “reassured” us that it was not the dump, this time. Tyres burn extremely hot, fast and emit several toxic compounds, including sulfur dioxide. What’s reassuring about that?
Who’s in charge at the NSWMA? The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, one understands. The Minister said a new board will be in place this week – with a new Executive Director to follow. It now appears that some of his nominees were not accepted by Cabinet so it’s going to be next week, now.
The police have charged a third man with the murder of Mario Deane in a police lock-up in Montego Bay last August. Damion Cargill is profoundly deaf and cannot understand sign language. His attorney says he “may not be aware of the charges against him.” This is sad, very sad.
National Integrity Action says the three councilors currently facing charges on various matters should not be allowed to run in local government elections until they are cleared of all charges. Agreed. The People’s National Party’s (PNP) General Secretary Paul Burke does not seem to be quite so sure. It depends.
Worrying: That is how I would describe testimony by former Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington at the Commission of Enquiry into the incursion at Tivoli Gardens. Mr. Ellington emphasized the extreme danger the country was placed in at the time and said it was a good thing security forces had acted to make Jamaica more secure. What concerned me was his vagueness and inability to recall key meetings between the Golding administration and two clerics, who were apparently serving as “go betweens” between the politicians and the “don” of Tivoli Gardens during this terrible period. The Enquiry will resume on Friday morning.
Tourism: Opposition Spokesperson Shahine Robinson believes her counterpart in Government is setting his sights too low. He should be aiming higher. Surely Minister McNeill cannot be satisfied with a five percent increase by the end of the season? Ms. Robinson then read out a list of Caribbean countries that enjoyed a far higher increase last year. Grenada, for example, enjoyed over 18 per cent, she informed Parliament; Cayman Islands and Haiti, our close neighbors, over 10 percent!
OK, Minister Hylton has spoken. He told Parliament this week of the US$600 million to be ploughed into the Kingston Container Terminal (which he calls a “gateway project”) under a recently signed concession agreement with the CMA CGM/China Merchant Holdings International-owned Terminal Link (the other two bidders, Singaporean and Emirati firms, lost out). Kingston Wharves plans to invest J$7 billion in building logistics facilities over the next five years. Foreign direct investment has crept up in the past three years – from US$490 million in 2012 to US$707 million in September last year. Does that seem like much to you? Minister Hylton expects this year to be “a lot better.” It had better be.
Have you noticed? There has been a marked absence of police killings in the past few weeks (although one is noted below). Something has changed. I am not sure what the underlying factors are – perhaps more emphasis on community policing, tighter rules on the use of firearms – and the presence of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM). Better leadership, too? I must commend the police and in particular Police Commissioner Williams, who has not been obviously throwing his weight around but seems to be working well alongside Security Minister Peter Bunting, visiting troubled neighborhoods and so on. But the murder rate… What has happened?
In Kingston gang warfare has broken out downtown. Businesses and workers there are getting nervous. I recall ten or twenty years ago the area was neatly divided into the territories of a PNP “don” named Zeeks (in jail for a double murder for some years now) and his JLP counterpart named Dudus (now incarcerated in the United States). It has become fragmented since, with gangs jockeying for position. There have been casualties.
Special, special big ups to…
- BluMoon Publishing, founded by the intrepid Tanya Batson-Savage, for their exploration of the many and varied nuances of Jamaican writing – and for the creative and lively ways in which their present their growing list of books to the public. Last Sunday morning’s “Fun and Joke Aside” was a good example. I wrote about it in my blog for the Gleaner online here: http://gleanerblogs.com/socialimpact/?p=2617
My deepest sympathies to the families of those who have been killed in the past four days…
Steven Anderson, 42, Orange Street, Kingston
Nesta Halstead, Salt Pond/Spanish Town, St. Catherine (killed by police)
Unidentified man, Spanish Town bus park, St. Catherine
Unidentified man, March Pen Road/Spanish Town, St. Catherine
Christopher McKenzie, 37, May Pen, Clarendon
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