There is one thing about Jamaica and its that there is almost always something to write about. What can I say we dont live in a society that can be in anyway regarded as boring, its all a matter of what interests you. Personally I have a wide array of interests but not that many that I am actually willing to write about. I could take the political stance and speak about the recent findings on  where the government has been spending the recently doubled gas tax. Oh wait you didn't know about that?

Well essentially what has happened is that earlier this week some news came about as to where the revenue from the gas tax has been going. There is no surprise (to me anyway) that  it hasn't been going where Jamaicans were told it would go. So no the road maintenance fund is not in fact the direct beneficiary of the tax, instead it is being used to pay off some loans to the chinese government. Yet again it seems to be another showing of just how much respect the current government gives to Jamaicans... none.

In fact according to a Gleaner Article published earlier this week, not only is the government going to spend money to take out another loan, but it is also ignoring more important loans such as the petro caribe loan from venezuela. An exerpt from the article states that:

Government had committed to pay 20 per cent of the fuel tax into the RMF in the first year of the tax and thereafter increase the amount to 35 per cent. Pickersgill said the Golding administration should explain how it intends to meet its loan-repayment obligations to the Chinese government while servicing the PetroCaribe loan of US$12 million.

But thats just one news article that happens this week. My more avid readers will remember that I spoke about a major ammunitions find that took place a few weeks ago.  Well at the time I didn't have alot of information but it seems that the  weapons were in fact being stolen from the police warehouse by... you guessed it, a police officer. Sargeant Russell Robinson has been charged with 24 different offences. 18 Counts of Illegal Possession of firearms, 4 counts of breaching the Corruption Prevention Act, 1 count of Illegal possession of ammunition, and 1 count of storehouse break-in and larceny. Two civilians who also worked with the policeman were also charged for numerous offences as well. Ironically this policeman was also supposed to become the posterboy for anti corruption in the police force and also was to be a model for the new uniforms policemen would soon be sporting. Personally if/when he is found guilty I hope he rots in prison,  two or three life sentences should be flung at him without any chance of parole, you can only begin to imagine how many people he has caused to be killed due to his dirty work and he should be given a life sentence for each death.

But yet again that is sad news, I could also look at more happier news such as the fact that Usain Bolt the posterboy for Jamaica has signed a 2 million pound 2 book deal to produce an autobiography of himself which is to be forthcoming after the London 2012 games. Usain bolt has and will continue to make Jamaica proud and I hope he gets this book written by somebody with excellent writing skills, or even himself if he feels he is up to it.

I didn't want to really carry up back the topic but I think it is interesting to speak on what the pilots have said they would do if the government gave them Air Jamaica to run and stopped being the dimwits they are and pawn it off to Trinidad. No surprise here however these moves actually seem pretty smart but as this is outside of the thought capabilities of our leaders I will not even cuss or quarrel about it. Some of the things that JALPA said they would do is:

Right size the fleet (Estimated to give a complete turnaround as far as profits go)

Right-sizing the fleet, Eyre said, would mean using smaller planes that more closely match the load factors (the number of passengers on a given flight) on particular routes. He noted that the "small profit" made in 2009 by the Havana route, for example, which had a load factor of 55 per cent, could skyrocket if the 150-seater aircraft now used were changed to a 98-seater Embrear 190. As such, Eyre said the group would bring in three 98-seaters within the first six months of taking over Air Jamaica.

Change flight routes

We intend to develop strategic partnerships with airlines in the key markets and with those strategic partners, develop Montego Bay as a hub so that within five years, 30 per cent of the traffic that gets on Air Jamaica, will not originate in or be destined for Jamaica, he said. So a passenger boarding in New York might come to Montego Bay and connect to somewhere else and a passenger boarding in Curacao would see that Air Jamaica is the best option for him to get to Fort Lauderdale or to Denver or to Chicago.

Cost reduction measures

We also believe that we have to outsource certain functions because we just don't have the economies of scale to make them viable at Air Jamaica. We need to look at the cost of maintaining the aircraft and our passenger handling costs. Our first priority will be to bring our overheads down by minimising our aircraft lease costs, ensuring that we keep the number of facilities to a minimum by using the virtual office concept.

I'll just leave it there, but I urge you all to read the article and make a plea to our government to keep our airline as ours! We dont want to yet again become dependent on some body else for something which we have the capability and the know how to run.

Well so ends my wrap up of things that happened this week. I know I left out many things that happened but I dont want to give you too much information so I only looked at the immediately important stuff.