Ok so in another news item that I had to refrain myself from posting due to it being... well bad news. Essentially what had happened was an American Airlines plane (Flight 331) had ran off the run way at the Norman Manley International Airport here in JA. The good news is that nobody was seriously injured, further good news, the plane didnt end up in the sea (it got really close though), and the bad news is... everybody is blaming the Jamaican authorities. Now I always take the Jamaicans side of the story (unless the other side is more plausible) and my bias will yet again show here when I state that it is not the fault of the Jamaican authorities.

First lets look at what we do know, the flight came from Miami. The crash happened at night (around 10:30 or thereabout). Planes had been landing at the airport without issue all night. There was torrential rainfall that night. There were a few lights on the runway which were not working (but was reported to all necessary authorities) but not enough to prevent planes from landing safely. Ok we've gotten that out of the way.

Now the first claim which came out basically the day after the crash was that the lights on the runway were not working. Does anybody actually believe this? Anybody? Wouldn't the lights on the runway not working be reasonable grounds for the airport to close... Just a thought. The fact is there were non working flights on the runway but they were not so many non working lights to prevent planes from making proper landings. As a matter of fact, planes were landing at the airport quite fine before the AA flight landed, so what are you telling me that the airport staff decided to be evil and turn of the lights just in time for the AA flight? Therefore what reason do we have to believe that there is any likelyhood that this claim may be truthful. Heck it was even reported beforehand that the lights werent working.

So now whats the alternative if this wasn't the authorities fault? It couldn't have been an error within the airplane itself, the plane was passed fit and the pilot reported no issues at all the entire flight... so it must've been pilot error! An article released on monday stated that:

Responding to reports that the 737-800 aircraft was attempting to land in a tailwind of 14 knots, Slack pointed to a 2004 study which showed that the maximum tailwinds for take-offs and landings by this model plane was 10 knots in clear weather conditions. This number, he noted, was lower in bad weather.

Hm... There is also no question as to the availability of this data (ie the 14 knots tailwind data), as the pilot MUST have this data from he took off in Miami, and he should've had it before landing as well. It's not like it was some government secret. The other thing is, reports from passengers on the plane have stated that:

"The approach seemed to have been very fast, and second, when he (the pilot) touched down, it was like he dropped out of the sky," he said.

There have even been unofficial reports that the pilot tried to land in the middle of the runway among other things. Pretty much everything points to the pilot just being a lazy pilot who had the alternative to land in Montego Bay but decided against it. There is simply no other explanation that can hold as much weight as this one, I beg for an alternative. I have spoken to numerous of my pilot friends and they have all more or less confirmed that the reasoning given by AA and the pilot of the plane is rubbish and I dont see the need to question the professionals.

Not sure I want to fly on AA ever.

Finally the christmas season is over, this means I can return to writing about bad news again (I tried to limit myself in the christmas time, it seemed to work), and wow was there alot of bad news, I dont even know where to start really, but I'll just do the logical thing and start with what the government has been up to. As every Jamaican well knows, this cant be anything good because the government is... well a bunch of bungling idiots. Really and truly whenever I think about what the government has done I am lead to believe that these people are just playing by ear really and seeing how what they do is accepted. I dont remember ever seeing somebody change their policies so often in a one year period alone. I mean almost every policy they have implemented has been overturned in some way, what level of retardation causes this? The really sad part about all of this is that unless we do some major overhaul (ie. revolution of some sort), chances are nothing will change and we'll still be stuck being led by a bunch of buffoons.

But anyway lets look at one thing I didnt get to speak about and that is the proposed (but now revised) tax package that the finance minister at first... no second... no third suggested. This is of course ignoring the fact that the public sector will be going through a wage freeze for the next 2 years. Now at first Audley in all his intelligence (or lack thereof) decided that he wanted to tax:

1. Food items such as salt, syrup, cooking oil, noodle soups, meat, ground provisions, sardines, bread, buns, bullas, eggs and sugar are now subject to GCT.

2. Persons paying for undertaking services will also have to pay GCT on burial, cremation and items such as coffins.

3. A further SCT on Fuel and Cigarettes

4. A tax on electricity users who use over 200kwh of electricity

5. Diapers and Tampons

6. Raising the GCT from 16.5 to 17.5%

Also it is important to note that Audley stated that this package was "designed to bring efficiency and remove some of the distortions that are plaguing the system"... I'll attack that quote in a little bit.

He (Audley) and his fearless leader (Bruce) thought this was right and manageable by the people... what the %$^&*(????

First question, how do you tax ground provisions? as a matter of fact, how do you tax EVERYTHING that people eat (noting that eating is necessary to survive), are you telling me that the solution that the JLP had was to kill every single solitary Jamaican to cure our problems? The only food items which were exempt from these taxes was rice and flour... the ultimate diet. The other thing is taxing somebody for dieing. Now I'm sorry, maybe this is something that is accepted elsewhere in the world, I mean, people die all the time, why not tax them? Because its %^&*( stupid thats why. I wont say anything further on that.

The next thing is he raises the tax on fuel and on electricity, note his justification was that "we pay less for fuel than most other countries do", so what about this is bad may I ask? Am I the only person who realizes how important fuel and electricity is for our survival? Just look at it, you need transportation to go to and from work, to transport goods and services (if you produce), to do almost everything you can think of requires fuel, and we have been able to produce cheaply because of our lack of expensive fuel. Now you want to change that on a whim, despite the fact that you already changed it earlier this year. Fuel prices went up by 10 dollars since this new tax, so much so that (according to Melba's chart in this article) we have had a 50% increase on fuel costs from January of last year. Where do you think this will take the economy oh wise ones?

Oh and the piece de resistance is the tax on diapers and tampons. The solution to our economic problems is to tax women for being women, and babies for being babies. I shall say nothing more. You will notice I have no problem with raising the GCT, and I still dont, I can see the necessity there but only with other policies also changed as I have spoken about in a previous article.

Now I'll end on the quote by Audley which I spoke of up above, to refresh your memory the quote stated that the taxes were "designed to bring efficiency and remove some of the distortions that are plaguing the system". You stupid, idiotic, dimwitted, bumbleheaded, buffoon, how will this bring efficiency and remove the distortions plaguing the tax system? Please enlighten me, I have about 2 weeks until school starts which means I have all the time in the world to hear your explanation. This does nothing except continue to tax the only people who are paying taxes currently, the only people who are keeping Jamaica's economy afloat and the only people who stand to lose heavily from the package (ie the middle class, you dumb $%^&*). This will not ensure compliance, as a matter of fact this will do nothing more than continue with the status quo. It has been stated time and time again, if you want to gain compliance then do it the right way, put taxes on the people who can afford to be taxed (thats called the rich... or all you guys). To ensure compliance actually put in place compliance measures not more taxes, my 9 year old niece could've told you that.

Why do you think our tax system is rated 9th worst in the world and our ease of doing business ranking has fallen to 63? Its because nobody can do business here because you keep doing stupid $%^& and preventing people from even attempting to do business here. *sigh* I have more to say to you but I'll keep that for another time

Financially, this year 2009 has been a very challenging year. We all had to learn to ‘tighten we belts’, ‘Stretch what ever we had’ and sometimes ‘tun we han mek fashin’. A lot of people lost their jobs. Those that kept theirs dared not ask for pay increases. Those that dared to ask were reminded just how fortunate they were to still have a job and then their requests were ignored.

The fact is, for most of us, our income at the beginning of the year January 01, 2009 and our income today December 31, 2009 is the same. However cost of living has increased making life difficult for many hard working Jamaicans. We tend to go along day by day without realizing the magnitude of what exactly is taking place. The government keeps announcing some low inflation rates, but I wonder where they get there figures from. I took the time to research some prices as they were on January 01, 2009 and compare them with the prices of the same items today December 31, 2009. Now I understand why my savings are being depleted and am extremely worried as to what is going to happen from here on.

The new tax package becomes effective tomorrow, January 01, 2010, which means the increases on basic necessities, will continue. Unfortunately once certain services or products increase they cause a domino effective on other items. Example, gasoline is essential for transportation, so with the increase of gasoline, any thing that has to be transported is automatically affected. The rate of exchange to other major currencies, (I have to share this with you) I remember once buying callaloo by the road side. It was very good so the following day I stopped to buy some more. To my surprise the seller told me a higher price than the previous day. When I reminded him that ‘is me same one him sell yesterday fi less’ I was told, “Look lady, the dolla devalue”. I could not argue with that, so I paid the man and left. Besides, I was too busy laughing.

So here are the figures for the rate of exchange and for petrol, for then and now. These are just two of the things that can affect the price of everything else that we have to pay for. The Bankers Selling Rate (BSR) is taken from Bank of Jamaica (BOJ). The petrol prices are taken from Petrojam Ltd. These prices are not the final prices to the consumers as they are further marked up by the wholesalers.

As I said before 2009 was challenging. Many Jamaicans relied heavily on money from abroad however with the global recession there has been a drastic reduction in remittances. These remittances from friends and family or personal saving has been the ‘cushion’ for many to combat the real inflation, the kind of percentage increase as we see in the table. With the Tax increases effective tomorrow Jan 01, 2010, the pending job cuts promised by the Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, and the lack of salary reviews for the next two to three years the gap in the percentage increase will only get wider. There is a saying in Jamaica, ‘anywhere it mawga it pop’, my only fear is the possible consequences after the ‘popping’. Till then enjoy the rest of 2009.

Nuff Love

Taxomolytist On Thursday, December 17, 2009 there was an out break of Taxomolytist ( poorman disease- implementation of taxation of every possible striking thing you can think of) it took me two full days to go through the list of items that will attract tax as of January 2010. I really feel it for myself as an adult, but most of all the kids. What do you tell them stop eating, the basic little things kids like to eat. “Kiss mi neck, up to patty ( a popular on the move meal, slap it between a coco bread and a soda and yu gon clear). Well, I had to be in a bit of hibernation (low profile) trying to recover for this new “disease”, as usual I went to church, for some divine back up and so, good sense prevailed and some taxable goods are now non-taxable, Let make take this opportunity to wish one and all, nothing but best wishes for the new year and never lose focus on the Almighty, whichever means you celebrate the birth of the new year, be safe and moderate.

Walk good, bless up and one love.

Sweets

Throughout the world everybody has their own methods of celebrating the new year. We all know of the chinese new year which involves that parade throughout the street and the dragon costumes and fireworks. There is also the New York new years celebration which involves the dropping of that big ball in times square in addition to the thousands of people who are there to do the countdown. Here at yard we have something of a mixture of those different celebrations, most people would say that this would definitely happen because the Jamaican culture is a melting pot of all the different cultures which have helped to influence us over the years. But nontheless we still are fairly unique in our celebrations.

One similarity that i guess we share is the parties... We have lots of choices in terms of our new years parties, and the people in my age group have already purchased their party tickets to major parties like '11:59', 'Absinthe', 'French Connection' and 'Destination'. Almost all of these parties are themed parties and they almost never fail because of the vibe which we bring to these parties. In preparation of the parties there is of course the clothes to match. For the females there is that big search for a dress to wear, and coupled with the fact that alot of these parties are themed and of course women will dress to the theme this search turns out to be quite intense, adding to this the fact that the dress has to be matched by shoes and handbag etc (the life of a woman), this is not a search I would like to be a part of. Men have it somewhat easier... or well we make it easier on ourselves. Either way though there is a serious party culture in Jamaica on new years day... but thats just one type of way to bring in the new year.

The more religious among us will of course be attending the watchnight service. I have never quite understood the origin of the watchnight name but either way this is the service that starts somewhere around 10 pm and goes on until the new year and is a time for people to reflect on the new year and the choices we have made and will make and to get some religious inspiration. Most people will try to be present at these services as whether or not we like it, Jamaicans are very religious people, we may not admit it but we do have many religious fears that give us the need to ensure that we are in Gods good graces.

Finally there is the staple of new years around the world and that is the fireworks. I'll be honest Jamaica doesn't have a great culture of fireworks and these devices are actually banned from regular use, however over the years we have began to incorporate fireworks more and more in our celebrations. The most popular of these is perhaps the one down in the Kingston harbour, and is the one where I would say the most people go out to. I've watched this fireworks show a couple of times and I will be honest and say that it could use some work. There is no order to the fireworks and it seems rather plain which I guess is the result of our not being very big on the whole fireworks thing.

Me, personally my new years have always been a very personal very family and friend oriented celebration. I normally attend the watchnight service and then spend the rest of the night hanging out with my family over pizza or some other similar food. On the years when I dont do this, I normally spend it with my friends at home having a drink, reminiscing chatting and generally enjoying ourselves. To me thsi si the best kind of way to bring in the year, nothing beats family and friends in my opinion.

How do you celebrate the new year?

Christmas has come and gone and all the excitement of Christmas is over. I must say I tried very hard to get into the spirit of the season but to be honest I don’t think I fully made it. Yes, the home was decorated; the Christmas tree is up, all the family came to dinner, but deep down there is a nagging uncomfortable feeling, ‘what is going to happen come 2010’.

You all would have noticed your food bills were doubled and I’m not just talking the extra that you would have normally spent at this time of the year. Your light bills were doubled and the taxes don’t go on yet, that starts January 1^st, 2010. The few presents you bought were doubled even though every thing you purchased was on sale. Basically this Christmas cost you double and you had less to spend.

Effective January 01, 2010, 2 days away, GCT increases to 17.5%, petrol goes up and electricity goes up. In other words from those things have increased every thing will automatically increase. Some persons are facing the possibility of loosing their jobs, or if not, there is no increase in salaries expected for some time to come. In fact the sense of hopelessness present today is very disheartening. People are going around near to numb. And the feeling is across the board, young and old.

 The brain drain from Jamaica has started again, as some of our bright young minds try to seek alternatives. Not that the grass is greener on the other side but at least in most countries if you do get work you have a better chance of making it. In Jamaica you might have work however the pay level (for most) is far below what the economy requires to survive. Most persons try to make up their earnings by doing some extra ‘something’ on the side, depending on their talent. But these days even that is becoming more difficult as there are more sellers than buyers.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve, I’m sure the churches will be full as a lot of persons will not be able to afford to go to any New Years Eve Ball or party. Mark you, I remember one of my best New Years Eve being a year when there was no money. My next door neighbor and I sat outside talking and decided to set up the drumpan and jerk the chickens which we were going to use for our family dinners. Once we got started another neighbor joined us. Next, one of the men had all the children collecting bottles to go trade in and get drinks. I have no idea where music came from but we partied all the way into the next morning. Even those you did go to formal parties came back and joined us.

Anyway, as I was saying, 2010 is not looking very promising at the moment. They say when life gives you lemons you must make lemonade. I’m not sure how we are going to do that in 2010 but for what it’s worth, let’s keep the faith and never give up. God is great. Happy New Year when it comes.

Nuff love

Shaggy is known as and for many things. He is known as Mr. Boombastic; he is known for his deep baritone voice (which strangely enough he hasnt been using as much anymore); he is known for the slew of hits he has released throughout his remarkable career including: Boombastic, It Wasn't Me, Angel, and Hey Sexy Lady (just to name a few); He is known for the grammy awards which he has won; He is known by his parents as Orville Burrell; He is known to be one of the few Jamaican artists who can get ladies to go crazy with the same speed as any Barry White song; and As of recently, he is known as a philanthropist. Ok no I'm lieing there, he has always been a philanthropist especially to places which provide assistance to children, but recently he has doubled... no tripled his efforts in his trade with his show: "I dare you".

*Taken from the shaggy make a wish foundation website

For all who didnt know, the concert is one where all proceeds go to the Bustamante Hospital for Children. Essentially, Shaggy lays out the challenge by daring Jamaicans to donate to charity. As somewhat of a reward for donating to charity shaggy provides a show which features headlining artists from across the music industry - this seems like a pretty fair trade in my opinion. Last year's show including acts such as Dancehall Giant Elephant Man, Soca monarch Allison Hinds, Dancehall Leading Lady... Lady Saw, Soul Queen Macy Gray, Reggae family Morgan Heritage, Reggae Queen Marcia Griffiths, Dancehall & Reggae Leader Buju Banton, Messenger Luciano, and the old guard of Tony Rebel, Freddie Macgregor and Barrington Levy and of course the big man himself, Shaggy (I did not have to give titles to all the artists... but it felt like the right thing to do). By the lineup alone this show is one of unprecedented quality, and last year it truly delivered.

I could go into the energetic performances given by all the performers and the fact that the show went off with very little hitches and was overall enjoyed by all (I mean... Elephant Man sang We are the World... how much better a show than that could you get), but I would just be singing praises which have already been sung, especially due to the fact that Shaggy raised over 27 million dollars for charity.

However from the success of last year's show Shaggy has yet again decided that he is daring Jamaicans to yet again make donations to charity, and this show looks to be just as exciting as last years. It is slated to be on January 2, 2010 and so far confirmed acts include: Baby Cham, Beenie Man, Papa San, Tanya Stephens, Michael Rose, Queen Ifrica, Sanchez, Ce’Cile, Toots Hibbert, Ding Dong, Machel Montano, Half Pint, Busy Signal, American R&B singer Joe and former UB40 lead singer Ali Campbell. This show is seemingly a much younger show than the previous but it is one of high quality and which I doubt will be disappointing.

**Taken from Shaggy make a wish foundation website

All in all however I salute Shaggy for his efforts, this is something that not enough artists do to a great extent and especially since this is a children's charity makes this even more important. I expect this concert to be one of the leading concerts for the year and I hope that more artists follow suit... as a matter of fact I dare all local artists to do a show like this.

As we all recover from yesterdays immence food intake, I started thinking about all the preparation that came in with the christmas cooking. Now I am one of the lucky few people who get to eat 2 christmas dinners :) (one for my mom's side and one for my dad's side of the family) and over the years it has become apparent that there are two different preparation methods for each and also 2 similar... but different menus for each as well.

To be honest I have always thought of my dad's side of the family as the more ... uptown, kingstonian family. Christmas dinners with them have always been quiet and personal. When we prepare for that family dinner we pick a house, all the chefs call and plan the menu beforehand, and then as each prepares their specialty we converge at that house, set the table, eat, drink, be merry, talk a little and leave. The typical menu for that dinner is normally Ham (of course), baked chicken, ackee and saltfish, vegetables and etc. Now people may think this sounds boring (especially in comparison to mom's side... i'll get into that in a second), but to be hoenst its quite fun, its more personal, and people tend to make lots of jokes (political and not) at each other and meeting up with relatives we havent seen in a while definitely adds to the fun.

My mom's side of the family is the more... rural/country side which involves much more people and also a much different atmosphere. First of all, quiet and personal... definitely not. With this family dinner literally everybody and their mothers are present (english translation to the patois saying). Here the menu is also a bit more ad-hoc, and random. Instead all the chefs gather in the kitchin and just automatically begin to cook whatever comes to their minds... Ok its a bit more organized than that (just a bit), but the kitchen from morning to evening is literally a haven of activity and people running around and lots of noise and laughter as people eat and catch up. Dinner is eaten wherever in the yard you happen to find a seat and nobody will think anything wierd if u sit in the grass

Its this contrasting dinners that adds another interesting aspect to the season in my opinion that cannot be ignored and that I think all families should go through. Too much of one or the other doesn't add to the fun and excitement that christmas dinner really should entail.

In yet another story of Jamaicans capability to survive and be completely epic no matter where we are, I am forced to highlight a Jamaican skier named Errol Kerr. Now of course once you hear about Jamaicans being competitive in the snow/ice the first thought that would come to mind would be the Jamaican bobsled team which took the1988 winter olympics by storm (though they didnt medal). This team was so epic that in fact they had to make a movie off of the experience of those first set of athletes. Yes it was a comedy and yes most Jamaicans find it corny and alot of us choose to disassociate ourselves from the movie, but the fact remains it was a representation of what Jamaicans and the Bobsled team went through when they entered that event.

However back on topic, it seems that Errol is looking to go through what the Bobsled team went through by being the first Jamaican to enter in that event, in the winter olympics. But not only that, Errol looks to actually be a serious contender in the sport... Like a serious medal contender. Dont believe me? Then just believe former olympian Johnny Moseley who looked at the competition and at Errol and said that he expects that he can be the first Jamaican to medal at the winter olympics.

I dont know about the rest of my readers, but personally I am very excited at the prospect of having a Jamaican not only participate in, but actually win in the Winter Olympic. This is especially so when one looks at the fact that the closest thing that Jamaicans have to snow/ice in our island is the ice that we put in our drinks and the snow cones and ice cream that we all enjoy. We aren't just entering somebody just for the fun of it, this time we may actually win.

I dont know whats happening to us Jamaicans, looks like we arent satisfied with just being the best athletes in the world, we want it all, best skiiers, best skaters, best gymnists best everything, and I wont lie this is certainly a step in the right direction, with Kim Marie Spence's attempt at being the first Jamaican to the south pole, and Errol Kerr it seems that we are well on our way to conquering snow as well.

I salute your efforts Jamaicans... I just wish I could manage the snow as well as you guys are. Now Universal Pictures Studio, I think we need to have a chat about how you are gonna portray Mr. Kerr in cool runnings 2

First of all a Merry Christmas to all, I hope you get wonderful presents and your family will enjoy this lovely day of fun, festivities and food!

Now really I am the kind of person who sits and thinks about things quite deeply, too deeply as a matter of fact because alot of times I find myself up late at night trying to reason out simply little things in life. Over the years people have been debating that Christmas is no longer Christmas. The commercialisation of the holiday season makes people forget the true meaning of the season and that meaning is the celebration of the birth of christ (not the day of the actual birth of christ to all you jehovah's witnesses out there).

As a day of celebration of the birth of the saviour of the world - or well the Christian world, other religions would say otherwise (and I try to not be centered on my beliefs in my writings), it is expected that people would take this day to remember all the good things that we currently have: life, liberty, freedom, and the ability to repent in the name of Christ (said saviour of the world) and have God save a special seat in heaven for you in the afterlife. This day truly should be one of celebration; celebration of being alive; and celebration of having the opportunity to have a happy afterlife.

However over the years we have seen a decreasing amount of focus on the celebration of Christ's birth, and an increase in the influence of Santa Claus in the christmas season. I mean I am not even hearing the Christmas story much on the radio or the TV today... you know with the three wise men and all that? Instead I can almost tell you all the stores that are currently having christmas deals and I could possibly tell you what items the deals are on. I can even remember line for line the jingles for companies like Digicel, and Claro who's christmas promotions run for what seems to be hours on end without stop.

Is this enough however to say that Jamaica has gone to the "dark side" and given up on the Christian christmas and instead focuses on the "secular" christmas? In my opinion, no. For every person I have seen walking around shopping I have heard of people with plans for going to church on christmas day, giving to charities etc. While I wont deny, the focus on Christmas for Christmas sake (christ's mas) has dwindled slightly, it hasnt gone as bad as to say that we have lost the meaning.

I'm going to go cook now. Christmas dinner is coming up and I get to see some family I havent seen in a while

Merry Christmas again readers

and Happy Holidays to all my other religious or non-religious readers