The new Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Governor Mr. Brian Wynter has now come out and said that some of the reports published re his working agreement are inaccurate. He did not challenge the actual salary published (so that part must be true) however he states that he only goes home on weekends (poor baby). And that his living arrangement at the Courtleigh Hotel is only temporary.  

Well, we would not want the big man to live in squalor, now would we? How much will it cost to get him somewhere and fix to his liking can be anyone’s guess, J$60,000,000.00 or maybe J$72, 000,000.00 when we include the fencing. Remember as long as you are getting value for money, it’s worth it. How do you know which school he attended, could have been Hartford, or how long he spent there. Shame on you Jamaica.

Quite frankly I’m fed up. All I can hear these days is how individuals are getting away with my hard worked tax dollar while I suffer to make ends meet. And the excuse is the same every time, It’s not my fault. That’s not the point. The people put the government in because they claimed they had a plan to fix things. Where is the plan, Mr. Golding? To set up your friends in high places, whether they can do the job or not?

The Prime Minister, Bruce Golding has said that with the signing of the IMF agreement will come immediate tax increases. Not even next fiscal year, but immediately. Which means that right after we sign with the IMF them tek over Jamaica? Once again this country will have to do whatever the IMF says, whenever the IMF says so.

Well Mr. Wynter Jamaica is waiting to see what kind of deal you negotiated for us with the IMF. Whatever you negotiated with Mr. Golding re your personal package, more power to you. Since he is ‘hell bent’ on giving away our hard earned tax dollar to a few individuals, why not you. In the meantime Jamaica waits to hear our faith at your hands.

Nuff Love

The evidence that the present Government is clueless continues to mount. Here it is you have a worker with a good proven track record. He knows his stuff and is respected by his peers internationally. You are in the middle of major negotiations that will affect your entire nation, negotiations that will benefit form the experience and exposure of this individual. Not to mention the benefits that can be derived by the respect he already commands from those with whom the negotiations are taking place. ?And what does this government do, or rather what does the Prime Minister, Bruce Golding do; he fires the man, Derick Latibeaudiere. Why? Because him getting too much money.

?

OK, so what’s the new plan? The new plan is to give Mr. Latibeaudiere’s five day a week job to Mr. Brian Wynter who lives in Barbados. Mr. Wynter arrives at Norman Manley Airport in Kingston, Jamaica at 12:35pm on a Tuesday. Let’s say he takes one hour to clear immigration, customs and dive to work (could be a tall order, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt). That is providing BWIA (But Will It Arrive) flight BW414 is on time. Mr. Wynter starts work at 1:35pm on a Tuesday. Then on a Thursday, the BWIA flight departs Kingston at 2:05pm. Check in is suppose to be at least 2 hours before departure, right, therefore Mr. Wynter needs to leave his desk at BOJ at the latest 11:30am to dive to the airport and check in (after all, only Air Jamaica calls back or hold flights for government passengers).

?

So, Mr. Wynter is working for approximately 2 days a week for a whooping salary of J$14.5 million a year, gets an exclusive Hotel suite at his disposal at no cost to him, travels (I’m sure first class) each week to the island. Now if that is not a sweet deal, I don’t know what is. Who pays, you and I, the tax payer. Not to mention, dawg news paper “rumors’ have to say that General Consumption Tax (GCT) is going to 25% cross the board. (Do lawd, no mek da one de tru. We caan tek no more).

?

Well what do you expect with a novice who is hardly even here at the helm. I don’t know about you but whenever I travel is a all day thing. I have to ‘sike up’ myself. So even if a go to work for a part of the day, not much is done at work. How much can Mr. Wynter really achieve in one day, for as far as I can see that’s all we are getting from him for the nuff, nuff money whe him a get.

?

Personally the way I see it Mr. Bruce Golding sell us a six (6) for a nine (9) and clearly believes that we all don’t have any sense. At this rate Jamaica is very quickly heading for a crash for the driver is clearly out of control. Crowd a people, pray, for only prayers can help we now. A good driver would also help. We all expected a bumpy ride but it long pass that now.

?

Nuff Love

I had a completely different topic to write on today you know. I was gonna write on the IMF and how they screwed Jamaica over before and yet we still turn to them again. But no our government just had to put in place another clear policy of favouritism the likes of which has never been so blatant as far as I've ever seen. Dont know what I'm talking about? Then I invite you to read this article in the Sunday Herald which gives a nice expose on the new Bank of Jamaica's Governor and his pay package. As I've pointed out in 3 different articles here namely: 'Mass Resignations', 'Transparency in the Government', and 'Latibeaudare speaks', the main reason for the firing of Derick Latibeaudiere as given by the government has been his $38 million dollar pay package. However this is where things get kinda fishy when we look at the new pay package for Mr. Bryan Wynter, the new governor of the Bank of Jamaica.

Now before I even speak on exactly who Mr. Wynter is lets look at his pay package. Note well, he is only the Part Time Governor of the BOJ:

Full time basic salary: $14.5 Million dollars per year (same as the previous Governor)
Travelling (per week to and from Barbados where his family lives): $76,000 per week
Hotel expenses: $205,000 per day ($1.06 million per week).

**All of these expenses are paid for by the government.

Are you laughing at this yet? Because I am. I cant stop laughing actually because more and more we see just how STUPID these people who we have put to run the country are. Yes I said stupid and I'm not afraid to use that word because this move deserves a word no less. Other adjectives I'm willing to put in place are: Idiotic, Daft, Dunce, Foolish, Senseless, Thick headed, Unintelligent.... *exhale*. Ok I'm composed again.

I wont even bother calculating the fact that this man is going to be paid more than the previous governor of the BOJ and does not have the experience that we stand to gain from Mr. Latibeaudiere.

Oh right before I finish as promimsed I should include who Mr. Wynter is. Bryan Wynter is the son of the late JLP senator Hector Wynter, and he also used to work at the BOJ and was in Charge of Capital Markets, but left his post without a good reason. The article goes on to say:

Those responsibilities were given to Colin Bullock who was later seconded as financial secretary.  Bullock subsequently became the first casualty after Minister Shaw took over the finance ministry, a move which critics say was aimed at removing prominent members of former finance minister Dr Omar Davies’ team.

Wynter became the first executive director of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), which was established in 2002 to supervise the non-deposit taking financial institutions.

During his tenure at the FSC he waged an unrelenting battle against the country’s informal investment schemes before resigning just before the 2007 General Election to take up a position in Barbados.

Sounds pretty fishy doesn't it. Yea I know. Unfortunately for the government, I have an education and can read and put facts together quite easily. I'm sure most of you reading this article have that ability as well. So tell me what do you really think is up here?

Lets not forget that they also still have to pay Mr. Latibeaudiere's expenses as well.

*Grumble Grumble* *Hiss teeth* *Sigh*

*sigh* I have to write about this rubbish again. Gaza and Gully, Kartel and Movado etc. It has always happened through all the eras of dancehall and they all culminate with clashes at Sting. People will remember the Shaba and Ninja Man clashes that took place, the Beenie man and Bounty Killer, Stichie versus ... papa san... or was it professor nuts? I dont remember. Anyway its a part of the dancehall culture, there will be two top artists at some point in time and they will verbally abuse each other up to sting and then at sting they will lyrically battle each other with one winner.

However this kartel vs movado thing that has been going on has taken this to another level. As I said before it has always happened and it's a part of dancehall culture however now we see these clashes moving beyond simple lyrical disputes to the level where factions were built that were literally and psychologically at war with each other. For the greater part of 2009 (and 2008) almost every song that was released from a member of kartel's camp or movado's camp was some fuel to already burning fire of war which then grew beyond the control of the artists as discussed in previous articles. This thing even got to the point where people feverishly defended their artists and violent clashes were rumoured to be taking place all over Jamaican regarding Gaza and Gully activities.

In fact this feud got to the point where the Prime Minister had to get involved... Yes I can see the questioning looks on your faces as you read this and the furrowed brows, but the Prime Minister of Jamaica Bruce Golding has decided that he should have a meeting to discuss ways to end this conflict and to return the two people to peace.  The mere fact that Bruce decided to hold this meeting has been attacked by many people as a Bad Idea and by some people that it is even a good idea as this needed to be sorted out so that we could return to our regularly scheduled programmes. Personally I'm with the bad idea camp here.

How in heavens name can you the Prime Minister get yourself involved in a petty squabble between two artists? Dont you have an economy to worry about. Isn't Jamaica's current debt problem so great that next year you have absolutely no idea how to pay the public sector workers? Aren't you currently negotiating to get a loan from the IMF to help bolster the economy? Isn't our economy already crime ridden and in a downward spiral that doesn't seem like it will end anywhere except with Jamaica sinking to nothingness? Knowing all of this what the hell are you doing calling a meeting because two people are having a quarrel.

- Picture gotten from the observer.**

If it's that big a deal why not simply call up the commissioner of police... oh wait there isnt one is there... ok call up the acting commissioner, tell him to arrest the two of them, put them in jail for disturbing the peace and then ban all radio stations from playing their music unless they clean up their acts? Wait was that too simple? I'm guessing this is among the acts that you want to be remembered for, I can see it now "Bruce Golding, the man who ended gaza-gully conflict (no, not even the one in the middle east)".

The mindset of these people is mind boggling, no wonder they've been so useless. Wait let's not get them started, all they'll do is blame our problems on the previous government instead of trying to fix it. Well thanks alot Bruce, thanks for fixing a problem which should've been non-existent in the first place

This weekend my family and I decided to visit one of Jamaica’s great land marks, Port Royal. I remember visiting the Fort, Fort Charles and the Giddy House with my school as a child. It was ‘cool’ back then (and seemed a lot bigger) however this time I really was able to better appreciate all that I was seeing. The authorities have really done a great job in preserving that bit of our heritage.

For such a small country, Jamaica is certainly not lacking for excitement. Not now and apparently not from as far back as in the 16^th century. Port Royal was once known as the "richest and wickedest city in the world". Some might even have called it, ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’. After gaining control of the island from the Spanish in 1655, the British began fortifying the settlement next to the deep harbor which eventually would hold as many as 500 ships.

During the latter part of the 17^th century Port Royal became the centre of the shipping commerce in the Caribbean Sea practically overrun by buccaneers who were as despised for their drunkenness and prostitution as they were loved for their loot. Many of you might have heard of Henry Morgan who was one of the most notorious among the Port Royal pirates. The English and French actively encouraged and even paid buccaneers based at Port Royal to attack Spanish and French ships. Pirates from around the world congregated at Port Royal coming from as far away as Africa.

On June 07, 1692 a massive earthquake struck at 11:43 a. An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth 's crust that creates Seismic waves Earthquakes are recorded with a Seismometerm.followed by a tidal wave which brought widespread destruction. Two-thirds of the city of Port Royal fell into rubble or sank into the Caribbean Sea.

After this disaster, Port Royal became a fishing town. Pirate enthusiasts, and nautical archeologists as well as treasure hunters regularly survey and make valuable recoveries from the sunken site. There are however present plans to develop Port Royal into a proper tourist destination by 2015-16. The plans include visits by Cruise ships. The attractions will include the archaeological findings, a combination underwater museum-aquarium and a restaurant with underwater dioramas and the ability to see the native tropical sea life.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it. I hope the authorities really come through with those plans. I enjoyed my visit just as it is now so I’m sure with the improvements it should be a great success. Of course, we ate dinner in Port Royal after our tour, at the Cabin by the sea, which was great. The steam fish with ocka and crackers was delicous. As usual I took some pictures for you all, enjoy.

Nuff love

Entrans to Fort Charles

Fort Charles sign at the entrance to Fort Charles in Port Royal

Inside Fort Charles

Cannons at Fort Charles

The Giddy House behind Fort Charles at Port Royal

I could not resist commenting on the very sensitive topic of punishment in schools. A lot of us Jamaicans grew up with it and it did us far more good than anything else. Now, I do not agree with outright abuse, for that teacher who broke that child’s arm was abusive and should be locked up. However in my days it was only the threat of a beating that could keep ‘the class’, especially the boys, in check.

I remember in primary school most of the teachers had a cane. Most of these canes were named, I distinctly remember Charlie in grade six. However if you had to be caned the reason was clearly laid out to you and no amount of pleading would save you. And that wasn’t all; most times you had to do lines as well. I must not disrupt the class, (or whatever the infraction was) filling couple pages well. And if you’re smart you keep it to yourself as the parents were in league with the teachers and telling Mom or Dad would only get you a second whipping.

I think the most common phase today regarding our children is, “Bouy is a different breed”. I’m sure you have all heard it being said. Why is that? They have the same compositions as all children through the ages. I think the only difference is that the level of fear for consequences to wrong doing is no longer there. Parents now put the children in ‘naughty corner’ or ‘time out’. What is that? Worst at school, you have a class of 35 students to teach and at the same time you have to be monitoring ‘naughty corner’. If I were a student I would be sure to go to ‘naughty corner’ whenever I want to get out of a subject.

Then there is the television. Have you sat and watched some of the cartoons and sitcoms now playing. The interaction between children and adult is very disrespectful in a lot of instances and the children are seen as cute. The children watching are lapping up all this ‘cuteness’ and doing there best to emulate it at home and at school.

The saying, ‘with power comes responsibility’ is very true. Our teacher’s job is to teach our children while they are in school. It is very difficult to teach without discipline however our teachers need to be extremely responsibly whenever punishment is necessary.  Most of us find our ‘few’ children a challenge while they are at home, so much more for a teacher with a class full for most of their waking hours. Personally I believe once they reach high school, then alternate means of punishment should be meted out, but before that, we should not spear the rod and spoil the child.

Nuff Love

As I woke up this morning and read the gleaner I saw so many interesting articles I didn't even know which one to write about today. But then I saw one that to me is definitely worth a write up on and that is the issue of corporal punishment in schools. Now I'm not child that was born in the late 90's or early 2000's, I didnt go through this era of the "dont beat your child" thing when I was growing up. To me and to most people reading this article born before 1990 a beating is simply a way to say that you are doing something wrong... and its just a part of life. Simple straight forward and to the point.

However this is no longer the case, now we constantly hear the argument that "beating your child is wrong" and "there are other ways"  and "dont psychologically scar the children for life" etc. Now of course the first time I heard about these campaigns I instantly started to laugh to myself as I thought, are these people really serious? But then it started to become more and more popularized till nowadays beatings in school are remarkably rare. This is a shocking fact to me as to me beatings are just as much a part of school as is learning your A B C's and how to add and subtract. But as they say things and times change.

So I started wondering what are the suggestions to punish a child for wrongdoing if not beating them. A quick google search lead me to see that these suggestions include: Talking to the child, putting them into time out, ignoring them among other things. Personally next to talking to the child, I dont see where the child learns that what he/she has done is a bad thing and should never be repeated. But hey maybe just maybe these techniques really do work and... maybe this is the reason why I see such high levels of insolence from children towards adults... What am I the only person who sees this?

Personally I dont see anything wrong with beating a child. My father and mother beat me all the time when I did something wrong, but you know what after I got my punishment, I got an explanation as to why what I did was wrong and I learned never to do it again. But I wont deny that there are people who take this thing too far, the article that I read about in the gleaner this morning speaks to a 5 year old child who's arm was broken by a teacher for punishment.  This is clearly going too far, this is clearly something that needs to be punished (not the child the teacher) and this is not beating, this is child abuse, a COMPLETELY different activity and one which I personally think should be punishable by imprisonment for a term no less than 5 years.

However lemme calm down a bit and say this... I know people who grew up on both sides of the fence. I know people who have never understood that a belt can be used for more than just holding up your pants, and I know people who can spend hours telling you about the various battle stories they had with their parents. And to be honest on both sides of the fence, the people are pretty good. So maybe beatings isn't exactly the best way to go, however I say this to you. Over the past 10 or so years in Jamaica we have seen an exponential growth of violence and crime coming from young children IN SCHOOLS... Not to mention on the road. This clearly means that something has changed... If one was to do research one would also see that over the past 20 or so years people have campaigned for an end to beatings as a means of punishment. Maybe the two are co-related, maybe the aren't but to me this cannot be mere coincidence.

I know I'm not exactly the most religious person but I'll close with these quotes from the Bible: He who spareth the rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes (Proverbs 13:24).

Also

Withhold not correction from a child, for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and deliver his soul from hell. (Proverbs 23:13-14)

Ok so finally (as I predicted in a previous post) Mr. Latibeaudiere has come out and made a statement regarding his resignation and as expected it clears up some things for us the reading public, of course there is a chance that the past governor is in fact lieing but being the person I am I will give him the benefit  of the doubt.

"I am bemused that Government fires me for a contract that Government gave me," Lati-beaudiere said yesterday morning on the radio pro-gramme 'Real Business' on Power 106FM.

"I have been in there for 36 years and seven months and I am told to leave with immediate effect! That is the treatment that you mete out to a criminal."

Ok it starts out here and quite frankly to me this is definitely true. I have sources inside the BOJ who told me that the man was literally escorted off the compound under guard and everything (maybe they were exaggerating) but to be honest the man's resignation and subsequent removal from power happened in under 2 days. I have never heard of anything like this happening for a position such as this unless the person died.

Regarding his $14.2 million dollar salary (with additional perks adding up to $23.8 million) Mr. Lati (I cant bother typing his name anymore) said:

...at no point did he ever collect a cent in allowances for rent, maintenance or lease. "I did not take it!" Latibeaudiere said.

"I was still anticipating discussions with the minister of finance."

In addition, Latibeaudiere has rejected Golding's claim that hours before his dismissal he wrote to the finance minister demanding that the rental obligations be met or else the matter would head to the court.

He also added in the interview that he had a very cordial relationship with Mr. Golding and that at any point in time he could have called him and they could've off the records discussed any issues that he suddenly realized. To me this also seems quite fair, I mean if you're telling me the Prime Minister of Jamaica doesn't have the governor of the Bank of Jamaica on speed dial then I would have to question the knowledge of the PM, this to me should be one of the things you get the instance you are sworn into power.

To me however this does seem to set some things straight, and if it doesn't it should get all Jamaicans thinking about the decisions which were made by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

Now where is the Hardley Lewin reply...

I remember long ago my husband saying that I should not give money to the children on the streets that beg. I thought that was hard but he explained then that I was only teaching them a totally wrong lesson by giving them money. As a rule you have to work for what you want in life. If it’s possible to just beg and get it, then why work. Why even go to school, after all, one goes to school to get an education, to get a work, to earn money. (I think you get the picture.)

Daily these children are out on the streets, mainly by the traffic lights begging, usually the same ones, in the same spots, over and over. By the way we do have a “Child Protection Act”, (but that’s another story), yet no one pays any attention to these children. I remember once they were holding the little ones in Half Way Tree and charging their parents. At the time I thought that that was a brilliant move, however it was very short lived.

The reason I’m writing about it this morning is because I saw something on my way to work that truly upset me. There is a young man that begs at the top of Mountain View and Old Hope Road corner, across from the gas station. He has been there from as long as I can remember. He used to come out early each morning in his uniform begging. I even remember saying that I’m sure his parents don’t know what he was up to. Or if they did know then they were truly wicket parents as they were denying the child an education.

Well this morning that same “child” who is now a man, was there on duty begging, only this time he had a young baby in his arms. People, it was drizzling, yet there he was with the baby in his arms on the road begging. So now I’m supposed to feel sorry for the baby. My husbands words came back to haunt me. If no one had given that child money he would have had to find another way of making a living.

Jamaicans, we need to stop encouraging this way of life. I know it’s rough out there, but we are doing a great disservice by giving money to these children on the road. There are other ways that we can help. It might be too late for this particular boy but if we don’t put an end to it now we will soon end up with entire families begging on our streets.

Nuff Love

Today I was stuck between writing about the statement finally made by Mr. Latibeaudiere regarding his firing and the nominations for the Reggae grammy awards. I then decided to go with the happier topic to kind of supplement all the angry and sad topics that I have been writing about. As we all know the Grammy awards are basically the pinnacle of awards that one can recieve as somebody in the music business. Once you win a grammy whether as an artiste, producer, writer or whatever,  you gain instant fame and also get to claim more money for your work as you can simply add grammy winner, to your title (similar to how people add their abbreviated degrees after their names), even a grammy nominee is able to command a higher paycheck as after all they were this close to winning that award.

As far as the Reggae grammy goes, while it isn't always shown on TV, Jamaicans are proud of the mere fact that there is a grammy available for the music which originated here and most Jamaican artists are always ready to brag about the fact that they have in fact won a grammy and will say it with as many chances as they get (I'm looking at you Beenie Man).

All previous grammy nominees are all artists with quite successful careers. People such as Burning Spear and Steel Pulse have been nominated for and have won quite a few grammys themselves, but other quite notable grammy winners are Shabba Ranks, Shaggy, Jimmy Cliff, Black Uhuru, and Damian Marley. I put Damian Marley last because I think he is one of the few artists who won a grammy who I think most of Jamaica can agree with. As a matter of fact, Jr. Gong has really put out some top quality albums (namely all of them) and I still find myself listening to even his first album Mr. Marley from time to time as I sit in awe at his lyrical skill.

Quite frankly I think that whoever are nominating and selecting these grammy winners are not Jamaicans and have also not asked for the opinion of Jamaicans over the years. I have seen some nominations for grammies that have caused me to cringe at the thought of them winning and how they definitely dont represent the thoughts of the people listening to reggae. Maybe I am wrong, maybe these people are getting major airplay abroad, but in Jamaica alot of them get none.

Anyway I wont bother ranting about this, its about the grammy nominees, and this year the nominees for the grammy are; Awake by Julian Marley; Mind Control (acoustic version) by Stephen Marley; Rasta Got Soul by Buju Banton; Imperial Blaze from Sean Paul; and Gregory Isaacs' Brand New Me.

Personally I think Mind Control is a shoe in for the grammy as I've listened to this album quite regularly and I must say I truly appreciate the work of Stephen Marley, but I also think there is a possibility that Buju's album will steal the title and even Sean Paul might have a say (though I really am not sure why), simply because Americans seem to somehow be drawn to his music and somehow think that all Jamaicans love it as well (a fact which is easy to refute).

Congratulations to all the nominees and I hope that the best album wins.