A Jamaican In Exile

  https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/are-we-a-logical-people/ "...the majority don't believe the system works. They think politicians are in it for their own self-interest, or they've grown accustomed to seeing people take irrational or indefensible party lines disregarding the national interest. They don't believe it works because they don't (see) the value of their livelihood improving. Roads are not fixed over generations, even though they pay their taxes. Many in rural areas don't have running water; they feel unsafe, and their children go to university and can't get a job." (Lisa Hanna, Jamaica Observer, COLUMNS, A tale of two Jamaica's — Part 1, 28 May 2023 ). This is why there is such outrage about the massive pay increase for politicians. When their pay was last increased in 2009, did we see an improvement in their performance? No! Why do we now think that this pay increase will have a different result? Madness is doing the same things

  UK PM salary - US $160k UK population - 60M Cost per citizen - 3 cents US President salary - $400,000 US Population - 340M Cost per citizen- 11 Cents Canada PM Salary - US$265,000 Canada Population - 38M Cost per Citizen - 7 cents Jamaica's PM Salary - US$200,000 Jamaica's Population - 3M Cost per Citizen -  67 cents Jamaica's GDP is $15B Canada's GDP IS $2 Trillion USA GDP is $23 Trillion UKs GDP is $3 Trillion https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20230526/peter-espeut-widening-gap Advocates Network Position PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ROLL BACK THE GG’s 183 PER CENT INCREASE TOO! Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday, May 25, 2023. In the continuing public outrage that has followed the announcement of the astronomical levels of salary increases for the political directorate, the salary increase of the Governor-General (GG) has gone completely unnoticed for many Jamaicans. The Advocates Network is of the view that the 183 percent salary increase of the GG

Big-increases-demand-more-accountability-pm According to PM Holness, 'we get the political leadership we pay for' and 'you get the quality of governance you elect'. So, all along, being poorly paid, when they were telling us how good they were, it was a lie? All along they could have done better it's just that they needed to be paid more? Mr. Holness cannot have it both ways, either the politicians have been lying to us all these decades saying they have been doing their best or pretending to be doing their best when all along they were lying to us. Or, is he lying to us now?  If you believe Mr. Holness, I have some beachfront land in Siberia to sell you..... Secondly, most of us have not elected the current governance. Most of us stayed away from voting. If anything, the current government is illegitimate in the sense that only a small minority of the electorate voted for the JLP. Jamaica's problem is not underpaid politicians! Jamaica's problem is that we

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/an-insult-to-other-civil-servants/ Odd as it may sound to the many representatives of the people elsewhere, Sweden does not offer luxury or privileges to its politicians. Without official cars or private drivers, Swedish ministers and MPs travel in crowded buses and trains, just like the citizens they represent. Without any right to parliamentary immunity, they can be tried in a court of law like any other person. With no private secretaries at the door, their bare-bones parliamentary offices are as small as 8m2. “I’m the one who pays the politicians,” says Joakim Holm, a Swedish citizen. “And I see no reason to give them a life of luxury.” Politicians who dare to spend public money on taxi journeys, instead of riding the train, end up on news headlines. Even the speaker of Parliament receives a card to use the public transportation. Only the prime minister has the right to use a car from the security forces on a permanent basis. Swedish parliame

 https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/big-increases-demand-more-accountability-pm-tells-ministers-and-mps/ If 'we get the government we pay for', then how come despite the low salaries, there has never been any shortage of bright, well educated people to serve in the Jamaican parliament? Our parliament is filled with doctors, lawyers and other professional people. Is Holness saying these people, his people should not be there? Some are billionaires and still remain in parliament. The families with husband and wife politicians such as the Holness and Vaz families who are already very rich will be specially blessed as both partners will get this massive increase. In Switzerland and in the Dutch Senate, the politicians in the legislature are only part time in those parliamentary positions. They are paid for the time they spend, a per meeting fee in Switzerland and a set fraction of the full time legislature in the Dutch Senate. They often spend a lot of time working in their ordin

  https://youtu.be/_jsX2PnK8Yg https://youtu.be/Zx04egQB3D8 https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/will-they-or-wont-they/ Will they or won't they... MEMBERS of the People's National Party (PNP) sitting on the Opposition benches in Parliament are yet to arrive at a consensus on how to treat with the massive increase in salaries which they are t... www.jamaicaobserver.com  https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latest-news/watch-34-million-for-gg-for-what-dr-michael-abrahams-slams-salary-increases/ Opposition Leader Mark Golding, who is already a billionaire, has promised to donate 80% of his salary increase to charity. However, there will be no way to audit this. Other members of the PNP are still deciding whether they will be taking the increase. This salary increase will be particularly beneficial to those households that have both husband and wife in power - the Holness family and the Vaz family - both families are already billionaires. There have been a few very small protests here

jamaica-needs-an-executive-president/ It is said that 'politics is the art of the possible'. The economist Kenneth Galbraith expressed a more negative view of political pragmatism when he said, “Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”  Like it or not and as unpalatable as it is, the process of drafting a reform to the constitution is in the hands of the JLP and PNP. Just like how their supporters choose who governs us, their supporters will chose how we are to governed in the future. The only thing the JLP/PNP gangs can agree on is to follow the Barbados model of replacing the ceremonial Governor General with a ceremonial President and to declare Jamaica a Parliamentary Republic with them retaining the power. All of the posturing of a Constitutional Reform Committee is just that - posturing. A jus suh di ting set... Raymond D. Grant

Listen First, Reform after "NEW CONSCIOUSNESS The mentality of advantage-taking is manifesting itself in the constitutional reform process. It is emerging quite strongly that the agreement between the political parties to replace the monarchy with a ceremonial president isn’t holding. More and more people want an executive presidency and consider anything else just a continuing waste of money, despite the limited-but-important functions accorded the governor general and his successor. Younger citizens in particular want to vote for their leader of government and circumscribe his power by strong checks and balances, not in the present indirect way through a political party, but directly. They are unconvinced that we still need to depend on King’s House as well as Jamaica House. This is part of the decisions which should be put to the citizenry. Who gave the JLP/PNP the authority to determine that? Public sentiment is overtaking what was “decided” earlier. Just saying that you are “