A Jamaican In Exile

Garfield Higgins: When Golding's tapanaris rule As expected, this dyed in the wool labourite who has his snout deep in the public trough comes out swinging for the JLP. No surprise there. However, to claim that the PNP will rule with and at the behest of 'elites' is to be disingenuous as the JLP does the same thing. Both parties are financed by and rule on behalf of the economic elite. Both parties are wings of the same bird - the economic elite. Mark Golding is NOT a socialist - even though he says he is. Mark Golding is a liar. Mark Golding and the PNP are capitalist through and through and anyone who researches Mr. Golding and the PNP's economic links can see that. But then, so is the Holness family - capitalist. Socialism is dead in Jamaica so we can move on from that argument. Jamaica is ruled by the JLP/PNP political elite who are beholden to the corporate elite who funds them. The Jamaican media is also owned by this corporate elite. Who pays the piper, calls t...

  https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20230722/st-elizabeth-female-farmer-gets-donkey-promised-pm No matter how the wearers of the green sunglasses do not like it, we have got to move away from politicians being involved in the giving out of donkeys, farm worker tickets, houses and the like....These are things that should be entrusted to the government/civil service bureaucracy to deal with in a fair and unbiased manner. Why? Because public money is not supposed to be the personal slush fund for politicians to use to buy votes. In a properly run country, everyone gets equal treatment according to need. These things are being provided by public money contributed by all of the tax paying public. The use of public money to provide goods and services to people needs to be properly monitored and accounted for. When this process is short-circuited by the intervention of politicians, it opens up the process to abuse: partisan bias, nepotism, corruption and the like. Time to change th...

  https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/the-right-reforms-will-restore-confidence/ The most important part in the above article is #5. " 5)In line with enhancing fairness and equity in the political landscape, publicly funded election campaigns are a pivotal step forward. By providing all candidates with equal access to media platforms, such as press coverage, airtime, and town hall meetings, we level the playing field and promote a more substantive and issues-based campaign environment. This empowers the electorate to make informed choices based on the merits and policies put forth by candidates rather than being limited to options dictated solely by political parties. It is now a good a time to provide the people of Jamaica with a governing system that truly serves them, one that holds leaders accountable while providing the checks and balances necessary to create an efficient Government." Currently, Jamaicans only choice is between the two gangs in Gordon House, between ...

  You can also see my video on this topic here:  https://youtu.be/sZm5eCjwym0 As the above Gleaner graphic shows, Jamaicans believe that their politicians are the most corrupt group in Jamaica. Second to that is the police. Yet, nothing has been done about it. There has been no widescale social upheaval. In this piece, I will deal with how this situation has come about and what we can do about it. There are three areas of state power: 1.     1.   Political power - those who control the government. 2.      2.  Economic power – those who control the land, the banks and businesses. 3.      3.  Social Power – those who control the mainstream media and religion. Recently, Barbados removed the British monarch as their symbolic head of state and replaced the title of monarch with a symbolic Barbadian President. This woke up the Jamaican political leaders who had grappled with this issue before but were unable to co...

  Are Jamaicans giving up the fight? As one who 'gave up' and emigrated a long time ago, I feel your pain. Even though my personal situation at the time was good, when I saw the clouds on the horizon, I fled Jamaica. At the time of my leaving, people berated me for leaving as I did not fall into the category of poor. Now, some of those same people criticized me and who refused to leave are leaving or if they can't leave now because of age or changes in immigration, they regret not leaving when they could. Their faith in Jamaica's future has been dashed on the rocks. Jamaica has been hijacked by a corrupt political elite collaborating with a mostly white, brown or Chinese corporate elite, a corrupt government bureaucratic elite, criminal gangs and a compliant media owned and controlled by the corporate elite all of which are backed by a corrupt police force and a loyal army. Also, thousands of Jamaicans benefit from the current corrupt situation - from the corrupt co...

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/are-there-honest-politicians/ For the last 60+ years, Jamaica's politiricks has been hijacked by a consortium made up of the corporate elite, a corporately supported subservient media elite and a corporately supported corrupt political elite which leaves Jamaicans with a choice between a corrupt JLP and a corrupt PNP. Realizing this, most Jamaicans passively opt out of the political process which maintains the status quo leaving the political field to loyal party hacks and party thugs feeding on the political trough. It is practically impossible to break this stranglehold on the political system because the corporate elite will not fund the start-up of any other political group as the corporate elite is quite happy with the obedience of the PNP/JLP gangs. The media elites, in subservience to their corporate elites will not give equal or positive media coverage to any new political movement. Although most of us Jamaicans do not support the JLP...

Lisa Hanna: A Tale of Two Jamaicas - Part 2 https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20230602/kristen-gyles-society-inequity-pawn-king Doctors nurses, teachers and other professionals have to study, pass exams and then be licensed to enter their professions. After that, they have to adhere to a code of conduct. Any hooligan can be a politician in Jamaica. There is no license to be a politician and the code of conduct for politicians is a joke as they have associated with gangs and criminals for decades and even beat their women without much consequence. Secondly, if the pay was so bad, why is there always serious competition among lawyers, doctors and other professionals to become politicians? If you believe now that because of these pay increases, Jamaica is going to achieve its development goals as stated in Vision 2030, I have some beachfront land to sell you in Siberia. The simple fact is that our politics is corrupt and our politics is seen as a way to a public feeding troug...

Impact of migration and ageing on Jamaica Jamaica will not be able ..'to create an environment that encourages skilled individuals to stay in Jamaica..' simply because the political leadership has created a situation where the Jamaican economy is unable to provide the wages, benefits and quality of life available in the developed countries. Reducing dependence on remittances and 'creating a diverse and resilient economy' is easier said than done. The writer does not say how to do this. Creating 'a diverse and resilient economy' is hard. Our politicians are corrupt and lazy so that ain't gonna happen. They would much rather continue to depend on our remittances. The politicians and the elite corporate class do not depend on the public health system. The politicians and the elite corporate class go abroad for specialized health care and when they die, they often die in private health facilities abroad. While money can always be found to increase politicians...

  https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/farm-workers-fuming/ I have always been against these farm work programs. The argument that Canadians will not do the work is false. Canadians are hard working and work under even more severe conditions in remote northern work camps in the oil, gas and forestry industries. In one case during my younger years in Canada, I lived in a tent above the arctic circle working on a project. Temperatures dropped to the - 60 degrees Celsius sometimes. The problem with the farm work programs as presently structured is that it does not pay the Canadian level of wages for that difficult work. The farm work programs prey on the desperation of poor workers in poor countries like Jamaica. In addition, these workers do not enjoy the same rights as Canadian workers such as the right to refuse unsafe work - even though they are supposed to according to the rules of the program. The farm work programs are a subsidy to these Canadian farms. If a business cannot pay...

  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...