The Plane Truth: American Airlines’ Runway Super Muddle

Miracle on the Jamrock

Thank God, Praises to Allah, Tank yu Jah Jah! The AA overshot the runway, did not brake except for the break in the fence, and like a few politician, switched and landed on the opposite side of the road. Immediately, the image of a vehicle skidding off the asphalt conjures up thoughts of membership in another AA but let the ideas brew as we distill the details. Good news, just three weeks short of the anniversary of US Airways “Miracle on the Hudson” landing on January 15 2008.

My Near Miss

This is a story which is particularly close to me because the aircraft came down at a place that I was scheduled to pass, on my way to Morgan’s Harbour Hotel in Port Royal, where I was to join my RJR 94FM colleagues on an outside broadcast. Were it not for my tardiness and lethargy, my punctuality would have given me a first hand, high-definition, full impact account of the crash. At a minimum, I would have been stranded on the other side of the Port Royal Road for several hours. Start with the good news. With the exception of a few millilitres of body fluids and couple kilograms of fright-generated waste, nothing was lost. No fatalities! Call this not the miracle on the Hudson, but a miracle on another Rock. Jamrock!

Plane Specifications

Boeing 737-800s land and take off on the average at a ground speed of 250 kilometres (140 miles) per hour. This assumes a relatively full craft with some 150 passengers. Imagine the force of such an object weighing more than 60,000 kilograms.or around 132,000 pounds. Compare this to a motor car such as Usain Bolt’s crashed BMW M3 which tips the scale at a mere 1,400 kilos. An aircraft of that size and mass slamming into anything, including the sea, could easily mean its disintegration. Just imagine even being in a building just 18 feet off the ground on the second floor, falling. How come nobody died?

Early Reports

Reports are still preliminary; and your guess is as good as mine. Actually no! I was on the scene before the Ministers of Transport, Security and Information. Even the two former ‘shadow’ ministers were there in the dark, trying to get a first hand view. Here are the facts. It all started with flight American Airlines 331 leaving Washington DC via Miami and it ended with a few bumps off Runway 30 at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) on the old Palisadoes Peninsula.

Missed Landing

This craft, carrying 152 passengers, heading for sun and sea, appeared to land much too fast and took them to the beach much earlier than they expected. Three more metres from the nose takes you into water. The cause of the crash is not known and I reserve my judgement if not the pilot’s. However, one gets the impression that our neighbours to the north are struggling to find something peculiar about Jamaica that might have contributed significantly to the incident. American Airlines pilots, with hundreds of winter flights per year, in snow, sleet almost no visibility and ice, should not be overly daunted by tropical rain. Sometimes snowy landings are so common that they remind us that America is a White country. Okay! The flight landed at night in a Black country.

Requirements for Safe Landing

In order to have a safe landing 737-800s require up to 2,000 metres (7,000 feet) of asphalted runway, but can easily come to a halt in less. I took a first hand view of a few such planes touching down since Wednesday and saw so much runway left, we could divest part of it along with the national airline that the government is inexplicably refusing to sell to our pilots. For the record, Runway 30 has another 700 metres (2,000 feet) and our Air Jamaica pilots regularly land Airbus 320, essentially the same craft, on it. British Airways and Virgin pilots routinely land the bigger Boeing 747 in all kinds of conditions on the same ‘tiny’ unlit runway. Of course, if a pilot wants to make maximum use of the runway he has to avoid leaving half of it untouched, no matter how much he wants to evade contact with a black surface.

Tail Wind

Furthermore, one should always be mindful of the wind. In flight school student pilots are taught “never land with a tail wind.” However, in craft such as these airplanes, there is a maximum allowable trailing wind of 10 knots in most cases. Check the wind speed and direction at 10:00 pm on Tuesday December 22 from the Met Office or Air Traffic Information Service. 'Twas an ill wind that blew no good!

Rain

Nonetheless, we know that it was raining steadily. Some of the American reports give the impression that it was a major inundation, especially since two adults and a child had drowned hours earlier in Portland. Well let’s just get this straight! It rained continually for four days-meaning that it was not consistent. It was a deluge but do not self-delude into thinking that it was an impossible situation. In any event, Air Jamaica flight JM62 had landed in similar conditions just half an hour earlier. Furthermore, the tragedy in Portland, 50 miles away, is more the result of incomplete road work and not just the weather.

Missing Approach Lights

Never mind the accurate report from BusinessWeek magazine on Thursday that a 400-metre stretch of white lights over the sea was non-functioning for the last month. That is not a requirement; it merely assists pilots who, in any event, should be using their instruments. Notwithstanding that, they are obliged to have sight of the runway at least 200 feet above ground. If not; circle, next runway or next airport.

Inadequate Emergency Provision

Still, our post-crash response like King Belshazzar, was weighed and found wanting.
The Airport Authorities reported that they responded within 120 seconds. Passengers’ estimates are between 15 and 25 minutes. The truth lies somewhere in between and is perhaps mitigated by the speedy rescue by a father of one of the passengers and a 'sheroic'driver of a Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC)bus, who were just in the vicinity.

But, we did not have enough ambulances, fire trucks or medical personnel. Clearly, the enviable safety record of the Jamaican air transport system might have contributed to this complacency but it is no excuse. Imagine if the plane had exploded or many were critically injured. This must be a wake up call.

Air J to the World

Alas, travellers have found a new enthusiasm for Air Jamaica and its competent flight crew and don’t want it sold. With many passengers now scared of AA it should mean a tail windfall for Air J. But no. Any loss of the guaranteed number of seats to AA means that Jamaica’s government must pay it US$4.5 million, in a curious deal negotiated with Tourism Minister Ed ‘Boughtless.’ Guess what, the Air J CEO who closed down two Air J routes in the USA is the husband of an AA executive. He was employed to rivals before, worked with Air J, left for the competition and then came back to the not-so-fatted calf.

No explosion, but lots of smoke and more fire.

Where the Truth Lies: De-Taxification

Prediction about IMF

Didn’t I tell you that any agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would likely lead to hardships? Assurances were given by the Prime Minister and the Intelligent Finance Minister (IFM) that the Fund had changed since it was typified as the Debt Trap by Cheryl Payer and the documentary Life and Debt. All researchers who have studied the activities of the IMF and World Bank know that their policies generally require; reduction of public expenditure, decrease in welfare spending, retrenchment in the public sector, divestment of public companies, restrictions on wages, devaluation and general facilitation of the capitalist class at the expense of workers. This is old news and there are no success story.

Honesty Please!

Look! I like Bruce Golding and I hope, for all of our sakes that he succeeds. Whether he and the other folk of Greenland wish to be like Lot’s wife and constantly look back at what their predecessors from Orange Field did, it is his problem now and nobody begged him to take the ‘wuk.’ Believe me, he has my support and anything that I can do to make him succeed, although I am thankfully not in his cabinet, I will do. But for God’s sake man, let us know what the truth is!

Ignorance of Global Crisis

In September 2008, the IFM promised us that we would not be seriously affected by the global crisis. While the sensible among us knew that it was as much bull as we find annually at the Denbigh Agricultural show, some were naïve enough to think that in the desert storm which was being predicted world wide, we would have a cool oasis.

Four Tax Packages

For the fourth time this year taxes have made a yo-yo, see saw journey. Last week taxes increased with such volume that one additional one also rose; heart-a- tax. With break-back speed the General Consumption Tax (GCT) was added unto so many items we became as confused as a minister. More water than flour, sardines, hardly any item was exempt, the entire national dish was on the chopping block. Ackee, among the list of ground provisions, had joined her companion saltfish. Basic toiletries such as tissue were added in one swipe. Women understandingly had their anger flowing claiming that the tax on sanitary napkins was immense and unfair. The impact of this was likely to be devastating on the working class as they would have been bleeding for much of the post Christmas period and few optimists spotted any relief. Many cried deception, saying that government has given them a six for a nine or rather, a six for an eight because they have left us short. Given everything that was being done to the poor we were lucky that condoms did not attract GCT.

We are in for a rough ride. Make your mind up! Either the IMF dictates to you, or you make the decision yourself. The old IMF used to tell an aspiring borrowing state that it had to do a number of things before it could be considered to get the money.

IMF Conditionalities

These were called conditionalities. IMF dictates and we take. Now we are told that the Fund has changed, therefore it does not dictate to any country what to do. Our government cannot have it both ways, whoever they have in the cabinet. They cannot say that the tax initiative is the dictate of the IMF while claiming independence. What the IMF said was that the budget be balanced. Of course, pay your bills, show how you are going to earn as much as you spend. Then you can come and be considered for a loan. Is that independence?

Decision of Government

Here is the truth, the independence lies between the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. They decide how the budget is going to be balanced. So then it is a vicious circle. If we had got the money from the Fund, we would not have had to raise the taxes. But raise taxes we have to. What this needs is forethought or at a minimum, thought

Strangely, despite the suggestions of learned economists that the rich should have been targeted via interest on government paper etc, this was ignored. Then the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) rebelled. The tongue of the Comrade Leader was drawn and six protests were carried out across the land. Withdraw they said and stop doing it to the people; it is too hard for them. Return to 'Parliement' for a debate, was the call.

Recant

Then the PM spoke... eloquently ... without the benefit of an erudite IFM. He asked the people to understand, he said he had listened to them and now he is rolling it back. Not a complete roll back but he leaves an inch as we feel less of a pinch. GCT now moves from 16.5 to 17.5 percent. Persons earning above $5 million will now pay income tax of 27 percent. Hah! He now listens, but he cannot simply recant to what the PNP demanded because he is running the country. It will appear that he did not have any idea what to do in the first place.

This is the problem in leadership. Just as it was in September, we are left unconvinced about where we are being driven to. Male drivers often ignore directions or fail to ask for them simply because the woman beside them chats too much.

Hmmm!

It is now more bearable but GCT remains on a number of items. Still, poor people can once again buy the cheap goods and ground provisions. However, clothes will also continue to be expensive. Shoes will still attract GCT, so we are going to have to use cheaper footwear this festive season.

My choice of slippers are flip flops.

Bombaat! Buju Bids Bye Bye?

Good God! Gargamel gone!

From whichever angle you turn this story; front, side or rear, it stinks. Buju Banton arrested in the United States (US) on a drug charge. This time it is not the simple act of finding a ‘cess’ plant growing on his premises. This charge is so serious he can be sent deep into the cesspool. It is an extremely serious offence, “conspiracy to possess with the intention to distribute more than five kilos of cocaine.”

Serious Charge

Such a charge carries a 20-plus year sentence and nightmarish horrors of being incarcerated and not daring to sing his popular 1992 song which begins, “Big it up.” Think, wah di DJ charge fa? He may very well be denied bail ostensibly because the case is a major offence but also because being a Jamaican resident he could be seen as literally a ‘flight’ risk. After all, we have pretty much demonstrated that it is not easy to extricate popular figures simply because the US has charges against them. You simply can't 'pre' residents.

I Con

Buju is a musical and Rastafarian icon, who, if the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has its way, the icon will become I an I con. The immediate reaction is one of shock and consternation. With the benefit of only one hand on the truth, the jerk reaction is that he was set up by the gay lobby in the US for his maligned homophobic song, that he had sung so long ago that much of the Boom had gone out of it and he has pretty much said bye bye to it.

Gay-FLAG

Our own Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals and Gays (Gay FLAG), looking askance at the reports, takes exception to the association in the Jamaican press between Buju’s present travail and the flak he had been getting since he has unsuccessfully struggled to put his one anti-gay song behind him. According its spokesman Jason McFarlane, there is no evidence nor any likelihood of conspiracy.

Facts of the Case

Not wishing to pre-judge, let us look at the facts. Buju was allegedly caught on electronic surveillance over a three day period. The DEA has recordings of telephone conversations in which he negotiated the purchase of amounts of cocaine for distribution. Details of the matter are contained in an affidavit from the agent, “pounds dem a buy when a tons man a ship.” Actually, that was from his hit Driver, which he now probably regrets that he recorded.

Nonetheless, he went in the company of at least two other men to link up with someone who unknown to them, was an informer or plant by the Feds. Not a simple onlooker, it was concluded that Buju was a ‘buystander,’ even taste-testing the stuff to determine its quality. If that is true, how would an upful, ital Rastaman know how coke differs from any fake stuff, if he has never himself touched it? Or was it a quality test? After everything, there was a tape, which is at least as damning as the fabled King Size tape supposedly being hidden by the Jamaican police. Whether or not he has carried out the crime he is guilty of one charge; Stupidity! Even if he wanted to buy drugs why did he go himself? Understandably, a Rastaman will go for a chalice but Buju went for cup.

Whatever might be the belief of his fans, detractors and others, the fact is that on the face of it, the Feds have a case that is as tight and impermeable as the latex that more than 32 percent of Jamaican gay men don’t use.

I don’t know what happened but Buju was in places that he should not have been and it does make the sceptics and open minded scientists ask, Is it simply imagination that gave him so much detail of a shipment of contraband across the US, in his song?

Art Imitating Life

Entertainers often sing about illegal and immoral activities and we sometimes conclude that there is a direct relationship between what they sing and what they do or might have done. Others argue that the lyrics bear very little relationship to reality. Leave the Gully-Gaza issue for a while and look at a song by the late Notorious BIG, Niggas Bleed. The details in that song are uncanny, giving the listener and inside view of a drug heist. “Today's agenda, got the suitcase up in the Sentra, Go to room 112, tell em Blanco sent ya… Feel the strangest, if no money exchanges… Just bring back the coke or the cream. ” here's the deal I got a hundred bricks, fourteen-five apiece … Enough to cop a six; buy the house on the beach… Supply the peeps with Jeeps, brick apiece, capiche?”
Check Biggie’s songs such as Who Shot Ya? and Kick in the Door Waving the 4-4. Biggie is still my favourite but I have to wonder if the violence that he sang about followed him and came home to haunt him? So, the question is, Did life imitate art or was his art simply a reflection of his life? I have addressed this in several articles for the Gleaner. Check the link http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080330/cleisure/cleisure4.html

Entrapment?

Still, despite the case appearing so water-tight that fish could swim in it, there is the possibility that Buju was induced into committing a crime that he was not otherwise contemplating committing. In American law that is called ‘entrapment.’ It has not always been a perfect defence, because many a man is rotting is prison because of a DEA agent actually supplying him with ingredients to manufacture drugs and then charge him for it. Two such cases are the 1970s’ United States v. Russell and Hampton and Co v. The United States. The important element there, however, is that the court held that the defendants were already predisposed and inclined to carry out the illegal act.

Set up and Repercussions

Yet, the 1958 case of Sherman v.United States determined that the defendant would likely not have purchased the drugs if an informant who was working for the police not approached and told him to. More recently, the 1992 Nebraska case of Jacobson v. United States established that a man, who was finally lured and hooked by the persistent effort of postal inspectors to purchase child pornography, had no evidence of premeditation. Thus, not guilty.

One question I want answered is, who is this unknown informant who was working behind the scene against Buju? Was he known to him in another capacity but was in the closet or on the down low? What is his sexuality? If he is gay then that is a different kettle of …

I won’t try to master this one but I wait with bated breath. However, if Buju was really set up by a gay or gay sympathiser, what do you think will happen to known or suspected gays in Jamaica?

Remember! Life does imitate art.


By the way, would you believe that some ignorant Americans think that Batty Rider is a homphobic song? http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/entertainment/recordings/20091214_ap_authoritiesbujubantonnegotiatedcocainedeal.html

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Tribute to Michael Pryce

The price was right but sometimes the Pryce was wrong, but this time it was the right price but wrong time. Actually, given some of the people who work behind the scenes and dig up the mud instead of being up front, it might also have been the wrong price. He is sadly missed, a consummate professional, who at times literally fought over the truth.

Forty-eight is so short. It’s too early and too soon. I feel it for his wife, his children and his colleagues, as well as those of us who appreciate quality. No child should have to lose his/her father so young. It spoiled my day but at least I am alive to be sad.

Weird! Can you believe that we are the same age and today when I got the news, I was wearing a shirt that resembles one of his favourite ones. Remember that black shirt with the grey/white stripes?

May the Lord embrace you, Michael Pryce and this time I hope the Pryce goes up.

Just for my Students

Those who support and remember me after your journey is complete, God bless.

link me on Facebook. My username is Duh!Orville Taylor Blackline

This Week in Black History

July 25
1912 Comoros proclaimed French colonies
1847 Liberia, where the American Colonization Society established the first settlement, Monrovia, in 1822 on land 'granted' by local rulers, becomes an independent republic with a constitution based on that of the US. Unfortunately the ex-slave colonists applied the US template too well, and set about enslaving Africans from the interior and neighbouring countries.
1936 Shamefully, Germany recognizes the Italian conquest of Abyssinia
1943 Did you know that a warship was named for a Black person? the SS Leonard Roy
Harmon, was launched in Quincy, Massachusetts
1971 Dr Christiaan Neethling Barnard carries out the first combined heart and lung transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
Dr Barnard had carried out the first heart transplant back on 3 December 1967.
1972 US health officials concede blacks were used as guinea pigs in
40 year syphillis experiment. Read about Tuskeegee Experiments www.thetalkingdrum.com/tus.html
July 26
1865 Patrick Francis Healy is first Black American awarded PhD
1953 Cuban Revolution begins with the Movimiento de 26 de Julio. Moncada Barracks attacks, 100 poorly armed insurgents against a garrison of 2,000 soldiers. Repelled and arrested, sentenced to 15 years. “La historia me absolvera.” 1955 Fulgencio Batista released all political prisoners and Castro et al exiled to Mexico. Returned to Cuba in Granma November
July 27
1962 Martin Luther King Jr jailed in Albany Georgia
1968 Race Riot in Gary Indiana
July 28

189- Ascendancy of St Victor I, 14th pope (189-199). The First of three known Black popes

1868 The 14th Amendment, making Blacks American citizens, adopted
1915 10,000 blacks march on 5th Ave (NYC) protesting lynchings
1915 US forces invade Haiti, stays until 1924. The US controlled government, finance and virtually treat it as a colony.
1966 Major-General Johnson Thomas Umurakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, head of the Nigerian National Military Government is ousted when his own troops mutiny. He is replaced as leader by Yakubu Gowon.
1967 Eight days of racially motivated disturbances end in Detroit, Michigan. The uprising, one of the worst of its kind in the 20th century, kills 43 people, injures 2,000, and results in over 5,000 arrests and over 1,400 fires
1975 Exactly nine years after he took power Gowon is deposed in a bloodless military coup and replaced by Murtala Ramat Mohammed.
July 29

1985 South African President PW Botha threatens military and economic reprisals against neighbouring black controlled countries if the United States does not relax sanctions.
1990 Abu Baker-led Jamaat Al Muslimeen, attempt an overthrow of the Trinidad and Tobago Government, shooting President ANR Robinson in the process.
July 30

1839 Slave rebels, led by Joseph Cinque, kill the captain and take over the slave ship Amistad in the most celebrated
of American slave mutinies. The rebels were captured off
Long Island on August 26. This epic was made into the movie Amistad

1863 - President Lincoln gave an order to shoot a Confederate
prisoner for every African American prisoner that was shot;
it became known as the "eye-for-eye" order. A rebel
prisoner would also be condemned to life in prison doing
hard labor, for every African American prisoner sold into
slavery. The order had restraining influence on the
Confederate government, though individual commanders and
soldiers continued to murder captured African American
soldiers.

1866 - White Democrats, led by police, attack a convention of
African American and white Republicans in New Orleans,
Louisiana. More than 40 persons are killed, and at least
150 persons are wounded. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, Military
commander of the state, says "It was not riot; it was an
absolute massacre...which the mayor and the police of the
city perpetrated without the shadow of a necessity."
July 31

1874 - Patrick Francis Healy, a Jesuit priest, is inaugurated as
president of Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Healy is the first African American to head a
predominantly white university and is credited with the
modernization of the university's curriculum and the
expansion of its campus.

Taming the Tiger for Christmas

Have you ever wondered who would win in a fight between a European bear and a Tiger? Male South East Asian Tigers, such as the Bengal and Sumatran weigh around 500 lbs and average some nine feet long. Female Bears come in about 350 pounds. Polar bears criss-cross the Arctic but don’t go as far as Sweden. So while they look like the perfect Viking bear, they are not.

Tiger and Bear Mating

It is hard to imagine a tiger and a bear mating but obviously they have tried and produced viable offspring. Damn! Imagine what you can produce with a long metal club and little white balls. Nevertheless, our falling hero is actually not a tiger. Lions come from Africa, where the father of Eldrick ‘Tiger’ Woods came from and of course, his Thai mother is Asian. So he is a ‘Liger.’ Much less aggressive than either the lion or tiger, the liger is the biggest pussycat that has ever walked the whole earth. Tipping over the scales at more than 1000 pounds and exceeding 10 feet when standing on its hind legs, it strikes fear into all.

Liger

Yet, the liger is a confused animal; it has an ambivalent sense of what it is. Lions typically roar and hate water. Tigers are more aquatic, growl and chuff, but never roar. Well ligers stand in water and roar. They don’t make many more oral sounds but if a liger could talk it would tell you that it is a “Caublasian.” This is the term which Eldrick invented as he refused to accept the label that America’s one drop rule gives to him. "Brotha! If youse got even one drop of Black ancestral coal in your family tree… you Black!" He is a Liger from another set of words. The first comes from liar because he is lying to first to himself and then poorly so to his wife. The second is less obvious and denigrating but difficult to ignore. However, he will get it when he falls asleep after eating.

Mystery

Mystery surrounds the recent clash and divorce while living at home. Tiger has fallen into the Black stereotype of cheating on his wife with a white waitress who looks set to trash his marriage. As any reasonable woman would, she took a club to him and beat him like the New Jersey Nets or Cleveland Browns and he took off on a drive. Unfortunately, his drive was nothing as long as those on the golf courses and as he tried to escape and cool off, he took out a fire hydrant crashing like his pristine image. Hopefully, his prowess as a golf cart driver on the many courses he plays shows more inter-course dexterity.

Dollars but no Sense

Estimated by Forbes to be worth an estimated US$600million, he has a lot of dollars but little sense. This self-negating brotha must really not be black at all, because he has no obvious penchant for PHAT, bootlicious African American women. He married Swede Elin Nordegren in 2004 and is now suspected of having cheated with three White women; Rachel Uchitel, Jaimee Grubbs, and Kalika Moquin. After a pubic (sic) apology, (what the ‘L’ was that about?) it is now reported that he has allowed his wife to renegotiate the pre-nuptial agreement and he is paying her a hefty $80 million to stay in the marriage. What about staying and forgiving or leaving with your half?

Pimping
If there is any truth in the rumour then he just needs the gaudy clothes, Bootsy Collins Funkadelic glasses, mink coat and fly shoes, because he be pimping. something stinks about such an arrangement. Yes! Money for compensation due to the break up. That makes sense. But if she stays because he pays there is no question as to what kind of relationship they have and what kind of woman she is.

Then again it is approaching yuletide and her Scandinavian folk hero Santa Claus must be laughing early. Ho! Ho Ho! Merry Christmas! The bear wins.

Goo Goo Gaza, Gully Goons

Vybz Empire

Have you ever seen a more disingenuous set of Jamaicans? Entertainer Vybz Kartel blames the society and says that music doesn’t influence people to act. OK! So he doesn’t believe that his music has an impact! Then why does he produce CDs? For his own pleasure? His comments are as honest as his skin is originally coloured, but I think this grandstanding is unbecoming of the bleachers. I always wondered why he called himself Kartel since he is only one man. But less puzzling is his first name, since he has constantly been having “vibes” with everyone; from Ninjaman, to Bounty to Mavado et al. He calls his clan the Gaza Empire, ostensibly with him as the Emperor.

The last two persons in charge of Black populated empires were Queen Victoria and Haile Selassie I, and he certainly is not Jah Jah! Even so, didn’t he claim ‘victory’ at Sting?

Gully god

On the other bank or hand is a young man who is monikered the “Gully god.” This is a youth who is apparently named after a watch that has no number on its face. The original word movado, means “always in motion.” But he needs to stop and think. He is no God and! Perhaps he doesn’t intend to “watch no face.” By the way, is he Mavado because it is one of those Jamaican misspellings and mispronunciations, such as; “flim” and “corporate” as “we live good,” or is it one of those Jamaican words such as “venticate?” Or is it from the Spanish malvado, which means evil?

A serious impasse has blown up between the followers of each camp and the Prime Minister on Sunday declared, “The gully-gaza conflict is just one example of the negative influences that destabilize us as a people and destroy our confidence in ourselves.” Is he real? How many thousands of Jamaicans died on the altar of JLP/PNP politics?

Plantation Legacy

Indeed, Vybz and Mavado are the products of the legacy of the plantation history. We know that the purported Willie Lynch Letter is a hoax but its instructions for the control of Blacks are absolutely true. The fictional Lynch, a White plantation overseer, writing in the 1700s, outlined a perfect divide-and-rule strategy that fostered baseless mistrust and hostility. This effectively kept the Blacks in subjection until the present. I don’t care if there were a real Willie Lynch, what is important is that his dictates are fact, “distrust is stronger than trust, and envy is stronger than adulation, respect or admiration. The black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousand.”

Victims and Violators

Still, Vybz and Mavado are as much victims as they are violators. We have never been a united people, race or nation. It was division among us that allowed light-skinned Black Norman Manley to prosecute Marcus Garvey here and also keep him out of the Municipal council in 1929. Then we created two major political parties to deepen the sore and widen the chasm. Ghettos were created by the unequal economic development of the post-World War II period, but garrisons are the handiwork of the PNP and JLP, who like the plantation overseers seemed to have an interest in keeping the poor blacks ignorant, and uneducated, so that they could be controlled.

Our propensity to violence; anti informer culture and anti-gay sentiments are not recent phenomena but are direct consequences of our plantation experience. Look out for future postings as this will be explored and explained.

Furthermore, there were always isms and schisms in the music. Few remember that Prince Buster and Derrick Morgan had their vibes as well in the 1960s. As others sang Rude Bwoy lyrics in that era, Alton Ellis had the presence of mind to sing more lovers-oriented recordings.

Long Time Slackness

The slackness is not new either. Who remembers, Clancy Eccles’ I love you Fatty? Check General Echo, Welton Irie and Madoo who did sexually explicit songs of the 1970s and the 80s, Yellow Man was slackness king, Shabba Ranks’ Love Punany Bad and Needle Eye Pum Pum literally can’t dun. Go on You Tube and search for Buster’s 1966 Wreck a Pum Pum and see if it is any less graphic than Romping Shop, which I actually like very much. Did you know that producers in the past, and perhaps present, pushed entertainers to sing profanity? Ask early 1990s DJ Tumpa Lion, who did songs such as Tight like a virgin, A Di Glue Weh She Have and Yes Indeed. I interview him this week.

However, in an era when there are multiple sources of media; cable, ipod, mp4, CDs etc, our youngsters are constantly bombarded with positive and negative influences. Entertainers have powerful control over what people do especially the young and impressionable. These two DJs are doing exactly what we learned on the plantation and are behaving just like the overseers.

Violence Back at the Teacher

Hopefully they will come to their senses, have a reasoning and give a united front against the malice between them. This is so reminiscent of the pointless feud between Tupac Shakur and the Notorious BIG between 1996 and 1997. Just a word of caution to Vybz and Movado. Our little boys with guns live in the country that had the most slave rebellions per capita during the epoch of slavery. Furthermore the NYPD and LAPD, two better equipped police forces than the JCF, could not stop their murders. You think that you are both bullet- proof or immune in the murder capital of the world?

If they had studied literature in school they would have learnt from MacBeth in the eponymic Shakespearean tragedy. “Bloody instructions which, being taught, return to plague the inventor.”

Where the Truth Lies: Afri-con-nection?

Habari, bwana! habari, bibi (Greetings Sir! Greetings Mam!) That was Swahili, the native language of Kenya and Tanzania and it is in honour of the visit of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete who arrived Monday accompanied by his wife Salma. It is always good to connect with our African brothers and sisters. This is especially significant since it is on the 90th anniversary of the inaugural voyage of the first ship of Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line.

Yes! It was in 1919, November 23 that the Yarmouth, re-named the SS Frederick Douglass, set out to sea with much fanfare. Interesting it is to note that the vessel, full of hope of millions of Black people, was making a short trip down the Hudson River. Though not the driver, Garvey was the ‘pilot’ and great dreamer, who then said to his wife, “Close your eyes, Amy. Africa is on the other side of that line of fire in the sky.” How amazing it is that one can get a more lucid vision of where one is leading a people to simply by closing one’s eyes. Bet you that nobody in Jamaica remembered the historic occasion because the visit of Kikwete is more symbolic and diversionary than anything. As the president touched down I asked, “Habari yako, bwana?" (What’s your news Sir?)

Tanzanian Link

Our connection with Tanzania is not really based on a common history; none of our ancestors was taken from there via the transatlantic slave trade. Perhaps one might want to count the May 17, 1975 world 1,500 metres record set by Tanzanian Filbert Bayi at the Jamaican National Stadium or the visit of “Mwalimu” President Julius Nyerere on September 14 1974 and his second in 1998. Nah!

Kikwete will unveil the plan to overcome the present crises… Actually no! Not that president, we still have to wait a bit longer for that, he is simply inaugurating the masterpiece sculpture of Jamaican athletic legend, Herb McKenley at the said stadium. Why him? Then we understand that he is having a meeting with Tourism Minister Ed “American Airlines” Bartlett over “investment opportunities.” What investments? Possibly Bwana has a chair factory and he knows that we are in the market for J$77,000 chairs.

Island Hop

Just let us be honest! He is island hopping and decided to stop over in the Land of Black Green and Bolt, but just paused briefly on the ‘green.’ There is a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad that he is en route to. So he just stopped by to full his eye.

So it’s about camaraderie, hosted by the Prime Minister (PM), he is visiting Opposition Leader Portia Simpson-Miller, collecting a national honour, addressing Parliament and dining with the Adventist Governor General, while on his three day Sabbatical from active duty.

Personally, I would have preferred it have been Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade, since his countryman, IAAF President Lamine Diack, stood up in defence of Usain Bolt when he was attacked by IOC boss Jacques Rogge in Beijing.


Jamaica Better Off

But don’t get excited, Kikwete doesn’t have any money to give or lend us because Tanzania is far worse off than us.

True, it is a much larger land of 947,300 sq km compared to our just under 11,000. Its Mount Kilimanjaro at 5,895 metres makes our 2,256 metres Blue Mountain look like Carlos or Aubyn Hill. Its population is 41 million is more than 15 times ours. But size doesn’t necessarily mean better.

Languishing in the bottom ten percent of the world’s economies, its US$1,400 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is a crumb of Jamaica’s US$8,600. It is heavily agrarian, with more than 40 percent of its GDP coming from agriculture, which earns more than 80 percent of its foreign exchange and employs 80 percent of its labour force. Jamaica’s economy is more ‘modern’ with 60 percent of our workers engaged in the services sector.

Never mind the difficulties that Health Minister Ruddy Spencer has been having in meeting the demands of health in Jamaica that have caused him to shave off his prosperity rim around his head. Tanzanians live an average 52 years. We are healthier and live an expected 74 years

Around 36 percent of Tanzanians live below the poverty line, almost thrice Jamaica’s. More than half of them are under the age of 18 as opposed to Jamaica’s median age of 24. Only 69 percent of them are literate and it is not necessarily in English.

Growth Despite Challenges

Yet, with all of these challenges, one of Africa’s poorest still managed to have a growth rate of 7.1 percent contrasted to Jamaica's -0.6 in 2008, the year when our Informed Minister of Finance (IMF) said there was no imminent threat from the global financial crisis. Maybe Tanzania can teach us something.

Actually yes! Only 23 percent of its GDP is owed as national debt. Check Jamaica, 116percent and still going strong. As Prime Minister Bruce Golding stated on Sunday in a lukecold address to his party’s annual conference, “We are not doing enough to earn enough. The little money that we have is not being spent as wisely as it should.”

This is what you get when you have a country that has 2.7 million cell phones; one per person. Even the Great Land of Farrin the USA has only 270 million. One out of every ten Americans has no phone. Poor Tanzania has only 15 million cell phones; almost two out every three have no cell phones. Our problem is that we chat too much and can’t pay for it.

See! the distraction intended by the PM did work because it made me leave the critique until this column was out of space. Truth is, there was not much to comment on and we await the sliding signing of the agreement with the IMF before I retire. No! Not that aforementioned MF, the International Monetary Fund, I mean.

I am Speaking at ...

July,8, 2010 Travellers Resort, Negril; Rusea's Awards Function, 7:00 pm

July 9, 10:30 a.m - 2:00 p.m. Broadcasting on "Hot Line" on RJR 94FM . It's RJR's Birthday so the programme will be special.

Remember the Hotlink between 12:30 and 1:00. Squeeze from WVIP 93.5 Link Up Radio and I take calls from the Tri-State area. Ask me anything! It is where "The truth comes to live and the lies come to die."

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Where the Truth Lies Nov. 15-21, 2009

Well, it took this for me to finally open my mouth after a year of being pushed through the backdoor by my former editor. Actually, no backdoor was involved but I was still pushed. Now, the push is to speak because speech may be silvern but my silence won’t be Golding.

Being terminated and trying to avoid controversy is something many can empathise with. Getting the pink slip is oftentimes an affront to one’s manhood, especially when the employer gives a queer and quaint pretext, that is as transparent as the female underwear that bears the same name. The Commissioner, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin joined Bank of Jamaica Governor Derick Latibeaudiere and they have been put on the horse and shuffled out of town. A military man, Lewin is accustomed to being given marching orders, but this is ridiculous.

Latibeaudiere

That ‘Latty’ has been dismissed in not in dispute, although it is in disrepute. What is strange is not even the text of the Prime Minister’s (PM) speech but its pretext. The Governor was terminated because of his ludicrously large paycheck, a whopping "$38,363,360 plus a fully maintained car, entertainment expenses, medical and life insurance, guaranteed pension and all other benefits to which non-contracted service employees of the Bank are entitled." I would have been comfortable if he had indicated that the dismissal was for misconduct. With all the legal minds in the party and the expertise of all the trade unionists, could not even one of them show him how to trump up some charge or make a dismissal for misconduct stick? Insubordination could work. Didn’t the Minister of Fine ants (MF) - which must really be biting now, - mandate him to lower interest rates? Whatever is the case and however iron-clad the contract is, all contracts can be terminated summarily for misbehaviour.

Where there is misconduct, then the employer only has to pay emoluments and leave earned and not a red cent more. Since no charge of impropriety has been proffered then it must simply be that the governor and the government did not take tea. Given the breach of contract, the government is liable to pay Latty all of his unearned salary and buy out the contract. A hell of a price to pay for dissent. Bye bye Missa Latty Mi Bwoy! Take care Mr Incomaptibeaudierre. Now, the Driver has engaged the new brain, Brian Wynter, the son of Hector, late-labourite and journalist. We may be a tropical country but Wynters do come after false.

Commissioner

As for the Commissioner, he had “taken significant steps to stamp out corruption within the Force. He must be commended." Said the Prime Minister(PM).But not enough to control crime. So, it was not his act of commission but one of omission. The Ommissioner was dismissed. Come on! On October 12, the PM went to the direct employer of the Ommissioner, the Chairman of the Public Services Commission and complained that he "had lost confidence in the ability of the Commissioner to deliver the results that the country required." Bredren! It is at that stage that the real dismissal took place. In law we call that a constructive dismissal because all of Jamaica knows that when the PM tells the PSC that it does not want the employee, he does not relent. Section 5 (5)(c) of the Employment Termination and Redundancy Payment Act states that an employee is dismissed if “he is compelled, by reason of the employer’s conduct, to terminate that contract without notice.”

It was therefore very reasonable for the Admiral to salute, turn to the right and and "fall out!" by penning a letter of resignation three days before meeting with the PM on October 23.

My concern is that we now have an acting Commissioner, who had the crime portfolio, that led to us seeing the rear of the Admiral. What is the message that is being sent? Is it that Hardley was tying his hands or was the seaman being prevented from consummating his duties. I don’t like it because could pit police against police, especially since the “Commissioner Designate” vaulted six of his seniors to get the position. Owen Ellington is a good man who deserves all of our support in this war on crime, I just hope that the Prime Minister and crew give him a free hand and not feel that he can be vulnerable to his every behest like a marionette.

The Dust Unsettled

On another note, all wait with ‘baited’ breath as Uncle Sam asks for another of our own and it's not to join the army. People can say whatever they want but it is my opinion that too many of our citizens have been hurriedly shuttled out to the USA without enough been done to secure their rights. Haste makes waste. In any event, did not the indictment report that the individual did conspire with others to import and did, according to their evidence, bring guns into Jamaica? If that is the case shouldn’t we ask for them to be extradited to us? And why should we put US before us? Any way, let’s see how the dust settles.

In the meantime, threats have been allegedly made against Jamaican media houses over their reporting of the extradition request. It is unclear if the threat came from a credible source,since many enthusiasts will make ill-advised statements of the sort. If the short man is as smart as we think, it would be out of character to do so. Both the Gleaner and my employers, the RJR Communication Group have taken it seriously and have "beefed up security." Okay! I know that both locations are not easily accessible to the public, but how will the employees be protected 24/7? Me! I want two dogs, bullet-proof vests and two honest policewomen.

Understandably, General Secretary of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Chief Apologist, Karl Samuda has rejected the reports, declaring, "We're a civilized party and a civilized country and we must get away from this rumour mongering and rying to create havoc in our country. There's nothing of the kind ... dismiss it as abject rubbish,"

Nevertheless, while I am inclined to doubt that it was an "authorised" threat, the lingering question would be, "How would Samuda know?"

Opaque Transparency

Finally, we have slithered further down the ranks as Transparency International dropped us from having a Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of 3.1 last year to 3.0 this year. Graded out of a possible of 10, the higher the number, the less is the perceived corruption. Like the Jamaican Dollar we have fallen unabated since 2003 when the CPI was at 3.8 and the country was ranked 57th on a list of 133 states. Now, Jamdown is 99th out of 180 nations.

Well, with a Junior Minister who allegedly took bribes while a serving bureaucrat under a previous administration; another who needed thousands of free light bulbs to brighten his economic future; a former ruling party that got an improper contribution from an international firm and now two female jurors or juresses who might have tried to obtain a bribe under duress and several members of the constabulary facing criminal charges, what do you expect? By the way, can you imagine a Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP, who lets off a co-accused scotch-free, without explanation,to turn him into a guiltless crown witness, then has the gall to seek majority verdicts instead of the present unanimous?

Oh! THe PM has "encouraged the police to act, despite the political ties of anyone believed to be involved in corruption." Talk and substance are not the same.