My least favourite politicians (Current and Former)

Top there are in order of least favourite, the remainder are in no specific order

• Dr Omar Davis – Former Minister of Finance and Planing -PNP

• Edward Seaga – Former Prime Minister(JLP)

• Portia Simpson Miller – Current Prime Minister (PNP)

• Robert Pickersgill – Minister of water and climate change ? (PNP)

• Everald Warmington – MP (JLP)

• Mike Henry – Former JLP chairman and Minister of Transport and Works(JLP)

• AJ Nicholson – Minister of Foreign Affairs ( PNP)

• Daryl Vaz – MP (JLP)James Robertson – MP (JLP)

• James Robertson -MP (JLP)

 

Worst Performing Politician in recent memory

Robert Pickersgill – Minister of water and climate change ? (PNP)

Dr Omar Davis – Former Minister of Finance and Planing -(PNP)

Portia Simpson Miller – Current Prime Minister (PNP)

I guess you will all want to know why, well I will leave that for some other time.

What will Portia Simpson Miller say today ?

Given the bad situation Jamaica finds itself in today and an absentee  Prime Minister, who is unaware of what is going on around her, what can she bring to the table today, that is truly of her own thinking.

Can the PM  offer Jamaicans any hope or can we expect more rhetoric ?

Can the PM present any plan or set of plans that can restore hope for Jamaicans?

Will  she simply read a speech that has been prepared for her or will she present to the public something she has spent time thinking about and is of substance ?

Can we expect the usually talk of ” big plans” that can offer 30,000+ jobs ?

Will she speak more about expanding the crash program called Jeep?

Will she attempt to “samfie” Jamaicans once again by offering up some goodies like

1. Another increase in the income tax threshold
2. Additional NHT benefits (which cannot be fulfilled)

Will she make the usual plea for Jamaicans to give her and her government time to “rescue” the country from the previous 4 yrs of gross mismanagement by the previous administration?

Will she seek to lay blame at the feet of the previous administration for the delay in the IMF deal and the subsequent slide in the Jamaican dollar?

I have very little hope that this Prime Minister can or will deliver anything that can or will result in an improvement in the fortunes of the country.

I have not yet heard anything in the debate that shows we have a clear and concise plan, with specific actions items that are likely to give predictable results and which will improve the economy of Jamaica and the lives of Jamaicans.

We are on the verge on an IMF deal and our first quarterly “Test” will be in June /July of this year, yet most Jamaicans are unaware of the following:

1. What is the curriculum?
2. What material needs to be covered between now and then?
3. What are the expected outcome/ targets that we are expected to attain by then?
4. What leg work is being done now to prepare us for not only this test but the series of test  to come?
5. What represents pass or failure?
6. What do we need to ensure that pass is the natural outcome vs perennial failure which has been our legacy for the better part of the last 40 yrs and what will PSM outline today, that will lead us to believe that we buck the trend.

 

Call me pessimistic but I hold no hope that what she delivers will be no more that the usual BS meant to give the country false hope but devoid of substance.

For Jamaica’s sake I hope she surprises me and I turn out to be wrong this time around.

Why is my expectations so low of the PM,  well its based on  past demonstrated lack of performance and delivery of any substance meant to create long-term economic benefit for the county.

The problem with my position is having set the bar so low, it become easy to reach and therein lies the bigger issue.

Can PSM surprise me and the rest of Jamaica or will we get what we have come to expect?

Cover up ?

Bad maps are being blamed after Canadian naval reservists participating in the U.S.-led war on drugs last year sparked a diplomatic flap by firing their weapons and intercepting fishing trawlers in Jamaican waters — without Jamaica’s permission.

The embarrassing incident, which has never before been publicly reported, broke international maritime law — not the first time legal questions have been raised about Canada’s increasing involvement in the drug war.

 

http://o.canada.com/2013/04/26/canadian-sailors-opened-fire-in-jamaican-waters-broke-international-law-during-war-on-drugs-mission/

 

The Goose Bay and Kingston also reportedly pulled up alongside one vessel that Jamaican officials said had a “retired senior political figure on board.”

Who is the retired public official and why did he remain silent on the issue ?

 

Can we get a comment from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Security.It took a Canadian journalist for Jamaicans to find out about an incident that occurred in Jamaica.

Who will pay Danzil Clarke for his story ?

Folks, I had left this story for dead, but when I was directed to the story very early this morning I could not help but read what was being said and added a link to a previous post on that issue.

Long before I completed reading the account of Mr Clarke I was laughing so loud at what I thought was joke, written by someone from the Western Bureau given an account of what occurred on the Eastern side of the island.

So  Danzil Clarke is the man who its alleged stole some items from “friends” of Mr Bunting, while he was vacationing in the Eastern part of the country, more specifically Port Antonio.

This story is the Gleaner appears to be a poorly concocted story, ostensibly done to put the matter to rest, but how wrong was this reporter, he seemed to a done nothing but generated more interest in really what happened.

If no local media house is willing to pay Mr Clarke for the real story, I think his family should contact a media house in the USA ( dem no fraidy fraidy) to pay Mr Clarke for the real scope and then run the story online and end this charade once and for all

How about this headline.

” What really happened with the Jamaican National Security Minister at Emerald Forest”.

The DANZIL CLARKE story .

 

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130429/lead/lead2.html

 

I am already salivating 🙂

Caribbean Economies Among The Fastest Growing In The World- IMF

Juxtapose the above statement above to the following statment from Jamaica’s Finance Minister

Peter Phillips says 1% growth is a MAJOR Challenge !

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Phillips-admits-growth-target-challenging_14125317

WASHINGTON, April 28, CMC – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the Caribbean and other low-income countries are among the fastest-growing economies in the world, but warn that many remain vulnerable to shocks and spillovers from advanced and emerging markets.

“Low-income countries have worked to develop institutional capacity and build fiscal buffers that they were able to use during the crisis, and now, all the hard work has paid off,” said IMF Deputy Managing Director Min Zhu told an IMF seminar.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/latest/article.php?id=44457

Given what our Finance Minister has said, it seems Jamaica will not be a beneficiary of  this increase growth.

Selected Caribbean countries growth projections.

Haiti 6.5%

Guyana is looking at 5.5% growth this year

Suriname 4.5%

Bahamas 2.7%

Dominica Republic 2.2%

Eastern Caribbean States 1.7%

Trinidad 1.7%

Barbados 0.5%

Jamaica 0.5%

How about Haiti

 

Portia Simpson Miller visit Haiti (for lessons?)

Peter Phillips in 2006 declared that should Portia  Simpson Miller win the next election, Jamaica would be as poor as Haiti . Thankfully Portia and the PNP lost the election in 2007 thus delaying that prediction by Dr Peter Phillips for 4 years.

The PNP won the next election in December 2011 and in just over 15 months in office the PNP government lead by Portia has managed to make Jamaicans significantly poorer that how they were up to 2011.

As the opposition vividly displayed in a Parliament last week, $3000 today can only buy you half of what in could in 2011 and just goes to show how badly the PNP lead government has “managed” ( err mis-managed) the Jamaican economy.

Now Portia is visiting ( by now has visited) for a Summit of Caribbean heads, during which I am sure she will fine tune her policies on how to make Jamaica surpass Haiti as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. How best to learn from a country that to visit them, see how they do it and come back home and implement the very same “poor people” policies.

Hail Queen Portia, the destruction is just now ready to be completed

Mention Corruption and Jamaica comes up. PS defends private trip to Jamaica

Former PS defends private trip to Jamaica courtesy Warner

In the face of questions about the propriety of the arrangement, former permanent secretary in the ministry of works, Cheryl Blackman, maintained yesterday she broke no rules when she allowed her minister, Jack Warner, to pay for the expenses for herself and other members of staff to travel to Jamaica.

“I didn’t think we did anything wrong,” she said.

She said she and other members of staff went on a private trip which had nothing to do with official government business

 

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/WE-BROKE-NO-RULES-204955491.html

Did Scotia bank pay government workers?

Can we get a denial or confirmation on this one. By this I mean did  Scotia Bank funded this month’s public sector wage bill ?

If wrong I will remove this post.

Banking fees set to increase, Scotia first off the mark !

After the last debt exchange, most persons would have recognized that banks here in Jamaica will not give up a cent and therefore would have been looking to increase fees to the public.

Scotia Jamaica has already started the process and has published its new fee structure, which has seen some fees going up by 100%!

Scotia Jamaica has indicated that these new fees will come into effect shortly and is yet another jab at the already burdened Jamaica public.

I have attached a copy of the old fees, which were published in Nov 2012 for 2013. Review and compare against the new fees, which will come into effect in June 2013.  I will post that as soon as I have received a copy.

Schedule_of_rates_scotia 2013 old

PNP really tun e up, no money to pay public sector workers ?

Is it true that the Ministry of Finance is broke and they are borrowing money from a local bank to make April’s payment.

Commonsense broke news last night that teachers have not been paid, but overnight we have  information that most public sector workers including the police have not been paid.

Bad choice have consequences !