Leadership requires clarity of thought and purpose Part two. PNP does not get it !

The opposition PNP has blasted the government for taking too long to act in closing our ports to traffic out of the USA and the UK, both of which has been the leading source of the Covid-19 cases in Jamaica.

When the ports were eventually closed, there was a lobby to reopen them temporarily with the final cut off being March 24, 2020 as it was noted that there were persons already in transit and needed to get home.

It was later discovered that during the period March 18 – 24, over 5,000 persons came into the island who could not be located as they had either provided wrong or incomplete information of the customs declaration forms. The opposition rightly hauled the government over coal for failing to put measures in place to Identify its nationals and ensure they could have been traced and were following home quarantine measures.

One week ago a group of farm workers insisted they wanted to travel overseas to take up farm work opportunities and were willing to take on the risk and in so doing signed a waiver absolving the government of any cost should they contract the virus.

Horace Daley who does not appear to be the brightest bulb on the shelf blasted the government for being wicked, suggesting the men should not be allowed to leave and should be held here against there free will to travel. One should note that the ports are open to outgoing traffic and any attempt to prevent them would have been unconstitutional . Noted constitutional lawyer Dr Lloyd Barnett actually commented that the government could not stop these men as the have rights under the constitution, but Horace Daley in is usual bellicose style insisted the government had erred.

A few days later a cruise-ship with 45 Jamaican crew members were anchored off the coast of Jamaica and sought landing rights, which were denied as the ports to incoming human traffic was closed.

Once the again the Opposition which seems to always wants to swim against the tide demanded that the ports be opened to accommodate the men, despite the fact that a closure order was in effect and NO provision would have been in place to safely house these nationals.

The position taken by the opposition members as noted by the examples above, shows a party that clearly lacks direction and focus and if left up to themselves would lead to an explosion of Covid-19 cases on the island similar to what took place when they failed miserably to manage the Chik-V crises.

The PNP has failed in the past to effectively handle previous public health crises and their actions thus far serves to inform me they have yet to figure out how to deal with public health emergencies and as such their advise cannot be relied on.

PS

Bless

Public Defender warns about interviewing students without their parents, like seriously?

Coming off her recent ruling that the Principal of St Hilda’s High School erred in rescinding the position of head girl and telling the Principal that the head girl she should be reinstated, The Public Defender has now issued another statement, that many appeared to have not analysed.

The Public Defender has warned that students should not be interviewed without their parents !

This statement has far reaching implications and I really wonder if the learned PD has given thought to what this means. In our school system guidance counsellors have been doing a tremendous job in ferreting out from students many instance of sexual, verbal and other abuse done by parents and guardians.

If the ruling by the PD is to be taken on, it now means these guidance counsellors, would no longer be able to do this task, without the allegedly abuser being present as well as the victim. I am sure that this is not the intention of the learned PD and if it not her intention, then she needs to quickly clarify her position in this regard.

I therefore am using this medium to ask the learned Public Defender to say exactly what she meant by this statement , because in her role which is a powerful one, it can have serious implications for the work of guidance counsellors in schools.

Over to you PD !

That “Leggobeast” label, is it true and was it appropriate?

Firstly what is a “leggobeast”.

A “leggobeast” is a wild or unruly person in the Jamaican context.

When the minister said ” do not send your leggobeast children to school and expect the school to reform them” he was perfectly in line, because that is what the many careless mother and fathers are in fact doing.

It’s time we call a spade and spade and “done” with the “niceness”, we have a problem with these kids and their “wutless” parents and this needs to be addressed.

The minister was forthright, frank and honest with his description of them and I don’t care what anyone think, he was spot on.

Those who do not have to face these ” leggobeast” and their “leggobeast” parents can talk all they want, as this is always what Jamaicans who have no clue what is going on behave. They always looking for political correctness, when what is needed at time is brutal honesty.

Now that the minister has said it, he has NO need to apologize, instead all those calling for him to apologize needs to figure out what they can do to address these many ” leggobeast” who are present in the classroom, before they become “leggobeast” with guns and we come face to face with them in the streets.

UWI Mona telephone contact experience

For the top flight learning institution in the Caribbean, the University of the West Indies Mona campus needs to do a tremendous amount of work to improve its customer service, which I would classify as being extremely poor at best.

I spent the better part of two hrs today trying to make contact with the folks at the University and I must tell you the experience was one of sheer frustration.

Calls to every number I rang, went unanswered most of the time and when someone actually answered the phone, they were not in a position to assist you in finding whomever you were looking for and in most cases could not provide a telephone.

On one occasion a young lady answered the phone and sounded like she was on life support and barely hanging on. Almost every question asked was met with the following response ” that person no longer works in this department”.

I then ask ” who worked in that department that I can speak with apart from you”, she gave me a name then went unto explain that the individual  was not available as they were at lunch.

A visit to the UWI website showing the contact  listing  for certain areas was completely outdated, with  names of people who no longer worked in those departments and numbers which lime indicated were no longer in service.

UWI Mona needs to get its act together and as a institution of higher learning, needs to teach it staff what customer service is all about.

At time of writing and three hours after the first contact I still have not been able to speak to anyone from the department I was hoping to get and I frankly have given up for the day

Why is Phillip Paulwell such a failure ?

Phillip Paulwell  as the Minister of Mining and Energy has made more costly mistakes than any other government minister since independence, but continues to have the full faith, trust and backing of the Prime Minister of Jamaica.

Phillip Paulwell has made more grand announcements than any other minister this country has ever seen since independence, but more than 90% of these have never gotten off the ground or have failed having managed to get off the ground, yet he continues to hold unto the very MINISTRY he has failed so much at.

The only thing that I can give some credit to Mr Paulwell is the liberalization of the telecom industry, which would have happened anyway and had more to do with the direction that telecom was headed vs any genius on the part of Phillip Paulwell.

Phillip Paulwell’s biggest problem is want to strike it big, without doing his homework or listening to advice from those who know a lot more than he does. Firstly Phillip Paulwell is not qualified to lead this Ministry, he is a trained lawyer, whom I believe has never really practiced law, He has no formal training in the energy, mining or telecom sector, has never been employed to a business operating in any of these sectors and therefore comes to the job with no real experience and or achievements.

If you ran a mining company, a telecom company or one in the energy sector, would you employ a CEO who has had no previous experience in any of these sectors and only real training is having a law degree?

I am sure of you are honest and thinking about the long-term future of the company, you would say no way, so why do we have someone like this leading this most important sector.

The many mistakes that Phillip Paulwell has made working in this sector, does not come as a surprise to me at all, it was bound to happen and will continue to happen as Mr Paulwell searches for that big signature project that he hopes will propel him one day to party leader and Prime Minister of this country. He has failed to spend the time to educate himself with the many facets of this very large operations that he has been given full responsibility and does not appear to listen to advise that I am sure would have been provided to him.

Phillip is so consumed that he has hit the jackpot, that he runs and makes big announcement after announcement and when they all fail to materialize, he simply moves on to the the next big announcement hoping the last few would have been forgotten .

He appears to make commitment to spend money without rigorous analysis especially when it come unto his dealings with foreign investors, we see that over and over again.

Phillip Paulwell is not the man to the lead this Ministry and the Prime Minister continued efforts to keep him there will hurt Jamaica in the long run. If Mr Paulwell is to have the measure of success he wants, he needs to learn that he has to earn it. He must spend more time LISTENING to his local experts, which are in most cases, much better that the brief case salesman who comes to Jamaica, to make a quick buck from our perceived ignorance and in fact does so, leaving Jamaica with less money and holding unto a briefcase of  failed concepts.

Frankly speaking,  Mr Paulwells vision of becoming Prime Minister is forcing him to make rash decisions, most of which have been costly failures to the country and what makes the entire situation so bad, is the Prime Ministers under which he has operated have all failed to stop save him from himself and instead have encouraged him along.

Can Mr Paulwell redeem himself ?

Breaking News , Lime buys Dekal wireless !

Lime has made further inroad in the telecom market by snapping up Dekal wireless, the provider of wireless internet service in Kingston, St Thomas, Portland and other areas of Jamaica.

Seems Lime has decided to take the fight to Digicel

More later

What does the Minister of Information brings to the table ?

Why do we need a minister with responsibility for information ?

What should  the public be getting from this minister?

Are we getting anything of substance from this paid public position ?

If all the minister can do is to quote from statements made by a minister in parliament or at a cabinet meeting and is not in a position to answer any question, then what is the point of having someone in this paid position.

The current minister of information continues to be ill-prepared for the few press conferences that are held and presents more often than not, no new information to the public, leading one to question her relevance other than collecting a pay check.

I have been writing since 2012 that these press briefings are being used to disrespect journalist who try to get answers to matters of national importance and it is even more of an issue, when the minister believes she has been cornered and  reacts out of frustration.

If Sandrea cannot anticipate the questions and provides the answers at a press conference, its either she takes along those who have the answers or ask journalist to post the questions on line  and then have the responsible ministry official respond  via the same medium .

As it currently stands the current press conference is a waste of time and as far as I am concerned the post of Information Minister can be made redundant and save the taxpayers some money.

Bless

Martin Henry is fast losing “respect” as an independent columnist !

Two journalists in particular, by self-appointment, were at the forefront of guarding democracy last week: André Jebbinson of TVJ and Abka Fitz-Henley of Nationwide.

Martin Henry wrote the following in the Sunday Gleaner , November 30, 2014

They would not yield the microphone to any of their colleagues to ask questions at the post-Cabinet Jamaica House press briefing. Amazingly, it was the man who enforced the rule of fairplay, albeit somewhat roughly, who felt obliged to tender something of an apology.

Jebbinson and Fitz-Henley owe an apology to their colleagues, if to no one else, for their selfish behaviour in big, big Journalism Week. No one appointed them to be spokespersons for the entire media corps.

Amazingly, well, not-so-amazingly after all, their professional association, the PAJ, used the opportunity in true trade union style to deliver a long lecture to the OPM about how to conduct the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing with not a word of reprimand to the two members who hogged the show to the detriment of their fellow members of the association.

How is that for fairness and balance in a profession that prides itself on fairness and balance?

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20141130/focus/focus2.html

If Mr Henry had just take a few minutes to do a proper research he would not have written this article which was filled with so many factual errors and one must therefore question his motives. We expect columnist to research and write the truth based on that research and not to state opinions as fact.

If Mr Henry had done the research he would have found out that the Director of Communication,  Huntely “mic snatching” Medley, lied when he wrote  in his apology that the two gentlemen in question “hogged” the ,Micropone and others who wanted to ask questions were not allowed to do so. The journalist to who Huntley referred denied telling him, she did not get any questions in,  she reportedly told him ” she did not ask any questions because  all the questions she wanted to ask, were already posed”.  

How on earth did Martin Henry miss this and presented a error filled column as facts, this is so disappointing from someone who wants to give the impression that he is a independent journalist.

Well , low and behold Abka Fitz-Henley has responded to Martin Henry’s factually incorrect column and has stated the following

In his Sunday, November 30, 2014 column titled ‘Guarding democracy – from the press, too’, Martin Henry let himself down.

Henry has committed the cardinal sin of not being properly seized of the facts before putting pen to paper. He appears to have formed his view based on the propaganda supplied by the political directorate.

I had maintained my silence on allegations from the political directorate because I do not wish to be drawn into a tit-for-tat, but Mr Henry’s error-strewn piece means one of the initial actions I will take is to suggest that he recant.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20141201/cleisure/cleisure4.html

Suddenly all the PNP apologist are coming out of the woodwork, but now unlike years ago, the public has many ways to get information and not just from the few who have access to the media to spew their error and factually incorrect articles.

You form your own judgement

Government Chief Minister of No-information calls male reporter a “Drama Queen”

I wonder if this comment was made to a female reporter, what would have been the reaction of the females in Jamaica.

Donovan who was the reporter in question asked SANDREA “ Minister, what di you call me, a drag queen”, which elicited laughter from the others in the room.

She later said “ That would be Drama King, not Queen”.

No harm was intended I believe and none was done, but this woman needs to learn how to act under pressure.

If she was more prepared to answer the questions being asked, she would not be placed in such an awkward position every-time  she faces the press.

Huntley , the ” Mic Snatching” Meddler !

Huntley Medley will be recorded in history as one of the worst  communication officers this country has ever witnessed and that could not have come at a worst time, journalist week.

Huntley’s display of boorish and unprofessional conduct in yanking the microphone from the hands of Andre Jebberson  and then cutting the Microphone of Abka Fitz-Henley, was something to behold, as I have never seen such level of “Bhutto” behaviour from someone working in the office of the Prime Minister. ( Director of Communication. Seems like anyone can become a director in public office today)

I saw another reporter literally  fighting to keep his microphone from being snatched from his grasps by the meddling Microphone  “Hunter” and hid the mic under the desk where he sat, while waiting for an answer as the “Hunter” hovered above him like an Apache Helicopter, ready to rain “hellfire missles” at him before snatching his microphone also. Thankfully in this case he had no more questions and handed off the Microphone to the Mic “Hunter” .

The entire Jamaica House Press Conference arrangement left a lot to be desired , it was disorganized and the setup was kindergarten at best, with a single microphone being passed around the room  from reporter to reporter.

I could not understand, why it was not possible to have microphone strategically placed in the briefing room so journalist had access to these instruments vs having the Director of Microphone marshaling the single unit I witnessed being handed off from one journalist to the next.

Frankly, I was disappointed that journalist stood(sat) around and took this level of mistreatment from a obviously ignorant Minister of Misinformation  and a Director of Mis-communication and Microphone  and not pack up there stuff and leave the room.

It will be interesting to hear from the once very vociferous media association of Jamaican at yet another disgraceful behaviour of Sandrea Facolner at her team  at a press conference, where she was in charge.

This has become a pattern of behaviour and the level of arrogance and rudeness that I saw yesterday and one more than one occasion before this, should serve as a wake up to call to Jamaicans to have a greater say, in who we have serving us , our expectations of these persons and actions that are required when the fall out of line.

Sandrea Falocner and Huntley Medley were way out of line and needs to be sanctioned, but with a spineless society that is split down the middle across party lines and a an ineffective Prime Minister, that will more than likely never happen, which therefore allows these kinds of situation to continue into the future.

Yesterday was a sad day for press freedom in Jamaica and it once again happened under the Portia Simpson Miller led administration, which continues its refusal to  communicate with public  and when pressed for answers are rude to the very public that placed them in their in the first place.

They will all be in for a rather rude awaking very soon.

Huntley the “Mic Snatching” Meddler of Miscommunication, your actions yesterday were disgraceful and unbecoming of a public officer.and you need to be fired from your substantive role in Office of the Prime Minister.

No apologies will be accepted, you need to be dismissed, I have enough of this damn foolishness !

I hope the “real” media people will step forward and move for the dismissal of this misguided idiot !