Our parliamentarians have, in their infinite wisdom, decided to rearrange the schedule of the budget debate to accommodate, of all things, ICC Cricket World Cup fixtures. Why? Shouldn't the running of the country take precedence over a cricket tournament that's already cost us an arm, a leg, a kidney and a significant portion of our digestive tract? This announcement comes a mere week after Dr. Davies was bitching to Parliament about the revenue sharing agreements and ICC demands that the host nations were "forced" to comply with - agreements that one Prime Minister described as more intrusive than the IMF.
I suppose that anyone with half an ounce of common sense would wonder why nine Caribbean countries agreed to such horrible, unfair terms. They might also wonder why all these concerns and complaints are being brought to light only now, years after the documents were signed and when the tournament is almost over. I have two words for you. Blame game.
It seems that the revenue projections for host countries are falling faster than West Indian wickets. Originally estimated at US$500 million, the host countries will probably only see about US$80 million total which means that a lot of governments will have a lot of explaining to do to a lot of voters. Rather than admitting to a error of stupendous proportions, our governments are doing what they seem to do best - blaming everyone else. Blaming the fans for not turning out to support the tournament (never mind that ticket prices were, in many instances, more that a week's pay for minimum wage earners), blaming the Pakistani and Indian teams for dropping out in the first round and robbing the tournament of fans, and blaming the ICC for coercing us into signing agreements. But they aren't blaming the governments that were apparently more concerned with hosting the tournament than with changing the Host Venue Agreement.
The worst part about this whole fiasco is that the people who will be most affected by the negligence of our governments are not Prime Ministers or members of the Local Organizing Committees or members of our cricket team (and I use the words "cricket team" very loosely - they play more like a rounders team) but the minimum wage earners and the lower middle class who couldn't even afford to go the World Cup.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Shame on you Rodney!
I often get worked up when writing about an issue that pisses me off, but Bounty Killer’s and Movado’s “big ups” at a recent concert really blood claat grieve me! How could this self-styled “poor people governor” (sic) really go on stage and proclaim “nuff respect to Stone Crushers”???
My first reaction was that maybe someone just asked him to big them up and he did it without really knowing who the “Stone Crushers” were, which would have been bad but marginally defendable, but the Warlord continued to put his foot in his mouth by declaring that “police have dem work fi do and bad man have them ting fi do."
I would love Mr. Pryce to tell me what the fuck he was thinking when he decided to pay homage to a criminal gang that has been terrorizing Montego Bay for the past three years. This is not a “militia” that protects a community from “outside forces”, or an “area leader” that helps children to go to school. This gang has been involved in murder-for-hire, extortion, robbery, and other heinous acts in communities where it is based as well as the rest of Montego Bay.
It’s one thing to talk about violence in your songs but it’s quite another to endorse a group who is helping to keep people in the same poverty Bounty claims to wage war on. How can school children “pressure them book” when they can’t go to school because of curfews or are afraid to stay for extra lessons because the lessons finish after dark? How will people in the depressed communities of Montego Bay ever lift themselves out of poverty if people are afraid to hire them because of the reputation that their community has acquired due to the activities of gangs like the “Stone Crushers”? I completely agree with a member of the Community Organisation for Management and Sustainable Development’s opinion that Bounty is a “traitor to….. (his) country.”
Bounty, you need to apologize for the statement you made and make some kind of meaningful effort to stop the criminal activities of the group that you endorsed. It won’t change my opinion of you, but it may actually help the people you claim to be representing.
On another note, why are people still being charged for using "bad" words under some ancient law? If you don't want to hear a certain type of music or language then don't go to the damn show! It's high time that Parliament throws that law out or, at the very least, amends it.
My first reaction was that maybe someone just asked him to big them up and he did it without really knowing who the “Stone Crushers” were, which would have been bad but marginally defendable, but the Warlord continued to put his foot in his mouth by declaring that “police have dem work fi do and bad man have them ting fi do."
I would love Mr. Pryce to tell me what the fuck he was thinking when he decided to pay homage to a criminal gang that has been terrorizing Montego Bay for the past three years. This is not a “militia” that protects a community from “outside forces”, or an “area leader” that helps children to go to school. This gang has been involved in murder-for-hire, extortion, robbery, and other heinous acts in communities where it is based as well as the rest of Montego Bay.
It’s one thing to talk about violence in your songs but it’s quite another to endorse a group who is helping to keep people in the same poverty Bounty claims to wage war on. How can school children “pressure them book” when they can’t go to school because of curfews or are afraid to stay for extra lessons because the lessons finish after dark? How will people in the depressed communities of Montego Bay ever lift themselves out of poverty if people are afraid to hire them because of the reputation that their community has acquired due to the activities of gangs like the “Stone Crushers”? I completely agree with a member of the Community Organisation for Management and Sustainable Development’s opinion that Bounty is a “traitor to….. (his) country.”
Bounty, you need to apologize for the statement you made and make some kind of meaningful effort to stop the criminal activities of the group that you endorsed. It won’t change my opinion of you, but it may actually help the people you claim to be representing.
On another note, why are people still being charged for using "bad" words under some ancient law? If you don't want to hear a certain type of music or language then don't go to the damn show! It's high time that Parliament throws that law out or, at the very least, amends it.
Finally, some accountability!
Although it was saddening to read about yet more children dying in house fires, I was glad that the authorities finally seem to be taking action against negligent parents. The mother of the children who died tragically on March 30, 2007 is under investigation to determine whether she breached the Child Care and Protection Act.
As I said in my very first post, parents who endanger the welfare of their children by leaving them alone at home should be held accountable for their gross negligence. There have been too many cases of children who have died or been abused because their parents were too busy doing important things like playing dominos or selling cigarettes. If it isn’t already, these investigations should be standard operating procedure in all cases involving children being injured, abused or killed.
As I said in my very first post, parents who endanger the welfare of their children by leaving them alone at home should be held accountable for their gross negligence. There have been too many cases of children who have died or been abused because their parents were too busy doing important things like playing dominos or selling cigarettes. If it isn’t already, these investigations should be standard operating procedure in all cases involving children being injured, abused or killed.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
"Radical" teacher asked to resign. WTF?
The news that Cornwall College asked a science teacher who presented an alternate theory to the immaculate conception myth during a lesson to resign is infuriating, to say the least. This was a SCIENCE teacher, teaching students about reproduction. Granted, he may not have presented it in a toned down manner, but asking him to resign is, in my not-so-humble opinion, absolutely ridiculous!
Would the school's board have taken the same course of action if a Muslim teacher had taught the same lesson and included something like, "I know that I've taught you that all humans must have sexual intercourse to reproduce, but Mary (peace be unto her), mother of Jesus (peace be unto him) was different. She was impregnated by Allah himself! Allah Akbar!!" Or if a Christian fundamentalist (of which there are hundreds of thousands in Jamaica) injected his religious beliefs into the science lesson?
Had the situation been reversed and a Christian teacher been asked to resign for expressing their views, every church from West End to Morant Point would have been up in arms and running their mouth about freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
I would agree that any class outside of Religious Indoctrination...I mean Religious Education is not be the right forum to express one's beliefs, or lack thereof, but the parents' reaction and the school's action smacks of intolerance, something that we already have too much of in this country.
Even more infuriating is the Observer's headline, which labeled the teacher as "radical". A science teacher who applies rational thought and logic to a topic is "radical"???? No wonder half our students can't pass their CXC's and we have Prime Ministers who believe that a god elected them.
Would the school's board have taken the same course of action if a Muslim teacher had taught the same lesson and included something like, "I know that I've taught you that all humans must have sexual intercourse to reproduce, but Mary (peace be unto her), mother of Jesus (peace be unto him) was different. She was impregnated by Allah himself! Allah Akbar!!" Or if a Christian fundamentalist (of which there are hundreds of thousands in Jamaica) injected his religious beliefs into the science lesson?
Had the situation been reversed and a Christian teacher been asked to resign for expressing their views, every church from West End to Morant Point would have been up in arms and running their mouth about freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
I would agree that any class outside of Religious Indoctrination...I mean Religious Education is not be the right forum to express one's beliefs, or lack thereof, but the parents' reaction and the school's action smacks of intolerance, something that we already have too much of in this country.
Even more infuriating is the Observer's headline, which labeled the teacher as "radical". A science teacher who applies rational thought and logic to a topic is "radical"???? No wonder half our students can't pass their CXC's and we have Prime Ministers who believe that a god elected them.
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