Posts from — November 2009

Heyyyy everybody!  I’m a star by association. Not close association mind you, but I was in a bookstore with Glen Beck.  Glen who?  The darling of the right-wing religious nutcases.  No I didn’t speak with him, shake his hands or ask for an autograph.  It didn’t appeal to me to even want to see him.  The moment I walked into the bookstore, I should have known.  The atmosphere was weird… the kind you of oddness you get when you put a couple hundred believers in one room (Hey.  I did my stint at Bellevue, Jamaica, so I know what a ward full of crazies feel like, ok).

When I walked in the place I was greeted by a banner and people cajoling me, “We want you, we are not just for white people”.  Bad sign… run Louis run.

Beck was in Ft Lauderdale for a book signing which really is just another way of milking the poor cows.  Inside and even outside for that matter, I didn’t see any black people, not even the usual black conservatives.  Obviously I was the only black man not to have gotten the memo, “Staaaay awaaay”.

That was apparently good advice, ‘cause the tea-partyers wanted me.  They didn’t respect me, but they wanted me.  I was as popular as a turkey at Thanksgiving.  Actually, that might not be the best analogy… though I did feel that if I made the wrong movement or said the wrong thing my goose would have been cooked.  It was that kinda crowd.  Get a piece of rope and soon everyone would think that I’m Barack Obama or his stand-in.

So there they were, wanting me to join the cult.  Naaa,  I don’t think so.

But I did try to dialogue.   Aaah, an imperfect idea with crazies.

One guy waving a flag with a snake on it (someone should tell these so-called Christians that a viper is not the best representation of themselves, but then again it may be perfect) tried to enlist me in this all-American flag waving, flag kissing party.  He was shocked that I knew who Glen Beck was but that I didn’t worship him.  Actually I told him that Beck was nothing but a shyster.  What do you expect, he headlines Fox “News”?

I have seen Beck when he was on CNN.  Couldn’t stand his brand of ‘opinions news’… knew it could only be worse at Fox.   Beck cares only for the truth when he is not speaking it.  He routinely misinforms, distorts and riles up the ignorant massives.  If I want that, I go to church.

Still my viper tried to soldier on, but like all whackos, it wasn’t long before he was frothing.  Dialogue, you say.  Well, he spoke, I just looked around for the nearest cop, the H1N1 vaccine and a spittle guard.  Never stand in front of a speaking crazy without a towel.  And afterwards dump it. It can’t be disinfected.

Thankfully, my lack of enthusiasm for his ranting inexplicably caused him to seek more fertile ground.  It is usually my experience that the longer the rant, the closer they get to your face.  At least he didn’t and so I saved a towel from disposal.

Beck trades on hate, ignorance and fear (aaah “the power of fear”- the new movie starring George Bush) and I did see some of those on that evening.  It was quite clear that in America, fear and ignorance (and perhaps a large dose of racism) overrides commonsense.

None stopped to think that despite ‘radically’ electing a black man to lead the party, the current democrats are not the types to do anything extreme as inviting socialism (omg) into the USA.  These ignoramuses don’t even remember the basics of their civics classes which is that the country’s power doesn’t reside in the hands of one man.  Obama is not forcing his ideology on congress, congress is forcing their shit on him.

I bet that several of the crowd have firsthand experience of the corrupt, ‘gravalicious’ nature of health insurance companies… yet they don’t want to see a change in the system.  Imbeciles.

I recently watched a program where the host was speaking to a guest in a diner-style setting, saying that funding for health care would come from additional taxes on those making over $250,000 a year.   Why didn’t she like health care reform?  Additional taxes.  Lady, if I may be so kind, you eat in a diner!  You have no chance of making a $1/4m unless you win the lottery!  How do you reason with such stupidity.

The only things that will save Obama for re-election is the now infamous American attention span, and turning around the economy in a couple years.  Two months of success and many will forget the current hardships.  Look how quickly they forget that this was a holdover from the Bush regime.

Ironically, the very people that Obama is distancing himself from, remains his truest loyalists.  The blacks.  Not many are gonna be buying Glen Beck’s book soon.

***

Another sign that Obama must play the role given to him is his making it clear that there will be a troop increase in Afghanistan.  Certainly, this is a trade-off for health care votes.  I understand Obama’s plight, he is indeed between Sarah Palin’s mouth and a septic pit.  If he missteps, he is dead.  Likely he is dead anyway, metaphorically speaking.

Let’s not go over this.  Afghanistan cannot be won.

***

It’s not only in America that fear is paralysing the nation… chalk up Jamaica.  And I’m not talking crime.  That’s an issue yes. 

In my recent visit, I figured that Bruce Golding was trading on the fear that the PNP could once again lead the country.  No one’s ready for that, and Golding is getting away with non-performance.

I spoke with people in the tourism sector and found what I had long suspected would eventually happen in Jamaica… the Americanisation of corporate practices.

Many blame Omar Davies and the PNP for the failure of the indigenous banking sector in the early ‘90’s.  The government was partly to blame particularly as they took so long to take action.  But the sector was crashing because the banks had adopted US banking (mal)practices. 

The fiscal system we inherited from Britain is to treat the customers money like something holy… don’t eff with it!  The new banks with youngsters trained in America think that customers money to play with… take chances, roll the dice, reward your top people with immoral perks.

It was only a matter of time before other industries got infected.  Not that there isn’t anything good coming out of the American system, it was just that Americans, like ourselves, when given the opportunity to do the wrong thing, always corrupt the system by enriching ourselves first.

Jamaican companies have forgone the principle of traditional 40% profit, for mega-profits, on the backs of the consumers and their workers.  This is the tourism sector today.  Workers and worker rights are abused.  And while it has been there for some time, it is more noticeable with this recession because management is more prone to harassment and exploitation when there is a scarcity of employment opportunities in an industry. Workers are being forced to work unlimited hours and be on call at all times, without additional compensation.  The threat of losing their jobs loom large over them.  Dissension is not an option.

But even keeping quiet, and being a top performer is no longer protection from redundancy.  Managers are firing at whim, sometimes just on ego trips, at other times to instill fear.  Worker morale is diminishing at a fast pace.

Health insurance benefits are also on the line.  Either the corporation plays footloose with the worker’s premiums (eg use the funds to pay for something else), or the insurance companies put the worker through the ringer to get their claims accepted.  It’s clearly a mirror image of what has and is still happening in the United States… and the results will be the same.

Jamaica “No Problem” is gone.  The carefree Jamaicans who takes things in stride is fast vanishing, and what is left behind is a shell of a people, paralysed by fear and stress.  Throughout all that Jamaicans have gone through, they have held on to their spirit.  When that goes, then everything truly crash.

Share this:

I was in Jamaica when prime minister Golding addressed the issue of the firing of BoJ governor Derick Latibeaudiere. But that is only for time reference for the moment. I will address that issue further on.
As is usual when I visit Jamaica, I try to get a feel for what is happening from the people… not the media, which for the most part is in some kind of lala land. The true story of Jamaica is in the streets and not on tv.
This time, I was based in Ochie, where I walked the streets, shopped in the markets, took the ‘people’s’ minibus, sat on the corner, talked and listened.
What I have come away with is that Jamaica is continuing its slide into the abyss, unchecked. Again, I was heartened by the strength and resoluteness of the Jamaican people, but even those qualities are no match for the breakdown of the country. And before any yapping fool jumps up and defends the current administration by pointing to the previous administration, let me say that I am not a defender of either. The decay of my beautiful country is fathered by both parties in equally gigantic amounts.
When I say ‘tings tuff’ in Jamaica, I mean tings tuff… but people still hold on, still send their children to school, still try to survive, do without some things until they can. They survive. But you can see that the seams are bursting. Tempers are simmering.
In Ochie, there is a rule that tourism is the community’s life-blood and none dares threaten it without feeling the wrath of all. This means that while hustlers rush the tourists, there is a clear line of demarcation between approaching and harassment. That line is never to be crossed. However, I see many edging closer to the line.
When man and his children get really hungry, then moral values and the community’s economic wellbeing play less of a role in how they approach the tourist. I sense that there is far more ‘hard-sell’ now than earlier this year when I was also in Ochie.
I also got the impression that tourism minister Ed Bartlett’s credibility is shot in the industry, from line-staff, management or any other. For while he appears to be hardworking, nobody trusts his words coming from behind rose-coloured glasses anymore. Added to his credibility issues, is the cost of the refurbishing of his offices.
Another thing I sense, is growing disquiet between the ‘black’ Jamaicans and the ‘new’ Asians who control most of the in-bond shops and other retail stores. The racial and class tensions remind me of Kingston’s Chinese riots in the ‘60s. The relationships are primarily based on resentment. This is being primed to explode.
***
The current hot topic is the government’s firing of the central bank governor, Derick Latibeaudiere. Prime minister Golding is spinning it as a case of the governor’s outrageous salary and benefits. The JLP’s ‘psychophants’ are spinning it the same but also questioning Latibeaudiere’s competence, while muddying the waters with attacks against the previous finance minister.
I haven’t the financial expertise to judge the governor, and I’m greatly uncomfortable with his salary and benefits package. And I find it odious that he gets the BoJ to lend him money at highly favorable rates when most of us are being driven into bankruptcy based on loan-sharking ‘market rates’.
That said, those are side issues, distractions.
No sensible, objective person can believe that these are the real issues for Latibeaudiere’s dismissal. The prime minister is certainly not being candid.
The JLP monitored Derick Latibeaudiere from his first appointment in 1996. If he is incompetent, he would have been immediately fired when Golding took office in 2007. And if Golding was fooled after 11 years, he certainly would have seen firsthand the governor’s incompetence over the last 2 years. Yet he renewed Latibeaudiere’s contract in August 2009. Incompetence cannot be an issue.
Latibeaudiere’s financial package is not news. That was publicly revealed years ago and again, with said benefits in the contract, the governor was signed anew in August.
If the government had decided on not renewing his contract in August, citing disagreement on the benefits package, I could understand. But THEY renewed his contract, AND made him head of Jamaica’s IMF negotiating team. THEN they fired him in the midst of said negotiations? It doesn’t make sense.
You don’t re-sign a man whose contract is ‘unacceptable, embarrassing and repugnant ….’, if he is incompetent or if the contract repulses you that much. Golding surely had enough time to find someone else. Actually, it was widely known that the government was looking to replace Derick Latibeaudiere, but perhaps they couldn’t do it without attacking his reputation. Why?
The incoming governor Brian Wynter, is the son of JLP stalwart Hector Wynter, once editor of the Gleaner. I have been told that Wynter is qualified, but is he more qualified than Latibeaudiere? That is one question.
Golding claims that he is committed to an independent central bank… but how likely is that with the son of a party hack in place? I don’t believe Golding wants an independent BoJ… and this would not be the first of his many idealistic promises broken. Take for instance, the case of his garrison, Tivoli. And then there is the extradition hold-up on Tivoli strongman ‘Dudus’ Coke.
But back to Latibeaudiere’s dismissal. The most commonly held theory is that he, as the head of Jamaica’s IMF team, was in stark disagreement with the government’s strategy and goals regarding the negotiations…. The technocrat vs the politicos. You know which tends to be wrong.
Immediately following the news of Latibeaudiere’s resignation, Standard and Poor (S&P), the international rating agency, downgraded Jamaica’s credit worthiness, much to the chagrin and surprise of Golding. What did he expect? You just fired the head of your IMF negotiating team, someone who the international bodies respect! And a downgrade came as a surprise? That tells you how out of touch Golding is. As out of touch as his finance minister who last year when the walls of the world economy were crumbling, stated that Jamaica’s economy was safe.
By the way, S&P had just issued a new rating in August. This means that Jamaica’s credit credibility has plunged in 3 months.
One now is made to wonder about what is in the IMF package. We already know that politicians like to postpone bad news (election reasons) so they negotiate it into the future even if things will be worse in the long run. Is this what Golding is doing?
And what are we to make of the resignation of police chief Hardley Lewin? While I don’t expect a smearing of his reputation, it concerns me that this is the 5th change at the head of the security leadership in 2 years. That’s not stability.
***
The absolute saddest thing about what is happening in Jamaica is that as inept as this government is, no one is looking to replace them with the PNP. Jah kingdom indeed gone to waste.
***
I take no real pride in saying that I was one who very early pointed out that Obama was not living up to his campaign promises, instead was following George Bush’s foreign policy to the ‘T’. This I said even before him officially taking office based on his early pronouncements regarding Cuba, Iran and Venezuela, and his forced selection of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.
I only hope he will do something to resurrect his leadership by announcing a quick pullout from both Iraq and Afghanistan. Increasing troops in Afghanistan would be a major betrayal of those who voted for him.
Afghanistan is lost and no amount of troops will save it for ‘democracy’ or from the taliban. What should have been done wasn’t done and it is too late now.
As much as the world still looks to him for hope, he will unfortunately can’t delvier but words. One needs to understand that no president of the United States has not been in control of the country for a long time. That is left to special interests particularly private sector interests in manufacturing, wall street, the health and insurance industries, the gun lobbies, and most of all, the military-industrial complex.
While Obama is a far better selection that Clinton, McCain or that duffer Palin, he will not be able to change the basic ways that America operates. Sad, too sad. HOPE gone amiss.

Share this: