Politics, At it Again .

Wow was I ever mistaken. Would you believe that I had been under the misguided impression that the sudden targeting of the Director of Public Prosecution by the opposition and their minions in the press, had to do with the fact that this high office is now occupied by a woman! For in Jamaica, when women finally achieve high office, this office becomes more targeted for extraordinary scrutiny and things that were never required when the office was occupied  by the male occupants, suddenly become urgent and important ..."in the interest of transparency". The summoning of the DPP to appear before a parliamentary committee and the harsh and unfair criticism that followed her refusing to do so, was a case in point. Then came the throwing of blame on that office for the slow pace of the Joseph Hibbert affair!

I was however just reminded that the Trafigura Affair is going to the courts in November and the DPP will be required to act of on behalf of the Dutch authorities to get information as to whether the donation to the Opposition, then government, by the Dutch company was a bribe.

It has therefore become urgent and important for certain people to discredit the DPP's office before this celebrated case is heard.

Can we really sink any lower? Politics is really the root of all evil in this country.

Off They Go

Unfortunately, as they say, all good things must come to an end. Such a pity.

It was wonderful having my granddaughter here, but unfortunately it was just for one week. Boy did she ever enjoy the water...... from Hellsire to Caymans river and Silver Sands beach, she just got into the flow and had a wonderful time. She is such a well adjusted child,..... . salt water, fresh water, she is just ready to roll.

 And guess what, she crept forward today (26/10/2011) for the first time at last. Before, she had only been reversing as she learned to creep ,but this morning after much effort she went forward. Such a joy to see the progress....the simple things in life that make it such fun to see them grow up.

Now wshe has left a very sad "granny" behind. To make it worse, I heard it was 20 degrees and snowing in Denver this morning. Poor kid.

She's Here!

Whoopee! My granddaughter Madelynn  Sophia Elizabeth McBride arrived in the country of her maternal  ancestors, Jamaica, on Wednesday 19th October 2011 at 9.30pm. Aw poor kid, she had been travelling from 6am but was still in a great mood when she got here. And she looks no different from when I  last saw her at the end of June. Of course, being almost six months old, she is now creeping. Sure she may onlyu be creeping backwards but at least she is creepeing and sitting up by herself to boot.


It is so wonderful to have her here. Oh of course it is wonderful to have her parents too, but after all she is the star of the show.

Yesterday she got her first introduction to salt water as we went to  the beach at Hellsheire. She is such a champion that she just fell into the routine right away. No complaints about salt water.

Next we went to Two Sisters cave. It is good to keep going back to these places for you get reminded of things you had long forgotten. Two Sisters cave is an open cave for the top was destroyed in the 1692 earthquake which also destroyed Port Royal. In Hellshire itself there are some 139 caves all interlinked. Of that number, 22 have underground lakes. Two Sisters has two lakes, 60 feet at the deepest point.

So after a wonderful day at the beach and exploring caves, she went visiting great grandmother Williams and other friends and relatives. Boy is she going to be ever so tired when she heads out next week!

For more photos see; http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150422116931823.412122.763366822&type=3

Of politics and church

Politics has never been a church service, neither was it meant to be. But if you follow the Ombudsman bishop Blair and the childish politicians among us, it might very well turn out to be so. How boring.

I saw nothing offensive about Abe Dabdoud's loader man poke at the soon to be prime minister Andrew Holness, neither  did I see anything but a light joke when Pernel Charles described Colin Campbell as a refugee. But in both cases, the petty politicians went bawling to the ombudsman. Now peter Bunting, gen sec of the PNP is taking on Clovis to task over the dinosaur cartoons.

Come on guys, lighten up. Let's not take the humour out of politics for without laughter we will all end up with high blood pressure, based on the perfomrmance of the politicians themselves!

Ride to Dornoch

The Dornoch that we sought.

The Dornoch that we got!

According to the late, brilliant Albert Einstein,"Reality is merely an illusion" but boy the reality of Dornoch was no illusion but a great disappointment interspersed with real mosquito bites!

It was just yesterday morning that Betty was telling me about a documentary she saw about the photos that we see on the Internet versus how the subjects really look. We got a taste of this after going to Dornoch and I am especially sorry for Tara, Stefan, Penny and family who never got to swim at all or even ride. But I am sure they had a wonderful weekend nevertheless. I surely did.

On Saturday night I decided to sleep up by Betty and Charles, since the MTR Fun and Thrills people had decided to do a ride to Trelawny starting on Sunday morning at 4am and I did not feel like getting out of my bed so early and riding up to meet anyone. Besides I had long decided not to start any more rides from the Headquarters since I am allergic to getting up early to start rides at the appointed time only to end up waiting hours on end for those who do not respect other's time or simply lack discipline. So I have been, for almost a year now, riding out with Charles who does things my way. This two day ride was slated to have ended on Monday morning (after a night's rest) at Dornoch  in the Cockpit country where the Rio Bueno has its source, for the pictures which we had seen, had made it look like the Garden of Eden.

Charles and I set out promptly at 4 am with Kenesha as a support driver and after a brief servic stop at the gas station on Constant Spring road, we were joined by Chuck. From the beginning, the three of us had decided that there was no way on earth we were going to spend hours on end on a bicycle, but instead we would ride to Juici Beef at Clarendon Park, then leave the MTR's and drive over to the beach in Trelawny.

Well by the time I got to Sandy Bay and was about to cross on to the main highway, I felt the sun pelting down into my back and who did I see drive up beside me but Stewart, music and  air condition running and feeling no pain. He looked so happy that I immediately decided that I had had enough of the ride (3 1/2 hours in the saddle) and also wanted to share the good life, so I beckoned him to stop, packed up my bike and we drove off happily to Juici Beef where I had the most delicious porridge I have ever had anywhere, Peacorn porridge, made from peanuts and hominy corn.

When the MTR's arrived, I heard that there had been one mishap as super rider Howie had slipped and fallen while crossing the train line in Old Harbour.  He got a cut on his knee but happily there were no other mishaps for the entire weekend.

Beautiful, calm Burr Head Beach

Charles, Kenesha and I left the main group at Juici  (Chuck drove back to Kingston) and drove straight to Retreat Guest House in Trelawny where we heard about this absolutely wonderful beach, Burr Head beach. In my book, this beach is only to be outdone by Negril.  It is a public, white sands beach right beside Beaches hotel and it is so clean and shallow that I swear that if you wade out for half mile, the water is still at your waist. This is going to be my beach of first choice, from now on, in Trelawny. Betty later joined us there as she had driven down my car but came via the north coast whereas we had  taken a new and challenging route, going into central Jamaica then heading north from Porus, up Shooters Hill then to Trelawny via Albert Town, Clark's Town, Duncan's then on to Falmouth.

Whereas we used the beach for free, Betty had to pay $300 as it had been rented for a private stage show and after noon they had closed the gate.

After a wonderful swim we went to Bodmint where we found that Caroline and Charles Simpson had also defected from the ride and had driven straight over after riding to Porus.  Later, we went over to the bar next  door  to make arrangements for dinner. It was there Carolyn and  found two Jamericans  and played dominoes with them.

When we went back over there to wait for dinner, one was still there and he played with Carolyn while I played with Charles Simpson. That's when the 6 love drop! 

While we played some more,  the main group of tired riders arrived . (about 7.30 pm)  It was then that I learnt that the only person s who rode the entire journey were Alrick, Orelle, Maurice, Howie and Michael. Everyone else had to be driven over Shooters Hill and Sanford and Fatman never got back on their bikes. Disgraceful, considering that the stalwart women like Nicky and Sparkles did! (I wonder who dares to say "Look who's taking" . I aint no masochist! lol)

Anyway, when Fatman came he joined Carolyn, one of the six loveites and threatened to give it back to us.  Thank god we were called for dinner just when we were at the dangerous got 4 love point!

The dinner was quite good and I dare say the curry goat was probably the best I have had in years.

Next morning I discovered that Penny, Stefan  and family had arrived in the night as they wanted to ride to Dornoch  next day. The breakfast at Retreat guest house was excellent and before we could finish, Charles was calling desperately for Kenesha to pick them up at Burr Head Beach for while they had walked over from Bodmint from 6.30 am, they did not feel like walking back. I could have kicked myself for not thinking of driving to the beach when I woke up for I had been up from 7am but just never thought of it.

The lazy men who refused to walk from the beach back to Bodmint!

After breakfast Kenesha and I drove down and found the bunch of lazy men who we piled into the back of the pickup and took them back to Bodmint. We then walked with them to Aunt Gloria's where they voraciously gobbled up the breakfast but  poor Howie, chief masochist could not even sit down at breakfast, as he was still sore from the 15 hour ride.

As we got back to Bodmint, Chris (Dalrimple) joined us, having driven over from her home in St. Ann's bay. While we hung around, we heard brakes screeching outside and a faint thud, only to discover that a taxi  had run into the back of Donavan's  vehicle as he was turning into Bodmint. Although his vehicle's bumper was damaged, it was admirable to see him working assiduously to help the taximan pull away metal from his fan so he could drive his car to a mechanic. I wish I could be as charitable to people who rear end me. I promise to try.

Well sanity finally prevailed and it was decided that we would all drive the 19 miles to Dornoch instead of riding. We took the winding road  via Clark's Town to Stewart Town where we then took an unpaved, potholed access road into Dornoch. When we got there we parked at the top and hiked for about fifteen minutes down to the river head . Disappointment, for the beautiful clean river that we had seen in the pictures was no where to be found but instead only a mud hole and millions of mosquitoes. Luckily I had a towel to ward them off so only got bitten about a dozen times!

Disappointed I returned to my car with Johan and Kenesha and we decided to go back to Stewart Town to find a bar to get some cool beer. We did but then got a call from Charles saying that he had discovered that if you continue on the road to Dornoch, you could end up in Discovery Bay in 10 minutes.  I could not bother to go back on to the bad road so instead proceeded on to Kingston via Brown's Town. I was sorry to have to separate from what was a really nice group of fun loving people, but c'est la vie for after all, it had been a wonderful weekend of riding, swimming, eating, dominoes and camaraderie so there was no reason for me to be greedy.

 Another weekend well spent despite the disappointment of the Rio Bueno river, but I imagine that the mud and mosquitoes were a natural result of the islandwide rains which had pelted us all on the Saturday before .


No regrets about anything.

THE JEWS ARE DEFINITELY SUPERIOR!

If the Jews have been led to  feel  that they are superior to every one else and many times more superior  to Arabs, who can blame them?  For haven't the most powerful, well armed and wealthy nations in the western world which espouse Christianity insisted that they are the "chosen people" from time immemorial?

This is of course because the powerful christian religion was founded on the bible. Those who have bothered to research it however would recognise that the bible is mostly Jewish history and their myths about the creation of the world, but these concepts were adopted wholeheartedly and defended by the sword, starting in 312 AD when the all powerful Constantine, who ruled the Roman Empire and the world as it stood then, became a Christian activist. It was he who foisted the concept that the bible was written by god himself, on the world.

These beliefs on which Christianity has been founded, has led to the powerful nations coming together and using their their immense power to first take away Palestinian  land to establish a homeland for "the chosen people" and secondly to victimize those whose lands they had stolen.

By natural  progression  therefore, based on this philosophy,  the Jews are the most valuable people in the world. If this did not have serious implications for world peace, it would really be hilarious.

Since yesterday, I have felt  a bit like how I imagine people must have felt in 312 AD when  the all powerful emperor Constantine declared that  it would be Christianity or death for everyone.

My reflections  arose as I tried to get some world news from the international media including the BBC and CNN and  became bombarded from morning to night with nothing but reports of how over a thousand Palestinians prisoners had been swapped for one Israeli prisoner. There was absolutely nothing else happening in  the world, if you were a person from Mars tuning in to these media houses!  Only the BBC pretended to try and introduce some semblance of fairness and impartiality by interviewing a few Palestinians who had been  freed,  but you knew right away that it was fluff by the terms they used, ie. the Palestinians released were terrorists (and other similarly incendiary terms) while constantly referring to the Israeli who was released as  a soldier!

They all really sought to reinforce from every angle, the concept that one Jew was far more important than the  all Palestinians combined.

Well blow me down. I suppose all this will just keep translating into even more aggressive support from the west for Jewish hegemony in the middle east and to hell with everyone else.

The Prime Minister of Jamaica

It is now a done deal, former minister of education, Andrew Holness will be succeeding Bruce Golding as the 9th prime Minster of Jamaica.

I am not at all surprised about his selection, just surprised that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) which had developed such a terrible reputation for maximum disruption when selecting leaders, has managed this succession so flawlessly.

While Holness age 39, has been a popular favourite among Jamaicans of all ages and political loyalties, to me it is no big thing. He has apparently been a hard worker and a very visible politician and while I would not have had a problem with Audley Shaw becoming prime minister, I have no problem with him either. In my book, either of them will certainly make a better prime minister than leader of the opposition Portia Simpson Miller.

A BIG DAMP SQUID

No, I have not completed the task that has been keeping me away from writing on public and other issues, but after the big damp squid last night, I just can't help myself. My fingers are a law unto themselves!

Thew squid is of course the nationwide broadcast made by prime minister Bruce Golding in the wake of his sudden (but welcome) resignation.

Ever since it became known that the PM was not running again as JLP leader at the conference due in November and therefore a new leader and by implication, Prime Minister would have to be found, a lot of idiots have been jumping up and down calling for him to tell them why he was resigning.(Amazingly, these are the same people who had been loudest in calling for his resignation when the scandals about his handling of the Dudus affair were exposed!) At the same time, the same people (I have no doubt) have been spreading rumours that the reason for his resignation is because he is about to be indited by the US government and his extradition sought. Then they have put out the word that if he did not confirm this in the nationwide broadcast, then he was not speaking the truth.

Yawn.

Politicians are sometimes so stupid and immature and they really seem to take those to whom they direct their propaganda, for fools.

The defense by Golding of his chief Don Dudus was disgraceful and his resignation, because of his handling of the issue was overdue. This is not just my opinion, but the opinion of some 80% of the persons polled in a recent survey done by the party that Mr. Golding himself leads. This is why he is seen as  liability to the party which was doomed to become Jamaica's first and only one term  government since independence, if Golding remained as leader. That is why Golding could command no respect in the party and had to step aside.

Last night he was arrogant enough to reiterate the nonsense that he had only stood up for Dudus because his constitutional rights were infringed. He still has not come to terms with the fact that he cannot sell that one since he has never ever had an ear for the constitutional rights of others who had been extradited before Dudus.

Jamaican politics. Yawn. In my book, either Holeness or Shaw would make good successors and the upcoming election  is threatening to be be quite boring as the PNP has said that their strategy remains the same as whomever takes up the mantle will remain tainted by the Dudus affair. Pathetic. It f that is all they can find as an election strategy? We may as well all go to sleep for now.