We Don't Need The Caribbean Court of Justice

As we  in Jamaica celebrate our fiftieth year as an independent nation, why can't we get it right?

Here we are rightly moving full speed to get rid of the monarchy and all other vestiges of that system including the privy council, then what do we do? Opt to make another external entity, the CCJ our final court!!

I make no bones about the fact that I am no regionalist and I totally respect for the decision that the people made in 1961 and therefore object strongly to all the moves being made to establish federation through the back door. The plain truth however is that all the attempts over the years have not worked for look at how Jamaicans are treated when they go to the other islands.

Just this week too I heard someone from the private sector on radio saying that their organisation has just set about doing been a cost benefit analysis of our relationship with Caricom. I suppose if we did not have a trade deficit of close to a billion dollars, they would  never have seen this as a basic necessity.

The fact is, Caricom only benefits the politicians and bureaucrats who gather to have a whale of a time at the various talk shops as they make decisions that affect our lives adversely and make no attempt to explain the implications of these decisions.

As far as I am concerned it was nothing but the anti-Jamaican bias that is prevalent in the region which led to not even one Jamaican judge being selected to sit on the CCJ when it was first established although we had to pay the largest fraction of the initial costs.

Anyway, the fact is we have extremely qualified and competent jurists right here and if we are really interested in true independence, as we talk about divorce from the Privy council, we would not be looking at half steps but would move full speed ahead to deal with the matter properly and in the interest of the Jamaican people, as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations.

  Let us have our own final court of appeal right here and what the heck, we can hire judges from other territories if the need arises, as it does in other professions from time to time.

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It's Not That I Am lazy!

Gosh, I really haven't don't a blog for a such long long time and people have been asking me why i have gotten so lazy. Its not that I have become lazy or am no longer inspired to write, but I have taken on this project and its killing me.

Oh yes it will pay massive dividends in the long run but I often despair about when I will finish. You see I have decided to turn my two best selling books Tour Jamaica and the Original Dancehall Dictionary into e-books and man it means transcribing them from Publisher to Word and of course editing and updating as I go along.

Of course the first great benefit is that I will say bye bye forever to printers, those unreliable and inefficient creatures and of course it will be so much easier to update the publications.

So back to the grindstone for as we say a Yard; If yu waan good yu nose haffi run.

Big Versus Small

As I get older, I have  come to understand how much Size Matters.
Got you didn't I?.

I am actually rt\referring to the size of countries for i have now become become addicted  to small countries. Not too small like Cayman or St. Kitts, but small like Jamaica.  You see, too small has its disadvantages, the worst being that everyone knows your business!

Jamaica is  just the perfect size for me. Its big enough and the city large enough that your business can remain your business and  if one wants to go anywhere at all in this beautiful island, maximum travel time?  4 hours. Imagine 4 hours from big city to a perfect hide away, or a wonderful white sand beach or a challenging mountain. And that is if you do not want to fly.

On the other hand, in big countries like Guyana, Brazil or the USof A, everywhere you want to go to takes a lot of planning, a lot of trouble and a lot of money. Sure you can fly, but who really wants the hassle of airports and security more than one has to?

Thank God for putting me in the most beautiful country in the world and the perfect size to boot. 

Caymanas River

Caymanas River in St. Catherine is probably one of Kingston's best kept secrets. For despite the fact that this lovely place to swim and pleasantly pass the time, is only around 15 minutes  drive from Half- Way Tree, not many persons wanting to cool off, go there.

Those who visit regularly are  persons wanting to be baptised. I don't know how the tradition started, but apparently in  "Christian Jamaica," there is this myth that there is something spiritual about those waters, hence on weekends there is a constant trek by Christians, mainly travelling in buses, to go there and do what John The Baptist said was necessary to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Dipping to get the holy spirit

So anxious are some religious leaders are to pass on the spirit, that one Sunday when I was there, one offered to baptise me there and then, no preparation whatever!!!!!

The area did go through a very bad spell some years ago because some '"bright men from the community decided to start charging people who went there. Apparently this because so lucrative, that they started to fight over the spoils leading to the death by some 9 persons in a very short period of time.

This then forced the owners, the government owned Urban Development Corporation to step in and fence off the area and provide security.

After a while they seem to have withdrawn and now the community has taken over the attraction (I doubt that they have a legitimate lease however) and are running it nicely.

They now provide secure parking, there are people sweeping sand keeping the place clean as a whistle and divers and children remove the seaweed from the swimming areas leaving it really clean, beautiful and perfect for swimming, .

 In addition shops have sprung up offering all you need on such occasions and of course there is the blaring music to keep you up to date with the latest dance hall hits. 

I just hope it remains like this, a good progressive community money earning effort and never again regresses to the stage where some violent idiot with a gun tries to control it all and spoil it for all of us.