Ineffective M.P's and Sloppy Work

I often  have to wonder whether it is worse to have to live with a useless and ineffective Member of Parliament (MP)or government agencies which put out the sloppiest of work, while we taxpayers are continually being forced to pay increased rates.

For decades, the residents of Bedford Park have had to put up the with the total lack of support and representation from  "representative" Delroy Chuck and his equally ineffective councilor as the area depreciates as a result of the KSAC refusing to stop the illegal commercialisation which has caused the roads to deteriorate rapidly as they were not built to deal with commercial activity.

In fact, I say without any fear of contradiction  that no work have ever been done on any of the roads in the area since Douglas Vaz retired as MP for that area almost twenty years ago.

Our frustration with the lack of activity by the representative has certainly given strength to the argument of those who lobby for term limits for representatives, for when you see the total transformation of the roads in for example, Mona, since the new representative Andre Hylton took over, it gives you good reason to argue that there is a chronic need new blood in  many  constituencies! And don't tell me about voting out ineffective MP's for that certainly does not work where you are surrounded by a large garrison where the majority would never dream of  voting on issues!

Anyway, despite our total disgust with Mr. Chuck and his councilor, it was with  a sigh of "Better late than never"  that a National Work's Agency crew was welcomed into the community last Monday.

They arrived with their impressive piece of equipment (Remember Mr. Pickersgill's Jamaica will be pothole free by 2003?" when they spent millions to acquire those machines twenty wears ago?)
and started  at the bottom of the longer road , doing  a slap dash  job of patching some potholes while leaving many little potholes that would soon become big gullies, undone.

An example of how NWA patches, leaving little potholes behind to become big potholes!

Then tragedy of tragedies, it rained, so they left the job!

 The next day they returned and this time they started patching at the top of the road?

While we were left wondering about this patching strategy,  all was soon revealed, for they never came back, leaving the middle section undone and that has always been the absolutely worst part of the road! 

I suppose that until the citizens rise up and do what has to be done to get action and proper services from the public sector, "representational" politics and value for money will remain nothing but a pipe dream, in Jamaica.

Hiking to Hollywell

The first rest stop just below Red Light

The $2000 hike that the Forestry department organised which we did for $500 thanks to Ayatollah, (Charles Williams) was a real a fun event and extremely well organised with  a large number of guides, ambulance and Red Cross staff and rest three rest stops where they provided nice walking canes,  fruits,and water as well as portable toilets.

While the F& Thrillers  like Sheriff, (Nicole) Yohan, Lisa, Nicole(Lawrence) etc paid their just due (although Lisa and Nicole L did not use the buses provided) , cheap stakes like Desire, Theresa, Charles, Marcus and I  were driven independently to Gordon town  by Chris and just melted in with the officially registered  hikers from there.

 The trail was well marked, scenic and quite easy and actually this short- cut to Newcastle was a first for me as the first time I hiked with an official party, we were way ahead of the rest and  mistakenly took a far more arduous and treacherous path which had us crawling on hands and knees in some areas.  This was a much more well defined route with pieces of wood set in the trail to prevent us from sliding as we went through picaresque pine plantations with coffee plants interspersed and the Forestry Department  guides had even put up a rope rail in one section where it was a bit tricky.

At the first rest stop by Red Light here there was lots of fruits, water and juice and even portable toilets and that is where Sheriff caught up with us as she had taken a bus from UTECH.

Chris bought food and drove up to Hollywell and after we had plodded uphill for about three and half hours, we found him waiting patiently for us. Though Ayatollah only ordered ackee and calaloo as usual although he knows I am allergic to ackees, he somehow managed to hijack a lovely barbecue chicken meal through one of those who were with the official party, so I never had to kill him. So we had a great brunch, hung around a bit telling jokes and  blew poor Chris'  mind with stories guaranteed to help him cut down on his womanizing! He grumbled all the way down that the would never give another girl money. lol                                                                                               

                                                                                                                             

There were probably four to five hundred hikers  (but then I am no good with estimating crowds!) and lots of buses to transport them back to Kingston, but they were not  returning until around three in the afternoon for the $200 fee had included an entertainment segment but  none of us wanted to spend the entire day up there. So since there was only the Prado for some ten of us,  Charles tried to get one of the bus drivers to take an early trip down to transport some of us, but none of those drivers could be bought!

It was therefore decided that Chris would take one set  of us to Newcastle and go back for the rest and we would try to get better transportation from there. Incidentally  while we were driving down at around noon, there were still quite a number of hikers still struggling up the hill.

I went down with the first group and while we waited,  who did we see struggling up on a bicycle all by himself but  Omar.

Although he planned to continue on to Hollywell and he said he would not allow us to break his determination to ride all the way, he hung around with us until the other group arrived. As we waited, we saw two men who appeared to be doing a tour of Newcastle and sent our model Theresa to try and get a lift down with them, but they said they were only going to Strawberry Hills. So we continued waiting.

When  the others arrived, it was decided that Chris would take one trip down with the first group and return for the others, but by the time we got to Cafe blue, Lisa got a call that they had arranged alternative transportation.

The big drama of the day was when it appears three police thought they could have made some money off Chris.

On the way down, he took a corner wide and a police pickup was traveling  up  towards Newcastle and he nearly hit the vehicle.

Although  it was a narrow escape but no harm was done, within what seemed like only a few seconds, they had managed to turn around and were behind us, indicating that we should stop.

There were three of them, one woman in uniform and two men in plain clothes. They all jumped out of the vehicle belligerently, calling out to Chris to get out of the vehicle. I looked around feverishly in the pocket for the papers but could not find them so Desiree and I  came out to see how they would behave while Theresa turned up the back glass as the vehicle was over loaded.

 After looking at Chris' license and finding that it was unfortunately in order, they seemed pleased that we had no papers and started to huff and puff.  The big belly one who was apparently the senior officer drew himself up and started to tell poor intimidated Chris how he  could take away the vehicle for that. At that point , I said "Are you sure officer? This is a Resident magistrate;" pointing to Desiree.   What an immediate transformation! He immediately turned to her very very courteously saying,  "Good afternoon maam". At that point Sheriff, having searched more diligently  than I, found the papers and showed them. I think that saved their obvious embarrassment for with Desiree there they had realised they could not carry on any hanky panky so the big belly seemed to take an extra long time  pretending to scrutinise the documents, before lecturing Chris about  the dangers of careless driving and telling him how lucky we was to have not run into one of the trucks being driven by the soldiers. Chris apologised  for his bad driving and we continued our journey but I swear had Desiree and the rest of us had not been there, he would either have had to give them some serious money, had the vehicle taken away or shot  for supposedly resisting arrest for their aggressive attitude initially could never ended up with a reasonable result like just getting a ticket otherwise. 

After a great carefree day, that incident reminded me poignantly of  the terrible realities of life that some people have to abide on a daily basis for in this beautiful county of ours, if you do not have either what we loosely refer to as "high colour" or some special status, you are a lamb to the slaughter when having encounters with some of those who are sworn to "Serve and Protect".

Blatant Fraud

I guess I should be accustomed by now to the various means the government uses to extract money from us, but I was totally taken aback by the blatant fraud being committed by the Half Way tree Post Office.

Some years ago, the post office introduced Priority Mail with much flourish, promising that this system would  cause mail to be delivered in two days. I have used this service from time to time and although I never really checked if it took a maximum of two days, I  never before had reason to question the service.

Until today.

 On the 17th April I sent a letter by priority main and today (24th) as I happened to have to go back to the post office, I called to see if the letter had been delivered. No I was told.

So on going into the post office, I  handed the receipt to the young man selling stamps to check on the item. He looked at the address of the Post Office to which it was being sent and flippantly replied "Oh, priority mail does not apply to country areas."

You could have hit me down with a straw as every time I had used that service,  it had been to send stuff to rural post offices.

 So I asked him since when this was happening only to be told always. When I pressed further to find out how long that particular item for which I had paid the priority rate would take to be delivered, he nonchalantly replied "During the regular period, 3 to 10 days".  Shocked, I asked him why they were  committing fraud against the public by charging priority rates for things being sent by regular mail, only to be told defensively that I had asked for it.

Well blow me down, if this is not an example of blatant, barefaced fraud, I don't know what it is. And one would have thought that with post offices being almost redundant these days, the authorities would at least give the few customers they still have, reasonable service. But in reality, the idea of good service is not at all on the agenda at Half Way tree, for despite the high unemployment in the country, they would not even hire a few clerks to sell stamps so that the slightest "service" there does not take a minimum of 10 minutes!!!

Never Assume

I have been familiar with peacocks all my life and all I have ever seen them doing is preening themselves and showing off  while moving very slowly and deliberately so you are forced to  notice them. So I have over the years, assumed without ever looking into it, that a peacock though absolutely beautiful, is  a flightless bird like the penguin or ostrich.

Recently I was walking on  the road in Salem, St. Ann and hearing some strange sounds above, looked up curiously, only to see a pair of peacocks comfortably lounging on a light post and conversing with one another, very loudly.

That really gave me a rude awakening and a stark reminder of the wisdom my grandmother tried to drum into my head for years with these words;  "Never assume anything, for assume  really means means making an ass of you and me."

Yup. No matter how old I get, I  am always reminded that life is all about living and learning new things every day.

Frightening Statistics.........Cervical cancer testing policy in Jamaica

EVERY OTHER DAY A WOMAN IN JAMAICA DIES FROM CERVICAL CANCER , A TOTALLY PREVENTABLE SITUATION.

Yesterday I did an outside broadcast from the Jamaica Cancer Society, where they were putting special emphasis on early detection in the fight against cervical cancer. That is where I got that shocking information above,  in an interview with Dr. Joseph Hall, the longest serving member of the board.

According to Dr. Hall, where the public government clinics where poor women throughout the island have to go to do any testing exist at all, the service is totally disgraceful (my words). To begin with, the results take some 7-8 months to be ready and as we know, time is of the essence when dealing with cancer and many women do not even go back for the results as they have long forgotten that they even took the test..

To make matters worse, where the women cannot find the money to pay, the results are withheld! 
What is even more disturbing is the fact that where the test shows that there is ab problem and further action needs to be taken urgently there is no counselling at these clinics so the poor women are left without the options  being given to them.

The result of this gross slackness and lack of concern for the less privileged (which Dr. Hall says he has brought to the attention of Ministers of Health in all governments)  is that every other day, a Jamaican woman dies from cervical cancer, something that is totally preventable. Naturally the women who must suffer because of this undesirable situation in government clinics, are poor women, as women of means can pay the small fee at the Cancer society or do their tests at private  institutions.

The Jamaica Cancer Society has been doing a mammoth task to try and educate the population about how simple it is to reduce the rate of some cancers, Breast , Colon, Prostate and Cervical  by early detection. Unfortunately, they do not have the capacity to service the entire island, but it is the duty of the government to provide the facilities at the various clinics islandwide, but where they do it, it is in a careless, sloppy, uncaring manner so our incidence of cervical cancer has only reduced from 35 per 100,000 since we started testing to 27 per 100,000 whereas in countries that take women's health seriously, the rate has now fallen to between 5 and 7 per 1000,000 during the same period.

To add insult to injury,  only one public hospital in the island, offers mammograms to test for breast cancer.

I was horrified by the information and wondered out loud if the various women's organisations were aware of the cavalier attitude of successive governments to women's health issues...I mean poor women.

I will certainly be doing my part to highlight this issue and now that Jamaica has a female prime minister and one who loves to tell us how she loves the poor, I am prepared to bet it will make absolutely no difference to how women of no or limited means are treated  by the Ministry of Health.

Grandkids

I don't know who said "If I knew grandchildren were so great I would have had them first" but I concur 100%.

The first week of April 2013 was probably the best of my life as it is the closest thing to a family reunion that I have had in years, with my only daughter, only grandson and only granddaughter all here with me at once.

It is  kind of  frightening though to have to admit that I have a grandson almost 18 years old, who will be off to university in September,  for that brings me face  to the reality of old age and the numerous miseries that accompany those fading years.

But that's just a fleeting thought, for the years with Shadrach growing up with me until he was twelve and migrated to the USA are replaceable and leave several wonderful memories etched in my heart.

Madelynn is another experience all by itself since I have seen very little of her since I left Denver after she was born. I think I have been back once and she has been to Jamaica twice, so we have to do something to up the experiences for she is quite something.

To begin with, outside of grandma Williams, I have never met another who could chat  non stop whether anyone was listening or not! So on the way to Runaway Bay, she did not sleep a wink but talked all the way there and all the way back!

Then there was that maturity which I saw at her cake cutting.

 On Sunday when her grandfather had a party to welcome them, I had gotten a special small cake for her (she turns 2  on the 23rd) but she fell asleep and could not cut it so we had a few kids around on Tuesday night for ice cream and cake.


After cutting the cake and playing with the other kids for a while, she suddenly declared out of the blue, "I am tired, I am going to bed now!" and headed to her room where her mom had to dress her, put her in the crib before returning to to the party.

About ten minutes later, she reappeared declaring "I am good now so I am back "  and resumed playing with the other kids as if nothing had happen ed.

Us adults were  absolutely speechless for most of us had  had never seen or heard of a 2 year old kid putting herself  to bed then returning when when rested.

She is absolutely phenomenal and now that Shadrach is relocating next door to Tampa, Florida, I am certainly going to be spending a lot more time reveling in the joys of  grandmotherhood..

Decameron Fun Caribbean Hotel is the Worst Hotel in the World!

In all my years of traveling to resorts all over the world, I have never experienced  a worst hotel than the Decameron Fun Caribbean Hotel in Runaway Bay Jamaica. 

For years, I along with family and friend  had been visiting Club Caribbean hotel  which operated EP with a number of lovely cottages on the beach and an absolutely well trained and friendly staff. This hotel was  later leased  to the Decameron group and turned into an all inclusive, and the service continued to be excellent.

Then Decameron leased a property next door which had previously been operated under the brand "Hedonism" and they branded it Decameron fun Caribbean while the original one remained as Decameron Club Caribbean.

About a month ago I made a reservation for the 4-6 April with Club Caribbean,  requesting  one of the two bedroom  cottages  behind the huge concrete chess board for myself and 2 other adults and baby. About a week before we were scheduled to arrive, I was informed that they did not have a cottage at Club Caribbean, so  we would be transferred be to Fun Caribbean next door and  they even gave us free massages to compensate. No problem for me . Nothing wrong with a new experience  I thought/

Well  I was certainly wrong for everything was wrong with the new experience at Fun  Caribbean.

We were met  by a friendly receptionist who greeted us with a smile, but because she was busy with another check in, she called to another lady to deal with us. Well you would have thought  that she was asked to kill herself, based on her non-verbal response and the look she gave the other lady. I had to  ask her immediately why she was so unpleasant! Without an unnecessary word or any form of pleasantness, she proceed to process our reservation, never once explaining what she had to do during the periods we had to wait .

In the end she handed me one key and when I expressed alarm how  she expected the three adults  to be  in one room with a baby,  a series of phone calls begun, between her and others and my myself and the lady with whom the original reservation had been made.

 In the interim, I suggested that my son-in law and daughter go ahead to the room with the baby as they had been traveling all day with a small baby. Would you believe although that was said in front of her, she did not call a bell hop or give them directions to the room for about 5 minutes till I told her what to do!

While waiting on the absent bell hop, my son in law went to the nearby bar too get something to drink, only to return empty handed as he said the female bar tender looked straight at him, did not say a word then walked away.  Not a word as to whether she would be back shortly or anything!

Eventually, since it was late, we were not getting anywhere as they said they had no more rooms  and I was tired,  I agreed to the one room,  since it was only two days and they told me it was a  large suite.

But lo and behold,  we were only given one key for three adults and when we got to the room, the straw that broke the camel's back was when we discovered there were only two towels in the room for three adults and a child! That just did it,  for they knew long before that Club Caribbean was sending over  there were 3 adults and a child. That's when we decided that we wanted to go back to Club Caribbean and take any rooms they had there. 

We were given two room, side by side at the "Courtyard" and spent a wonderful two days there,  served by the friendly, professional staff and entertainment co-ordinators there who have made that hotel the highly rated property that it is.

Fun Caribbean? Never again and I will  certainly tell all who will listen about them.

Slavery in Jamaica

Nothing bugs me more than hearing black people in Jamaica  rant about the slavery that was abolished over two hundred years ago, while remaining silent about the black on black slavery that exists in Jamaica today.

These hypocrites are in two categories;  Firstly there are the politicians who recognize that  talk about historical trans-Atlantic slavery  and racism can easily rile up emotions,  so they  often use it as a tool to gain cheap popularity.

Then  there are  the freeloaders who hope to get rich by exacting  a financial  ransom  from the "rich white world" for the evils perpetuated by their ancestors against our ancestors centuries ago, while conveniently ignoring the fact that this type of slavery would not have been possible, had our African ancestors not been collaborators, rounding up  and selling their own black brothers and sisters to the white traders, sometimes for nothing more than a few coloured beads. (So what morality can there be in demanding payment from others without first demanding even  an apology from the descendants of our own African blood relatives? )

If the hypocrisy  of these so-called vocal anti-slavery activists had not been obvious before, it  should clear  be clear by now to even the blind, since these activists have never once expressed moral outrage against the modern day slavery being openly practiced in Jamaica today.

This new slavery is open and in your face as it is practiced in almost  all of the 25 % of the constituencies in this country, those dubbed "garrison constituencies." These garrison constituencies are controlled by either one powerful don or a series of mini-dons, most either actively or surreptitiously supported by the  so-called elected members of parliament , for most of  these members of parliament would never qualify to hold a seat, had they not been supported by the violent dons who direct the people how to vote.

How it works is that the don is the new slave master and those who live in  the area, the slaves.

For example, In certain areas downtown where extortion is a way of life, not only does the don provide the businesses with "security" but staff as well. So when the operator calls him and say they need, for example 3 clerks, he selects the persons then collects money weekly and pays the workers what he feels like and  the idea that  workers have to the right to demand decent working conditions, an hour for lunch, bathroom breaks, vacation leave or even a decent salary,  is nothing but a theory to these people.

This is no secret as some years one newspaper even interviewed some of the persons (mainly women) who worked under these conditions, but naturally they had to remain anonymous. And we know the young boys are trained early to steal and break into people's homes and bring in the returns to the boss. 

Another despicable condition that the new slaves have to put up with in the garrisons  is the practice where when young girls reach puberty, if the don so decides, she has to go to him when he calls, so he can take her virginity.

Many a mother has had to escape from  these garrisons to protect their children AS SHE HAS  GOTTEN  THE DREADED MESSAGE "BATHE DI PICKNEY AND SEN HAR COME"  but  this is something the authorities and power brokers will do nothing about as it suits their political schemes.

To make matters worse, Jamaica has more churches per square miles than any other county, however whereas most of the clergy many centuries ago supported trans-Atlantic slavery, there were a few white pastors who put their lives on the block to try and put a stop to that despicable practice.

HOWEVER, TODAY, OUR BLACK CLERGY SEEMS QUITE HAPPY TO TOLERATE THE NEW TYPE OF SLAVERY WHICH SOME 25% OF OUR POPULATION HAS TO ENDURE, AS LONG AS THE DONS KEEP THEIR COLLECTION PLATES FULL AND OVERFLOWING!

I have for years been speaking out publicly about this despicable modern day slavery as being practiced in  the Jamaican garrisons, but the wider society too has preferred to pretend it does not exist. 

Will anyone pay attention now that the daily "Observer" has again put in on the agenda with the article  entitled Sex For Gun Debt  - Girls forced into prostitution?

(http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Sex-for-gun-debt_13979512#ixzz2P7JtEv1x) 

 I certainly would never hold my breath in expectation, neither would I expect those hypocrites who shout loudly about the despicable conditions under which our ancestors lived  some 200 hundred years ago, to speak up or fight against what is happening under our noses right here, right now in beautiful Jamaica.

Reggae Falls and Barren Monuments

No matter how many times we ride to Reggae Falls,  I can never be tired or disappointed with the outing, for it just get better each time.

This Easter Sunday was my fifth trip to those scenic cascading  falls and the ride seemed so easy this time I had to wonder if  had really come off my bicycle and pushed over the first hill outside of Seaforth town, the first couple of times we rode there.

Despite the obvious drought as reflected in the  brown hills  towering over Hillside Valley, in the valley itself, it was quite lush and I guess because I was not over stressed on this ride, I noticed the huge Serge Island Milk factory just above the falls, for the first time.

What made this ride especially pleasant was the fact that it drizzled  during the entire journey from we passed the turn off to Stony Gut, so we had no blaring sun to deal with at all.

However, once we got tot he falls the sun kept appearing intermittently, allowing us to frolic in the cool water without any discomfort.

Shawn and I entered the Johnson river from a different path this time for when we went to the usual entrance we saw that some kind of sand mining must have been taking place as sand was piled u all over the place. So we followed the dirt path which headed west and entered the river much higher up. That's definitely a better entrance anyway as you have far less river to wade through.

The Stella Maris posse

This trip was not just the usual crowd from Fun and thrills, but also the Chuck's who along with Charles Simpson provided the delicious meal of curried goat, barbecue chicken and franks with an assortment of salads including delicious breadfruit salad, brought guests from  Stella Maris, mostly the members of their famous steel band Stewart brought along a couple of yoga instructors and Charlene had her group of photographers.

The "washer people" of Reggae Falls 

The scene of the day was a demonstration in effective clothes washing in the river by Charles the 1st, Fatman and Rose.....and the winner was Fatman.

It was  a cool gathering and as the white rum and vodka flowed, the comedy hour began with each contributing their favourite jokes. I agree with Barry that the Logic joke is unbeatable.

Of course there  had to be dominoes and after boy scouting graduate Chuck set up a canvas covering, the table and dominoes came out. Unfortunately, although many of us have folding chairs, we forgot to bring them, so it was stand up and play.

Anyway I got my usual quota of 6 love (just one this time!) and even took on some local fellows who thought we looked like a walkover.

Chuck the scout

Chuck ordered some east indian mangoes and a lady brought 2 dozen, red juicy ones which we grabbed up at $100 each. Fatman dsved into one of the juiciest looking ones immediately and when he reached halfway, he saw two fat worms begging for mercy. He tried another, same picture.

 I took mine home and relaxed to enjoy them, same problem just different worms. I therefore decided to eat the other one after dark!

It was a great day all  round  of fun, antics, liquor and great food but as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Only Mark and Shawn rode back from the river while Chully, Charles and Chuck jumped on their bikes at different sections after clearing the hill leading from Hillside valley.

Each time we head to Reggae falls, I have wondered what the monument to honour Paul Bogle at Stony Gut looks like, as we always see the sign pointing the way. So I convinced Chris (the driver) to detour from following  two cyclists to take a look at it. It is about 5 miles from the main road and the road going there is

The bare monument dedicated to National hero Paul Bogle

extremely well paved and you get a beautiful view of the seashore in the eastern section as you ascend.

 The monument itself is quite attractive, however there are no signs or any type of information  once you arrive there and the place looks bare and desolate. The only sign we saw was a "no trespassing" one and it is covered with weeds, typical of how we treat important monuments in this our fair land.

 Anyway, while I am sure the courageous members of the A team who took on a  two day cross the island ride are nice and sore from riding by now, I am certainly well refreshed after a wonderful day with like minded fun lovers who made the far more pleasant  trek to one of the most beautiful places in the island, Reggae Falls in the Johnson River.