Murderer!

MURDERER!

Kyle Rittenhouse got away with murder in the USA, but I can’t imagine him being found 'not guilty' in any other country in the world. Also, were he a black man, not only would his claim of self-defense never be accepted, but also, I doubt that he would have lived one day longer than the day he was seen carrying a AR15 or any other gun to a protest. For surely, some white policeman would have outed his lights without any provocation at all!

I assume that everyone recognizes the name by now, but just in case, let me back up a bit.

On August 25, 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old boy from Antioch, Illinois, fatally shot two men and wounded another in Kenosha, Wisconsin. This was during protests and civil unrest that followed the shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer.

Rittenhouse was armed with a semi-automatic AR-15  rifle that he got from his friend as he was not old enough to buy a gun on his own.

Armed with 'this weapon of war,' he accompanied friends from Illinois to neighboring Wisconsin, supposedly to protect a car dealership from being vandalized (it came out in the trial that this was unsolicited as there were no cars on the premises!) and, he testified, to provide medical aid to persons who may be injured in the melee.

During the demonstration, he left the dealership’s compound and started patrolling in the streets with his AR 15.

Naturally, since whites walking around with semi-automatic rifles in the USA never bodes well, as this is the preferred weapon of mass killers who murder innocent people in schools, churches etc, attempts were made by three courageous white men to disarm him. This resulted in two of the three being murdered in cold blood by Rittenhouse and one being severely injured.

Rittenhouse escaped back to Illinois and after much hesitancy, only public outrage led to him eventually being charged and tried for the murders.

At his trial, Rittenhouse pled ‘self-defense’ and was freed by a jury who was supported by a judge who was clearly biased against the prosecutors, as during the trial he displayed open animosity towards them.

An  exonerated Rittenhouse is now the darling of the Republican party, other white supremacists and is wildly celebrated by gun advocates and commentators at Fox news. 

Former president Donald Trump invited him to Mar a Lago for a photo op and Qanoon advocate Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a bill to award him a Congressional Gold Medal. It is also reported that Republican Senators are vying among themselves to recruit him as an intern.

Why should Jamaicans pay attention to this case?

Because in Jamaica, many naïve persons have been publicly calling on America over the years, to stop guns from being smuggled into our island.

 Every time I hear this call I can only shake my head, as it is clear these people don’t understand the significant role guns play in the USA.

The right to obtain as many guns as you want is written into the American Constitution and as a result, in many states it is as easy to own a gun as to buy groceries!

And there is no distinction as to the type of guns one can obtain.

So, although for decades, responsible persons and relatives of victims of mass shootings have been campaigning to have weapons of war excluded from everyday possession and use, this is always rejected.

This is because the gun manufacturing lobby is extremely rich and powerful, so for us to expect the USA authorities to do anything to reduce their lucrative trade is so simplistic.

Getting rid of illegal guns which are driving up our murder rate annually, has to be the sole job of the Jamaican government. No ifs or buts about it, so we can stop wasting time pleading with US authorities to help us.

Yes, Jamaica has hundreds of miles of coastline which makes smuggling painless, but nothing is easy, so we have to devise strategies to deal with this deadly problem.

If this recent case does not convince the naive that there will never be assistance from the USA in curbing gun exportation,, nothing will.

Anyway, before making these useless pleas, have the naïve really not considered the fact that while guns are easily accessible in the USA, they have a per capita murder rate which is infinitesimal compared to ours?

No, I guess not, as we have always had the uncanny ability to excel at flogging the wrong horse!

 

https://youtu.be/QUbE6K

Maligning Jamaican Mothers

No child can be born without the input of a male, but too many Jamaican men are being allowed to get away without providing any financial support for the children they father.

I have seen a video making the rounds in which Oral Tracey of TVJ, an obvious misogynist, is maligning women based on bogus statistics which have led him to claim that Jamaican women give the most jackets in the world. (paternity fraud).

Using false data, he goes as far as to claim that Jamaican women are even more prone to lying about their progeny than men, who are notorious for denying that the many children they bear are indeed theirs, so not supporting them!

Employing man bites dog journalism, (things only make news when they are the exception, not the rule) he points to the fact that 70% of the men who dispute paternity are correct when tests are done. What he fails to tell us though is, what percentage of fathers go this expensive route to dispute paternity? In other words, if the population of fathers in the country is a hundred and only ten men dispute paternity, by what stretch of the imagination can that tell you anything?

I resented the entire tone of his maligning commentary which seemed designed to do nothing but denigrate Jamaican mothers en bloc.

Yes, there are too many cases of paternity fraud in Jamaica, and that cannot be at all accepted. I dare say too, that where men have been supporting children because of deception, the person who committed the fraud, ought to be penalized and action allowed to recover the funds.

But children should never be left to starve while adults’ squabble or drag out things for years on end through our snail-paced courts!

Indeed, if serious steps were taken to ensure that fathers support their children, you would see the cases of paternity fraud drop to nil. For in many cases, it is to save children from literally starving, why some women inexcusably saddle other men with the cost of supporting children they did not father.

According to UNICEF, some 45% of Jamaican households are headed by single women, but what no statistics reveal, is what percentage of men who fathered children who live in those households, do not make any contribution to the financial welfare of their children!

 I suspect the percentage would be in the nineties.

In the interim, most Jamaican women put the welfare of their children over themselves, more often than not. How regularly do you hear or read unlikely success stories where the story-teller heaps praises on the mom for the great sacrifices she made to enable his/her success? How often do you hear such tributes to Jamaican fathers?

I personally know of cases where women have nothing to eat, but will do without food themselves, while they move heaven and earth to ensure that their children do not go hungry.

Are you aware too that many fathers will happily support their children as long as the mother has sex with him, but the moment she moves on, he victimizes his own children by withdrawing financial support?

That attitude is far more widespread than we care to acknowledge, and crosses all class lines. It is both the women and children that suffer in such situations, since at times, the women will even have to hold their noses and give in, for if they don’t it is the children that suffer most.

On the 10^th November 2021, I sat up when I heard a Radio Jamaica report that MP Heroy Clarke from St. James, had proposed in parliament that DNA tests be used to determine the true paternity of every child at birth.

His reasoning was that it would help cut down on murders. I assume he was referring to when this is the consequence some women suffer, when men discover they were supporting a child that is not theirs.

This is quite pathetic reasoning, but the idea is good for other reasons.

To begin with it would make the bringing of pedophiles to justice much easier.

For, do we really know the extent to which uncles, step fathers, and even fathers got underage girls pregnant in our country and just walk away? If the child’s DNA is on file, wouldn’t it be much easier for the police to do the job of finding the rapists, getting their DNA and arresting them?

In the present situation, while everyone knows who got the child pregnant, the uninterested police just claim they can’t do anything without evidence.

I dare say too that if every baby born was tested to determine who the father is, it would cut down on jackets too. For before any law is passed, it is necessary to have public education done and only a mad woman would commit paternity fraud when the day the child is born, all would be exposed!

I go further to suggest that attached to the step suggested by Clarke, the legislation be the legal authority to immediately garnish the earnings of the father, where necessary. This would eliminate the totally unacceptable, expensive and frustrating process that women have to go through in the long, tardy court system, while the children perish.

So far, Mr. Clarke’s suggestion has been met with many negative responses, especially by men. Yes, it will be expensive, but it has to be financed by the state.  Sure, it cannot be accepted simply as suggested, but it should be thoroughly debated and the best solutions found.

The state had no problem finding billions to deal with the covid epidemic, which is just passing crisis while the long standing one of male irresponsibility which has been at the root of so many problems in our society, has never been seriously addressed!

Having children growing up in financially deprived circumstances because fathers will not honor their responsibilities, is proving to be far more expensive and long lasting, than any public health virus that the society will ever have to face.

And if not paternity tests to bring them in without a lot of time wasting and frustration, what suggestions do the naysayers have to deal with this chronic problem with which this society has been grappling with since slavery was abolished?

I fear though that in a parliament dominated by men, it could die a quick, silent death. That is unless the women in parliament take up the issue and mobilize the rest of the society in the interest of so many thousands of our children and vulnerable young women who remain voiceless victims.

https://youtu.be/rqa4N2N8MHo

I got a damn ticket!

 

I have often boasted how I have never having gotten a ticket for a moving violation in the USA, since I got my license here some five years ago.

I am not at all saying I have not committed violations, but have just been lucky to never see a cop a around at such critical moments!

And I am not considering myself lucky simply because I have not had to waste money paying fines, for from seeing how dangerous it can be in the USA  to be  DWB (driving while black), I considered myself  extremely fortunate, for one never knows how these things will turn out.

You see, I drive mostly in Florida where according to recent news reports, the second highest number of hate groups in the USA are to be found!

I got that information from National Public Radio (NPR) which in a report published March 12, 2021, declared; “A recent study shows Florida has the second-highest number of known hate groups in the country. We put a spotlight on why the Sunshine State harbors so much hate. The Southern Poverty Law Center says there are 68 known hate groups active in Florida. That's only four less than California, which has twice the population. Of them, 47 are White supremacy groups, like those involved in the insurrection at the U.S Capitol in January.”

Since many of these reports have indicated that numerous law enforcement officers belong to these white supremacy groups, when I saw the police patrol with its siren blaring behind me on I75, I thought maybe my time had come.

For the cop fit the profile (stocky, bearded, blond etc.) of those I see on tv abusing and killing black people.  Besides, on sections of that road, there were still “Trump/Pence” signs around, although the election has been over for almost a year!

This was on November 9^th, 2021 as I was returning from Sebring where I had dropped off a friend.

I knew I was speeding, about 15 mph over the speed limit, so hoped it was going to be run of the mill and non-violent.

Well, it was not run of the mill but thankfully, non-violent.

When the cop approached, he declared immediately that he stopped me for passing too close to an emergency vehicle. He claims I should have changed lane totally and gone over to the passing lane, when I saw him with a stopped vehicle some ways back. You could have killed me with shock, for I thought I had given him and the man he stopped a wide berth.

My grandson has he best suggestion though. He said, wherever you see a police, stay as far away from him as you can get!😇

I don’t recall seeing anything about getting out of my  lane in the test when I went for my license either, but he presented me with a brochure which outlined that totally.

So, I guess it is so.

On giving me the ticket for a whopping $165, I instinctively said to myself that I will surely go to court. For some time ago I got a non-moving violation ticket and on going to court, got it thrown out. But then I learnt from the brochure of a better option,….do remedial classes on line.

Well that  I will surely do as I am now convinced that there are lots of other technicalities  in the USA traffic laws that I am not aware of. So it can do no harm. Besides it saves me $165 and losing points.

Will keep you posted.

Climate change is real

The 2021 Global Conference on Health & Climate Change held in late October to early November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland may seem to be just another talk shop to some people, but to us in Jamaica, it is a deathly serious matter.

Pity two major polluters, China and Russia refused to attend.

Hellshire beach, before

The fact is though, that while it is the rich countries that are the major polluters and destroyers of our planet, it is small poor states and especially islands, that are already bearing the brunt.

Look at the poor island of Madagascar. Already a huge section of that island has been suffering from a chronic drought for the past four years, resulting in over a million people facing a devastating famine.

We will certainly be hearing similar heart-breaking stories from other places in the near future as storms, floods, droughts  and other natural disasters increase in intensity.

Right now in our own vulnerable island of Jamaica, beach erosion caused by global warming which causes sea levels to rise, has already started to destroy the source of income for hundreds of fishermen and other small entrepreneurs.

This came home to me starkly last year when a group of us went over to Hellshire Beach, a popular  seafood mecca near Kingston.

There hundreds of small entrepeneurs have made a good living for years, feeding those who have journeyed from Kingston and other areas to swim and enjoy their delicious fare.

No beach left at Hellshire

It had also been a regular hangout for my cycling club. We would ride over to the beach, swim, eat breakfast and have a wonderful time, then return to Kington. However, through the rising waters, the beautiful beach has virtually gone, putting hundreds of people out of business, as who wants to go there to eat the delicious seafood that they prepare, if you can’t swim anymore?

Where will we swim?

Other areas of Jamaica are already seeing the creeping disaster too. Among them is another very popular seafood food and fishing area at Alligator Pond in Manchester. 

St. Elizabeth is not being spared either, for residents of Calabash Bay are growing increasingly anxious as their beach slowly disappears.

Yes, many look at the issue of Climate Change and conferences in Europe as being remote and not of interest to us. But they are, for, on the ground the effects of global warming are being felt at the local level.

It is therefore heartening that our Prime Minister Andrew Holness, the extremely articulate Prime Minister Mia Motley of Barbados and other leading Caribbean leaders, made their way to that conference to put our story on to the front burner before it is too late.

The rich countries have promised to curb their destructive habits and make funding available to mitigate the problem. We can be cynical and say we have heard that before or we can become persistent  lobbyists to ensure that they do.

Because for us the dangers are imminent and real.

https://youtu.be/Lqu9pMsvagg

Obeah and all that

Despite the strides we have made in education and enlightenment over the decades, the belief in the powers of  obeah men/women (madda) to protect one from evil doers or the long arm of the law, to make one rich and even help obtain illusive visas, remains unshakable.

And it crosses class, eligious and political lines.

Many criminals, ordinary people and even parsons apparently, have always depended on these practitioners to help keep them safe. 

I am always amused when I hear how religious some brutal murderers really are. One even tried to convince me once that he structured his life after David in the bible, so he slays his enemies!

How can I ever forget the notorious much-feared Natty Morgan too? He roamed the streets of Kingston for months on end, terrifying all and sundry some years ago.  When he was killed, one newspaper highlighted how his bible was found safely tucked in his back pocket.

But back to obeah, guard rings and protection.

The guard ring recently came up in the trial of 33 alleged members of the feared Clansman Gang, now taking place in the Supreme Court in Kingston.

Among those alleged gangsters on trial, is a woman who is described as a pastor of a church!

For the benefit of the uninformed, this dreaded gang has been known to be the overlords of the extortion racket in the St. Catherine area for decades. Their success has been maintained through fear, as they have never been hesitant to murder of burn out anyone who resists their efforts to collect from them. Further, they have been politically aligned to the Peoples National Party, (PNP) which has been in power in Jamaica for decades.

While for years I thought Clansman concentrated their illicit activities at the bus park , market district and business places in Spanish Town, I was disabused when I had a run-in with a few of them in Caymanas Bay one Sunday.

Caymanas Bay has a nice river running through it, where my friends and I from our cycling club liked to ride to on a Sunday, swim, eat and have a wonderful time. 

A lot of churches also go there to conduct baptism.

This property is owned by the Government of Jamaica.

As we arrived there that day, we saw that a gate had been put up and there was a man there collecting “entrance fees”. I insisted that I was not paying as it was government property and pushed  past him.  (I heard later that our organizer gave him some money.)

I learnt afterwards too that the ‘gateman’ was a Clansman!

The next day, I called the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), the government agency which controls that property and reported the matter, but clearly nothing was done as shortly after I read in one newspaper that several persons in the gang had killed each other as they fought for control of that lucrative gate.

(I seriously wondered at the time what would happen if my friends and  I tried to capture a government property, say the UDC operated Dunn’s River Falls, and operated it as our own! But as dem ‘say ‘puss an dawg nuh hab di same luck.)

I have never returned to Caymanas Bay, but who knows, maybe the churches still patronize that lovely spot.

A baptism at Caymanas River

Anyway, through their poltical connections, the Clansmen remained untouchable for decades.

(The Jamaica Labour Party which now forms the government, has its politically-aligned extortion gang in St. Catherine too. That is the One Order Gang. Only time will tell if they will remain untouchable, now that their party is in power!)

Using the recently minted Anti-gang legislation, the police have finally gotten around to charging some of the alleged members and their so-called leader. Former members of the gang have been the star witnesses who have been testifying so far. I will therefore not comment on the ongoing trial, only to say it was the evidence being given by the first star witness, which reminded me of the dependence on obeah.

For in his evidence, the witness claimed to have been offered a guard ring (gyard) by the female parson who is also on trial.

I have not seen a gyard ring recently, but the testimony reminded me vividly of when I was introduced to it and the 'powers' it contains.

This was many decades ago when I had a close friend who made gold jewelry. He showed me a thick gold ring with a flat top one day and asked me if I knew what it was. Naturally, I replied that it was a ring.

That’s when he explained that it was not just any ring. He turned it over and pointed to a small hole in the back. This is the hole in which the obeah man/woman stuffs powerful, mysterious powder (could be salt or flour for all I know😆), which will provide the wearer with protection, he explained. Then the purchaser returns with the ring to have the hole sealed.

I must admit that at the time I was totally ignorant about obeah, for I hadn't left school too long before and in the neck of the woods in the country that I grew up in, I never heard much about the practice or even seen a red flag hoisted at anyone’s gate!

When I was educated about the ring and learnt of its utility, I took enough interest in obeah to actually borrow from my informant, the banned book called “The Master Key” written by one De Lawrence.

This I was told, was the bible of obeah men/women.

While it explained in detail how to cast a few obeah spells, when to beat graves, what powders to use to paralyze, poison people etc., I personally found it quite boring.

As they say, belief kills and belief cures, so if you do not believe in these workings and the various powders they use to carry on their trade, obeah is a waste of time and money.

Regardless, it remains ever so popular, not only in Jamaica but worldwide, especially in places where Voodoo and Santeria and other beliefs in the occult are popular.

I have been curious though, how so many supposedly sensible people can believe in the power of obeah to help them get rich, for many of the obeah men/women I have met or learnt about, appear to be only moderately wealthy at best.

The great exception would be the late “Dr.” Kevin Smith, who from all the reports coming out since his human sacrifice, dabbled in the trade. But he seemed to be involved in lots of other rackets, including convincing the gullible in his congregation to change their wills and make him the beneficiary of their insurance, pensions etc. so I would not classify him as a true obeah man.

Maybe the answer lies in the conversation I had with a Haitian taxi driver some years ago. As I boarded his taxi at the airport to go to Port of Prince, he asked if I wanted to make a stop at a voodoo ceremony. When I asked him why I would want to go there, he replied that “he can make you rich”. When I asked him why he was not rich, he replied confidently that “my time has not yet come.”

So dear readers, it’s all a matter of timing.

I guess he did not recognize from my accent that I was Jamaican, for I had often heard that Haitians respected us greatly in that particular art, as they say we eat susumba (gully beans) which their voodoo priests use as a powerful potent in their trade, and not for human consumption unless you plan to kill someone.

Oh yes, the world of the occult is really fascinating and I guess, rewarding, to them that truly believe.

Obeah - YouTube