Municipal Councils negligence

 So, it appears that the government is finally giving consideration to holding legally due parish council elections in Jamaica.

Should we celebrate?

Absolutely not.

 For decades, some of us have been pointing to the total ineffectiveness and waste of money that the Parish Councils as presently structured represent. However, the latest response from the government has been to add insult to injury by announcing a whopping increase in salaries of the underperforming councilors.  For as of 1^st April (all fools day,) next year, the virtually useless councilors will earn a whopping  $5.7 annually each.

By making the ridiculous raise effective on all fools day, the government is telling taxpayers what fools they are, I guess!

Total disrespect, for that sure is a large chunk of money for people who give very little value for money and whose duties are nebulous, to say the least.

But does the Jamaican taxpayer care?

Nah.

According to the Local Government Webpage, among the responsibilities of the Municipal Councils (fancy name for parish councils) are; “developing, managing and maintaining infrastructure and public facilities such as parochial roads, water supplies, drains and gullies, parks, recreational centres, markets, abattoirs, pounds, (my emphasis) cemeteries, transportation centres, public sanitary conveniences and public beaches.”

I wonder which Council provides any of the services listed above even in part! From the level of complaints one hears about their operations, I hazard a guess that none do.

Did you notice that in the list above, pounds are included. For your information, the Pound Act specifically calls for every parish to have one in operation.

 But not even one Parish council has a working pound, I am informed.

This despite the fact that in August 2023 alone, six persons (including a policeman) were killed in vehicular accidents involving stray animals on the roads. These were in Westmorland, St. Elizabeth and St. Mary.

And in publishing those statistics, I note that the National Road Safety Council does not bother to mention persons who are injured, although in my book, its often these people who suffer the most.

In many instances a large number of people injured in road accidents are left disabled, unable to work, unable to sue anyone responsible for their plight and left to live the rest of their lives in pain, destitution and misery. But that’s another topic for another day.

In August, after the death of the policeman, the topic of the negligence of the parish council briefly surfaced, but was quickly forgotten. For you see, in Jamaica, unless politicians, celebrities, the rich or other influential people are killed or harmed, no action is ever taken, just a bagga mout.

This voice in the wilderness only returned to the topic today on seeing a recent story about an accident that occurred in Williamsfield on the brand new highway which was opened with great flourish just a week or two ago.

This is the leg of highway 2000 which runs from   Williamsfield to May Pen. In this case, the victim is calling for the highway to be closed until it is fenced, to keep animals at bay.

But what about the delinquency of Parish Councils, in not establishing pounds all around the island, as they are required to?

And don’t the owners of these animals where identified, accountable?

Who is enforcing the laws against them?

I see that almost two billion has been allotted from the third supplementary estimate to finance the oft-postponed parish council elections. Yea, sure, the laws call for parish council election to be held every four years, but successive governments always ignore this requirement anyway. But when will they be required to start giving the beleaguered taxpayers value for money?

Almost Six million-dollar salaries for unproductive individual councilors and billions for the operations of parish council. 

What on earth are they delivering?

 

Bullhead Mountain, dead center of the island

This marker was installed to signify the peak as being dead  centre of the island 

Isn't it fascinating that dead centre of the beautiful island of Jamaica, stands a mountain range from which you can get a fantastic view of sections of the parishes of Clarendon, St. Ann, St. Mary and St. Catherine? Well right in the centre of that peak, you will find the marker confirming this fact.

That is the Bullhead Mountain which is situated in the parish of  Clarendon, the third largest parish in Jamaica.

The fabulous view of the scenic plains and surrounding hills

This important landmark is also the source of\Jamaica's longest river, the Rio Minho which runs from the range and empties out at Portland Point, after running a distance of  92 km ( 57.7 miles) providing life sustaining water to irrigate the Clarendon plains for thousands of farmers.

Magnificent pine trees abound

The range which consists of 220.6 hectares (545 acres) is controlled by the Jamaican Forrest Department and peaks at 547 metres (3600 feet) above sea level. As it is the forestry department that controls it, most of the area is covered in pine and bamboo trees which provides excellent shade but several species of ferns grow wild and provide a soft cushion all along the hiking trails.

While this area is unknown to most Jamaicans, the people of Clarendon have for years been using it as a major outdoor centre especially during the Easter holidays when, they trek there in droves to enjoy the wonderful scenery or simply hang out.

Fun and Thrills hikers

The first time I head about Bullhead Mountain, I thought I heard it had a beautiful waterfall and being very addicted to water, quickly  encouraged friends to accompany me on a hike there. We got ourselves a guide from nearby Thompson Town and asked him up front if he knew where the waterfall was and although he replied in the negative, he assured us that he could find it. Well we spent an entire day from about 10 am to around 4 pm hiking and dying to cool off but alas, there was no waterfall  to be found. I subsequently heard about the local folk lore that indicated that there is a mysterious waterball hidden somewhere in the range which will one day burst and wipe the entire parish of Clarendon from the face of the earth! That I heard many decades ago but have not fear, its just a duppy story!

The entrance to the park

More recently though, I went on another trek to that mountain with my regular group Fun and Thrills.

This was a properly organised outing overseen by environmentalist Nicole Brown who arranged with members of Northern Rio Minho Forrestry Management group, an environmentally active community group, to give us a proper tour.

Young Norris

Naturally, as Bullhead is dead centre of the island, there are several ways to get there. This time we opted to drive from May Pen to Red Hills via Pumpkin to Orange River road. It was near the park that we met there that we met a most pleasant young man, Norris Newman on his way to the river to get water.

When the guides joined us, my first question to the guides was "Are there any waterfalls here?" They assured me there was but after many hours of walking, when we got there, because we were in the midst of a severe drought, what we saw was a mere trickle.

This was however the occasion on which really got comprehensive information about this mid-island wonderful park. For example, we learnt that the original name was name of the mountain was Santa Marian, named after an indigenous plant found there. The name was however changed by the British to Bullhead, as it is said that the peak looks like a bull's head
when seen from out at sea and it provided an excellent navigation tool for sailors in the olden days.

Scenic views from every angle

We also learnt that the famous Maroon warrior Cudjoe, hid out there for a while after killing his first British aggressor in nearby Colonel's ridge which lies to the south of the range. As a result of the greart warrior and members of his troops hiding out there for a while, there are many descendants of the Maroons in the area, although we were told that they do not keep up the traditions as do their relatives in places like Scotts Hall and Accompong.

Nope, we still haven't seen a good waterfall at bullhead mountain but it is still a fabulous place to visit and lyme.

https://youtu.be/h2eZbrXgTNQ

Haywood Hall, St. Mary and River Mummas

Yesterday we had a really nice ride to Haywood Hall in St. Mary which has a really long river with swimming areas above and below the fording. This outing was arranged by one of the the St. Mary men  in F&T, Alrick Rpbinson. He did his part well and the problems which we had with food, was caused by a breakdown at the Haywood Hall end, nothing to do with the planning from his end.

Haywood Hall river is a tributary of the Paget river.

This area is approximately four miles from Port Maria  and 36 miles from Kingston. Trich and I accompanied Alrick when the area was being scouted out for the ride some months ago.

That was when we met Norma, an absolutely beautiful back woman of around 40 years old who said she is a photographic model living in  Germany.

She was born  at Haywood Hall  (as was the film star Ester Anderson who acted for years in the series "The Avengers.")  She is now developing the area where we went as an eco-tourism park.

She has already cleared the section by the river, set up wooden lounge chairs by the river, installed a small stage and a nice clean bathroom. It was on that trip that we learnt the legend of river mummas at Haywood Hall.

Wooden lounge chairs line the river side

RiverMumma is the Jamaican river equivalent of mermaids which are said to live in the oceans.

These are ghost like, beautiful women with long hair who occasionally rise from the deep to sit on the rocks and comb their long tresses. According to folk lore, if you look directly at the river mumma, it can bring all kinds of problems including you falling into the river and drowning.

Since it is a ghostly creature, it is therefore not surprising that only children have ever see one and both Norma and Mr. Ellis, who was supposed to arrange the St. Mary part of things as Norma had to go back to Germany, claim they had actually seen one when they were children.

Mr. Ellis poses with his son and daughter in law

   

These river mummas are said to live in a bottomless area at the eastern side of the fording but as the water was cloudy on that side as they are repairing the fording, we went swimming in the western section.

I guess that is why we never saw any river mummas yesterday!

Brian enjoying the river

I Ireally enjoyed the ride through Junction which has become one of my favourite routes to ride as road is undulating, paved and well shaded. 

I rode with Andrew and Charles the 1st all the away  to Agualta Vale. They are really good company and stayed with me all the way.

At Agualta Vale I decided to drive as I find the north coast highway too void of trees and hot and always shy away from riding in the blaring sun.

 Andrew joined me in the support vehicle being driven by Stanford and Charles went in his own SUV. When we got to the entrance to the destination, we jumped back on to the bicycles for the approximately two mile journey there.

When we got there only a few members of the A team had arrived including Bernadette the only woman who could keep up with with the fast ones.

Alrick consults with Bernadette and Barry

Soon all the other riders filed in  by one.

Apart from some 30 riders, there were approximately 20 hikers, most recruited by Chuck from the outdoor lovers at Stella Maris. The walk  however proved too strenuous for most of them so they gave in to support vehicles one by one.

From we arrived, there was delicious hot chocolate waiting on us as well as potato pudding, cornmeal pudding and blue draws, aka tire leaf. This is a mixture of sweet potato and cornmeal with other ingredients that make up puddings, cooked in coconut milk, then it is tied up in banana leaves and boiled.

It is rarely seen these days as not many modern cooks have acquired the skill to make it. But it was popular in the days of our grandparents when people had lots of time to sit around and make all sorts of delicacies. Unfortunately most of these recipes are lost to the younger generation but I really enjoyed getting this after so many years.

Unfortunately though, the cook  that Mr. Ellis had, got it all wrong for there was the dessert ready from we got there but could we could not get our breakfast! For he kept cooking small amounts of fried  johhny cakes, saltfish and cabbage etc and before you turned around, it was all gone as everyone was starving and wanted their full breakfast. That cook is a disaster, for the food was nice but he had no idea about time, what had to be done first and how to cater for a large group!

What did we do before those smart phones were invented, I wonder lol?

Fact is at noon, he had not even peeled the bananas for the mackerel and bananas which so many people had ordered and the ackee and saltfish, the other popular dish that he had prepared, was so inadequate that not even ten people were able to get any.

This really made a number of people very angry and some even drove to Port Maria to buy KFC .

I had run dung salt fish for the first time and really found it delicious but there was just no food available to go with that small dish either. Although I think I now prefer run dung saltfish to run dung mackrel but that could be causerie I was so hungry !

I left there about 1 pm in Nicole's car,  along with Stewart, my cousin Sheila and Maurice Brown. I suspect all the others left shortly after.

Hanging out with Diana, Carol and cousin Sheila

Luckily I had gone to the river early and had a wonderful swim and  later got in a couple games of dominoes while picking at the food as it was being slowly prepared. Those who came back from the river later had every reason to be angry as the there was no food ready for them at noon after Alrick had even gone to the trouble of printing food tickets with "FNT' on them! Unfortunately the food part was  really a flop because of bad  organisation at the Haywood Hall end.

I told Mr. Ellis that if he keeps that chef, he is going to go into bankruptcy at the get go, for this was the very first group catering session and it went awry. Word of mouth can be great or devastating!

Anyway, I had  a great ride and really enjoyed the desserts, the great country chocolate tea and of course the ride, the river, the camaraderie and dominoes.

Christian

The star of this ride was a little boy named Christian who is only nine years old and I bet that in ten years he going to win Tour De France (if he continues at the rate he is going.)
For not only did he ride up the entire Stony Hill road without stopping but I also hear he never even took a rest stop for the entire 36 mile journey. Wow, am I impressed!

 Another Sunday well spent .

Excitement at Scott hall

Roddy blows the Abeng to alert all maroons
that there are visitors in the area. The vine around his neck
is the 5 bredda.

Both women whose bodies were taken over by spirits, are being held.

One thing we can say about "Fun and Thrills" outings, that is, there is never a dull moment.

  The outing to Scotts Hall maroon settlement in St. Mary was full of even more  excitement. 

For while we were there, two women had their bodies taken over by their ancestors and created quite a scene.

 I have seen similar scenes three times before, once at a kumina ceremony in St. Thomas, once with the "raising of the table" at Devon house and yesterday and to tell the truth, no matter how convincing they look, I can't believe it is no allt an act. 

Yesterday, when we got back from Bowling water falls, we saw quite a crowd as a group of maroons who were claiming that one faction was putting on all the events and making all the  money off their culture and traditions, was not including everyone.

This policeman was a credit to the force

Even the police was there when we arrived as there seems to be real fear of a violent outbreak. 

In fact a friend told me today that there was a notice in the Saturday papers saying that (someone, she could not remember the name) was not authorized to conduct business on behalf of the 
Scotts Hall maroons.  

I subsequently found the paper and it says; 
NOTICE, "The public is hereby notified that Mr. Noel Prehay Colonel, Uri Prehay Deputy, Natalee Burton Secretary &  Dana Henry Treasurer of the Scotts Hall maroons are no longer authorized to conduct any business on behalf of the Scotts Hall maroons."

A photo opportunity at entrance of   Maroon Town road

 But if they intended that notice to impress outsiders, it couldn't , as it was unsigned!

When we went there on the scouting mission, we were directed to Roddy who is their Public Relations Officer and he put Charles on to Sweetie who seems to be on the executive too.

On Sunday when we got there, we were met by three guides who all seem to have official positions as they all had badges.

Colonel Prehay poses with Raquel, Betty and the craft vendor

The problem seems to be that the faction that is making the accusations does not support Mr. Noel Prehay who we were told was the longest serving Maroon colonel in Jamaica....35 years. 

But his detractors say no general meetings are being held to allow them to elect new members of the executive and they have lost confidence in those who now hold the positions. 

While cockroach nuh business inna fowl fight, I must say the policeman who was there is the most efficient policeman I have ever seen in operation in Jamaica during my long life. For he was calm as he tried to moderate between the both factions and talk some sense into them. Not the usual aggressive and intimidating police we are accustomed to seeing operation. I am sorry I never got his name.

The large seeds of the cacoon vine

Anyway the excitement and taking over of the bodies by the ancestors occurred when the conflict arose and we were told that is what happens when bad vibes are around. 

Apparently the two ladies who were taken over by spirits were mother and daughter. Miss Sweetie, our great cook was the mother and when she saw her daughter's body being taken over, having to be held firmly and having white rum sprayed over her, she took a dive too.

People who were near to the daughter said after it was over, her eyes were glazed, she wanted water and asked what had happened and it was too convincing to have been an act. But I guess not until I am personally taken over by a spirit will I believe such things happen.

Thrillers pose at the healing ground during the scouting mission

Apart from that extra excitement, it was a wonderful day. There were close to forty of us who made the trek, some riding and some hiking from Grandy Hole brdge which is as far as you travel on the Junction road before bearing west to the Scotts hall settlement. 

Although this group of maroons have a lot of land in Gibbs hill, Scott hall and Castleton, all designated as communal land, we were told they can now get individual titles for pieces of land to allow them to benefit from  their being National Housing Trust contributions.

Pot a boil

 When we arrived there, we were welcomed by Roddy, who blew the abeng (proper maroon name Jebry) after sprinkling it with white rum, to give it a better sound he said. The blowing of the abeng before entering the sacred areas is to advise all maroons that there are outsiders visiting. 

He then took us to the healing ground where he said persons with all kinds of  ailments are healed. 

This requires a group of maroons to gather around the afflicted person and the ancestors will enter the body of any one  and instruct what has to be done to heal the person.

The river sometimes rises way up to the guango tree during the rainy season

Roddy also introduced us to the 5 bredda bush which is used to work spells against one's enemies.

He had previously introduced us to the seeds of the cacoon vine which he said is the largest seed pod in the world and is native to West Africa. It is used by the maroons for food and the vines for camouflage. 

We  we arrived at  the beautiful valley after crossing a stream from Irie river which forms the Bowling water fall above and headed to the picnic grounds beside the Wag Water river the food was almost ready.

We were told that when it rains, the river comes up so high it sometimes reaches half way up the large guango tree.

The beautiful valley

That area is well organised for picnics, even having a thatch building with a toilet.

 I am not talking about a pit toilet either but flush toilet to boot. 

The food was great and I really liked the fu fu which is an African dish. It is made of ground provisions plus plantains and bananas all ground up. They then prepare coconut milk as if for rundown and cook the fu fu in it. It was so delicious I had to commandeer some to go home with.


The river was not too deep as it is  the drought season but we had enough water to swim in and have a great time. 

Some of us then  walked up the Irie river to the Bowling falls which is to the west of the picnic grounds.

Because of the drought, it  too was not as heavy as it should but good enough to splash around in and have a great time.

Although there were nice craft items there, I doubt if the artist got any patronage because of the conflict between the maroons which diverted so much of our attention.

Boys will be boys!

 As usual, the A team rode back but poor Omar did not leave until long after the rest, but he seemed to have made good time on his own as he flew past us when we stopped for soup by Castleton gardens.

It was another great outing with the team, thanks to the miserable Ayatollah for the excellent organisation and Charles 1st for introducing the area to us in the first place.

Craft items on display

Some photos compliments of Omar Downie.

Turning tourist with Natural History society!

On Saturday 28th February, a couple of us joined up with the Natural History Society for a field trip to the ruins of Agualta Vale Great House and to visit a beautiful orchid farm in St. Mary. The able co-ordinator of the tour was Trevor Yee.

It was a great day which found me leaving my house at 8 am and not returning till 8pm.

The trip to Agualta Vale was uneventful but the search for the ruins was not, for our guide could not find the

We parked as we walked around in search of the great house

overgrown path for about an hour.Anyway it was no big thing as it gave us an opportunity to meet and greet other outdoor lovers. In fact, I even saw a number of persons from Jah 3 who I had not seen for years. Eventually an employee from Jamaica Producers, owners of the property, came rescued us and took us there.

Of course as it was totally overgrown we had to have a man with a machete chopping a path for us.

A comprehensive history of the house is to be found at http://www.thejamaicanmagazine.com/archive/23-pages-past.html in Jamaica magazine.

The same section now. Totally overgrown

Briefly, the original Great House was built by the Englishman and wealthy slave merchant Thomas Hibbert in the 18th Century. After the first Great House fell in ruins, the Scottish physician Sir John Pringle bought the property in 1914 and built an impressive house on the ruins of the older one. In World War II, it was used as a barrack for the Canadian army. 

It was later acquired by Sir Harold Mitchell and then the Jamaica Producers Group. They had used some sections as offices but the house was destroyed by fire in 1980 and has never been restored. It was there that I was introduced to Mukee aka Rat ears which is a wood mushroom growing on host trees, which the Chinese love to cook with pork.
Next we visited a 25 acre experimental teak plantation at Bellfield, St. Mary which was planted some 10 years ago in a joint venture project with Jamaica Producers.

Teak we were told takes 15-20 years to reach maturity and the board is said to be among the most expensive in the world, fetching some $7.50 per board foot.

As we drove through Port Maria, my cousin Sheila who lives here and in Canada, saw the "Firefly" sign and said she had always wanted to visit that property. That had been the home of the famous British writer Sir Noel Coward but what it is known for is the spectacular view.

The spectacular view from "Firefly"

 So comprehensive is the view that the pirate Henry Morgan is said to have had a lookout there.

I obliged Sheila and took her there .

When we left, we stayed on the high road which took us to Oracabessa via Mason Hall and Canoe Pond. I had never been to that area before and the roads were not all that bad.

Next stop was the home of the Chongs, also in St. Mary where we saw the wonderful orchids bieing grown by Mrs. Chong for which she has won dozens of awards.

Orchids all around

Their house on the hill is absolutely fabulous and has a great view too. The house is powered totally by wind and solar energy and Mr. Chong also restores classic cars.

 His pride and joy is this model T ford.

When we left there we took a back road to enjoy the absolute beautify of the White river with its numerous swim areas which are beautiful "blue holes".

I was happy to see locals have now set up businesses all around the blue holes, selling t shirts and renting river shoes and life vests. Other enterprising vendors were also selling Ganja Brownies aka Angel food.

Above the last "blue hole" which we had visited in the past we found the wonderful waterfall called "Island gully Falls" which  had only heard about recently after the "Gleaner did a feature on a mass wedding which was held there.

One of the "blue holes"

 This area has been developed with steps to the falls and changing rooms and there were a lot of local persons enjoying themselves there.

My curiosity as to who developed that area around the falls and how they recoup funds spent has not been satisfied as there was no one there collecting money to use the facilities.

As we arrived there late,meaning the water would be extra cold, we did not swim but only took pictures and resolved to return soon to enjoy a great dip under those beautiful falls.

Beautiful Island Gully Falls

While we had started our journey going to St. Mary via the Junction road, we returned via Ocho Rios as it would be closer.

I did not use my favourite toll road though as I was dying for some soup and that would not be available anywhere else but the Faith's Pen area. We were not disappointed and after having delicious chicken foot sours, returned to Kingston tired but very happy.

Cruising , the way to go

I think I became addicting to cruises when I went on the first one with my parents when I was 14. In those days I found the huge ship awesome but each year as competition steps up, the cruise industry is growing by huge degrees of awesomeness, with the beneficiaries being those of us who love to travel.

.

This latest cruise was my first taste of Disney and it was really great although I must admit if I was a kid it would have been out of the world.

What I enjoyed most was the really great choice of destinations because for me to have gone to Sicily, the French Riviera, Naples, Pompeii, Rome, Venice in one swell swoop is just impossible to beat. And the excellent tour organisations attached to Disney were so efficient and the guides so knowledgeable,  that one was able to gain a great deal of information and see everything that one wanted to at these wonderful destinations.

One important lesson I learnt from this trip (the cruise people did not mention it at all) and I hope I will not forget the next time I go to Europe and that is, in Europe not only is the US$ not king, (as expected) but no one wants to accept it! So wherever we went we had to change cash into Euros to do any business and in Switzerland, we had to change to Swiss francs. (I had a similar experience in Cuba too as there no one wanted it or the Canadian $ either so you had to go to a cambio to change cash into pesos.) 

As I see it therefore, whenever one is not using a credit card in Europe, it is easier to just  travel with a debit card, go to a ATM machine and collect the withdrawal in the relevant currency for each day the ATM's change their rate in keeping with international standards.Anyway, back to destinations, we had quite a scare on the way to Pisa as the front tyre of the bus we were driving in suddenly burst as we were crossing a bridge. The horrendous blast scared the daylights out of not only the passengers, most of whom had been sleeping and had a rude awakening, but also the driver as well. He was however deft in  bringing the bus safely to the side of the road and as we were only 15 minutes away from Pisa we did not have to wait too long to get a replacement bus.

Actually, there is so much to say and remember about the various places we visited that I swear I have to get around to doing a separate blog for each one soon.

What was especially heartening about this cruise too was the number of Jamaicans who were working on the Disney Magic. I never knew before that  there was an actual recruiting centre in Ocho Rios so it was not unexpected that the majority of the workers came from the St. Ann/St. Mary area, although I did meet a few from Kingston  and elsewhere.Even the head waiter assigned to us was from Jamaica and boy did he make it specially great for  us by arranging jerk chicken, stew peas and rice, oxtail etc to be served to us in addition to the other delicious choices at dinner.

Heartening too was the wide selection of reggae music played in the "fun area"on the 9 th floor (Lido deck) almost every day.

It was clear that whoever the DJ was, his favourite singers were Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley but he did not stick on them too much to make it boring for our music going as far back as Harry Belafonte was played at some point.

As I said earlier, if I were a kid the cruise would have been out of this world, and that is of course because the entertainment was geared towards kids so some nights it left me a bit bored.

 However the Disney ensemble outdid itself on two nights with performances fitting of Broadway. In fact, I had the pleasure of meeting the lead singer from one of the performances, a beautiful African american young lady named Christine from Michigan, with a voice range equaling Whitney Houston's and she assured me that is where she was headed but was just enjoying travelling for a while.

Yup a Disney cruise is definitely more than worth the money for family travel

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JOAN WILLIAMS, moderator of Joan Williams on Line broadcast on POWER 106, describes herself as an unapologetic addict to the Jamaican outdoors. A foundation member of FUN AND THRILLS ADVENTURE CLUB, she explores the island at any given opportunity cycling, hiking or swimming with that group, family, Jah 3 and anyone else who will have her. In 1995, she published the popular TOUR JAMAICA and the 4^th edition is now an ebook available at;

http://www.amazon.com/Tour-Jamaica-Joan-Williams-ebook/dp/B00EJWCSHS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389464644&sr=8-1&keywords=tou