Useless Parish Councils

There are many institutions in the Jamaican governmental structure which are nothing but a colossal waste of money.

None more so than local government though.

I can't recall the number of times, while moderating my talk show program, when after hearing bitter complaints about lack of service, I would query the caller about the name of their parish Councilor, only to be met with the perennial "I don’t know."

I dare say that was the reply more than 95% of the time!

This is because Councilors know that they do not have to perform, as their election normally only depends on the popularity of their party.

In fact, the job of parish councilor requires so little effort or accountability, that most holders of the job do so on an ad hoc basis while working full time elsewhere or operating a business that benefits from getting contacts with their Parish Council!

It’s the runnings.

This problem of underperformance at Parish Councils is not new though. for I recall more than four decades ago, a huge study was done on Local government and its relevance.

The conclusion was that as our population is so small, we would be better served having three County Councils with specific functions rather than the 13 parish councils which were doing virtually nothing.

I thought those findings and the recommendations for reform were spot on, but because the two political parties love having a slew of activists at the local level being paid for by the hapless taxpayer, the reforms were never implemented.

Almost a half century later and what do we get?

Insult to injury, whereby these mainly useless politicians have had their salaries increased to FIVE MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR. (Remind me what we are paying teachers, nurses, police please😡).

Worse one does not even have to be able to read properly to hold this post, as demonstrated in the viral video of JLP Councilor Steve Graham attempting to read a document at an Old Harbor School graduation; https://youtu.be/LMVMSbLRHh8?si=GQQnZmnaz_339f5N.

It was downright painful to watch.

I have only returned to the topic of the uselessness local government on hearing the report that the Westmorland Parish council is going to establish a pound to take stray off the roads.

So what, they never knew that they had a duty to do so until three motorists were killed in accidents with stray cows in Little London and several other persons critically injured, in a two-week period?

This declaration by the useless Westmorland Parish Council, sent me to research an article published in August 2015 entitled; “Police want parish councils to establish animal pounds.”

It begun; DSP Francis, speaking at the latest RJR Group News Forum, on Friday,  explained that, when animals are recovered from thieves, or found without owners, there are no facilities to safely keep the animals until they are claimed.

He wants the parish councils to take the lead in this regard, given the fact that "the Pound Act clearly speaks to the Parish Council in every parish having responsibility to effectively operate a pound within that jurisdiction." (My emphasis). 
He further stated; “the parish councils have failed to assume that responsibility.”

This he said in 2015 and that was not to prevent death on the roads but to deal with stealing.  

 This is only one area of their responsibilities where parish councils are not performing but this is more lethal than most, as stray animals on our roads is almost normal now.

 Pity we do not live in a county where individual councilors can be sued for dereliction when they fail to do their duties and cause death or Injury.

 Multi million-dollar salary increases for councilors indeed.😡

 

 

 

 

No Minister Farrakhan

I have always been mesmerized by Minister Louis Farrakhan who I consider one of the greatest orators./ debaters of our time, although I could never endorse his religion which treats women as second class citizens, but that is another matter.

Last weekend at the million man march, Minister  Farrakhan  did not disappoint despite  having reached  the grand old age of 81.

For  man of his depth however, I was disappointed how he allowed himself to be influenced by cheap local rhetoric regrading our maintaining the status quo as regards  the queen of England.

While I support the removal of the British queen and her expensive representative in Jamaica, we need to go much  further to make governance more relevant to our needs, now that we are supposedly independent.

 For to get rid of the queen while holding for dear life to the remnants of colonialism such as the Army, the British devised local government system, Caricom ( the Federation of the former British colonies by the back door ) and the allowing of members of parliament from the commonwealth while banning those who American citizens, can help this country, is in no way progressive or independent.

Take the Local government system as bequeathed by our former colonial masters when it took days to travel from one parish to the next and land phones and other means of communication were in the dark ages, is ridiculous. And who does it benefit? In my book, only the JLP and PNP who get the benefit of having their grass root campaigners financed by taxpayers to the tune of some $4 billion per year. 

Jamaica with its small population, certainly does not need 15 governments and 15 time wasting bureaucracies (14 Local government and one central government) thus using all our resources to pay politicians, consultants and bureaucrats, leaving no or very little resources to build communities. (Incidentally,  the parishes were demarcated in a manner thought best to facilitate the Anglican parishes in the colonies, it had nothing to do with the  the convenience or efficiency of serving the interests the people, as the Anglican church was the official church of the colonizers and the only thing more powerful than that church  then was the monarch).

We should have moved long ago to the concept of three County councils as proposed decades ago after intensitive study, plus local government agencies for the two cities. How much more practical would 6 governments be for a population of 2.7 million as opposed to the 15 we now have?

Then take the army. The British needed a full fledged army to protect their empire in the Caribbean  but where is our empire? (They successfully samfied some colonial minded politicians into accepting the concept of federation to keep the colonies together and we are still holding on to it for dear life via the body called CARICOM) !

We need to restructure the army to serve the interests of the Jamaican people, not to preserve an empire. So what we need is a good coast guard to protect our shores, an efficient engineering corp and an air wing and redirect the billions we are wasting on the infantry which will not even use a couple paint brushes and hammers to fix up the historical site at Newcastle that they occupy.

 Instead the members of the infantry should be invited to join the police force so they can be trained to serve and protect the people of  this nation, not treat us as enemies to be to be cut down, which is what soldiers taught to do.

Then there is his nonsense where members of the commonwealth  including Pakistani Muslims can serve in our parliament and even become prime ministers after residing here for a year while Jamaican who migrate to the US and have gained experience and valuable education are deterred, is absolute madness.

Yes Minister Farrakhan, by all means lets get rid to the Queen of England, her heirs and successors and all she represents, but we need far more than mere superficial tinkering if we are interested in becoming really independent and determined to build this great country into a place where we can live as a proud people.

And by the way, if we are going to remove all vestiges of colonialism, we need to do away with  the "cricket holidays" that bureaucrats still get to go watch that ever so colonial game, with its tea time breaks and all!.

--