The Emergence of the State

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.
~Arnold H. Glasow

As Jamaica’s hyper-realism continues, it is most evident that the city and parish’s state of emergency is little more than a Public Relations stunt designed to abate the fears of those who don’t really live the average Jamaican’s reality.  Hyper-realism is the young art form of creating illusions by enhancing reality. As a political philosophy, it is the reliance on spectacle and well-orchestrated exploits which combine the showmanship and force in order to transcend the need for a coherent, well-articulated political agenda. I hold on to the belief that we need better policing and forensics. Instead of empowering the cries that they get rid of INDECOM. The use more brute force seems counterproductive, we need instead to seek a socio-economic solution. Now imagine the police and soldier are at a funeral in Mobay and all about the city in full force, yet it never prevented the killings, then there is the matter of this bogus hocus-pocus wanted list... tell me we don’t need better intelligence. Is the crime on the rise because of government naysayers and is it state of emergency naysayers and their ill will and negative energy that caused the blatant killing in view of Jamaica’s magnifying glass on us? Is it the naysayers and not a failure in our political imagination? For we are working and operating on the assumption that states of emergency and curfews have ever curbed crime. Show me stats that prove that. We are working based on the assumption more police and brute force will let crime relent. Show me the data to prove that.

We understand to a great degree that poverty is not the source of crime as the redistribution of wealth now seems to be. Scamming came to be seen as reparations in the eyes of some, for the social void of slavery and 400 years of free labour. Wealth which could no longer be secured in the illegal drug trade even though there is an opioid epidemic could be secured from America suckers and naive elderly folk and relocated to the marginalised black male and poor scammer. This has resulted in massive social shifts, upheaval in the social order and exponential rise in murder. But we must understand that lack of access to the economy in a sensible way is what prompted scamming. Compounded with an archaic and out of touch failing education system, confounded by the political class, this cauldron of skullduggery is bubbling and has yielded the Montego Bay we have now.

Aren't wealth, access to wealth, access to the economy economic problems, education and our culture of violence, misogyny and narcissism, aren’t they the factors and social ills that lead to miseducated, undereducated and immature boys that find illegal access to wealth and power? Boys who end up using this great power with no real sense of responsibility. Isn't that a socio-economic beast? Must these issues not be addressed. It was alleged that ZOSO would be followed up with social intervention. I can remember of none with the exception of some government official saying Mt Salem was full of prostitutes. Will the State of Emergency even actually have a socio-economic component? Does the State of Emergency stop the white collar components of crime?

At the start of the millennium Montego Bay had a moderate murder rate, what existed then was a vibrant Narco-Trafficking industry, drug mules, smuggling and airport or wharf drug busts were the news. Then came Operation Kingfish to disrupted a criminal empire and network in the bay. Drug Barons fled or were extradited. The minions who always had guns but were not involved in spontaneous gun crimes because the Dons was cashy, now had to resort to extortion, contract killing and armed robberies. In the wake of no social intervention and being left to suck salt through a wooden spoon, crime mutated. And the youth sought out new routes to financial power. So after all this police and brute force… with little or no social intervention what comes next… what will fill the coming void?

I can say however the state of emergency has cut and curbed downtown traffic, and in general, diminished the general sense of lawlessness that is so pervasive in Montego Bay; see the illegal petroleum bust. The reduction of lurkers etc., however as we have seen lawlessness and crime, especially violent crime, just aren't the same thing.

About the author: Yannick Nesta Pessoa B.A. is Jamaica’s first blogger, a Community Activist and Law Student at Utech Western Jamaica. Follow on Twitter at @yahnyk. Reply to yannickpessoa@gmail.com

In Defense of INDECOM

Today we live in extraordinary times when unprecedented events keep happening that undermine the stability of our world. Scamming, youth apathy, bleaching, waves of crime and violence. This is a time and place where those in power and control seem unable to deal with the issues of the day, and no-one has any vision of a different or a better kind of future. It seems paradoxical and contrary to me that the government is unable to negotiate payment of the Police yet now, for the sake of political grandstanding, for public relations relief our Prime Minister has proposed to pay the legal expenses of Police who are under the scrutiny of INDECOM, undermining the same institution his party predecessors implemented. Simply for political expedience, human rights gains are reversed.

I can see no logic to this as 1. this position doesn't fix the economic/wage, social and psychological problems within the police system. 2.This position takes an adversarial stance to INDECOM. Positing that the agency goes "too far" with regard to police oversight. In practical terms, INDECOM is one of the few human rights steps we have taken to have a major effect in the country on the ground. 3. INDECOM is not an impediment to crime fighting. To truly fight crime we need one an accountable an effective police system. One which we know is free of corruption, one which is paid properly, trained properly. We need a system of comprehensive forensics and follow up of an investigation. The fight against crime requires a more efficient legal system and justice system, the removing of a corrupt judiciary, not more laws, but the execution and carrying out of the laws we do have with greater speed and efficiency. The work of fighting "crime" which is an intangible and nebulous thing or concept, takes substantive efforts in the spheres of education, culture and economics, not public relations fluff, not political grandstanding. Fixing the country is real work.

The police is a very old institution in this country, with a history of policing over a slave class and second class citizens. Let us not forget one of the early display of police brutality and state force in the Coral Gardens Incident of 1963. Let us not pretend that the history of the police was to use force against newly freed slaves to protect the interest of the former plantocracy and that legacy of force has morphed into a present day where the police have become apathetic with regard to doing the actual work of investigation and follow up, but would rather just shoot first and ask question later if ask any at all. I know many good police officers, some who employ community policing and social approaches, but believe me, they are far outnumbered by the epidemic of brutality and corruption that has infected the police. It is common knowledge that power corrupts, so we must now ask "who watches the watchman" another common expression. Oversight of the police is necessary and a must.

Those who decry INDECOM have forgotten the social circumstance that led to the birth of INDECOM, years of Braeton 7, Kraal Killings, Kentucky Kid, an age when there was less technology at our disposal and even less precision in law enforcement. A time when the police force was simply a BLUNT instrument when innocent lives could easily be swept up in the murder of flat-footed alleged criminals being executed on sight. A time when the good suffered at the hands of the police with the bad, when respect for the citizenry outside of "Risto-dom" was nil, when police were contemptuous of domiciles with zinc fences or board houses. When civil liberties were trampled with impunity and extrajudicial killings were protested on the news nightly. What is required today in Jamaica is a more clinical Jamaica Constabulary.

Are we to pretend all the international reports about our police and policing don't exist? Are we to pretend all the national enquiries and commissions pointing to inadequacies in our policing body and methodology don't exist? Are we to forget the brutal display of force in the May 2010 Tivoli incursion? There are not that many agencies the public can use to challenge the state administratively or constitutionally, shall we erode one of the few? Then what next, dismantle the office of The Public Defender? We cannot let fear of crime cause us, to cowardly erode our own social gains and civil liberties, we should instead rise to the challenge of doing the hard work of rooting out corruption, implementing better-policing tools and methods, fixing the judiciary, fixing the economy! Let us not follow the Prime Minister in taking this cowardly path out of fear and for political expediency. Please let us not!

The People's Arcade: Montego Bay's Black Wall Street

The Rastafari Coral Gardens Benevolent Society's Office at The People's Arcade

A Concise History of the People's Arcade

Entrance of The People's Arcade

As you're driving the Howard Cooke Highway heading south, as you pass Ruby's on your left... do you wonder about the ornate but rusted arch with the words People's Arcade. As we ride through the intense heat and crime wave washing the city in tsunami like fashion, as centres all over the city erupt as the victims of poverty, those promised #prosperity, grapple with global financial warfare, IMF debt, personal debt, urban and spiritual decay. Sometimes I wonder if the public knows what is happening... do you know what is happening in Coombs Lane, in the Market, in the Shoes Arcade, on Hart Street, on Creek Street, Princess Street, in Barnett Lane, in Railway Lane, on the train tracks? Peoples lives are shattered, men are in splinters, women in despair, children losing fathers and mothers to guns and disease. Children living with the faint yet constant anguish of hunger in their little eyes...

Then there are the unsung, unknown valiant heroes, the ones whom, against all odds, much discrimination, victims of economic exclusion, with little access to capital are still boldly standing on the front-line of the Black economy and sometimes the Black Market, without angel investors or incubators, despite vain politics, they eek out a living, to simply take up the challenge of daily vending and juggling in the hustle and bustle of the sun and city. Fending off the vicious cycle that is poverty, trying to safeguard the future, some conservative, some vanguard, but all unknown heroes who are not worshiped on Facebook, the ones who are metaphorically horsewhipped for how their face looks, the ones the media and the press miss. They supply you with water on the highway, peddling fruits or banana chips in the Transportation Centre aka the Bus Park, the peanut porridge, the Jamaica day dresses you purchase each year of your child's school life, the local music, Mobay music... the informal and unofficial hub of Pan African thinking, the surviving pulse of Montego Bay's Black Wall Street... here is an issue of land reform... These are the businesses and people of The People's Arcade , this is their tale!

The People's Arcade was built by the vendors themselves in 1996, and it is strategically located in the Montego Bay Business District adjacent to the Montego Bay Transport Centre and has tremendous possibilities to be transformed into the first micro business incubator outside Kingston. As time and their story evolved, many of the original commercial traders who once occupied the facility abandoned it in response to increased competition in the retail trade and are now operating off St. James Street where they seek to intercept pedestrians and potential consumers pursuant to survival.

MoBay's Black Wall Street

Why is this a Black Wall Street? Well Greenwood a neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma was one of the most successful and wealthiest African American communities in the United States during the early 20th Century, it was popularly known as America's "Black Wall Street" until the terroristic acts of white residents lead to the Tulsa race riot of 1921, in which white residents massacred black residents and razed the neighborhood to the ground. If you put the economics of The People's Arcade into perspective of a racial context, and a global context where Chinese supermarkets are everywhere, Indians control the duty free stores and so on, when one sees a resurfacing Railway Corporation and big business interests, an apparently uncaring local government, one is left to ask, what of Black Enterprise, where is Black Enterprise, who is for Black Enterprise,?

In Montego Bay the answer resides in The People's Arcade. Though much neglected, forgotten or avoided by many a Montegonian, it hasn't been dormant. Businesses still operate and thrive their in the face of poor security and infrastructure. But as many tales go, these businesses have much to contend with, and no good story is without an antagonist. The nemesis of the People presents itself in the form of The Railway Corporation of Jamaica, and a St. James Parish Council that seems to have capitulated to big business interest, rather than opt to eek out a feasible and sustainable system and future for the people of the Arcade.


However, these business now seek the legal impetus and imperative to do safeguard their future... How will this issue play out, as a human rights matter? A matter of land right? Is it a real property issue and a case of adverse possession? Does this issue fit in the ambit of land reform? How will this matter pan out as the people vie for progress by moving themselves from poverty to prosperity! The people have submitted a caveat that has been accepted by the courts, which should impede any action by any agency to bulldoze or hamper the livelihood of the people in The People's Arcade!





With the advent of rising inequality, weak government institutions, failed states, terrorism, corruption, and a whole slew of other socio-economic problems—sown or exacerbated by three decades of neoliberal (IMF type) policies in the “developing world” (Third World)—it is high time we revisit the issue of land reform. We need to bring it back to the center of the discussion on sustainable economic development. What is land reform you might ask? It is the legal and statutory division of land and its reallocation to landless people. Land reform is not political extremism; rather, it is a critical policy mechanism for the city and parliament to address issues of poverty, hunger, urban slums, and good governance.

Kitchen of Axum Veggie Cafe

If we further contextualize the concept of land reform, the entire process of colonial settlement in the Americas and the Caribbean, in Australia and New Zealand was one big land reform, appropriating the lands of indigenous peoples and distributing it to the European settlers. So land reform can be understood as a much more common experience of the “developed” world than it is usually thought of in the economic literature.

The vacancy created by old closed businesses is now being filled by a range of new small business start ups including over twenty one micro garment manufacturing establishments, printeries, shoemakers, electrical contractors, plumbers, two employment agencies, several recording studios, a cyber café, photographic studios, jewelers, custom broker, auto motive parts dealer, health food club, a variety of restaurants, technicians, cosmetologists, laundry and a range of other service providers and retail outlets. These businesses need security of tenure, and after working so hard create a uniquely local and black economics space, I believe it only right that those who have built the place and those that ply their trade there for so many years be granted the opportunity to own and govern their destiny by some means or system.

The Arcade having a ready made physical space to accommodate some three hundred micro businesses, the facility now requires support for management training, help in preparing effective business plans, rendering administrative services, public relations and marketing aid, technical support, business networking, advice on intellectual property and copy rights and help in sourcing finances and funding.

Local Barber Shop!

#‎landrights‬ ‪#‎adversepossession‬ ‪#‎humanrights‬ ‪#‎pnp‬ ‪#‎jlp‬ ‪#‎montegobay‬ ‪#‎jamaica‬ ‪#‎blackwallstreet‬ ‪#‎blackeconomy‬

A Mansion to Mention: The Holness House is a Hot Mess!

As elections draw nigh it seems the JLP wants a debate, but no one wants to debate the hottest issue; Mr. Holness' house. Is it because it could prove Mr. Holness to be a scammer of sorts!

I can understand the JLP's suspicion of bad-mind on the part of the PNP... but does bad-mind prevent the question from being a really legitimate one? I think not! Why shouldn't a public official tell us how he acquired such costly material possessions? Should we live with the shades of doubt as to his funding source and mode of land acquisition?

Andrew's lacks confidence and it is clear and apparent. He makes attempts to seem larger than life and charismatic dusting his Clarkes but he generally strikes me as sterile, rigid, academic and lacking natural cultural affinity.

Now this alleged fashion in which his land acquisition was carried out moves the discussion into the domain of the disingenuous, insincerity and intellectual dishonesty, framing his party negatively before the election.

Should the allegations in the barrage of articles that are flooding my FaceBook be remotely true... then one must question the intention of the formation of the St. Lucian company of which Mr. Holness is the director!

1. Why was a foreign company used to acquire property in Jamaica, his home country, where consequently he is an elected official?

2. How could transaction be allegedly signed stating “while visiting Jamaica”?

3. Are the above questions indicative of his attempt to evade his financial obligations (the paying of taxes) to is homeland?

4. Now if the above questions speak truth of his dishonesty and it may very well be that he is in above his head, then how does he plan to satiate his appetite for affluence and penchant for avarice?

5. Would it be via gaining control of the country’s fiduciary and financial systems?
FINALLY could this grand fraud be a personality trait and character flaw... could the man lacking in confidence be using big house to mask his timid ego and insecurity, could lack of strong self esteem have lead to a need to prove self and commit the fraud!

21st Century Crime Fighting: CRIME APP

The Jamaica Constabulary Force, I believe needs to employ modern strategy in the campaign against crime. I would like to propose as part of any future initiative addressing crime, that the JCF considers implementing Crime Applications(APPs) for Smart Phones as to best start empowering and engaging citizens. As any Smartphone user will tell you, the Smartphone’s application store is the go to place for tools to make your Smartphone even smarter. Do you want the song playing in the department store on your playlist? Download Shazam. Want to find a telephone number? Get the YellowPages or RedBook app. Want to have the Cashpot Chart at fingertips? Get the Supreme Ventures app. But can an application provide women and students with the tools to empower themselves and help strengthen law enforcement? The creation of a Jamaican Crime application manage by MOCA and INDECOM, regulated by the relevant government agencies and monitored by JFJ would go along way to enable citizens, activists and local actors to take action to improve their communities. By employing the latest in mobile technology to provide urban populations with fast, discrete, and intelligent safety assistance to conveniently help them report and prevent crimes for the 21st century.

Users of a Jamaican Crime App could potentially report an ongoing crime with the push of a button. A package of information including the location of the crime, photo, video, audio, and text description of the crime are sent to authorities immediately. The application also allows for users to report crime ANONYMOUSLY so that they may continue with their busy lives knowing that with a push of a button, police will know and have everything to pursue the criminal. Ordinary users become the eyes and ears of authorities. Submitted issues could be displayed on the city's map, so citizens are aware of crime hot-spots.

There are often tense situations when calling the police is not an option. There are other times when inconvenience or fear of reprisal prevents one from reporting an incident, featuring the ability to take a photo, record video and audio, and provide a description of the incident, citizens could be assured that their phone has the capability to alert family, friends, and the authorities at the push of a button, should a threat arise.

The application would be especially useful to high school and college students, who often find themselves walking back from class late at night, or the victim of sexual assault. What is key, is that the App would empower the average citizen and ordinary bystanders, to report crime instead of ignoring it.

Local law enforcement organizations are expected to tailor their services to suit the citizenry it intends to serve and protect. In today’s world, everything is going mobile… why not crime prevention? Jamaica's local authorities need a 21st century make-over when it comes to reporting and preventing crimes.

Now... while mobile apps are the most obvious example of how organizations are responding to the public's demands. With reduced budgets, there is no denying that making sure public services and information can be delivered via a mobile phone in an accessible way, whilst keeping up with changes in technology is a hard task... there are a variety of projects of this nature in action today all across the world in a variety of nationalities and municipalities, many of them using OPEN SOURCE options.

Once again... it is therefore incumbent on our relevant ministries and national constabulary to explore these options earnestly and zealously. For a truly user-centered digital application, adapted to the needs of local communities can quickly and affordably achieved, as well as possibly effecting much change and altering our social climate. We must now think local and act global!

Jamaica and the Trans Pacific Partnership

America's New Secret Nafta!

Jamaica needs to urgently start examining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). I am imploring that both the Ministry of Finance and Planning and the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, consider the future implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In November 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Washington’s official pivot to Asia. Outlining a vision for an Asia-Pacific Century, Secretary Clinton described a desired symbiotic and unfettered relationship between the two regions that will provide “unprecedented opportunities for investment, trade, and access to cutting-edge technology.” At the center of this pivot has been the TPP, an enigmatic trade pact that has been hailed as a true “21st century agreement,” a purported free trade deal between 11 countries, including the U.S., Canada and Japan, which has been in negotiations for some years.

As a centerpiece of President Obama’s pivot to Asia, which includes Latin America via the TPP, the trade pact sets a powerful, if not potentially dangerous, precedent for future trade agreements in the emerging region. But instead of encouraging sustainable economic trends and responsible transnational relations, the TPP could enact the same policies that have been proven detrimental in past smaller-scale agreements like NAFTA. The TPP rhetoric misrepresents the potential of free trade as it encourages, through greater international regulations, such as those seen in the intellectual property and investment chapters, the creation of domestic policies to manipulate the international market. Often, these actions strengthen the economically powerful, particularly by granting to the leadership the right to set its own nation’s course of action and implement its own visions, while those at the margins suffer. Thus, the TPP presents a troubling case of free trade being purchased at too great a price.

Let us remember that after the United States, Canada and Mexico agreed to become a single market as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, their exports to each other boomed. But here in the Caribbean, the economies of America's much smaller neighbours reeled from the impact of that success and found it almost impossible to compete. From the apparel plants of Jamaica to the sugar-cane fields of Trinidad, Nafta  resulted in the loss of jobs, markets and income for the vulnerable island nations of the region.

Nafta's devastating effect on the Caribbean was widely fore-casted before the treaty's passage in 1993 and Washington had suggested it would cushion the blow by extending similar trade preferences to the island nations. However, the Clinton Administration's proposals to give the Caribbean ''Nafta parity'' was twice foundered in Congress in election years. It is then easy to see the troubles of the TPP which seems would come into effect vrey close to the U.S. election season.

When Nafta went into effect, the creation of new jobs in Jamaica stopped altogether and overall unemployment rose to 16 percent from 9.5 percent, according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica. In Mexico it failed to provide equitable stipulations for labor conditions, environmental protection, or investment regulations. Laborers on both sides of the border saw their collective bargaining powers diminish after NAFTA.

Critics of Nafta then, contended that NAFTA should have been transformed from a “free” trade agreement to a “fair” trade agreement through revisions that create jobs instead of destroying them, protect workers, and create an environment that allowed citizens to stay in their home country and earn a fair living wage.

So it is no surprise then that critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement have noted that the deal has little to do with free trade. Rather, the TPP is about limiting regulation, helping corporate interests and imposes fiercer standards of intellectual property (to, again, largely benefit corporate interests).

Noam Chomsky has decried the TPP, he told HuffPost Live that the deal, which is not yet finalized, is “designed to carry forward the neoliberal project to maximize profit and domination, and to set the working people in the world in competition with one another so as to lower wages to increase insecurity.”

Chomsky said it was “a joke” that the deal is designated a “free trade” agreement. “It’s called free trade, but that’s just a joke,” Chomsky said. “These are extreme, highly protectionist measures designed to undermine freedom of trade. In fact, much of what’s leaked about the TPP indicates that it’s not about trade at all, it’s about investor rights.”

On reviewing the leaked draft TPP chapter, intellectual property law expert Dr. Matthew Rimmer called the deal, “a Christmas wish-list for major corporations.”

This so-called trade pact of the future covers far more than just trade, with chapters addressing modern topics such as an extension of investment past real property, intellectual property rights, and environmental standards among others. There is no question that the agreement would positively affect many signatory nations’ economies; however, many of the proposed regulations pushed by the U.S. would violate regional domestic laws while compromising national sovereignty.

As a Jamaican I am asking in particular the Honourable Anthony Hylton, Jamaica's Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, to be cognizant of the impact of the TPP and its implications for International Law and our domestic laws. I also ask that in any international bargaining that we be put on a level playing field with other international players, and to secure strong lobby and collective bargaining power to secure our owning international commercial future! I ask that the Minister secure us  the opportunity not to be prevented from taking full advantage of the International markets now and not when we begin reeling from the impact of the TPP.

World Boss vs Bulb Boss: Rule of Law floundering in Jamaica!

"It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind,
That you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.
And for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed.
...And of the man in you would I now speak.
For it is he and not your god-self nor the pigmy in the mist, that knows crime and the punishment of crime."
By Kahlil Gibran

I am compelled point to the glaring hypocrisy at the core of much of the media commentaries surrounding the Whirl Boss and his conviction. Many have been quick to lambaste him, as maybe he deserves to be, but I ask... "What part did the gatekeepers of information have in building the Vybz Kartel they are no so quick to turn their back on?" Were not the media gatekeepers too neglecting their social responsibility by not better regulating the airwaves, and not filtering what was being syphoned to the nation?

I would like to point to the glaring hypocrisy at the core of the decision to free Kern "Bulb Boss" Spencer. The government has shown its will to decisively uphold the rule of law is weak. The impetus for impartiality and legal ethics in our government today is missing.

We live in a time and political climate in Jamaica where the state seems  committed to consistently targeting the marginalized, who are not  able to buy the best lawyers and with political connections. Rarely, if ever are corrupt politicians and white collar criminals brought to justice. Hence the nation has no faith in the justice system, nor does it believe in the institutions charged with maintaining law and order.

The government has the will to press through anti-gang legislation, public smoking legislation (even as they muddled it), scamming and fraud legislation. Yet to financially and medically empower Jamaicans by legalizing medical marijuana as well as decriminalizing it usage whilst making licensing easy and accessible to Jamaica's poor and dispossessed is something they are willing to pussyfoot around. All while madam PM goes globe hopping I suppose!

Here is a point of note on the rule of law to our ministries of security and justice… Rule of law deals with the range of processes and relationships amongst individual and state.  The crucial idea that has grown out of the rule of law as it has developed in the UK and is adopted here in Jamaica, posits in Albert Venn Dicey’s understanding  that “the law should not be arbitrarily or capriciously administered by those in power”

The Constitution of Jamaica implicitly states that the power or duties of each arm of government should not overlap... Yet Resident Magistrates don’t have security of tenure as part of the public service and fall within the executive arm of the state. Hence the Court System we have before us may very well contravene the constitution and the notion of the separation of powers as well as undermining the doctrine of rule of law. The Jamaican RM Court is a one of a kind in the world. No other such structure exists. An arbitrary structure, with arbitrary administration and hence the arbitrary administration of justice.

Let us not forget the mess made in the creation of the gun court, it was an embarrassment in Jamaican scholarship and jurisprudence. The unusual features of the Gun Court have faced legal handicaps, some of which have forced amendment of the Gun Court Act. The Gun Court has faced criticism on several fronts, most notably for its departure from traditional practices, its large backlog of cases, and for the continuing escalation in gun violence since its institution. If these things are not proof that we need better jurisprudence and more honest and fair delivery of justice.

A 1993 County Report on Human Rights Practices in Jamaica from the United States Department of State noted the denial of a "fair public trial" and alleged that Gun Court trials observe "less rigorous rules of evidence than in regular court proceedings." 

The Canadian Bar Association's Jamaican Justice System Reform Task Force noted that the Gun Court is overloaded, that defendants are not well represented, and Crown attorneys are often inexperienced. Hence even internationally it is evident and plain to see that we are a unique court system and a particularly arbitrary one!

If we are to move forward as a nation we must cut these wretched political hypocrisies in our system!

I close with a quote from - John Adams, “Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.”

Top 20 Schools List: Mt. Alvernia vs Mobay High!

The List of top 20 schools in Jamaica is officially out it seems and the figures are quite intriguing to say the least...

Hmmm Mt. Alvernia surpasses Mobay High... Historic if not monumental...

Well as back-to-school time rolls around... one thing I am certain of is this... Mt. Alvernia girls gonna be walking this September with an academic swagg like no other...

Mrs. Cherian will undoubtedly be beaming!!!

Only Westwood from made it into the top 10 from the west, which has shook up teachers and academics out west, for as much as Westwood has a long track record of success, it is still overlooked.

This list has spark the expected Facebook comment and thread wars of MBH vs MHS, Barbra Grayhounds vs Sister White Fowls as youth in my times referred to it.

Hats off to Mt. Alvernia... 'cause I remember back in the day when youths at Cornwall had it that Alvernia a fi dunce or screbbeh screbbeh girls and Mobay High is where you go hunting for high calibre... but as a young gallis... I never prescribed to such a philosophy or doctrine... I and I seek and finds the brightest and the hottest any where dem deh! Also... mi 'member when mi walk over the hill and pass Alvernia in the mornings and all those voices a mystery to me Yannick! Yannick! Yannick... man a Alvernia fuss tun mi inna mega star so... big up Alvernia a thousand times!

But one has to ask... what of Cornwall College... Bastion by the Sea! Disce Aut Discede!

Errol Watts of the "Cornwall College Alumni" FaceBook page posited the following arguments in Cornwall's defense for not being on the list...

"Notwithstanding the fact that CC has to continue to strive for excellence at all times, there are extraneous circumstances that might have been overlooked when analyzing the results. For example, CC does not hold-back any students from sitting the exams; while, other schools are known to submit only their best students that they think will have a chance to pass. We have an 85% (CSEC), and 93% (CAPE) average. We have one of, if not, the largest 6th Form Student Body in the country (130). And, to get into our 6th Form, you need to have 6 passes in grades 1, and 2. You might have noticed that the results offered, included English and Maths; however, we have one of (if not ) the best Physics, and Chemistry programs in the country. We have 30 distinctions at unit 1 and 2, including 50% in Physics and Chemistry. Presently, 15 out of the 138 students enrolled in Medicine at UWI, are from CC, the highest from one school in Jamaica. This year, we have 190 students applying to attend our 6th Form, which has a capacity for approx. 130. Finally, the number one student overall in the country,for the recent grade 6 achievement test, Mark Brown, and the top student from the county of Cornwall, Devin McIntosh, will be attending CC. Yes, we need to improve our English and Maths scores, but all is not lost. SATIS VERBORUM! CC...CC...CC!"

Well he has a point about Cornwall's academic past and current successes... but one has to ask... If Cornwall's admin is running away nobody and not regulating the exam sitting process and everybody sit exam etc... then Disce Aut Discede is a farce... "Learn or Leave" becomes a myth!

Aaaaaaaaaaanywaaaaayzzzzzzz...

As the back-to-school debacle begins, parents and children will no doubt begin the battle of the brands... kids want Clarks and Jansports... straight, close fitted khaki pants vs tailor made or home made and no name bought at Bashco or Market shoes etc etc etc...

I wonder what the literature syllabus is like now for 7th graders/1st formers... aah the good old days of Sprat Morrison!

The Sly Hypocrisy of the Homosexual Agenda: Making Dwayne Jones into a Martyr

Now when the international press comes feasting for a story in Montego Bay and on Montegonians, I and I as The Montegonian have to chant. The story is that of the Gully Queen, whose real name is Dwayne Jones. He was a trans-gendered individual who died because of deception, yet his murder is being portrayed as a hate crime and is a stereotyping of Jamaica's attitude towards homosexuality. He is the new poster boy of all anti-Jamaica and gay lobby groups. However once again, the homosexual bias has "reared" its ugly head. With the recent KGN Squatter issue, they made it a gay issue.

You probably won't see this Blog or article being mentioned on the Huffingtonpost or Global Voices... owing to the fact that to be cool and savvy in today's Web 2.0, 3.0 world of social networks and personal brand identities, one has to stay politically correct to gain popularity, climb through the mystery of S.E.O. ranking schema, matrices and algorithms, one has to be espousing "progressive" neo-liberal, globalist, capitalist, "forward thinking views" and anything that may not be PRO-homosexuality is usually maligned as backward and antiquated. I have spoken to this homosexual hypocrisy already. If one is not saying yeah for gay... you will be shut up and shut off as homophobic.

Certain realities fail to be addressed by foreign media and local when examining the Dwayne Jones case... it can very well be contended, that the man's crime was not truly cross dressing. The most articles only look at a part of the issue. The young man was not murdered because he was gay or homosexual, his offense was not being a cross-dresser. He was killed because he violated the space and right of another man and other men by dancing (simulating a sex act, erotic dance: one drop) while pretending to be a woman. He made physical contact with heterosexual males, danced with them, it is alleged as one witness put it "even the selector tek a dagger offa him." I agree wholeheartedly that executing him was harsh and wrong. I never advocate for extra-judicial killings.

I will never agree to the murder of any human being for biases of sexuality, I have to wonder, has anyone given thought to the fact that persons have committed suicide after being tricked like this? That on some level that act like this are tantamount to sexual harassment? It causes arousal and stimulation by deception and physical violation.

But this small bit of truth will no doubt be shoveled and buried by the media, the spin doctors, liars and lobbyist. Huffingtonpost and Global Voices for all their citizen journalism, all the moral high ground, all the insightful commentary, they never examined once the tyranny of terror that was Bebe and Jasper and how they were the origins of scamming in Montego Bay... a pair of maniacal cross dressing gun wielding homosexual scammers, parading with "straps" and thongs from Fairview's Texaco to KFC downtown to Baywest to Pier 1. How they rooted themselves in Granville is fairly common knowledge in the city. But the darker sides of scamming money and murders, poverty and gay pedophilia in Jamaica are swept under the rug for this untruthful campaign against Jamaica and what is perceived as its attitude to homosexuality. NO ONE investigated the serious link with homosexuality and scamming.

You won't hear this from Minority Insight or Active Voice but I live in Montego Bay and I know gay women living in communities now, flouting their life and lifestyle on the corners and on Facebook now in Montego Bay from Norwood, Flankers, Salem, Canterbury, to Ironshore, Westgate Hills, Spring Farm and Bogue, chilling on corners without harm. Yet I see no interview with them, no expose asking them how they navigate their existence so peacefully. Or what are the rigors of the Homosexual condition in Jamaica, outside of the iconic misrepresentation from the likes of Stacy Chinn.

Forward to the issue of what Dwayne Jones really did again. Let us make it clear... He aroused males by dancing with them and not letting them know he was a male. A woman spotted him out. Now I have even heard media calls for her to be spotted out, what vile hypocrisy now to try and punish a woman for revealing the truth. Not even blinking to content that Dwayne may have been naive to even think cross dressing was cool in Jamaica, but it think it fun to violate peoples belief on the notion and practise of homosexuality by letting them unknowingly participate in a homosexual ritual.

To some males and individuals, being "played" like and played with like in such a manner is equivalent to death- socially and physical. It is my sincere belief that this young 17-year-old would still be in the land of the living had he not taken away, by deception, the right of other males to decide if he wanted to be involved in a homosexual activity and by this I mean: dancing with another man.

Gay people go about their business in Jamaica every day without being provoked. Dwayne should have kept his antics to just YouTube. This is what happens when one provokes and deceives a crowd... the metamorphosis into maddened mob.

Minister of Freakonomics: Lisa Hanna!

How Can a Youth Minister Support Abortion?

May, Child's month not even fully a month behind us, and our Minister of Youth is endorsing eliminating youth... it seems somewhat absurd, if not paradoxical.

This reality reveals much of what is wrong with public policy discourse in modern Jamaia. Our politicians lack character, insight and vision, that is why they will endlessly regurgitate white America's intellectual drivel. A 10 minute Google would have shown our dear Minister of Freakonomics that the abortion-cut-crime theory has not even come close to meeting the burden of proof, but, instead, she like a lot of  our nation's intelligentsia fell inlove with the theories perpetuated in the book Freakonomics by Donohue and Levitt. Being innumerate, most politicians, presstitutes and the punditariat are willing to dupe the proletariat, the masses. It is easier to simply engage in intellectual yes-man-ship and take a guru figure like Levitt on faith, than even ask a local statistician or economist. A few book reviewers, like James Q. Wilson (America's leading expert on crime for several decades), expressed deep skepticism about the books propositions.

It amazes me that in todays day and age, an influential person such as our Minister publicly endorsed the theory, when a bit of diligence with Google would have shown her it was dubious, if not racist and prejudice.

It is an attention-grabbing theory, to be sure, possibly even more noteworthy than recent research indicating that liberalizing abortion increased pre-marital sex, increased out-of-wedlock births, reduced adoptions and ended so-called shotgun marriages.

But a thorough analysis of abortion and crime statistics leads to the opposite 

conclusion: that abortion increases crime.

There are no statistical grounds for believing that the hypothetical youths who were aborted as fetuses would have been more likely to commit crimes had they reached maturity than the actual youths who developed from fetuses and carried to term.

A theory such as the one by Ms. Hanna has far reaching social, political and moral implications and, as such, needs to be rigorously debated and researched. The intent of this letter is to illustrate that, although the abortion-crime theory gained much attention and popularity in the United States, Donohue and Levitt’s findings are not apparent and obvious, nor are they indisputable, hence ought not to be taken as fact.

The criticism of the book's conclusions need to be given as much attention and consideration as the findings and arguments originally put forward in the book. Indeed, much of the research done after Donohue and Levitt’s study was published disproves the abortion-crime theory and casts serious doubt on whether such a link exists at all. Since then several times in articles, Donohue and Levitt acknowledge that a number of factors may have contributed to the falling rates crime rates during the 1990s. So why do we follow blindly American schools of thought?

Indeed many in the academic community contend that Donahue and Levitt’s research suffered from methodological flaws. As The Economist noted, “Donohue and Levitt did not run the test that they thought they had.” Work by two economists at the Boston Federal Reserve, Christopher Foote and Christopher Goetz, found that, when the test was run correctly, it indicated that abortion actually increases violent crime. John Whitley and I had written an earlier study that found a similar connection between abortion and murder — namely, that legalizing abortion raised the murder rate, on average, by about 7 percent.

We need to be doing our own research and not slavishly following North American trends of thought.

Who Protects Brand Montego Bay?

Brand Montego: Part 1

The City has to Develop and Protect it's Brand

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well. Jeff Bezos

“There is more similarity in the marketing challenge of selling a precious painting by Degas and a frosted mug of root beer than you ever thought possible.”
A. Alfred Taubman

Imagine the words Montego Bay, instantaneously it brings to mind, relaxation, coconut and palm trees, white sand beaches, sun and sometimes even sex - it's one of the most powerful images in the Caribbean. So how is it, dozens of companies use the name to sell products – Payless is notorious for selling a brand of sandals called the Montego Bay Club, there is even a foreign band full of white boys called Montego Bay Band, A Freemason pub of some sort in England with the Name Montego Bay littering the menu- so I put it to both the government and the public now, that we start considering seeking protection for Brand Montego Bay, under intellectual property, through trademark and copyright.

Freemasons Arms Pub... on the Menu Montego Bay Chicken Wrap!

We must consider that in today’s environment cities compete amongst each other for talent, business and human resources. In many ways they have to act like commercial entities by selling themselves to potential customers – business investors, visitors/tourists, the working and creative classes– as successful, vibrant, forward-looking brands. Simply put they have to market themselves as the place to be, project an image of tomorrow and betterment. At the same time that image, that name, that identity must be guarded. Just as commercial entities, have lawyers and make legal cases on issues of copyright and trademark infringement. So too must local government and even central government entities now seek to protect the Brand Montego Bay and Brands of Jamaica.

How do a group of white boys in America or is it England become the Montego Bay Band?

Intellectual property rules offer the potential to provide a valuable source of income for people in developing countries, who tend to get only a small sliver of the profits made on their goods on the international market. Do we profit from made in China T-Shirts that say Montego Bay. NOPE! Montegonians are not getting value. Their image and name is being abused. Consequently I saw a study that detail through study of Mobay and other areas, how Brand Jamaica has mostly benefited entities like Puma, whilst craft vendors and small businesses flailing in the harsh economy.

Montego Bay City must re-examine its role and function, as well as define its appeal to ‘citizens/consumers’, at the same time protecting the name and the Brand of the city for the citizens. Our city must distinguish itself from our competitors (Kingston, Portmore, Ocho Rios) and position our self as a recognizable brand in an increasingly regional and international market place. Port of Spain, San Fernando, Bridgetown, Kingstown are all Caribbean cities vying for status and international cosmopolitan appeal, so what of us in the Bay?

I noted on twitter that a few Kingstonians started noticing that “Mobay look like farrin” and that “any time mi waan go farrin mi go Fairview, Montego Bay.”

Here is an excerpt of Mobay through a foreigners eyes

“Downtown resembled a cross between America and what we would picture as rural Africa. The streets were full of activity. People yelling, laughing, buying and selling items. Playing music. Their skin was black as tar and beautiful. Their hair was the epitome of natural. They wore clothes that we would have worn in the early 2000’s but did their best to match it up.”

From instagram.com (via @RudeboyRJ) - June 3, 4:05 PM

What is the vision of Mobay, what is the vision for Montego Bay, who protects the name Montego Bay? The name Montego Bay has been already been branded and used and bandied about like there is no tomorrow, but Montegonians haven't seen the benefits.

I put it out there that Montego Bay is the biggest cultural brand in the Caribbean. When I travel abroad, Montego Bay always seems to be the more popular Jamaican destination and known location. So those companies using the Montego Bay Brand in ways that really do enhance their business, they use the name to make association with luxury, comfort, sun, breeze and such... so it's reasonable for the Montegonians to ask, Why aren't you coming to talk to us? Why aren't you asking our permission? Why don't you engage with us?

The notion of cities and cultures seeking IP protection is not an entirely new one - the Native American Navajo recently brought a case against the clothes company Urban Outfitters, for use of their name.

Relying on past glory is no longer enough; As the once den like, homely Montego Bay is now becoming a metropolis and showing a citizenry acquiring the cosmopolitan lifestyles to go with it… the friendly city is now a big city, and nowhere near as friendly as it used to be. 

Today, successful companies and young talented people have lost hometown loyalties; note the influx of outsiders and outside businesses in Mobay, not to mention the ‘Spanish Invasion’. They can choose where to cluster. Cities with distinctive characteristics; be they economic, cultural, environmental or life style, and it these things that will attract the best companies and people. So now we have questions of Montego Bay’s identity and its brand identity: What are the distinctive characteristics of Montego Bay, what makes us, US?


To Be Cont’d

Montegonian Editorial Exclusive: Jamaica, Black Leadership and the Future!

It's been almost one year since Jamaica 50 and sometimes I wonder have we forgotten who we are as a people and has the media forgotten who we are! 

There was a time when PanAfricanism was ripe in the island, with the likes of Walter Rodney and Rastafari played a role as the memory of the people, when people remembered their Africaness. There was a time when Michael Manley was in dialogue with Kwame Nkruma and Julius Nyrere. 

Oh come on, for goodness sake! We were a people that inspired Haile Selassie to come here, a man so revered he was on the cover of Time several times and featured in the national geographic and is even spoken of highly still today in modern literature such as Robert Greene's Strategies of War and Laws of Power, as well as Wings to Freedom by and Indian Yogi named Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath. Jamaicans are a people that inspired Nelson Mandela to come here. We produced Marcus Garvey one of the greatest black icons and PanAfricanist of all times. We produced Bob Marley who not only the world loved but Africans.

So why is it then that as Africa is now being looted and plundered by Europe and America, commercially colonized by China with a renewed 21st century thrust... Why is no one speaking out about it? Europeans are streaming into northwest Africa en masse, the huge U.S. airlift capacity may soon be necessary to keep the “Crusaders” supplied and the military industrial complex oiled and firing. African militaries are being cobbled to do the Caucasian’s bidding. 

The U.S. has almost practically establish a Somalia-like operation on the near side of Africa – with Americans at the helm. A sentiment echoed by even republican politician in the states Ron Paul who said "U.S. Action in Mali is Another Undeclared War".

All this while in America itself under the Obama administration the plight of Black Americans has worsened:  A recent interview on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press,” NAACP CEO and president, Ben Jealous, told the show’s host that black Americans “are doing far worse” than when President Obama first took office. “The country’s back to pretty much where it was when this president started,” Jealous told show host David Gregory. “White people in this country are doing a bit better. Black people are doing far worse.”  Dr. Julianne Malveaux of Your Black World recently wrote that the Obama Administration needs to speak out more about existing racial disparities and persistent problems in black unemployment.

The Black Diaspora has seen the US elect thousands of African American local and state officials and re-elect the first black president. But Obama seems to have proven just a symbol, symbolic and nothing more. Nothing real, nothing substantial, nothing progressive as it pertains to the plight of blacks.

The media is slow and unwilling to note that our black leaders are dithering. Floundering. Flailing... failing and falling even. Symbolism supersedes the fact that black leadership has few or no victories to boast for the seventies, the eighties, the nineties or the new century, apart from their own illustrious careers. 

No black leader is man enough to speak to or look at the fact that the war on drugs and the prison state sprung up in north America. The symbol of Obama over rides the fact that black unemployment remains at record levels, that US wages have not risen in thirty years and that the first black president apparently forgot his campaign promise to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour almost as soon as he made it. And what has been done for the Caribbean? Nothing. He continues an illegal international embargo on Cuba, he continues Gitmo torture in our territory, and turned down our request to exonerate Jamaica's hero and Rastafari Icon Marcus Garvey. 

Obama seems a symbol used to nullify and quiet the analytic black mind and voice. "Nigger shut up we got a black president now!" 1 black President... and 10 million  black persons still suffering. And let us not examine his neglect of his black family in Kenya, or his brother that lives in a Shanty Town.

Who in Jamaica or the media is willing to look past the fact that he is JUST a black president and willing to examine the fact that the black role model president conducts weekly “Terror Tuesday” meetings in the White House basement at which he dispatches drones to murder and special forces to kidnap and torture in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and across the African continent. It matters not at all that the First Lady is a poster girl for Wal-Mart, attacking child weight, rather than bolstering education, that the Department of Justice prosecutes whistle blowers instead of war criminals, or that black military and diplomats like Susan Rice are up to their armpits in African blood.

The black political class at home and abroad is utterly self-interested. It cannot begin to mobilize black communities to demand higher wages, a massive jobs program to relieve unemployment, a new paradigm of urban economic development that isn't just moving poor people out of neighborhoods and richer ones in. It seems our egotistical black intelligentsia can't begin to make these things happen because foisting itself and its own advancement off as “representing” the black oppressed masses is the beginning and the end of who they are and what they do. They are not truly about the black diaspora and its plight, they do not truly care to ease the existential condition of his brothers, neighbours and friends.

For them, the election and and re-election of Barack Obama is the end of black history. The be all and end all of our history. Addressing black unemployment, pervasive economic injustice, opposing the neo-liberal,capitalist, globalist, transnational agenda of privatization and austerity put forth not just by the black president, but by an entire layer of black thinkers are, in their language not pragmatic or “realistic.”

So if our black leaders have anything to say about it, more years of Barack Obama means more years of black silence and irrelevance on the issues that matter most to our communities; on jobs and economic injustice. It means black leadership will wring its hands and do nothing as American federal policies drive the militarization of Africa. Our politicians will continue to philander and spinelessly acquiesce to whatever old might Uncle Sam says, we will genuflect at his very whim. We will not be the bold humans, bold leaders that stood down injustice and untruths in the past we will be the bandwagonists of a new age much to our demise!