Wignall gets it...

[Willi]

The shutting down of the Alpart bauxite plant has brought home to us a reality that we expected but which we were hoping was all a bad dream and from which we would all wake up soon. Bad days are ahead.

You lose a job and a part of your life is lost. You feel tears welling up because you cannot go home and tell the lady that the next morning you go out, it will be to some park bench or a bar out of town or maybe to a girlfriend who is seeking company for her misery.

We have a good chance of looking back at these days and calling them good. The good days and the pain reside alongside each other and, in any safe betting, it is a good chance that you will be mostly happy than unhappy. But happiness and unhappiness are only meaningful in the present and in how we see tomorrow.

Any radical displacement in your life will be filled with pain. But that is the very time to see pain as change and recognise that you are feeling the pain of change, the fear of the unknown. Sometimes if we open up ourselves to the richness we have stored within but have become lazy in stirring, we may find that forceful change is the best catalyst for making that next leap in one's life.

We limit ourselves to a small landscape and, like Billy Joel's opening line in his classic song, Innocent Man, "Some people stay far away from the door, if there's a chance of it opening up," we are too scared to venture outside of where we believe our main strengths lie.
The Chinese have an expression that says 'catastrophe' twins 'danger'with 'opportunity.' Let us pull no punches here. Our country is in much more turmoil than it was before Wall Street coughed up its economic immune deficiency syndrome on the rest of the world. But open your eyes. Opportunities may be next door, but if you are afraid to approach, remember one thing: The door nah come to yuh.

As I travel the streets of Jamaica I am still amazed that many of our people, long suffering in their bones, their sinews, their souls, know that the road is rough and they have committed themselves to make it through the tough times we will be facing. From the hills of Moneague to the flat lands of Vere, from the craggy hillsides of Portland to the coastal paradise of Negril, from the tranquility of Treasure Beach to the gritty commerce of downtown Kingston, there are people who love this country and have its interests deep in their hearts.

It will not be a pleasant economic landscape, but we need each other to pull through. We need to reconnect and find the strength that is in unity. We are more than we are and this crisis is the perfect time to discover the more that we are. It is a work in progress that needs urgent attention. If we don't find ourselves in this crisis, the other option is not something I wish to mention now.

observemark@gmail.com

[Willi]

Dual citizenship again...COLUMNS

PRETTY BOYS AND SWEET MOUTH
WIGNALL'S WORLD
Mark Wignall
Sunday, March 22, 2009

PETER Bunting has come a far way since March 1993 when he led the late Hugh Shearer, one of the grand old men in the political arena, towards the exit door of representational politics. One sensed that Shearer's heart had never left the BITU and that his long foray through the halls of Gordon House was an uneasy one.

One also sensed that he yielded simply because it was the next natural step after his love affair with the union.

Bunting himself had some early hiccups with politics. Was his heart there when he won the South East Clarendon seat and served out a term? No, and he had expressed it then. That South East Clarendon seat was considered JLP territory and Bunting had earned kudos from PNP stalwarts for winning it in 1993 and making it amenable to Basil Burrell who was able to squeeze out a razor-thin win for the PNP again in 1997.

BUNTING... has everything going for him
After Bunting had led his company, Dehring, Bunting and Golding, to the dizzying heights of success all throughout the late 90s and well into the first decade of the 21st century, he felt the urge again to taste the political pie.

In 2007 he headed to Central Manchester, a PNP seat which had been having a quiet and decent relationship with the JLP's caretaker, Sally Porteous. The political atmosphere in Central Manchester became somewhat less quiet after Bunting entered the race, but some believe that it was simply due to 'youthful exuberance'and the tensions existing in a seat that both parties needed to win. Others will swear that it was nothing more than coincidence that the quiet political landscape in Central Manchester which obtained when Sally Porteous was operating as one of the most effective JLP caretakers changed as soon as Bunting entered the race.

And I will believe that too until I have some hard evidence to the contrary. This is not to say that I do not have problems with his politics.

Peter Bunting is a man that has everything going for him. He is highly successful in business, is wealthy and he has a face designed to weaken a woman. When he speaks, he sounds believable - a trait I believe which could only strengthen his political career.

My concern with him is that as general secretary of the PNP, he rushed to judgement on the recent killings in Buff Bay after both he and the JLP's general secretary had met with the political ombudsman to agree to codes of conduct on the very tense West Portland by-election.

On Nationwide one day last week, Bunting was telling the wide listenership of the radio station that the two men killed by the police in Buff Bay were 'JLP activists'who had been seen at JLP meetings, in motorcades supporting the JLP and on JLP platforms. He said this without offering one shred of proof, plus he seemed to have had dubious 'information'which even the police did not have.

In 2005 when Daryl Vaz was selected over Kenneth Rowe to represent the JLP in West Portland, he used that time until the 2007 elections to forge a working relationship with the poor residents of West Portland. He was truly a hard-working JLP caretaker whose organisational skills and ability to network at all levels of society had made the constituents feel as if, for the first time, real attempts were being made to tackle the mountain of problems in that rural constituency.

In all the time that Vaz worked the constituency, there was not a single act of any kind which could be remotely considered political violence. This time around the PNP has every reason to go for broke in a constituency that gave Daryl Vaz close to a 1,000-vote majority in September 2007.

Of course, we cannot fool ourselves. We know that the JLP cannot afford to lose the constituency. But ask yourself this: Which party has more to gain to concoct acts of political violence? If, as Peter Bunting says, the two men killed were JLP activists, why would the JLP, who also need to 'retain'this seat, go out of its way to import gunmen and 'chuck badness'against the police just days before the election in a key division of the very constituency which it 'won'last time out and which is up for grabs again? Does that make sense?

I expected a better response from you, Mr Bunting.

Daryl Vaz, Jamaican citizen vs Kenneth Rowe, dual citizen
The JLP's Daryl Vaz will be facing off with the PNP's Kenneth Rowe in West Portland tomorrow.

The PNP is hoping that the electorate makes a judgement of the JLP's stewardship nationally and not a judgement of Vaz's representation in the constituency. For that reason, there is no party in town, only in West Portland.

Now that Vaz has long given up his US citizenship to indicate in no uncertain manner where his loyalty lies, I find it politically immoral for the PNP to be fielding a candidate who is both a citizen of Canada and Jamaica. Let me quote from Dr Paul Ashley's blog -. Ashley is an expert in legal matters.
"Having addressed this matter repeatedly, it now seems almost bizarre for the People's National Party (PNP) to have announced the selection of a person holding dual citizenship to contest the upcoming by-election in the West Portland constituency. This is against the background of a prolonged and continuing litigation involving the Constitution of Jamaica and the disqualification of sitting members of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Given the decision of the Court of Appeal - the final arbiter in election petition matters - which upheld the chief justice's ruling and dismissed all the appeals, it is indeed less than prudent to open a potential avenue of legal contention to nominate one who is the holder of a Canadian passport."

Daryl Vaz lives in Jamaica and has done so continuously ever since he entered politics barely out of his teens. He is married to a Jamaican wife and has Jamaican children. His place of business is in Jamaica.

Let me ask Mr Kenneth Rowe a few questions. Did you return to Jamaica in 1997? Do you have a wife and children now living in Canada?

A man's commitment to country, especially against the background of party politics and representation, must not only be supported by constitutional legalities (some legal minds even believe that Rowe is constitutionally ineligible), but also should not find himself in a position where his main affirmation comes via the constitution while tangible signs of one's loyalty to country are absent.

Should the highly unexpected happen and Daryl Vaz lose the contest, he is stuck right here in Jamaica, with all the rest of us. If Mr Rowe loses, as I expect him to, he has choices. He can hop on a plane tomorrow or, of course, he can remain here, as he is a dual citizen.

So much for the PNP's touting of the dual citizenship issue.

The gay lobby has infiltrated our children's heads
I was floored, totally whacked out when a reader of my columns sent me a link to a newspaper article by the Daily Mail Reporter, dated March 7, titled, "Parents face Court Action for Removing Children from Gay History Lessons".

Well, first of all, I was not even aware that there was something called 'Gay History'. The article stated that, "Parents face possible court action for withdrawing their children from lessons on gay and lesbian history.

"More than 30 pupils were pulled out of a week of teaching at a primary school which included books about homosexual partnerships.

"The controversial content was worked into the curriculum at George Tomlinson School in Waltham Forest, East London."

My views on homosexuality are plain. People must be free to indulge in their sexual fantasies privately, even if I believe that homosexuality (especially male on male) is utterly repugnant. But there is more, and it is scary in this shrinking global village.

"Pervez Latif, whose children Saleh, 10, and Abdur-Rahim, nine, attend the school, said he knew of up to 30 withdrawals from the lessons. The 41-year-old accountant said Christian and Muslim parents had objected to the theme linked to Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender History Month.
'We as parents did not receive any guidance that this was going to happen,'he added. 'There was just a newsletter mentioning the week and that certain themes would be taught.

'I didn't want my children to be learning about this. I wrote a letter to the chairman of the governors explaining that I would be taking my children out of school and he wrote back saying that there was no other option. If I am faced with court action, then I will just explain that these are my views. It was also very difficult explaining to my nine- and ten-year-old boys why they were being removed from school.

'I found it difficult to explain topics such as homosexual relationships at such a young age.'"

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender History Month? Say what? OK, we know that the state of being homosexual (said to happen to one in every 12) is a reality, and maybe people need to be taught about tolerating the things which may be thought 'extreme'to them. But read further and tell me what you think.

"One story covered in a lesson was 'King and King', a fairytale about a prince who turns down three princesses before falling in love with one of their brothers. Another book, And Tango Makes Three, features two male penguins, Roy and Silo, who fall in love at a New York zoo."
I may yet die laughing.

Hang in there, Jamaica