RBSC

**Assasin** · November 7, 2009, 10:18 AM

yes a group of people should set the rate not just one person.

**Sir X** · November 8, 2009, 11:37 AM

Fix the BOJ!
Published: Sunday | November 8, 2009

Harris
PROFESSOR EMERITUS at Stanford University in the United States, Donald J. Harris, has added his voice to those calling for the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) to be duly constituted as an independent central bank.

The recent dismissal of long-standing central bank governor Derick Latibeaudiere has rekindled the debate on the structure of the BOJ, with many persons suggesting that it should be independent with the role of governor separated from the chairman of the board.

But Harris says the operation of the central bank must be adjusted if it wants the respect that it deserves.

standing guard

"If the BOJ is to be legitimately considered an autonomous and independent central bank, then it must be made to justify and validate that status by standing guard against the fiscal imprudence of the Ministry of Finance, instead of aiding and abetting it by allowing it easy and uncontrolled access to the many monetary instruments," Harris said.

"Furthermore, the BOJ must itself exhibit fiscal prudence, technical competence and professionalism in the internal management of its own affairs, in as much as it must also seek to strengthen regulatory control over private financial institutions under its purview," added Harris in an exposé on Jamaica's failed policies over the years and suggestions for change.

Basic salaries paid to central bankers around the world.

Ben Bernanke US$191,300 (in 2008) - J$17,073,525

Jean-Claude Trichet €$446,806 - J$59,241,918

Mervyn King £290,000 (in 2008) - J$42,834,502

Jean-Pierre Roth CHF$817,700 (in 2008) - J$70,597,766

Mark Carney CAD$350,000 (in 2008) - J$30,723,496

Glenn Stevens AUD200,000 in 2008) - J$16,217,082

Alan Bollard NZD540,000 (in 2007) - J$34,746,667

Derick Latibeaudiere - $14,545,000

Conversion facilitated by FXConverter, Friday, November 6, 2009

See lead 11 for the full text of Harris' presentation.

**Sir X** · November 8, 2009, 11:40 AM

Rigorously debate BOJ reform
Published: Sunday | November 8, 2009

We are glad that there seems to be an emerging consensus that Jamaica should use the opportunity afforded by the departure of long-standing former governor Derick Latibeaudiere to debate on what kind of central bank is needed, and then move to restructure the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ).
It is a point that was made by this newspaper in the immediate aftermath of Mr Latibeaudiere's dismissal and, therefore, has our support. We wish, however, to inject a note of caution into the discourse and to warn against a stampede into action.

Which is why we welcome Prime Minister Bruce Golding's promise to engage the Opposition on the matter, as well as to resurrect a 15-year-old report on the issue by actuary Daisy Coke to help jump-start the discourse. Hopefully, this can set a platform for a discussion that is thoughtful and measured, calling on wide and varied technical information, devoid of emotion and hubris.

We make these points because of the context of Mr Latibeaudiere's exit from the central bank and the politically partisan flavour it has assumed.

Mr Latibeaudiere was fired, ostensibly because of a dispute over aspects of his employment contract, which Mr Golding claimed, variously, to have been unconscionable, em-barrassing, repugnant and unacceptable. Latibeaudiere, the Government says, was being paid, on an agreement signed in 2007, $38 million a year, of which $23 million was for rent and upkeep for living in his own home.

Of course, there are those who hold that while Mr Latibeaudiere's contract may have represented a matter of genuine concern, that it blew up now, two years into the life of the Golding administration, provided a convenient trigger for the governor's dismissal. By its action, this argument goes, the Government removed an awkward resister to its efforts to have interest rates fall more rapidly.

policy tensions

That there is this strongly held belief of policy tensions between Latibeaudiere and the administration is why we urge rigorous analyses of the proposals for changes to the structure of the Bank of Jamaica, and caution against decision driven by emotion. For instance, this newspaper has long championed the cause of the decoupling of the technical role as governor of the central bank from chairmanship of its board of directors - but with a proviso.

With regard to our proposal for a non-executive chairman of the BOJ, our concern here is primarily to enhance the oversight of internal management and to improve accountability, thereby limiting the potential for conflicts of interest.

monetary policy

However, we believe that while the governor of the central bank cannot be totally oblivious to the Government's broad policy objectives, the governor has to be relatively free to pursue monetary policy, with the aid of a formal committee mainly of his key technical staff. In other words, the current contretemps ought not to be an excuse for the merger of monetary and fiscal policies and indiscipline at the finance ministry.

Therefore, should Jamaica opt for a non-executive chairman of the BOJ, clear parameters and lines of demarcation have to be established between that role and the job of governor. The governor on monetary policy issues, in this regard, should, as chairman of the monetary policy committee, probably have to testify periodically before a parliamentary committee for his actions. Additionally, the minutes of the committee's deliberations should be published within a reasonable period after the sessions

**Sir X** · November 8, 2009, 11:41 AM

Full-scale reform of BOJ needed
Published: Sunday | November 8, 2009

Dennis Morrison, Contributor

Morrison

The circumstances surrounding the departure of the former Bank of Jamaica governor and the dispute over his claim for a large revision of his compensation package will no doubt continue to dominate the news for now. But the opening provided for a full-scale reform of the governance system of the central bank ought to take centre stage.

One critical matter to be dealt with is how to avoid the administrative pitfalls of a management structure that combines the roles of chairman and chief executive in the office of governor. Since this kind of structure exists in nearly all central banks, the focus should be on the checks and balances that must be instituted to control the use of concentrated power.

Starting with the Coke Report of the early 1990s, there have been a number of proposals for the reform of the BOJ that have called for the bank to be made independent of ministerial authority, reporting instead directly to Parliament. The appointment of the governor would be subject to parliamentary approval. By these means, it is anticipated that the bank would be shielded from political pressure to print money recognising that BOJ advances to the Ministry of Finance have not only fuelled inflation but facilitated the lack of fiscal discipline over many years.

lack of transparency

More recently, the call for reform of the bank's operations has concentrated on the lack of transparency in its conduct of monetary policy, specifically the setting of interest rates. The argument is that rates are moved up and down, sometimes erratically in the upward direction imposing huge interest costs on the budget, without scrutiny. And there is no requirement to fully explain the reasoning behind such action.

In many countries, central banks are obliged to hold meetings at regular intervals to review monetary policy and make decisions on interest rates, with the minutes of such meetings being published within specified periods thereafter. This is a position with which I fully agree and one that should be pursued whether the bank's reporting relationship is modified or not.

Membership of committees overseeing monetary policy is usually drawn from experts within and outside the central banks. Doubt about the possibility of finding outside experts locally to serve on a monetary policy committee who could be relied on not to misuse privileged information has been raised. While I understand the concern and the differences between Jamaica's financial system and that of say, the USA, appropriate solutions can be devised.

The push for instituting a transparent process for the conduct of monetary policy should not be regarded as a cure-all for Jamaica's economic problems, for the high interest rates and inflation rates that exceed those of our major trading partners or the loss of value of the local currency. At the root of the weakness in the macro-economy and the spiralling national debt is the mismanagement of spending by Government, especially by public-sector entities even when, like Air Jamaica, they are run by private-sector management.

Political parties, while in office, seek to undertake spending beyond what can be afforded, and successive governments have been ambivalent about tightening spending. Opposition parties also contribute to fiscal indiscipline by agitating for budgetary allocations that cannot be met, and both sides have tried to fulfil unrealistic election promises. Even when both parties agree on specific objectives, like increasing the level of allocations for education, they have not committed to adjustments in spending that would be required, as was demonstrated in the resolution on the issue passed unanimously some years ago.

high compensation levels

The governor's pay dispute raises, in my mind, the issue of the high compensation levels in the local financial sector. Because of these big pay packages there has been pressure on financial regulatory agencies to keep executive remuneration at levels not far removed from those paid by private financial institutions but significantly above the rest of the public sector. This has been so since I served as a board member of the Securities Commission, now the Financial Services Commission (FSC). Indeed, my understanding is that Mr Latibeaudiere's package prior to September 2009, under J$20 million, was not significantly above that of the head of the FSC.

The pressure put on the US financial system by the culture of extravagance in executive compensation was a big factor in the meltdown last year. Executives took extraordinary risks in pursuit of gargantuan bonuses and in the process, wrecked long-established institutions. In our case, it is my firm belief that the wide interest-rate spreads maintained by local banks is in part driven by bank management's push to boost profits in order to justify highly lucrative pay packages.

With the liberalisation of interest rates, banks have reduced rates paid on passbook savings, thereby bringing down their cost of funds. But they have moved very slowly in reducing lending rates when rate cuts are made by the central bank, which means that they end up with wide spreads that increase their profits. On the other hand, they are quick to hike their lending rates when the BOJ raises its policy rates.

explanations or excuses

Over the years, we were given different explanations or excuses as to why interest rate spreads in Jamaica are the widest in the region. First, we were told that they were due to the high cash reserve requirements of the BOJ that tied up large portions of commercial bank deposits at zero rate of interest. Then, as these were slashed, the reason given was the low rates paid on deposits that had to be held as liquid assets. But while the storyline has been changing, interest-rate spreads remain wide and executive pay continues to climb.

Dennis Morrison is an economist. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.

**Sir X** · November 8, 2009, 11:47 AM

GOLDING NEEDS A WINNER
WIGNALL'S WORLD
Sunday, November 08, 2009

RICKEY SINGH
While former prime minister and present Opposition leader Portia Simpson Miller will have spent this weekend being the guest presenter at the annual Eric Williams Memorial Lecture Series where she would have 'lit up the stage', speaking on 'A New Vision for a New World Reality: Prospects for the Anglophone Caribbean', and smartly answering questions, the present prime minister, Bruce Golding, will have wondered if the Derick Latibeaudiere firing has yielded any positives for his struggling administration.

Three years ago, in the months leading up to the 2007 general election, the JLP opposition had all the answers to what ailed this country. Now that the PNP is seated in the Opposition benches, its leader now has a new vision for a new world reality, and every PNP spokesperson has every correct answer to every troubling question.

It's called party politics. While in government the PNP ran down the economy of this country during which people of the calibre of Mr Derick Latibeaudiere, former central bank boss, presided over an entity and enjoyed employment terms which made it appear that Jamaica was the 'Singapore of the Caribbean'. Between the PNP's disastrous 18 years and the two years of preteen fumbling of the JLP administration, the CIA Factbook on Jamaica in its overview paints a grim picture.

"The Jamaican economy is heavily dependent on services, which now account for more than 60 per cent of GDP. The country continues to derive most of its foreign exchange from tourism, remittances, and bauxite/alumina. Remittances account for nearly 20 per cent of GDP and are equivalent to tourism revenues.

Jamaica's economy, already saddled with the lowest economic growth in Latin America, will face increasing difficulties as the global economy slows. The economy faces serious long-term problems: a sizeable merchandise trade deficit, large-scale unemployment and underemployment, and a debt-to-GDP ratio of almost 130 per cent.

Jamaica's onerous debt burden - the fourth highest per capita - is the result of government bailouts to ailing sectors of the economy, most notably the financial sector in the mid to late 1990s. It hinders government spending on infrastructure and social programmes as debt servicing accounts for nearly half of government expenditures.

Inflation rose sharply in 2008 as a result of high prices for imported food and oil and should fall in 2009 with the decline in international oil prices.

High unemployment exacerbates the serious crime problem, including gang violence that is fuelled by the drug trade. The Golding administration faces the difficult prospect of having to achieve fiscal discipline in order to maintain debt payments while simultaneously attacking a serious and growing crime problem that is hampering economic growth."

ELLINGTON... was appointed acting commissioner of police
We cannot, of course, pretend that we live in a mythical entity behind the looking glass. It is not exactly as if we the people are extremely educated, highly intelligent, supremely productive and constantly civil while our political leaders are the only bad guys on the block.

Unfortunately, it is not that simple, either as fact or as explanation for our sorry state.

Going backward on solving crime
According to Prime Minister Golding, the former commissioner of police was never forced out.

Laughable in the least. In our constitutional arrangements the prime minister cannot fire a commissioner of police. But, of course, nothing stops the prime minister from expressing certain negative sentiments to him and knowing that he came from the army and is a rear admiral, his culture of being an officer and a gentleman would make him step towards the door and do the honourable thing.

Hindsight, of course, presents us with perfect vision. We ask: What is it that could have occupied the head of the chief among servants - if we are to go with the long-debunked political theory of the real role of the prime minister - that he could, within three days, dismiss the Central Bank head and witness the exit of the commissioner of police?

What were the hopes and political expectations behind these moves? Granted we knew that politicians, as powerful as they really are, are also very petty. When they get together to tickle each other's ears and engage in little orgies of back-patting - 'Yeah, we did it, we got rid of the SOBs' - we sometimes marvel at their actions and wonder if those actions and their private responses to them are not all that party politics really is.
We have accused Golding of inaction, and, being a male, he would still be smarting inside from Seaga's description of him in 1994/1995 as a vacillator, one who would take forever to make no decision.

Now that he has done something - fired the BOJ boss - many have pounced on the PM and are seeing raw politics and bad timing in his move. Latibeaudiere's terms of employment were not just sweet, but as one of the chief technocrats in this country, according to a JLP insider, "It would have been difficult for Latibeaudiere to separate the nexus of his abilities and Omar Davies' policy prescriptions in the 12-year period leading up to the 2007 elections from where we wanted to take it, given the pending IMF negotiations."

The recently departed Commissioner of Police Hardley Lewin never had a chance in the job. During a recent Nationwide programme, I told the host that corruption in the JCF runs dangerously close to the top. That, of course, is no great revelation. But once Lewin stepped inside the JCF and occupied the hot seat at Hot 103 - the head office at 103 Old Hope Road - his biggest enemies were walking on those very grounds.

Former JLP leader Eddie Seaga is one of the architects of what is described as 'garrison politics'. But to Seaga that has never been true. He will tell you that the only thing he created was giving hope to poor people who were considered the despised of the land. In 2005 when Lewin called Seaga's creation, Tivoli Gardens, "the mother of all garrisons", the army man was quite correct.

In a recent Nationwide programme, Seaga was crying no tears for Lewin's exit as he criticised Lewin's descriptions as tarnishing an entire community, Tivoli Gardens. That there has been always major dissonance between his adoration of TG and the wider population's view of the community is lost on Seaga, but at this late stage of his life, he knows more about it than we do, and he will never change.

What cannot be denied is that Tivoli Gardens, as armed as it is like dozens of garrison pockets in the Kingston metropolitan area, Spanish Town and sections of St James, is the most organised in its armed response to state-sponsored incursions plus - and this is what Seaga misses big time - its citizens seem to be organised around the understanding that the community is hated by outsiders and greatly feared by the PNP. For these reasons, a cohesion of thought and action exists between Tivoli Gardens' soldiers and its citizens, and it is my belief that that is why Lewin gave it that description.

Ellington seems tipped to become commissioner
In 2005 when Tivoli Gardens gunman "Zion Train" was cut down by police bullets, there was a demonstration outside the Denham Town Police Station.

I went there, like a fool, and as I was being invited inside, some of the TG and Denham Town residents began to poke me in the back, and as I turned around, others would slap me, playfully I believe, on the top of my head. (The week before I was on a TV programme with Cliff Hughes criticising the new leader of the Opposition, Bruce Golding, for either some stance he had taken or something he had said.) One young man in the crowd stared menacingly at me and as I pleaded with my detractors as things began to get out of hand - "Look how mi back unno inna 1996, 1997 and 2001. yu figet dat?" - he said simply, "Yu tink seh me neva si yuh pon TV a dis di leada? Yu fi dead, bwoy!"

Two policemen came off the steps of the police station and one placed his hand on my shoulder and said, "Mr Wignall, come inside, this is getting out of hand."

Inside the safety of the police station, I began to engage in conversations with young and not-so-young policemen dressed in full battle gear. I was amazed at the intelligence of the younger men and I openly expressed it. We spoke of politics, the terrors of patrolling inner-city, garrison enclaves, philosophy, journalism and I was absolutely blown away by the calibre of these young men.

Most of those in the old order could not even articulate coffee out of a cup and on that day in 2005, I saw a glimpse of what the JCF could become, with effective leadership.

Ellington seems to me to be the perfect mix of old-school understanding and policing in the 21st century. He commands the respect of a wide cross section of rank and file in the JCF and he speaks well. One gets the sense that he recognises that "kick-dung, box-dung" policing is long dead, but I have reservations about the way many in the JCF are opening their arms to him.

One, it is obvious that Lewin as an outsider and, worse, a soldier bent on cleaning up the JCF would have detractors in an age where it is difficult to determine where actual work stops and corrupt hustling begins.
Second, policemen like to know that their leaders understand them, started at where they are now and can best represent their interests.

But Mr Ellington, by statements he has made in the past, seems not to believe that the police are into the use of excessive force when reality paints a different picture.

I have been inside Tivoli Gardens during times of war in 1996, 1997 and 2001; in Denham Town in 1999 with Seaga when certain forces from Rema were firebombing houses in Denham Town; and I have also been inside Rema in 1996 and 1997 during times of war. As journalists from TVJ and CVM will tell you, it is not something for the squeamish.

One thing stood out for me during those times. Apart for the great thickness of fear, once the police entered a street or turned a bend, little boys would immediately scamper away and run indoors. I have seen girls do this too. In my naivety, I once shouted to a few of them, "Dont run!" but as they ran off anyway, one shouted back to me as I stood in the middle of a vast wasteland of burning debris and two dead bodies 30 metres away, "If wi nuh run dem a go shoot wi!"

In a JCF that is overrun with trigger-happy cops, as well as cops who run extortion rackets with bosses of the street and big traders in illicit drugs, I am very uncomfortable with how comfortable they are with Ellington.
Don't get me wrong now. I have no evidence that Ellington is in any way mixed up in activities of that sort. But one senses that in any future effort of his to be the top man in the JCF, peace and calm in the force will be at the top of his agenda, to the detriment of other pressing matters.

Solving crime in Jamaica is directly linked to solving crime inside the JCF. The British imports have brought a level of trust that did not exist in the many years when the political directorate of former PNP and JLP administrations (1970s, 1980, part of 1990s) wielded too much influence in the commissioner's office.

If what the JCF wants is peace in the force, then it appears it is well on the way to getting that. What we the people want is peace in our lives. For now, that is not on the agenda.

Aggressive Christians and intolerant atheists
It is hazardous in a backward country to express one's views on religion, especially where one would dare describe some people as religiously gullible.

Two Sundays ago I wrote a piece where I touched on God and natural disasters. One man who called himself an evangelist wrote, "Atheists are evil people and so are their children." Then he preached to me.

Another wrote expressing his disappointment in me and asked me why I hated God and suggested that I should not pick a fight with Him. In all, the religionists came out in full force, and with me telling them that my only religion is to do as much good to others as is humanly possible, to them, if I was not on their side, I was on the wrong side.

Celta Kirkland writes a regular Christian column in the Observer. It serves a purpose because the majority of our people are religious. As much as I disagree with her, I am amazed at the unrelenting criticisms hurled at her by atheists who are practising the same type of intolerance that they accuse religionists of.

One writer in his feedback to her week after week constantly berates her and misses the point. Why is he preaching back at her and vilifying her? Express a point on religion, preach nothing and allow others to believe in whatever they wish to believe in.

I have chosen. Others have the right of that choice too.

**Don1** · November 8, 2009, 02:14 PM

Originally posted by X View Post

GOLDING NEEDS A WINNER
WIGNALL'S WORLD
Sunday, November 08, 2009

RICKEY SINGH
While former prime minister and present Opposition leader Portia Simpson Miller will have spent this weekend being the guest presenter at the annual Eric Williams Memorial Lecture Series where she would have 'lit up the stage', speaking on 'A New Vision for a New World Reality: Prospects for the Anglophone Caribbean', and smartly answering questions, the present prime minister, Bruce Golding, will have wondered if the Derick Latibeaudiere firing has yielded any positives for his struggling administration.
Three years ago, in the months leading up to the 2007 general election, the JLP opposition had all the answers to what ailed this country. Now that the PNP is seated in the Opposition benches, its leader now has a new vision for a new world reality, and every PNP spokesperson has every correct answer to every troubling question.
It's called party politics. While in government the PNP ran down the economy of this country during which people of the calibre of Mr Derick Latibeaudiere, former central bank boss, presided over an entity and enjoyed employment terms which made it appear that Jamaica was the 'Singapore of the Caribbean'. Between the PNP's disastrous 18 years and the two years of preteen fumbling of the JLP administration, the CIA Factbook on Jamaica in its overview paints a grim picture.
"The Jamaican economy is heavily dependent on services, which now account for more than 60 per cent of GDP. The country continues to derive most of its foreign exchange from tourism, remittances, and bauxite/alumina. Remittances account for nearly 20 per cent of GDP and are equivalent to tourism revenues.
Jamaica's economy, already saddled with the lowest economic growth in Latin America, will face increasing difficulties as the global economy slows. The economy faces serious long-term problems: a sizeable merchandise trade deficit, large-scale unemployment and underemployment, and a debt-to-GDP ratio of almost 130 per cent.
Jamaica's onerous debt burden - the fourth highest per capita - is the result of government bailouts to ailing sectors of the economy, most notably the financial sector in the mid to late 1990s. It hinders government spending on infrastructure and social programmes as debt servicing accounts for nearly half of government expenditures.
Inflation rose sharply in 2008 as a result of high prices for imported food and oil and should fall in 2009 with the decline in international oil prices. High unemployment exacerbates the serious crime problem, including gang violence that is fuelled by the drug trade. The Golding administration faces the difficult prospect of having to achieve fiscal discipline in order to maintain debt payments while simultaneously attacking a serious and growing crime problem that is hampering economic growth."

ELLINGTON... was appointed acting commissioner of police
We cannot, of course, pretend that we live in a mythical entity behind the looking glass. It is not exactly as if we the people are extremely educated, highly intelligent, supremely productive and constantly civil while our political leaders are the only bad guys on the block. Unfortunately, it is not that simple, either as fact or as explanation for our sorry state.
Going backward on solving crime
According to Prime Minister Golding, the former commissioner of police was never forced out.
Laughable in the least. In our constitutional arrangements the prime minister cannot fire a commissioner of police. But, of course, nothing stops the prime minister from expressing certain negative sentiments to him and knowing that he came from the army and is a rear admiral, his culture of being an officer and a gentleman would make him step towards the door and do the honourable thing.
Hindsight, of course, presents us with perfect vision. We ask: What is it that could have occupied the head of the chief among servants - if we are to go with the long-debunked political theory of the real role of the prime minister - that he could, within three days, dismiss the Central Bank head and witness the exit of the commissioner of police?
What were the hopes and political expectations behind these moves? Granted we knew that politicians, as powerful as they really are, are also very petty. When they get together to tickle each other's ears and engage in little orgies of back-patting - 'Yeah, we did it, we got rid of the SOBs' - we sometimes marvel at their actions and wonder if those actions and their private responses to them are not all that party politics really is.
We have accused Golding of inaction, and, being a male, he would still be smarting inside from Seaga's description of him in 1994/1995 as a vacillator, one who would take forever to make no decision.
Now that he has done something - fired the BOJ boss - many have pounced on the PM and are seeing raw politics and bad timing in his move. Latibeaudiere's terms of employment were not just sweet, but as one of the chief technocrats in this country, according to a JLP insider, "It would have been difficult for Latibeaudiere to separate the nexus of his abilities and Omar Davies' policy prescriptions in the 12-year period leading up to the 2007 elections from where we wanted to take it, given the pending IMF negotiations."
The recently departed Commissioner of Police Hardley Lewin never had a chance in the job. During a recent Nationwide programme, I told the host that corruption in the JCF runs dangerously close to the top. That, of course, is no great revelation. But once Lewin stepped inside the JCF and occupied the hot seat at Hot 103 - the head office at 103 Old Hope Road - his biggest enemies were walking on those very grounds.
Former JLP leader Eddie Seaga is one of the architects of what is described as 'garrison politics'. But to Seaga that has never been true. He will tell you that the only thing he created was giving hope to poor people who were considered the despised of the land. In 2005 when Lewin called Seaga's creation, Tivoli Gardens, "the mother of all garrisons", the army man was quite correct.
In a recent Nationwide programme, Seaga was crying no tears for Lewin's exit as he criticised Lewin's descriptions as tarnishing an entire community, Tivoli Gardens. That there has been always major dissonance between his adoration of TG and the wider population's view of the community is lost on Seaga, but at this late stage of his life, he knows more about it than we do, and he will never change.
What cannot be denied is that Tivoli Gardens, as armed as it is like dozens of garrison pockets in the Kingston metropolitan area, Spanish Town and sections of St James, is the most organised in its armed response to state-sponsored incursions plus - and this is what Seaga misses big time - its citizens seem to be organised around the understanding that the community is hated by outsiders and greatly feared by the PNP. For these reasons, a cohesion of thought and action exists between Tivoli Gardens' soldiers and its citizens, and it is my belief that that is why Lewin gave it that description.
Ellington seems tipped to become commissioner
In 2005 when Tivoli Gardens gunman "Zion Train" was cut down by police bullets, there was a demonstration outside the Denham Town Police Station.
I went there, like a fool, and as I was being invited inside, some of the TG and Denham Town residents began to poke me in the back, and as I turned around, others would slap me, playfully I believe, on the top of my head. (The week before I was on a TV programme with Cliff Hughes criticising the new leader of the Opposition, Bruce Golding, for either some stance he had taken or something he had said.) One young man in the crowd stared menacingly at me and as I pleaded with my detractors as things began to get out of hand - "Look how mi back unno inna 1996, 1997 and 2001. yu figet dat?" - he said simply, "Yu tink seh me neva si yuh pon TV a dis di leada? Yu fi dead, bwoy!"
Two policemen came off the steps of the police station and one placed his hand on my shoulder and said, "Mr Wignall, come inside, this is getting out of hand."
Inside the safety of the police station, I began to engage in conversations with young and not-so-young policemen dressed in full battle gear. I was amazed at the intelligence of the younger men and I openly expressed it. We spoke of politics, the terrors of patrolling inner-city, garrison enclaves, philosophy, journalism and I was absolutely blown away by the calibre of these young men.
Most of those in the old order could not even articulate coffee out of a cup and on that day in 2005, I saw a glimpse of what the JCF could become, with effective leadership.
Ellington seems to me to be the perfect mix of old-school understanding and policing in the 21st century. He commands the respect of a wide cross section of rank and file in the JCF and he speaks well. One gets the sense that he recognises that "kick-dung, box-dung" policing is long dead, but I have reservations about the way many in the JCF are opening their arms to him.
One, it is obvious that Lewin as an outsider and, worse, a soldier bent on cleaning up the JCF would have detractors in an age where it is difficult to determine where actual work stops and corrupt hustling begins.
Second, policemen like to know that their leaders understand them, started at where they are now and can best represent their interests. But Mr Ellington, by statements he has made in the past, seems not to believe that the police are into the use of excessive force when reality paints a different picture.
I have been inside Tivoli Gardens during times of war in 1996, 1997 and 2001; in Denham Town in 1999 with Seaga when certain forces from Rema were firebombing houses in Denham Town; and I have also been inside Rema in 1996 and 1997 during times of war. As journalists from TVJ and CVM will tell you, it is not something for the squeamish.
One thing stood out for me during those times. Apart for the great thickness of fear, once the police entered a street or turned a bend, little boys would immediately scamper away and run indoors. I have seen girls do this too. In my naivety, I once shouted to a few of them, "Dont run!" but as they ran off anyway, one shouted back to me as I stood in the middle of a vast wasteland of burning debris and two dead bodies 30 metres away, "If wi nuh run dem a go shoot wi!"
In a JCF that is overrun with trigger-happy cops, as well as cops who run extortion rackets with bosses of the street and big traders in illicit drugs, I am very uncomfortable with how comfortable they are with Ellington.
Don't get me wrong now. I have no evidence that Ellington is in any way mixed up in activities of that sort. But one senses that in any future effort of his to be the top man in the JCF, peace and calm in the force will be at the top of his agenda, to the detriment of other pressing matters.
Solving crime in Jamaica is directly linked to solving crime inside the JCF. The British imports have brought a level of trust that did not exist in the many years when the political directorate of former PNP and JLP administrations (1970s, 1980, part of 1990s) wielded too much influence in the commissioner's office.
If what the JCF wants is peace in the force, then it appears it is well on the way to getting that. What we the people want is peace in our lives. For now, that is not on the agenda.
Aggressive Christians and intolerant atheists
It is hazardous in a backward country to express one's views on religion, especially where one would dare describe some people as religiously gullible.
Two Sundays ago I wrote a piece where I touched on God and natural disasters. One man who called himself an evangelist wrote, "Atheists are evil people and so are their children." Then he preached to me.
Another wrote expressing his disappointment in me and asked me why I hated God and suggested that I should not pick a fight with Him. In all, the religionists came out in full force, and with me telling them that my only religion is to do as much good to others as is humanly possible, to them, if I was not on their side, I was on the wrong side.
Celta Kirkland writes a regular Christian column in the Observer. It serves a purpose because the majority of our people are religious. As much as I disagree with her, I am amazed at the unrelenting criticisms hurled at her by atheists who are practising the same type of intolerance that they accuse religionists of.
One writer in his feedback to her week after week constantly berates her and misses the point. Why is he preaching back at her and vilifying her? Express a point on religion, preach nothing and allow others to believe in whatever they wish to believe in.
I have chosen. Others have the right of that choice too.

Good article!! Accurate description of the Jamaican reality.

Now...what's the solution??

**Sir X** · November 8, 2009, 02:20 PM

Bum Dem Out !

**Don1** · November 8, 2009, 02:29 PM

Originally posted by X View Post

Bum Dem Out !

That's the plan??

**Karl** · November 8, 2009, 09:52 PM

Originally posted by X View Post

Fix the BOJ!
Published: Sunday | November 8, 2009

Harris
PROFESSOR EMERITUS at Stanford University in the United States, Donald J. Harris, has added his voice to those calling for the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) to be duly constituted as an independent central bank.

The recent dismissal of long-standing central bank governor Derick Latibeaudiere has rekindled the debate on the structure of the BOJ, with many persons suggesting that it should be independent with the role of governor separated from the chairman of the board.

But Harris says the operation of the central bank must be adjusted if it wants the respect that it deserves.

standing guard

"If the BOJ is to be legitimately considered an autonomous and independent central bank, then it must be made to justify and validate that status by standing guard against the fiscal imprudence of the Ministry of Finance, instead of aiding and abetting it by allowing it easy and uncontrolled access to the many monetary instruments," Harris said.

"Furthermore, the BOJ must itself exhibit fiscal prudence, technical competence and professionalism in the internal management of its own affairs, in as much as it must also seek to strengthen regulatory control over private financial institutions under its purview," added Harris in an exposé on Jamaica's failed policies over the years and suggestions for change.

Basic salaries paid to central bankers around the world.

Ben Bernanke US$191,300 (in 2008) - J$17,073,525

Jean-Claude Trichet €$446,806 - J$59,241,918

Mervyn King £290,000 (in 2008) - J$42,834,502

Jean-Pierre Roth CHF$817,700 (in 2008) - J$70,597,766

Mark Carney CAD$350,000 (in 2008) - J$30,723,496

Glenn Stevens AUD200,000 in 2008) - J$16,217,082

Alan Bollard NZD540,000 (in 2007) - J$34,746,667

Derick Latibeaudiere - $14,545,000

Conversion facilitated by FXConverter, Friday, November 6, 2009

See lead 11 for the full text of Harris' presentation.

Those figures...?

RBSC

Announcement

Restructure BOJ - Wehby proposes new central bank model -

Restructure BOJ - Wehby proposes new central bank model -

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