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Ken Chaplin
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Ken Chaplin
The cost of the Cricket World Cup to Jamaica was too high a sacrifice for the people to make against the background of the serious social and infrastructure inadequacies and a struggling economy. In plain language, the country could not afford the event, and may end up getting nothing.
The secondary, parochial and farm roads have been allowed to deteriorate over the 17-plus years the PNP government has been in office because of lack of maintenance or simply poor maintenance. One citizen told talk-show host Wilmot Perkins last week "that even donkeys refuse to walk on some of the bad roads". But she should have realised that in Jamaica today "road nuh level" when it comes to providing money for public facilities. The public health sector is a shambles and the poor cannot afford private treatment because the cost is astronomical - more than $200, 000 to have an appendix removed, for example. The education system is backward. There is no piped water in most rural communities and people have to carry water in buckets on their heads for miles. The justice system is all clogged up and militates against the poor. It takes four to five years before some cases are tried.
With the awesome income-tax level, there should have been better roads and water supplies. In the Stony Hill area, where I live and pay a high property tax, we have had no piped or trucked water for the past 10 weeks. The situation has not improved since about five years ago when my neighbour, a diplomat from Europe and I had to join the line at a standpipe, installed for the poor from a nearby community, to get a little water. (Logon to Progress!!!!)
When I was working with the government 25 per cent income tax was deducted from my salary. I made sacrifices and saved for my old age from the rest of my salary. Now after retirement a total of 25 per cent is being taken from the interest on my savings. Another 25 per cent is being extracted from my central government pension and National Insurance Scheme pension. In addition I have to pay GCT on almost everything I buy - tax on my motor car insurance and property tax. I say without fear of contradiction that the taxation system in Jamaica is the most wicked in the world. Yet people would not mind paying the crushing taxes if they were getting services and if there was less squandering and corruption in government.
There is a back-up of more than 3,500 cases awaiting trial in coroner's inquests, the largest ever in the history of Jamaica. Trial of some criminal and civil cases takes up to four years. There is no money to employ more judges. There is a need to provide the police with more vehicles and equipment to fight crime. The crime rate is so high that it has traumatised a large number of people, and government refuses to provide the police with more vehicles and equipment and pay them a decent salary. Untreated sewage is entering the sea in the eastern section of the city, and people living on gully banks in the city and elsewhere pass bodily waste in scandal bags and toss these into gullies, creating the condition for an outbreak of typhoid.
More than five years ago this column supported Portia Simpson Miller's plea for the poor. Building a few latrines, as a start, on gully-bank communities, including those in her own constituency, should have been a priority for her. She has been in office as prime minister for more than a year, but nothing has been done in this respect. The poverty alleviation programme needs money for expansion, and the poor are suffering untold deprivation. Government needs money to support the social intervention programmes in inner cities to stem the tide of young men falling into crime.
The inevitable question is: How could a government facing all these critical needs spend nearly $9 billion on Cricket World Cup? Minister Bobby Pickersgill, using cricket language, said that government would get a bounce from the event, but clearly the government is batting on the sticky wicket it prepared. Having played cricket for 50 years and written about the game at all levels for 15 years, I have a passion for cricket. But I believe that $9 billion was too much money to spend on the event, considering the lack of money to do some of the critical things listed above. I would have no objection if say $4 billion had been spent on the event.
There was no need to build a $2-billion stadium in rural Trelawny mainly for the CWC opening ceremony when we have better facilities at the national stadium. The ceremony was spectacular and those who executed it must be congratulated. Practice matches in Jamaica which were held at the Trelawny stadium could have been held at several clubs in Jamaica. More than $2 billion was spent on the elaborate development of Sabina Park. This development should have been carried out in stages over a number of years. The expected returns in revenue were exaggerated, and government spokesmen who said CWC would set the stage to wipe out poverty in the years to come were delusional.
The attendance in all the nine Caribbean countries fell below expectations. The governments were relying on gate receipts to at least cover a substantial part of the country's financial input in the event. This was a grave miscalculation, because the price of the tickets which ranged from US$15 to US$100 per match was far too high. When the cricket authorities decided to reduce the price it was too late. In addition, there were too many restrictions at grounds which cramped the spirit of the game as we know it in the Caribbean.
The contract between the International Cricket Council and the West Indies Cricket Board of Control was in some instances widely favoured. The ICC and the Board could only be the losers. In the end the ICC creamed off the profits, leaving the local organisers looking like fools. But having signed the contract, the local organisers cannot now say that they were not treated fairly. The most they can do is to go on their knees and ask the ICC to give them a share of the profits, mainly from the US$500,000 for broadcasting rights. The numerous visitors who were expected did not materialise, nor did the benefits Jamaican businessmen, large and small, were expecting. It is not unfair to say that the CWC was a fiasco, especially when the poor performance of the WI team is added to the mix. One should not blame PJ Patterson who along with other Caricom leaders initiated the WI hosting the event, but rather the organisers who agreed to the arrangement.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Ken ChaplinThe cost of the Cricket World Cup to Jamaica was too high a sacrifice for the people to make against the background of the serious social and infrastructure inadequacies and a struggling economy. In plain language, the country could not afford the event, and may end up getting nothing.
The secondary, parochial and farm roads have been allowed to deteriorate over the 17-plus years the PNP government has been in office because of lack of maintenance or simply poor maintenance. One citizen told talk-show host Wilmot Perkins last week "that even donkeys refuse to walk on some of the bad roads". But she should have realised that in Jamaica today "road nuh level" when it comes to providing money for public facilities. The public health sector is a shambles and the poor cannot afford private treatment because the cost is astronomical - more than $200, 000 to have an appendix removed, for example. The education system is backward. There is no piped water in most rural communities and people have to carry water in buckets on their heads for miles. The justice system is all clogged up and militates against the poor. It takes four to five years before some cases are tried.
With the awesome income-tax level, there should have been better roads and water supplies. In the Stony Hill area, where I live and pay a high property tax, we have had no piped or trucked water for the past 10 weeks. The situation has not improved since about five years ago when my neighbour, a diplomat from Europe and I had to join the line at a standpipe, installed for the poor from a nearby community, to get a little water. (Logon to Progress!!!!)
When I was working with the government 25 per cent income tax was deducted from my salary. I made sacrifices and saved for my old age from the rest of my salary. Now after retirement a total of 25 per cent is being taken from the interest on my savings. Another 25 per cent is being extracted from my central government pension and National Insurance Scheme pension. In addition I have to pay GCT on almost everything I buy - tax on my motor car insurance and property tax. I say without fear of contradiction that the taxation system in Jamaica is the most wicked in the world. Yet people would not mind paying the crushing taxes if they were getting services and if there was less squandering and corruption in government.
There is a back-up of more than 3,500 cases awaiting trial in coroner's inquests, the largest ever in the history of Jamaica. Trial of some criminal and civil cases takes up to four years. There is no money to employ more judges. There is a need to provide the police with more vehicles and equipment to fight crime. The crime rate is so high that it has traumatised a large number of people, and government refuses to provide the police with more vehicles and equipment and pay them a decent salary. Untreated sewage is entering the sea in the eastern section of the city, and people living on gully banks in the city and elsewhere pass bodily waste in scandal bags and toss these into gullies, creating the condition for an outbreak of typhoid.
More than five years ago this column supported Portia Simpson Miller's plea for the poor. Building a few latrines, as a start, on gully-bank communities, including those in her own constituency, should have been a priority for her. She has been in office as prime minister for more than a year, but nothing has been done in this respect. The poverty alleviation programme needs money for expansion, and the poor are suffering untold deprivation. Government needs money to support the social intervention programmes in inner cities to stem the tide of young men falling into crime.
The inevitable question is: How could a government facing all these critical needs spend nearly $9 billion on Cricket World Cup? Minister Bobby Pickersgill, using cricket language, said that government would get a bounce from the event, but clearly the government is batting on the sticky wicket it prepared. Having played cricket for 50 years and written about the game at all levels for 15 years, I have a passion for cricket. But I believe that $9 billion was too much money to spend on the event, considering the lack of money to do some of the critical things listed above. I would have no objection if say $4 billion had been spent on the event.
There was no need to build a $2-billion stadium in rural Trelawny mainly for the CWC opening ceremony when we have better facilities at the national stadium. The ceremony was spectacular and those who executed it must be congratulated. Practice matches in Jamaica which were held at the Trelawny stadium could have been held at several clubs in Jamaica. More than $2 billion was spent on the elaborate development of Sabina Park. This development should have been carried out in stages over a number of years. The expected returns in revenue were exaggerated, and government spokesmen who said CWC would set the stage to wipe out poverty in the years to come were delusional.
The attendance in all the nine Caribbean countries fell below expectations. The governments were relying on gate receipts to at least cover a substantial part of the country's financial input in the event. This was a grave miscalculation, because the price of the tickets which ranged from US$15 to US$100 per match was far too high. When the cricket authorities decided to reduce the price it was too late. In addition, there were too many restrictions at grounds which cramped the spirit of the game as we know it in the Caribbean.
The contract between the International Cricket Council and the West Indies Cricket Board of Control was in some instances widely favoured. The ICC and the Board could only be the losers. In the end the ICC creamed off the profits, leaving the local organisers looking like fools. But having signed the contract, the local organisers cannot now say that they were not treated fairly. The most they can do is to go on their knees and ask the ICC to give them a share of the profits, mainly from the US$500,000 for broadcasting rights. The numerous visitors who were expected did not materialise, nor did the benefits Jamaican businessmen, large and small, were expecting. It is not unfair to say that the CWC was a fiasco, especially when the poor performance of the WI team is added to the mix. One should not blame PJ Patterson who along with other Caricom leaders initiated the WI hosting the event, but rather the organisers who agreed to the arrangement.