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'Poorsha' gone, 'Bruised' time now
published: Sunday | September 9, 2007
Orville Taylor
Well, 33 to 27 and Bruce Golding is going to be inaugurated seven days after the results are final.
Not quite the seven that seers had predicted, and it seems that the association between the anointed one and the reverend was 'un-prophetable'. Indeed, swimmers and divers among us know that the best way to flip flop is to have 'Phinns'. Furthermore, when at sea and there is too much green, it is difficult to stay afloat.
The pollsters predicted it and the People's National Party (PNP) supporters find it incredible, they will now believe it when they read it in the papers. This was not an election that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won. It was the PNP's loss.
Although I had no stake in the outcome given the shortcomings of both parties, I feel it for the poor underclass who honestly believed that Portia Simpson Miller was their Moses, who had come to lead them to the Promised Land. So much hope and faith was placed in her that her losing is almost a betrayal of that trust.
Try as you may, not even the die-hard grass-roots 'Portiapologists' felt that she was the best choice for Prime Minister from among the three real contenders. However, all, including K.D. Knight, who boxed himself into a corner, knew that she was the best person to beat a rising Bruce. Portia's job, for her supporters and party, was to win an election. It was not about womanness, petty squabbles or personal self-glorification. Her task was to unite the party and secure the fifth term.
This meant that she should have appointed Peter Phillips, her main opponent, as deputy Prime Minister and, therefore, healed the wounds. With the euphoria surrounding her, she should have quickly sought to get her own mandate. True, she had the 'man', but she waited too long to set the 'date'. Like P.J. Patterson's silly and almost childish delays in announcing his date of retirement, she tarried too long.
Such a period allowed the honeymoon to dissipate and her flaws, including her intemperate nature, began to show. Therefore, when she finally 'flew the gate', the horse simply ran to greener pastures.
party not united
Again, there are those who continue to make excuses for her judgement. Some declare that the party was not united during the first year. Then if that is so, it means that she was the wrong person, because a leader must have the capacity to cohere his/her colleagues. To his credit, the ever-calm unflappable P.J. did so after 1993, and Bruce has done what Edward Seaga failed to do during his twilight years at the helm of the JLP.
Portia's downfall was simply 'hard ears'. Remember! In Exodus, Moses was punished by God for disobedience and stubbornness in striking the rock rather than talking to it. He saw but could not enter the Promised Land.
Portia's demise follows the trend of leaders in this hemisphere, who lost touch with the electorate. In fact, it has been an opposition period.
In December 2006, despite a landslide predicted by Bill Johnson - yeah, the same one - the ruling St. Lucia Labour Party was booted by a margin of 11 to six seats.
Similarly, absorbed in his own demagoguery, George W. Bush constantly declared that he was staying the course. Unfortunately for him, the fabled 'American people' switched and gave control of both Houses of Congress to the Democratic Party.
the future
Perry Christie, Prime Minister of The Bahamas, also failed to read the signs and was sent packing in May this year in a close election with his Progressive Liberal Party winning 18 seats to the victorious Free Nationalist Movement's 23.
I don't know what her future holds, but civil servants retire at 60 and though still sharp and young, she is 62. Nonetheless, Golding is a mere two years younger, but he is the Prime Minister-designate. It is his turn now.
This is where his rhetoric and big speeches end. 'Puppa Bruce' fought for it. Now let's see what he is going to do. Having watched the lame $2.50 ads last year, it became clear that the JLP was then so broke that poor Donald Sangster on the $100 bills must have been very lonely in its coffers.
However, when summer of 2007 came, the commercials were better and more expensive. This made me wonder where the money was coming from and more so, why did anti-Trafigura Bruce, who was so strident in arguing for transparency in campaigning financing, change course later? Are there any big money 'debts' that the party is expected to repay in kind?
pro-worker
In particular, are there any employers with unfair labour practices tugging the purse strings? After all, Dwight Nelson has suggested that the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) might leave the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions over statements made by the National Workers' Union's PNP's Danny Roberts.
Roberts criticised Bruce's reference to the South East Asian nations as models of economic development. The criticism is justified because all of those countries have awful labour practices and oppress trade unions. Many of our Jamaican employers share the same economic ideology as the Asian nations and oppose the redundancy payment laws and have marginalised workers by disguising them as contractors.
Will Bruce break the JLP tradition and finally be a pro-worker government? In the 1960s, hardly anything was done to improve workers' rights and, in the 1980s, the unions and workers took a beating. Most noteworthy is that the BITU helped in weakening the labour movement by capitulating during the national strike in 1985.
Anyway, congratulations Bruce! Do well, but we are watching you!
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
published: Sunday | September 9, 2007
Orville Taylor
Well, 33 to 27 and Bruce Golding is going to be inaugurated seven days after the results are final.
Not quite the seven that seers had predicted, and it seems that the association between the anointed one and the reverend was 'un-prophetable'. Indeed, swimmers and divers among us know that the best way to flip flop is to have 'Phinns'. Furthermore, when at sea and there is too much green, it is difficult to stay afloat.
The pollsters predicted it and the People's National Party (PNP) supporters find it incredible, they will now believe it when they read it in the papers. This was not an election that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won. It was the PNP's loss.
Although I had no stake in the outcome given the shortcomings of both parties, I feel it for the poor underclass who honestly believed that Portia Simpson Miller was their Moses, who had come to lead them to the Promised Land. So much hope and faith was placed in her that her losing is almost a betrayal of that trust.
Try as you may, not even the die-hard grass-roots 'Portiapologists' felt that she was the best choice for Prime Minister from among the three real contenders. However, all, including K.D. Knight, who boxed himself into a corner, knew that she was the best person to beat a rising Bruce. Portia's job, for her supporters and party, was to win an election. It was not about womanness, petty squabbles or personal self-glorification. Her task was to unite the party and secure the fifth term.
This meant that she should have appointed Peter Phillips, her main opponent, as deputy Prime Minister and, therefore, healed the wounds. With the euphoria surrounding her, she should have quickly sought to get her own mandate. True, she had the 'man', but she waited too long to set the 'date'. Like P.J. Patterson's silly and almost childish delays in announcing his date of retirement, she tarried too long.
Such a period allowed the honeymoon to dissipate and her flaws, including her intemperate nature, began to show. Therefore, when she finally 'flew the gate', the horse simply ran to greener pastures.
party not united
Again, there are those who continue to make excuses for her judgement. Some declare that the party was not united during the first year. Then if that is so, it means that she was the wrong person, because a leader must have the capacity to cohere his/her colleagues. To his credit, the ever-calm unflappable P.J. did so after 1993, and Bruce has done what Edward Seaga failed to do during his twilight years at the helm of the JLP.
Portia's downfall was simply 'hard ears'. Remember! In Exodus, Moses was punished by God for disobedience and stubbornness in striking the rock rather than talking to it. He saw but could not enter the Promised Land.
Portia's demise follows the trend of leaders in this hemisphere, who lost touch with the electorate. In fact, it has been an opposition period.
In December 2006, despite a landslide predicted by Bill Johnson - yeah, the same one - the ruling St. Lucia Labour Party was booted by a margin of 11 to six seats.
Similarly, absorbed in his own demagoguery, George W. Bush constantly declared that he was staying the course. Unfortunately for him, the fabled 'American people' switched and gave control of both Houses of Congress to the Democratic Party.
the future
Perry Christie, Prime Minister of The Bahamas, also failed to read the signs and was sent packing in May this year in a close election with his Progressive Liberal Party winning 18 seats to the victorious Free Nationalist Movement's 23.
I don't know what her future holds, but civil servants retire at 60 and though still sharp and young, she is 62. Nonetheless, Golding is a mere two years younger, but he is the Prime Minister-designate. It is his turn now.
This is where his rhetoric and big speeches end. 'Puppa Bruce' fought for it. Now let's see what he is going to do. Having watched the lame $2.50 ads last year, it became clear that the JLP was then so broke that poor Donald Sangster on the $100 bills must have been very lonely in its coffers.
However, when summer of 2007 came, the commercials were better and more expensive. This made me wonder where the money was coming from and more so, why did anti-Trafigura Bruce, who was so strident in arguing for transparency in campaigning financing, change course later? Are there any big money 'debts' that the party is expected to repay in kind?
pro-worker
In particular, are there any employers with unfair labour practices tugging the purse strings? After all, Dwight Nelson has suggested that the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) might leave the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions over statements made by the National Workers' Union's PNP's Danny Roberts.
Roberts criticised Bruce's reference to the South East Asian nations as models of economic development. The criticism is justified because all of those countries have awful labour practices and oppress trade unions. Many of our Jamaican employers share the same economic ideology as the Asian nations and oppose the redundancy payment laws and have marginalised workers by disguising them as contractors.
Will Bruce break the JLP tradition and finally be a pro-worker government? In the 1960s, hardly anything was done to improve workers' rights and, in the 1980s, the unions and workers took a beating. Most noteworthy is that the BITU helped in weakening the labour movement by capitulating during the national strike in 1985.
Anyway, congratulations Bruce! Do well, but we are watching you!
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.