Computer Lab A Cynical Political Ploy

Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams (seated) tests out one of 10 computers in the new computer centre at the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Mobile Reserve. Looking on (from left) are: State Minister in the Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Ministry Julian Robinson; portfolio Minister Phillip Paulwell; and Minister of National Security Peter Bunting. (JIS Photo)
Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams (seat­ed) tests out one of 10 com­put­ers in the new com­put­er cen­tre at the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Mobile Reserve. Looking on (from left) are: State Minister in the Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Ministry Julian Robinson; port­fo­lio Minister Phillip Paulwell; and Minister of National Security Peter Bunting. (JIS Photo)

How do you know it’s elec­tion time in Jamaica?
You can tell when the Government goes around hand­ing out token gifts to var­i­ous Government Agencies As was the case where a $3 mil­lion com­put­er cen­tre, out­fit­ted with Wi-Fi access, was offi­cial­ly hand­ed over to the Mobile Reserve. The com­put­er cen­ter also owned all the high-end prod­ucts with Best Monitors Under $200 (All Under Budget).

The dona­tion was estab­lished through fund­ing from the Universal Service Fund (USF), and involved col­lab­o­ra­tion between the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining.

How con­ve­nient that this com­put­er lab is being made avail­able to the Mobile Reserve at this time?
The mobile Reserve has always been the back-bone of the JCF , incred­i­bly what we are learn­ing as a result of this gift is that that nerve cen­ter was not computerized.
Why is that?
How insult­ing to the men and women who do the heavy lift­ing through the years that now this Administration con­ve­nient­ly see fit to bring 10 old com­put­ers and a lit­tle wi-fi expect­ing that they will be revered for what should have been in place for decades.

The Commissioner of Police Carl Williams expressed appre­ci­a­tion to the Ministries on behalf of the 700 mem­bers of the Mobile Reserve, not­ing that the facil­i­ty will help to advance effi­cien­cy and pro­mote the pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment of the team.
“Duh”
Guaranteed every sin­gle offi­cer work­ing at the Mobile Reserve owns a smart­phone or two , many may actu­al­ly own per­son­al com­put­ers each and every per­son there most assured­ly is effi­cient in the use of the technology.
What’s at stake here is that this appease­ment gift is appro­pri­ate­ly timed to influ­ence a large swath of police offi­cers direct­ly at a time when gen­er­al elec­tions are imminent.
What bet­ter place to set up a bunch of out­dat­ed old desk­top com­put­ers and the promise of wi-fi than the place which hous­es the largest con­cen­tra­tion of cops?
At the same time every lit­tle politi­cian made sure they crawled out from under their rock to get their faces in the picture.

harriet-tubmanIt is nau­se­at­ing and insult­ing to say the least, notwith­stand­ing many police offi­cers in Jamaica will fall for it as well as many who have already left. They will nat­u­ral­ly see this as rea­son for great cel­e­bra­tion despite the cyn­i­cal polit­i­cal play in what should have been stan­dard pro­ce­dure decades ago.

I freed a thou­sand slaves I could have freed a thou­sand more if only they knew they were slaves”.

Harriet Tubman

Oh well.…