Kingston, Jamaica – Citizens’ Action for Principles and Integrity (CAPI) is warning that a proposed oversight body for the Independent Commission of Investigation (INDECOM) will diminish the intended independence of the investigative body and may render its effectiveness.
The joint-select committee of Parliament examining the INDECOM Act proposed an oversight body for the investigative and prosecutorial body as its zealous prosecution of members of the security force is having a demoralising effect.
In a news release Friday, CAPI’s co-convenor Dennis Meadows argued that INDECOM as a commission of Parliament already has parliamentary oversight in addition to judicial scrutiny. He added that, INDECOM’s finances and operations are overseen by the Auditor General and the Office of the Contractor General.
“The genesis of INDECOM was out of an urgent need for an independent body to investigate the misconduct of police and other agents of the State”, Meadows insisted.
“CAPI rejects any effort on the part of the joint-select committee and the minister of national security to diminish the independence of INDECOM in [fulfilling] its intended mandate under the Act.
The parents of Rachel Dolezal spoke to HuffPost Live on Friday after revealing to the media that their daughter, the president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, had been disguising herself as African American for years.
Larry and Ruthanne Dolezal told hosts Marc Lamont Hill and Nancy Redd that their daughter has a history of “seeking to reinvent reality,” according to her mother. She had “expectations of herself that were not realistic, and also just a negative sort of view of people and family –- that sort of thing was also concerning,” Ruthanne added.
The couple told HuffPost Live their daughter “had a happy childhood, grew up in a loving home” alongside four adopted African American siblings. The two claim that Rachel’s siblings “were warned not to let it out — not to blow her cover” by Rachel herself.
“They’re puzzled, but [her siblings] told us that they are basically feeling that she’s basically been outed,” her father said.
“The children did not enjoy having to be secretive about Rachel’s real identity,” her mom added.
The Dolezals view their daughter’s dishonesty about her identity as a way of disowning them as parents, which “is the painful part of this,” they said.
“We’re very fond of our African American friends. We’ve always enjoyed ethnicity and diversity and had friends, and Rachel grew up that way. Adopting the four children was an extension of that as well. [Rachel’s] identification with African Americans is not hurtful to us, but for her to reject us as parents, that is what hurts, and the dishonesty is very concerning,” her mother said.
Still, they have positive and loving memories of Rachel that are not reflected in the falsehoods about her identity. Ruthanne began to choke up as she recalled how, as a child, their daughter “was always caring about other people and spoke well of her family and wanted to be identified with us” — a departure from the Rachel they see now.
“We recognize her, obviously, but this isn’t the Rachel that we know,” Larry affirmed. “It hurts us deeply, and we’re quite saddened by that.”
Jamaica is a violent place, it is dangerous place to visit , it is a dangerous place to live.… Yea , yeah , I know there is crime everywhere , people kill people everyday in other countries. If that’s
your attitude , this Article is not for you . It is for sane people who do not conform to the worst common denominator. It is not for those who rationalize away whats wrong with us.
It is the right of people everywhere to live in peace and security. Free from the prospect of being gunned down unceremoniously for no good reason. It is not too much to ask that a group of Farmers engaging in a friendly game of dominoes at a rural shop enjoy the game and a drink without being gunned down needlessly. This simple past-time is an old and sacred pastime . A good game of dominoes shared between friends should not end in the death of any member of our community. It is not expecting too much when people sit in their backyards with a couple of friends after a hard day’s work and enjoy a cocktail without their home being invaded by armed thugs who then rob, rape, and kill them.
Women should be able to walk without being fondled , groped and raped by depraved thugs who have no respect for their right to say “no ‚and be secure in their persons’. Young boys and girls should never be denied their God given right to grow up without being exposed to sexual and other forms of abuse. While we are on the subject of abuse … Let me be clear with the Administration if office at this time. There is no justification in lowering the age of consent from 16 years of age to 14 years of age. A 14 year-old-child is incapable of fully understanding adult consequences to the adolescent urges she is
experiencing. Those urges should not be an invitation for sexual exploitation but a time for dialogue with her parents. This is a time when we should be exploring ways to deal appropriately with sexual offenders , not making it easier for them to legally exploit children.
If our nation could pull it’s collective head from it’s pretentious ass, we could begin to sort out some of the thorny issues facing our country today. One of the most serious issue affecting the quality of life in Jamaica is crime. Yet the vast majority of Jamaica’s pretentious wannabe Elites demoralized the Police Department for decades while hypocritically ignoring the destruction both political parties were bringing to our country by pitting Jamaicans against Jamaicans. Sometime around the late 60’s to early 70’s our country started seeing some criminal examples, they indicated what could become a serious problem if not nipped in the bud. The Prime Minister at the time Hugh Lawson Shearer (using what today is less that politically correct language) told criminals in no uncertain terms that there would be no support coming from his administration on their behalf.
The new militant crop of black intellectuals freshly minted out of the UWI were quick to use their new found education and status to create a counter culture. That counter culture , unfortunately for our country was one which did not encourage support for the rule of law. Many pounced on the PM’s comments which said in context that police would have free rein to go after criminals. Before long Shearer was out of the leadership role of the JLP replaced by Edward Seaga,the Architect of Tivoli Gardens the former Back-o-Wall. The rise of Michael Manley to power in 1972 was to be the beginning of a period of immense uncivil behavior unprecedented in our Island. Manley’s rise had a slew of linchpins chief among which was a new black consciousness which unfortunately did not believe in hard work for a fair days pay. Today our country registers one of the highest rate of violent crimes in the world to include murder, rapes, shootings, extortion and a general sense of lawlessness. This cannot be laid solely at the feet of politicians . Much of the responsibility should squarely be placed at the feet of the newly educated class, those who experienced education but did not understand the difference between policing in Jamaica as a third world nation and policing in the developed world.
Yes officers must do their jobs with the rights of citizens in mind. However it cannot be done when people are firing high powered weapons at them. The police first must pacify and remove the threat then employ community policing. You do not negotiate with criminals who play by no rules. The Faux bourgeoisie which largely was safely encapsulated from the horrors of crime, thanks to the sacrifice of police officers, never quite understood that a delicate balanced must be struck between hard policing and concerns for human rights. In many instances their protestations about human rights had nothing to do with actual or real concerns for the country’s poor and dispossessed but because they were actively engaged in criminal activities themselves.
Just today criminals shot and injured several people downtown Kingston, this is in addition to the over 3 Jamaicans who are killed each day. Jamaican criminals are operating on free range. They have precious little fear of the police and even less regard for the rule of law. Oh wait… Sorry, we do not have a country of laws we have a country where every fly-by-night who know somebody
who know somebody who know somebody is above the law. Jamaican police officers have certainly done more than enough to warrant serious oversight. INDECOM is not that oversight. Creating another police agency to police the police, which is in competition with the police but has no understanding of policing, is antithetical to solving the problem of improper police. behavior.
Our country is a small sliver of land 4,411 square miles. We have a population of 2.8 million people. Some very powerful people in and outside Government are benefiting immensely from crime and the wave of Gang activity which is fueling the country’s murder rate. If Jamaican Authorities were interested in controlling crime they would have upgraded, equipped, and modernized the police department. The oversight agency INDECOM was not created by the present administration but the Government has had every opportunity to bring the police departmet up to date. They failed because they do not want to succeed.
Opposition spokesperson on Tourism Shahine Robinson worries that Jamaica is under-performing when compared to other Caribbean destinations.
Robinson noted: “Jamaica’s five per cent growth for the first quarter of 2015 falls well below several of our regional competitors, including Cuba at 14.1 per cent; Dominican Republic 7.4 per cent; Aruba 19.7 per cent; Curaçao 10.3 per cent; and Barbados at 11.1 per cent.” These destinations, she said, registered those growth rates in roughly the same period as Jamaica.
Beautiful flowers in Montego Bay
This has been a strong concern by this medium for years, and we have consistently pointed to the need to improve the product. For years Jamaican Authorities has basically rested on their laurels, believing that brand Jamaica alone will bring hordes of visitors flocking to our shores. For decades after Cuba was blockaded by The United States , Jamaica enjoyed tremendous fruits from Tourism it really had not earned. During that time Destinations like the Bahamas , and US Virgin Islands continued to see massive returns from their Tourism product.
Neither of the two parties Administrations demonstrated the vision to massively transform the product. Like every other sector of the economy successive Administrations simply sucked resources from the sector without undertaking the serious upgrades to keep the product competitive. Meanwhile Cuba is back as a destination , just 90 miles off our coast. Despite marginal increase in tourists visiting Jamaica, the financial benefit to our people became consistently less and less. Not only have they neglected to adequately improve Jamaica as a realistic Tourism destination the
beautiful Dunns River Falls
Country has consistently lost ground due to a seriess of issues. As such even though there may be more people coming to our shores, the actual dollar count derived is not what it ought to be. ♦ Crime. ♦ Harassment. These two issues in particular has caused tourists to be compressed into all inclusive resorts which are owned by large corporations and foreign interests. This has literally shut out small villas and guest houses, concentrating monies derived from the industry into fewer and fewer hands. Small restaurants , cafes, novelty stores, and craft shops can no longer depend on tourists to support their businesses. Most of their purchases are now done at in-bond stores.
Cruise ship docked in Jamaica
Some of the prime venues in Montego Bay, Ochio Rios and Port Antonio are no longer operational. Additionally the Nation’s second City of Montego Bay, the former epic center of Caribbean tourism, is now a shell of it’s former glory. UN-planned , illegal settlements have sprung up all around the city, bringing massive crime and other social ills to the once pristine yet rustic western city. Despite Jamaica’s inability to develop a forward-leaning tourism product, tourists continue to flock to Jamaica. The numbers though nothing to scoff at, are not what they could be had authorities created a less myopic approach. Revenue derived from Tourism could be more equitably dispersed creating a better standard of living for locals. Jamaica’s tourism has survived despite neglect from the authorities. Whether this will continue remains to be seen. Though not a betting man , I am willing to wager that with Cuba now open for tourism, there will be a massive explosion of tourists to that Island. That will potentially pose serious challenges to Jamaica’s ability to maintain it’s current level of arrivals , much less increase them. Time will tell.
JAMAICA is run by two political parties, The Jamaica Labor Party(JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP). Between the two Parties, Jamaica has devolved into a series of balkanized criminal/political enclaves, in some instances impregnable to the rule of law.
At present Jamaican tax-payers are presently on the hook to the tune of 350 million dollars. Money being spent on the Tivoli Gardens Inquiry which will tell us what we already know. That Tivoli Gardens , like Arnett Gardens, Wilton Gardens, Nanny-ville, Dunkirk, Riverton, and the plethora of other zones of political exclusions were made to germinate and grow because both Political parties wanted it so.
At least I hope that is what will come out of the fishing expedition presently gobbling up scarce resources which could be better spent alleviating the country’s dire poverty and crime problem.
The narrative Jamaica’s bourgeoisie’ used during the 80’s to early 90’s when I served in the police department, was that the police were merely big ignorant men capable of wielding batons. As we got closer to the early 90’s, the narrative shifted slightly because of the lethal way some cops dealt with the country’s violent criminals.
The new narrative was that cops were merely “illiterates” whose only claim to fame was their ability to pull a trigger. The truth of the matter is that the true reason behind our nation’s burgeoning crime rate has been the refusal of successive Administrations to deal decisively with crime on the one hand, and on the other hand both political parties engaged in an arms-race of sorts to see which party could better arm it’s supporters. In the middle stood the ill-equipped, poorly trained, poorly paid, politically-neutered police force as the scapegoat.
The rise of the “Don culture” is a direct result of both political parties direct involvement in placing weapons into the hands of the country’s young impressionable youths. Of course the Police department has had more lackeys than any department should, but the problem Jamaica faces today were created by both political parties. The long list of murderous psychotic criminals Jamaicans celebrate as “Dons” ‚receive the adulation the rule of law deserves, unfortunately the political elites did not want it that way.
Today after the Tivoli invasion, an invasion necessary for annexation, there are reporting which indicate the Spanish Town PNP affiliate Clans-Man-Criminal Gang extract over 1.5 million Dollars per day in extortion fees from Businesses operating in the old capital. One reporting indicated National Security Minister Peter Bunting encouraged business operators to install surveillance cameras in their establishments.
Peter Bunting
Bunting promised that a police post would be re-opened at the bus park in July. It went on to add that it is estimated that based on the number of buses that use the park daily, all of the monies added up is an estimated $1.5 mil. Authorities currently have a number of persons on a watch list, including six (6) wealthy, high-profile persons who are believed to be providing financial support for the extortionists.
That seem to be the extent of the nation’s security apparatus ability to combat what is clearly a serious problem. This problem will only get more dire the more cash-flush this criminal enterprise become. Why is the Police Department not using aggressive Intelligence gathering to eliminate once and for all this cancer of extortion? The police department now has a PhD at it’s helm. The bourgeoisie’ can no longer use “dunceness” to disparage the police, at least not the entire high command. Why then is there no cohesive effective intelligence ‑based strategy in the works, designed to eradicate the Clans-man Gang from our country?
Is there political pressure on the police to hands-off that criminal gang? Or is the police simply too stupid and inept to seriously tackle this scourge? Encouraging business owners to install cameras is not a 21st century strategy for this problem , it is an invitation for swift and sudden death. The Minister by his utterances have displayed a simplistic, almost childlike lack of understanding of what needs to be done to arrest this problem. Either that, or there is no desire to bring the activities of the Clans-man Gang to a halt
Baltimore Police officers arrest a man following the funeral of Freddie Gray near Mowdamin Mall
How about that? You kill my father then deride me for being fatherless !!! Such has been the strategy of Legislatures all across America in their continued march to marginalize and sideline African-American people.
African-Americans could have, and can do a better job of protecting themselves against the system but that is a different conversation than the one I want to have today. Systematically designing laws which targets Black Americans, then Militarizing Police departments and placing them in communities of color with strict codes of aggressive policing is only one way in which largely white legislatures have designed the system to solve their Black problem.
Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton is now forced to put distance between herself and the onerous crime bill her husband Bill Clinton a Democrat signed on the backs of poor blacks. The United States Supreme Court recently stripped away part of the voting Rights Act. The Argument the Court used in justifying it’s decision was that the law was no longer necessary because the South is not as Racist as it once was. In other words the court’s argument is that it struck down parts of the law because it worked too well. Of course, based on the rhetoric and legislative actions across the country , the new standard of Democracy from the political right is to keep from the polls the people who are likely to vote for the opposition.
The Goal of the white power structure was always to keep Blacks out of positions of power. This means black men in particular must be given a record as early as possible. The idea is to ensure that the most aggressive forms of policing are employed, irrespective of legality or constitutionality. Making sure young black men get a criminal record is married to laws which says if you have a criminal record you cannot become a Lawyer or a Judge. You cannot get a job in any sensitive area of Government. Oh and you cannot become a cop either. It is imperative that Blacks are kept off police departments if the plan is to work effectively. As if that was not enough, blacks coming out of the prison industrial complex have had their voting rights stripped away.
‘We have a significant population gap among African-American males because so many of them have spent time in jail and, as such, we can’t hire them,’ Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said in an interview.
If you ask any Legislator what is the reason for stripping voting rights away from people with criminal records ? They tell you simply , that they don’t deserve the right to vote. That was the answer Presidential wannabes like Mitt Romney and others gave when asked. Paying one’s debt to society is not enough as far as they are concerned. Those the system chooses to give a criminal record must also wear a scarlet letter for the remainder of their lives. That has always been America’s answer to it’s ongoing crusade to trample and suppress it’s black population.
So when William Bratton, New York City’s Police Commissioner stated recently that his department cannot hire blacks because too many have criminal records,Bratton was essentially laughing at the fatherless children he and others like him created after killing their fathers. Bratton claimed his comments were taken out of context in an interview he gave to British Publication, the Guardian. In the Interview Bratton said quote: “That’s well known. It’s an unfortunate fact that in the male black population, a very significant percentage of them, more so than whites or other minority candidates, because of convictions, prison records, are never going to be hired by a police department. That’s a reality. That’s not a byproduct of stop-and-frisk,”
NYPD cops surround Eric Garner moments before choking him to death. No cop was held responsible for mister Garner’s death.
Bratton has stridently made the case for New York City’s stop-and-frisk laws , dubbed broken-windows, arguing they are necessary to remove guns from the streets. As a former police officer I see benefits to police having that tool to stop and search someone whom they believe may have an illegal weapon. I also agree that when criminals know they will not be stopped and searched for illegal weapons, they are more likely to carry weapons and use them.
The problem is not that the laws are particularly bad. The problem rests with those empowered to enforce them. When cops uses those very laws to harass , intimidate, abuse and humiliate, the laws become a problem. Bratton like so many others, fail to see that the very medicine he has been giving the patient is killing him because he stubbornly fails to heed the side effects warnings in the disclaimer. As always, whenever I talk about police violence, I try to point out that the police are merely mirroring the intent behind the devious laws crafted and passed by bigots within state legislatures across the country. These laws are designed and passed in state and municipal legislatures, the fight to eradicate police aggression should begin there. Not in front of Police Headquarters.….
Whites and Blacks have separate drinking Fountains.…
The Institution of white Supremacy may be characterized as emanating from intellectual inferiority. It personifies a psychological weakness, intellectual inferiority and a morbid fear of losing if it competes on an even playing field. It’s practitioners though Bullies , demonstrate an infantile propensity to pick up the ball and go home because the others did not let them win. Such has been the attitude of Europeans who came to the Western World and declared they discovered it. Though they came and saw thriving cultures where black and Native people coexisted peacefully. They never quite got around to explaining how they discovered a place where people existed for hundreds of years before they figured out the world wasn’t flat.
Vestiges of the lie of white superiority still exist in the minds of many whites, in essence it really is fear, and the ability to compete fairly .
Unfortunately for people of color the hoax the criminal Christopher Columbus and his band of European Dregs perpetuated on Humanity was just the beginning of one of the most brutal, oppressive and murderous period in documented human history. They pillaged and raped Africa dividing up the continent among themselves. They slaughtered hundreds of millions of Africans, and took hundreds of millions more into slavery. Native Americans did not fare much better, entire tribes were slaughtered by the settlers as they pushed farther and farther taking all the land from the nether regions of North America to the Pacific Coast.
Killing and enslaving others was not enough, they needed to dominate the world , separating people based on skin color, based on the false narrative that whites are intellectually superior to other races. The truth, is the guys with gun powder decided they would control everyone else. Ironically the people who sought to place the rest of the World over a barrel at the point of a gun were not smart enough to invent gunpowder. The Chinese invented Gun-Powder in the 9th century, more than four centuries before the lying Columbus set sail for India and China and lost his way. Despite inventing Gun-powder which in my estimation was the key component of European aggression, the Chinese did not use it to dominate the rest of the world as the weak minded, uncultured Europeans did. It was depraved indifference and a callous lack of morality which caused the capture, transportation and enslavement of African people here in the western world. It is that same sub-human lack of conscientiousness which caused the devastation Europe wrought on Africa.
Texas cop assaulted 15 year old girl
Jim crow laws, and the perpetuation of racial stereotypes still alive and well in America Israel, Canada, Britain and all across Europe are stubborn vestiges of a people who decided the way to world domination is guaranteed through physical force and physiological warfare. The scourge of police aggression we are witnessing against people of color in America is not new. The number one issue of the time during During Dr. King’s lifetime was police treatment of Blacks. Over fifty years later the number one issue facing Black people in America is Police abuse.
Notwithstanding, it is important to recognize that police aggression on blacks and poor whites happens because the Monied Oligarchy wants it so. The so-called white middle-class given time will realize they too will be the next victims of the same aggression. Hopefully by then it will not be too late to do something about it.
Would he do this to a young white girl? certainly not.
White Supremacy as a policy is not sustainable for much longer. The residual embers of white privilege some cling to eventually will have serious consequences for the holders. Why does a cop feel it’s acceptable to toss around a 15-year-old girl, scantily dressed in bathing attire then kneeling in her back as if she was an animal to be subdued? Why did a cop feel comfortable enough to fire 8 bullets killing, a 50-year-old man running away with no place to go? What makes a cop use a banned choke-hold on a man killing him for selling un-taxed cigarettes? The tragedy for the victims of some of these assaults is that they continue to buy into the notion of peace without justice.
Texas Cop Eric Casebolt sits on teenage black girl
This behavior is reminiscent of blacks being bludgeoned by police because they dared to sit at lunch counters waiting to be served. It is the same mindset which caused black students to be beaten and spat upon for daring to want an education. Eric Casebolt obviously arrived on scene intent on showing the black kids they were not human , they did not belong there. Never mind that he had no idea who lived where. This is what Blacks complain about daily. Black and white person in conflict, black person call the police, cop arrives automatically defaults to the white person as the complainant. The Black person is automatically in the wrong in their minds. Many people have suggested that cops should at least have a bachelors degree going forward. Nonsense!! Many of their bosses who write the laws have PhD’s, yet they are the most ignorant. Eric Casebolt has since resigned. He most likely will never be charged for assaulting those young people. This will allow him to lay low for some time and soon another hick-town will hire him to police the streets, where he will once again continue to assault those he wants to bully.
During their second day of discussions in the resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the German Alps on Monday, the leaders of the major imperialist powers affirmed their commitment to a policy of
Vladimir Putin
escalating strategic and military pressure against Russia.
“We need to keep pushing Russia,” Obama said. “Russian forces continue to operate in eastern Ukraine, violating Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“The G7 is making it clear that if necessary we stand ready to impose additional significant sanctions against Russia,” Obama declared.
An official communiqué released by the G7 powers — the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Canada — reaffirmed Obama’s anti-Russia comments. It warned that the assembled powers would devise “further restrictive measures in order to increase cost on Russia.”
The hypocrisy and recklessness of Obama and his G7 counterparts is breathtaking. They are denouncing Russian “aggression” in Ukraine, which they plunged into civil war by backing a fascist-led putsch last year that toppled a pro-Russian government. Now, US and NATO armed forces are conducting air, sea and ground exercises all along Russia’s borders. In Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Scandinavia, the Baltic Sea, and the Black Sea, the US and its allies are rehearsing the opening stages of an all-out war with Russia.
Last week, US defense officials testifying before the US House of Representatives indicated that the Pentagon is considering launching pre-emptive strikes against Russian targets, including with nuclear weapons (see: US officials consider nuclear strikes against Russia). These statements are no doubt now being carefully studied by the Russian military.
NATO’s recently-formed Rapid Response Force, which has been assembled to serve as the spearhead of a NATO ground war against Russian forces, is set to conduct military exercises in Poland starting today. The so-called “Baltops” exercises are to involve thousands of US-NATO troops and will take place simultaneously in Sweden, Germany and the Baltic Sea.
A quarter century after the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the “Cold War,” Washington is preparing new forward-deployments of its nuclear arsenal to Europe. In an interview with the BBC given the preceding day, British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond made clear that plans for new US nuclear deployments to Europe are far advanced.
Hammond told the BBC Sunday that Britain may soon withdraw from the INF treaty, clearing the way for Britain to serve as a staging area for an American nuclear build-up against Russia, just as it did prior to 1991, when US nuclear weapons were stationed at the Royal Air Force’s Greenham Common base.
“There have been some worrying signs of stepping up levels of activity both by Russian forces and by Russian-controlled separatist forces,” Hammond said. “We have got to send a clear signal to Russia that we will not allow them to transgress our red lines.”
The US and European ruling elites’ strategy of endlessly bullying Russia by threatening it with war and nuclear strikes poses immense dangers to the world’s population. Even assuming that the ruling elites of the NATO powers are not immediately seeking to provoke outright war with Russia, the constant drumbeat of NATO threats and military exercises immensely heightens the danger of war breaking out accidentally.
With thousands of jet fighters, warships, and armored units on heightened alert throughout the region, the world is only a few miscalculations away from a clash between NATO and Russian forces that could rapidly escalate into war.
The immense dangers posed to the world’s population arising from the US and NATO war drive against Russia are being hidden from masses of workers in the United States and worldwide. No one in the official media is asking how many people would die if the military maneuvers being practiced by Russian and NATO forces in their exercises turned into the real thing. Instead, much of the media coverage of the G7 summit focused on controversy over whether Obama was drinking alcohol-free beer yesterday.
The relentless military escalation at this G7 summit testifies to the breakdown and historic bankruptcy of capitalism. Without the unification and mobilization of the international working class in revolutionary struggle against imperialism and war, it is not only likely, but inevitable, that NATO war threats will at some point unleash all-out war.
Russian leaders have already warned that they are on alert for signs of an imminent first strike by NATO and are holding Russian nuclear forces ready to respond to such an attack, should it come (see: Russian President Putin says Ukraine crisis threatens nuclear war).
The second main priority of the assembled leaders was to coördinate the imposition of austerity measures that have already set in motion the collapse of large parts of the European economy.
Even as Obama denounced Putin for “wrecking his country’s economy,” the social cuts, mass layoffs and other “economic restructuring” measures dictated by the Western banks and financial institutions are pushing millions into poverty and ravaging key social infrastructure across Southern and Eastern Europe.
In its official communiqué, the G7 powers demanded that the Ukrainian government continue to implement austerity policies that, as in Greece, are pushing broad layers of the population into poverty. The Kiev régime must “decisively continue the necessary fundamental transformation in line with IMF and EU commitments,” the joint G7 communiqué demanded Monday.
In remarks after Monday’s G7 session, German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened Greece, insisting that it “does not have much time left” to reach a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Union and European Central Bank (the “troika”). Such a deal would transfer a new loan of some €7 billion to Athens in exchange for new social cuts to the Greek economy, which has already been eviscerated by years of brutal austerity.
The precise makeup of the social cuts, which are to be directed largely against the salaries and pensions of government workers, were a major topic of discussion at the G7 talks, Merkel said. The German chancellor will reportedly meet for informal discussions with Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras during EU meetings with heads of state from Latin America scheduled for later in the week.
Despite criticizing the European Commission’s proposals for the Greek economy as “borderline insulting,” Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis nonetheless affirmed his determination to “come to an agreement” with the troika (the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank) and the big banks.
G7 Summit Without Russia: Problem for the West, But Not for the Kremlin
Moscow’s absence at the G7 summit in Germany does not mean that Russia is politically isolated in the world. Moreover, it helps the Kremlin to pursue a more independent policy, die Zeit wrote.
The proximity to the Western world is no longer an absolute value for modern Russia, the German newspaper wrote. Moscow seeks to follow a sovereign foreign policy and is not willing to impose itself on Western countries, the article said, referring to the upcoming G7 summit, which will be held in Germany on Sunday without the participation of the Russian leader. “Will the Russian President sit on Sunday in the Kremlin and grieve about the fact that the G7 leaders met in the Elmau castle without him? Unlikely. The days when the Russian President wanted to just stand next to his Western colleagues are over,” the newspaper wrote.
According to die Zeit, for Russia, the Western world has lost its ‘absolute brilliance’ that was so evident after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia became disillusioned with Europe and the United States due to their hypocrisy and indecisive policies, the article said. Russia’s current position has nothing to do with the world’s isolation, the newspaper wrote. European leaders, including Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, regularly visit Russia. In a few days, Russian president Vladimir Putin is expected to visit the Russian pavilion at the international exhibition “EXPO-2015” in Italy. In the Vatican, he will have a private meeting with Pope Francis.
German Politicians Want Putin at G7 Summit
“Let’s agree that loneliness and isolation look a little bit different,” the article said ironically.
Russia is also expanding its contacts within the Shanghai Coöperation Organization (SCO) and maintains fruitful coöperation with Asian countries. With this regard, the Kremlin’s non-participation in the G7 summit is just a little episode in its foreign policy activities, Die Zeit noted.
The newspaper also stressed that the current situation could be beneficial for the Kremlin as the latter will gain more freedom in conducting its own independent policy.
Ravi Zacharias believes that over the past forty years movements like New Age spirituality and society’s obsession
with human potential have combined like a “perfect storm” to redefine for popular culture what has been for centuries the classic biblical definition of the person, work, and teaching of Jesus Christ. In Why Jesus?, Ravi Zacharias looks at the impact of this “storm” by discussing the 60s-70s “Age of Aquarius,” actor Shirley MacLaine’s book and TV series Out on a Limb, author James Redfield (The Celestine Prophecy), Rhonda Byrne (The Secret), Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code), and other books by Eckart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, the Dali Lama, and Marianne Williamson.
Ravi Zacharias
Special attention will be given to the influence of Oprah Winfrey’s media platform in reshaping society by introducing and promoting certain books and authors. Major New Age and human potential tenets will be discussed like: the belief that we are all gods and have to discover our divinity; Jesus was only a good teacher; Christianity is but one among many ways to eternal life; reincarnation is real; Jesus was married; truth is relative; there is no sin; and perfection is possible.
The truth of and the arguments for the bodily resurrection of Jesus will be presented as the most important argument for the exclusive claims about Jesus and Christianity.
College admissions take a crucial factor into account that could be creating enormous racial bias, but it’s not grades or extracurricular activities or even SAT scores. It’s a student’s disciplinary record.
A new survey by The Center for Community Alternatives shows that 46 percent of colleges gather information on disciplinary records on their individual application materials and 27 percent collect that information from Common Applications. Only 27 percent of the 408 colleges and universities that responded did not use that information.
The inclusion of disciplinary records in college admissions is important, in part, because the extent to which teachers discipline students often depends on the students’ race. Numerous studies show that students of color are likely to be punished more severely than white students. Children as young as 6 years-old have been arrested by police officers after throwing tantrums in the classroom and eighth grade students have even been threatened by officers for minor incidents.
Racial biases become clearer in situations that involve less severe, more subjective offenses, said Max Marchitello, policy analyst for pre-K-12 education policy at the Center for American Progress.
“Being suspended or expelled really increases the likelihood you’ll drop out. It’s a huge problem and a lot of studies show that the disparity, the disproportionality, only happens with subjective offenses. So the idea that college admissions could deny someone on a purely subjective question seems kind of crazy,” Marchitello said. “It’s only with mandatory actions that you see parity, where, for example, someone does drugs in the bathroom or brings a gun to school. Only in those situations do you see what you expect to see, a one-to-one proportionality between enrollment and offense. Otherwise, once it’s up to individual adult actors, you see pretty dramatic race biases.”
According to the U.S. Department of Education, black and Hispanic students made up more than70 percent of school-related arrests or referrals to law enforcement.
The report shows a lack of an actual formal, written policy on how to treat disciplinary information in admissions policies, with 75 percent of schools reporting that they don’t have a written policy. Yet, 89 percent of colleges said it influences admissions decision-making.
Some of the most common factors in the automatic denial of an application with a disciplinary history were school-based arrests, assault resulting in injury, bullying, distributing illegal drugs and possession of a weapon. However, advocates say the combination of school resource officers and the popularity of zero tolerance policies, which discipline students severely for relatively minor offenses, may be to blame for increased discipline of students of color.
Police presence in schools increased after the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Policing Services (COPS) started the “COPS in Schools” grant program, which was launched in 1999 after the Columbine High School shootings. The number of school resource officers in public schools rose from 9,400 in 1997 to 14,337 in 2003 and the percentage of students who reported seeing security guards and assigned police officers in schools increased from 54 percent in 1999 to 69 percent in 2007, according to a 2011 Justice Quarterly analysis by Chongmin Na and Denise Gottfredson.
Zero tolerance disciplinary policies disproportionately affects black students, according to a Harvard University study by Stephen Hoffman, which was published in 2012. At some schools, officers issue tickets to children. At South Bend, Indiana schools, where black students compose 34 percent of enrollment, black students received more than seven out of 10 citations issued during the past few school years. In Texas, students have been sent to court for offenses such as fights on the school bus. Officials in Connecticut began screening cases where students were in ticketed in schools after kids went to court for drinking soda and “dressing improperly.”
A 2013 Congressional Research Service report by Nathan James and Gail McCallion cast some doubt on the effectiveness of zero tolerance policies and school resource officers. The discussion of police involvement in schools was renewed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The report read, “Research suggests that the presence of [school resource officers] might result in more children being involved in the criminal justice system for relatively minor offenses, and this, in turn, can result in other negative consequences, such as higher rates of suspension or a greater likelihood of dropping-out of school.”
One of the other major problems with colleges using a student’s disciplinary history in admissions is that schools’ definitions of a severe infraction vary widely depending on the district, the report from The Center for Community Alternatives notes. Some schools say that students pushing each other while in line qualifies as “an extremely violent act,” and others classify weapons possession as “not at all violent.”
However, many students have no idea that their disciplinary records are being released to schools or that colleges are rejecting their application due to said history, according to the survey. Only 21 percent of the schools surveyed would automatically notify the student that their disciplinary history was the reason for the denial. Most of the time, however schools require students ask why they received a rejection, and even though 75 percent of schools had an appeals process in case students were rejected for that reason, less than half were told by admissions that they even had the option.
Common applications ask students to answer truthfully on all questions so when a student checks the box for a history of disciplinary infractions, they have an opportunity to answer why they received an infraction and specify what kind of infraction it was later in the application. If they simply didn’t arrive to class on time or brought soda to class, they should make that clear in the application, said Deena Maerowitz, an educational consultant who helps guide students though admissions applications and former associate director of admissions at Columbia University Business School. When Maerowitz advises students with a disciplinary history, she advises them to explain how it has helped their personal growth and what they have learned from the situation. How College Admissions Are Affected By Racially Biased School Discipline
Τhe Editorial Board of the Gleaner company has every right to be critical of whomever it chooses to critique and criticize. In fact Editorials are opinions, blogs, of the writer’s views and biases. Editorials do not take away from the legitimacy or the authenticity of the Publication. For Years now the Editorial board of the Gleaner company has been stridently a part of the propaganda arm of the People’s National Party. That too is okay, in fact I recall a time when the board was highly supportive of the Labor Party’s policies. What I take issue with is the inability of the Gleaner’s Editorial writers to tell the truth. When you distort the truth you give up the right to be taken seriously. Of course that time may have already passed for the once highly respected Gleaner Company.
Monday June 8th 2015.… THEJAMAICA Labour Party (JLP), we can confirm, continues to face a crisis of leadership. This is reflected in the party’s inability, or worse, unwillingness, to articulate clear, coherent policy options, or sensibly critique and debate those being pursued by the Government. The latest manifestation of the party’s laziness, if not intellectual malaise, was last week’s statement by its general secretary, Horace Chang, on the ongoing wage negotiations between public-sector workers and their employer, the Government. It was distinguished by its triteness, which, unfortunately, is too often the case with declarations by shadow ministers.
Crisis of leadership? What Country is this writer living in ? Even as I ask the question I know it is somewhat silly , considering that we are now living in the Information age. Regardless of where one live, it is common knowledge that Jamaica has a crisis of leadership, which has nothing to do with the opposition party. The Writer seem to be projecting the very Achilles heel of the Governing PNP onto the JLP. The propaganda piece went on to say . The administration of which Mr Chang was a member in 2010 entered into an economic-support agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that quickly ran aground because of the Government’s unwillingness or inability to make some of the required hard choices. The new administration has been doing much better since 2012, including in meeting the IMF’s benchmark primary balance of 7.5 per cent of GDP, which has placed the debt on a downward trajectory. An overvalued Jamaican dollar has been adjusting. The current account deficit has declined from above 12 per cent to single digit; inflation has moderated, coming close to that of major trading partners; the country’s global competitiveness indices have improved.
Peter Phillips
No mention of the fact that when the Bruce Golding Administration took office it was left with zero option but to enter into an agreement with the IMF. The nation was broke and in chaos after an unprecedented 14 1⁄2 years of mismanagement and fiscal suicide led by Omar Davies. The writer spoke about the agreement quote : that quickly ran aground because of the Government’s unwillingness or inability to make some of the required hard choices. Those hard choices of which the writer speaks is the then Government’s refusal to inflict the inevitable pain which would occur had it continued adhering to the agreement. Ironically the Simpson Miller Administration has no such reservation about the pain the people feel, as long as the IMF targets are met. In fact conforming to and reaching set deadlines have been balanced on the backs of ordinary working people, who are forced to live with wage freeze, escalating food and service charges and run-away inflation.
As an opinion writer I try my very best to state only facts, even as total objectivity may be missing from some of what I have to say. For that I am guilty , I too have my biases. It is indeed disingenuous for the writer to adopt a blinkered position on the true facts by intimating.Quote: But the Government was, in part, able to keep a lid on the fiscal accounts by maintaining a wage freeze, when the more sustainable, but politically far more difficult option would be to eliminate around 15,000 public-sector jobs. Indeed, Audley Shaw, the shadow finance minister, has now agreed that job cuts, done forensically, are advisable.
Unleashing the full effects of adherence to IMF targets onto ordinary Jamaicans was unconscionable, even as the Miller Administration kept public sector workers confined to a wage freeze. Of course a public sector downsize is and must be a part of any serious attempt at fixing Jamaica’s debt problem. There are ways to accomplishing that without arbitrarily taking a scalpel to the public sector rolls.
This can be achieved if the Administration realistically decidide to eliminate the vast amount of political patronage-hires it has engaged in. The Administration can also cut employees through attrition resulting from retirement. Neither of these two options are particularly painful to anyone except those who weren’t supposed to be on the payroll in the first place. The Editorial board is doing a terrible dis-service to the Jamaican people, many of whom still believe anything coming from the newspaper is Gospel. This nonsense had nothing to do with Andrew Holness the JLP leader and the board knows it, however they will not be guided by truth in their quest to defame and slur. Editorial: JLP’s Leadership Crisis
Milwaukee County’s David Clarke could be a valuable voice in the national conversation over police violence. Instead he’s on Fox News blaming ‘black underclass subculture behavior.’
Our sheriff isn’t like most American sheriffs. He’s a self-proclaimed Democrat, an outspoken Tea Party
David Clarke> A Jackass sitting on a Horse.MB
activist, and a regular on prime time cable news.
You may have seen Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke on one of his numerous appearances on the Fox News Channel lashing out at President Obama. You might recognize him from his appearance before the National Rifle Association proposing the placement of a semi-automatic rifle on our country’s presidential seal. You may have even watched his infamous 2013 campaign ad advocating vigilantism instead of dialing 911 in the event of a burglary.
The country is just now getting to know Sheriff Clarke, but I’m all too familiar with his inflammatory antics. His proclivity for provocation coupled with his distorted view of black America has grown more extreme over the years, earning him numerous appearances on Fox News. He has helped the network spread a slew of dangerous narratives that serve only to rouse the most extreme elements of the Tea Party.
It’s clear that Fox News and Sheriff Clarke have developed a symbiotic relationship. He needs the cable news network for its national platform; Fox needs a black sheriff to give voice to the dog-whistle narratives its anchors dare not vocalize themselves. Do you think Megyn Kelly could get away with making the claim that racial inequality is a thing of the past or calling Attorney General Eric Holder a “race hustler”?
As easy as it is to be enraged by Sheriff Clarke’s flagrant grandstanding, we should recognize that he isn’t the problem but only a symptom. In today’s conservative media landscape, the need to inflame will always undermine the responsibility to inform, and reporting will always take a backseat to ratings. Both Fox News and Sheriff Clarke realize that one can bypass the complexities and nuances of sensitive topics by simply maintaining the us versus them approach used by right-wing media giant Ann Coulter.
But the sheriff’s brand of hostile punditry is especially irresponsible coming from someone wearing a uniform and badge.
Last month during a congressional committee hearing on policing strategies, Sheriff Clarke was given an opportunity to address the strained relationship between police and the communities they’re sworn to protect. Rather than providing the committee with the sensible testimony one would expect from a law enforcement official with 37 years of experience, he offered some of the same ugly, accusatory rhetoric we’ve come to expect from Milwaukee’s new Tea Party folk hero.
Sheriff Clarke’s biting temperament was on full display as he vilified the federal government for intervening in local law enforcement issues and slammed the “liberal mainstream media” for their coverage of high-profile shootings. He continued his ongoing absolution of America’s police from any and all wrongdoing and insisted that “black underclass subculture behavior” and hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter are the crux of the problem.
The self-proclaimed “people’s sheriff” needs to drop the sideshow act and get serious.
When we identify the obvious racial inequities in our society, we do so in our desire to repair that which is broken, not to demonize those who have committed their lives to protecting the public. We recognize that good police officers play a vital role in our communities, but we can no longer be complacent in a culture that breeds bad ones. Citizens, lawmakers, and community stakeholders should to be able to debate these issues thoughtfully and express our collective frustration over our country’s failure to live up to its promise of “justice for all” without Sheriff Clarke and others calling us “cop haters” and “criminal-loving elitists.”
Sheriff Clarke and his Tea Party followers live in a black-and-white world where merely investigating accusations of police discrimination and racial mistreatment is tantamount to treason. He is unapologetic in his blind defense of law enforcement officials, even in the most egregious circumstances. After the Justice Department released its report detailing “unlawful bias” among Ferguson’s police force, Sheriff Clarke immediately took to Fox to emphatically reject the findings, calling them a “witch hunt.” “I’m not buying one word of [Holder’s] conclusion,” he told Neil Cavuto. “The attorney general doesn’t have any integrity anymore.”
Unlike Sheriff Clarke, I refuse to dismiss this growing crisis. Recently, I introduced an amendment to a federal spending bill that would increase funding for the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act, enhancing training for police responding to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. It is my hope that improved training and preparation will lead to fewer tragedies like that of Dontre Hamilton, a young man whose life was cut short after an officer shot him multiple times in a public park. Both Sheriff Clarke and I are well aware of his case. He was our constituent.
I’m not a fan of Sheriff Clarke or his politics, but I do believe he could provide a valuable voice to this national conversation. Unfortunately, his appetite for the spotlight continues to erode what little credibility he has left, and his authority is further weakened under the weight of his own theatrics. If the sheriff truly wants to help us, it’s time for him to prove that he’s more than just another partisan agitator with a badge and a cowboy hat.
The self-proclaimed “people’s sheriff” needs to drop the sideshow act and get serious. Until then, I can only wonder if Sheriff Clarke is still a lawman or just a guy who plays one on TV. Fox News Favorite ‘People’s Sheriff’ Should Drop the Act
The Government is being really coy in the way it approaches these negotiations. They knew full well that 6% for police would not be well received. The Government is also aware that what they offered teachers would be rejected as well . In essence the govt decided not to negotiate with itself. A 7% increase up from 6% makes a mockery of the process and the people. What makes the offers insulting is that these workers have had their wages frozen in place for years, while inflation some months have reached an astounding 9.70% > This means public sector workers are rapidly sliding below the poverty line…
the Government has some serious choices to make. In addition to Police who have started sick-out actions, some of the nation’s teachers have already started two hour on the job demonstrations. The Nations Doctors on the public payroll have indicated that they aren’t feeling particularly healthy. There are over 40.000 public sector workers with whom the Government still needs to meet on salary issues. The Government has included some $165 billion in the 2015⁄16 budget for wages and salaries, which is four per cent higher than last year’s wage bill, according to the Jamaica Observer reporting. The problem with that increase is that the last wage bill was not last fiscal year. Public sector workers who have been on a wage freeze deserve a pay increase, at least to off-set the cost of galloping inflation. The inflation rate fluctuates from a reported 4% on the low end, to a 9.70% depending on the month.
The government cannot be in the business of passing IMF tests for the sake of passing tests. Of course it is important to meet targeted goals ! It is doubly important to recognize that merely meeting those goal does not advance the foot-ball down the field , meeting them simply keep you on the field. At some point in time the Government will have to come up with a game-plan that doesn’t just keep the team on the field but one that depicts a path to a potential win. Meeting IMF targets is good for the Fund, bad for the workers and the nation.
PUBLIC sector workers have been offered a new pay increase deal of seven per cent for the 2015 – 2017 fiscal period. The new offer breaks down to a four per cent increase effective from April 1, 2015, and a further three per cent increase effective April 1, 2016. This arrangement is up from the original offer of three per cent and two per cent which was made in March and was rejected by the workers.
Minister with responsibility for the public service, Horace Dalley, told the Jamaica Observer last night he is optimistic that the offer will lead to a settlement of the prolonged public sector wage issue by the latest month-end. “We have never had much of a problem with the fringe benefits, because some are not aligned with the wage costs. The problem has always been the basic pay, and we want to ensure that anything we offer we will be able to pay it and we don’t go beyond the limit that will ensure that we meet the nine per cent of GDP target,” the minister said.
The offer is a small step from the rejected five per cent, but the trade unions leaders feel that they have something substantive to put to their members. Trade unionist, Lambert Brown, who is a member of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Union’s (JCTU) negotiating team, said that the new offer from the minister confirmed his position that where there is a will there is a way. “We can always find appropriate ways to resolve these issues,” Brown said.
But, other union representatives were more cautious, pointing out that they were not sure how their members would respond. President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, Doran Dixon, said that there will be meetings in Clarendon, Manchester, St Catherine, and Kingston to relay the new offers to the teachers and get their response. Several meetings are also planned by the JCTU team, which represents 11 trade unions and over 40,000 government workers. The increased offer has emerged in the midst of protest action by the members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, which began on Tuesday, and widespread two-hour demonstrations by teachers on the job.
At the end of March, the unions rejected the Government’s initial pay increase offer of three per cent and two per cent in the first and second years, respectively, of a new three-year agreement. The previous agreement, which ended on March 31, included a freeze on wages and lasted for three years (2012−2015). The Government was hoping to start the negotiations last October in order to conclude by the end of the financial year 2014⁄15 (March 31), but relaxed the timeline after the International Monetary Fund agreed to extend the deadline for an Extended Fund Facility benchmark provision to reduce public sector wage bill to below nine percent of the country’s gross domestic product to March, 2017.
The estimated public sector wage bill for 2014⁄15 was $161.7 billion, a three per cent increase over the figure for 2013⁄14. That increase was attributed to payment of performance increments, a $25,000 one-off payment to the workers in each year of the contract and implementation of new rates associated with the reclassification of health sector workers. The Government has included some $165 billion in the 2015⁄16 budget for wages and salaries, which is four per cent higher than last year’s wage bill.
The West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT) has insisted that between the $11 billion budgeted in 2014⁄15 for contingencies related to the one-off payment, and the settlement of some outstanding claims as well as some $10 billion included for payment of GCT on government purchases, there is enough money in the budget to meet the pay claims by the unions. Government increases pay offer to employees
Opposition JLP Member of Parliament Darrel Vaz summed up Barbadian David Simmons succinctly. Vaz stated that David Simmons, a Barbadian, does not understand the Jamaican society, noting that once the information came out there would be some people who would always hold the unsubstantiated information to be true. David Simmons is a former Chief Justice from the Island of Barbados . He is one of a three member panel assembled to hear evidence in the actions of the security forces in May of 2010 as they entered to seize Christopher Coke, who was wanted by the United States Government. Coke is presently serving a lengthy sentence in a Federal facility in the US.
Vaz recently demanded an apology from Simmons for revealing unsubstantiated allegations in open sitting of the Tivoli Inquiry that Coke was sighted at his house prior to being arrested. The information was allegedly gleaned from a police station diary. Deputy Commissioner of Police Clifford Blake testified that bit of intelligence was never substantiated. Vaz was Minister with responsibility for Information at the time, in the Bruce Golding led Administration.
Despite Vaz’s legitimate demand for a public apology from Simmons, which under the circumstances are clearly warranted , Simmons maintained rather arrogantly that there is nothing to apologize for. “I find it ironic, to put it at its lowest, and certainly not in congruence with common sense, that I should be pilloried by Mr Vaz and asked to apologize to him for having his name and reputation cleared and vindicated,”. Simmons said.
David-Simmons
Simmons was not done. “In the circumstances, of course, I do not apologise to Mr Vaz; there’s nothing to apologise for. His name and reputation had been cleared by that evidence yesterday. He should be grateful it came in,”.
In other words, though he erred egregiously by impugning Vaz’s character with what must have been clear to him at the time, was purely unsubstantiated allegations or hearsay, he wants Vaz to be grateful that information surfaced later which cleared his name.
This is pure unmitigated arrogance and ignorance. What would it have taken for Simmons to say he was sorry which was clearly appropriate under the circumstances? In response Vaz fired back at Simmons. “In essence, I want to thank Sir David for hitting me in my head with a sledgehammer and putting a Band-Aid on my wound and then claim that he has healed me,” Vaz said.“This is what has happened to me and my family. He’s being disingenuous,”.
Simmons throughout the Inquiry has not done a particularly good job of concealing what appears to be disdain, not just for the Jamaican people but for the processes of our country. Even as he walks a fine line pretending to be emphatic with residents of Tivoli Gardens. I have previously voiced those concerns in this very forum, arguing that based on those observations I would have no respect for the findings of this inquiry. It is inconceivable for anyone watching these proceedings to come away feeling otherwise. It would not be far-fetched to imply that Simmons is merely mirroring the sentiments of many of his country-men, some of whom have confessed they were taught to hate Jamaicans in school.
This may be a very good time for Jamaicans to step back and re-evaluate the lure of a Caribbean Court Of Justice and it’s implications for our Nation. We should now seek to extricate ourselves from the British Privy Council, which by the way is not particularly thrilled at having to deal with our issues. We must first develop our own system of Justice free and unattached from the rest of the Caribbean. That prospect is on the distant Horizon. We are a long way from getting to that stage, but we should begin that process now.
It should also be noted that at a time when the Administration is crying broke, unable to pay public sector workers a livable wage it has so far spent well over $350 million on the Tivoli Commission. This is a most reckless stewardship of public resources when Jamaicans of all stripes are fully aware that the PNP monolithic as a part did not give the security forces the extension it needed to consolidate gains made after the Tivoli event. The Party’s statements then was, “wedid not want the security forces to abuse citizens”. With that statement the PNP cast its lot with Jamaica’s criminals against the Jamaican state and the security forces. They did so to deny the nation’s security forces access to it’s network of Garrisons . That was an act of Treason in my estimation.
The People’s National Party should have been disbanded at that time, nevertheless a few months later the people of Jamaica returned them to power. This Inquiry like Simmons is a farce , it should be seen for what it is, an attempt to curry favor and hold state power at the expense of the people’s intelligence.
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