How Jamaica Got to Be a Kakiscracy

When Jamaica first gained so-called Independence it was not as stupid as it became. It realised that a lot of the Brit stuff was good, and kept it.  The Brits who were running Ministries would soon complete their contracts, be replaced by locals they had hand trained.

It took ten years for Jamaica to go into the kind of Chaos when Shearer, the Prime Minister did the usual overreaction which got the majority angry.  With Black Power all the rage in America in the late 60s, early 70s, with the revolutionary spirit bubbling up, Michael Manley stepped in.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of political violence, and a few big people got killed. Because governments tend to overreact, in 1974 the Gun Court Act and Suppression of Crime Act unanimously passed and became law.

Whatever was said as to why these laws should pass, what happened is that the population was disarmed, anyone accused of possession of an unlicensed firearm or bullet went into prison on 'indefinite detention' (later changed to life) and the gun itself did not need to be recovered.

The Suppression of Crime Act gave police absolute unfettered power. Habeus Corpus was forgotten, Search Warrants were unnecessary, and from 1974 until 1990 Jamaican police behaved as the Tonton Macoute of Haiti.

Anyone, anywhere, could be searched at any time and anything found was chargeable.  By the time the Suppression of Crime Act  was abolished, a cadre of police who never knew better remained unleashed on the Jamaican population who had no rights, no recourse.

Suing Police often resulted in failure. No police officer has ever been convicted of murder.  The evidence is unimportant.  Police are not convicted of murder.

During the period of the 1970s to the present, 2010, Political leaders had their cadre of gunmen.  These people were somewhat above the law.  Often being able to amass great sums of money on drug deals, they could kick back to their 'leaders'.

Further, it was who you knew, not who you were.  Being the superannuated lover of some Parliamentarian insured that either you were run as an MP for a 'safe seat' or got some big job and big pay and no work position.

Over time, the workers with integrity were replaced by those without, so that many Permanent Secretaries, who had taken office in the late 60s would retire in the 80s, be replaced by those who retired in the 90s or 00s, so that most of those holding high office never worked under the British nor the first local official.

The kind of innate corruption of these people is only matched by their incompetence.  

As there was never any real check or balance, as Brits had a sense of morality and dignity, which Jamaicans do not, anything goes until stopped. 

The head of the Bank of Jamaica got higher pay than Alan Greenspan.  The kind of obeying political directives, permeates all aspects of government, so that no one and nothing is neutral; it depends on what one has to get what one gives.

By 2007 Bruce Golding came into office impersonating a statesman.  He ought of gotten an Academy Award.

People actually believed he was clean, he was honest, he could govern, and at the very least, knew what he was doing.   It took two years for them to realise he was corrupt, incapable, and had no idea how to govern.

When America asked for the extradition of Chris Coke it never expected to be denied.  After all, the evidence was there, and the request was one of a slurry that had been made over the years.

No one wanted to believe that no only would Golding not give up Dudus, (his area strong man) but hire an American legal Firm to dig through the Treaty.  And of course, deny it.

As Jamaica slips to a Failed Narco State, the people are distracted by taxes and all sorts of barriers to achievement.  The IMF agreement is probably the worst that could be made, but no doubt, Golding is getting something in the deal. 

In 2010 Jamaica, which was once the shining star in the Caribbean is now fighting for last place with Haiti.

Getting Worse

The Washington Post has picked up the story.  Pretty evident that the Golding Government Hired and Paid for a local American Law Firm to fight the extradition of Dudus.  It isn't a private matter any more.  The whole world knows Jamaica is a Narco State where the Prime Minister endeavours to protect a well known 'Don.'

You have to laugh when you see Brucie.  Looks so very decent. Suit and clean shaved, and speaks so 'honestly'.  

What makes matters worse; pretending they can be worse, is that Bruce doesn't seem to catch the fact that he is caught. Like any fraudster he thinks one more lie will get him out of trouble.   

One more lie, one more denial, one more indignant pose.  Poor boy, he's not dealing with illiterate and semi-illiterate morons who can barely understand standard English.  He's talking to America. 

Alas; he can't even play the race card, cause Obama is blacker than he is.

So what are the facts?

1) The United States wants Dudus
2) Bruce will sooner send his daughter into a male prison
3) He tried to cover it up, lie, but it came out...the U.S. wants Dudus
4) His reasons for not extraditing Dudus are bullshit
5) He hired an American law firm, and has been lying about it since it was revealed to the public.
6) The Law firm has to face US scrutiny, hence has admitted they were hired and paid for by Harold Brady, a lawyer deputised for this by the Government.
7) The Law firm did attend a number of meetings on behalf of the Jamaican government.
8) Bruce is still lying about it, tho.

Living in a Kakistocracy...can I be surprised?

Exploit the people

If you lived in a real country, and it had endless sunshine, and the coast had endless breeze, and you didn't have oil, the idea of solar and wind would be knee jerk.

Unless if you lived in a Kakiscrisy where a foreign company owns the single energy producer, JPS.  

There was a time Jamaica owned the Jamaica Public Service Company. Of course, selling it to some foreign company would enable those in power to buy property in Boca Raton, so who cares about the people.

You have to laugh or throw up.

The basic electricity bill is 2/3rds a weekly salary.  That's for a couple of lights, maybe a small fridge and TV.  Spending 5k on electricity is not strange if one has a deep freezer.

Companies spend over 100k a month for electricity, so one can see that implementing solar/wind; letting people have their own panels, their own turbines, even selling back the excess is  a no brainer.

You want to understand that just getting a bill allowing people to have their own electricity producers through Parliament is a Herculean task.  

Why?

Kick backs.

There isn't a company operating in Jamaica today that doesn't kick back a nice chunk to government.

Either/either

Labourites come in two sizes; (those who are still identifying themselves as Labourites).

Size one is; no matter what govenment would be in office the same things would happen.

Size two are those who will attempt to explain why something was done as if they have some direct link to Bruce's study.

Size one people have no comprehension of reality. They could have been in a coma for ten years. They want to believe that there was no money, (even though the coffers were full when the PNP left office). They want to believe the US/Europe meltdown effected Jamaica, (even though the vast bulk of our money was invested in Jamaican Treasury bills as they paid more than even Bernie Madoff). They want to believe that there has been a recession, (although Tourist arrivals went up and have remained up.) Similar to 'Denial' Size One people believe if they repeat bullshit often enough it turns back into food.

Size Two people try to intellectualise. They assume that there's some plan and that the JLP is following it. They alter this hypothetical 'plan' as debacles occur, thinking that it was supposed to go this way; imputing brilliance where there is blundering, imputing integrity where there is corruption. Assuming that Bruce 'didn't know' when some nasty bit explodes in his face.

Both Sizes however, have to vote for Bruce when he runs again if they want him to get another term. Unless there's a windfall three months before election, they will simply not vote. For somewhere in their psyches they have to know that Bruce really doesn't have a clue.

Mi Neva No

The title is a patois incoherence meaning, "I didn't know."
The reason I used it was to emphasise the kind of pathetic ignorance of the kakistocrats who rule Jamaica.

In the Summer of 2009, the United States requested the extradition of Dudus, Christopher Coke.
He controls Kingston. The U.S. considers him a drug dealer. An arms smuggler. Nothing unusual, nothing most Jamaicans don't know.

Bruce CAN NOT extradite Dudus, any more than the Columbian government could extradite Pablo Escobar. Bruce figured he could hide this request, and somehow get out of it. He had one of his people contact one of the expendable JLP hopefuls and retain a law firm on behalf of the Jamaican Gov. to find some loophole.

The public, aware of the request, aware of the Governments inaction, the Opposition making great hay of it, let Golding fumf around until March 2 when he made some nebulous speech as to why he wasn't going to extradite Dudus.

The U.S. cancelled a number of VISAs of Big People.

Then the PNP revealed the law firm Bruce hired to find the loop hole. First Brucie denies it. Then has to carefully pick and chose his words, because in the words of the title, he must admit 'me neva no' that all law firms which deal with foreign governments must make that public.

Poor thing.

The Law Firm has to defend it's ass. It can not let the disclaimer slide. The lawyer who did the dogsbody work is being set out to dry; as if he had no authority to do this and pay over a whole trailer load of money to retain the Firm. Which, BTW, sat in on discussions at the Highest Level.

So there's Bruce, proved a liar, a silly lawyer having to fight for his survival, other members of the government adding more lies to the fire, and the public, those who have slow brains, realising they elected a government as corrupt as they come.

All because, Dudus rules Jamaica and doesn't give a damn about Bruce, the JLP, the image of the country, or anything else. And doesn't have to.

How Jamaica went down the Toilet

A state fails when the leadership embarks on policies which consciously or subconsciously destroy the foundation.

As Mugabe, having productive farms turned into shanty towns, causing starvation, or Nauru, allowing a foreign company to exploit and deplete phosphate reserves, one can point to the reason. In Jamaica, there are a set of reasons how we reached this perigee.

Firstly, our emulation of Haiti.

Now you would think that a vibrant, functioning, progressive nation as Jamaica was in the '70s would never succumb to the well documented errors of our eastern neighbour. After all, Haiti was virtually born a failed state. And although apologists might point to 19th century racism, that sure doesn't work with 20th century exploitation by the local ruling class.

Haiti's problem is that its people speak no known language.

Creole is spoken in the gutters of Haiti. No one who doesn't live in the gutters is interested. The ruling class speaks French, to get a good job requires English. Hence speaking Creole allows one to sell in the market.

Jamaicans used to speak English until some moron who didn't want to take another language to enter a Canadian University, (which requires one be bilingual) hit upon the trick of having patois, (Jamaica's local incoherence) accepted as a language.

In the late '70s the idea; 'patwa fi wi langwij' was pushed down the throats of the uneducated, and taken on for fun by the educated who wanted street cred.

In 20 years the pass rate in English is below 20%. The people not only can't speak it, they can't understand it. This insures that any job requiring the speaking of English must go to an ex-pat.

When one can not understand English it is very simple to hide information in plain sight.

Along with this comes the corruption. A friend of a member of the elite can get permission to import X. X may cost $1.00 and can, with all acceptable mark-ups be sold for $5.00. Instead it is sold for $25.00 allowing that extra profit to be used in support of political campaigns, bribes and other necessary business expenses.

Ripping off the public has become standard, so that even electricity is so far beyond the pocket of the average person that they only way the poor can obtain light is to 'steal' it.

And of course, the Chinese firm which owns the Jamaican power company has no problem in cutting off and prosecuting poor Jamaicans.

In 2007, when the incumbent, Portia Simpson-Miller campaigned, her presentation fell far short of what could be expected from a leader. Golding countered this with his professorial stance.

As the PNP, (Portia's party) did not have pots of money, and the JLP, (Bruce's party) was well funded by a vast number of entreprenuers, he could buy the election, and did.

He has spent the past 2 1/2 years depleting public coffers to repay those debts so that he can go back for more next time.

Rule By The Worst People

Right now, the debate concerns the extradition of 'Dudus'. We all know who he is. He's the Pablo Escobar of Jamaica. We all know he rules Downtown, which is why it is so safe. And we all know that if Bruce Golding, the so-called 'Prime Minister' opens his mouth, Dudus will slap it shut.

It's not so wonderful to live in a failed state. A failed narco-state. Especially when you didn't prepare for it.

Bruce packaged himself as decent. We were fooled. We didn't realise how much money he actually owed to those who bought him the election. We didn't appreciate the pressure on him to pay it back with interest.

Within two years Bruce depleted the coffers, sold the country to the IMF and has been doing all he can to rip off the people, while his Ministers grow fat with their 63 MILLION dollar refurbished home, and the 9 MILLION dollars it cost to house 67 Haitians in a Church for 8 days, and all the other rips he's done.

Each day there's another revelation as to insane expenditures, unpaid bills, and another slap down by the United States which wants our little Pablo Escobar.

Fooled by the suit and the statesman like projection of Golding we never realised the level of corruption and misrule he would herald.

This is what it is like to live in a country ruled by the very worst people.