Doily over Stain

Residence in Jamaica requires one not merely read
but absorb 1984.

"We are at war with Eurasia,
we have always been at war with
Eurasia"

is the kind of 'double speak' which is normal
in Jamaica, where a Labourite can hail Golding
as the Messiah on Saturday, and cast him to
the pit on Sunday without the slightest blush.

Before Golding resigned one could not say his
shoe was untied before the usual mind dead
minions.

After he resigned he was tossed onto the
bone yard, and everything that had been
said against him from 2008 - 2011 was
repeated as if it had always been evident.

With Andrew Holness hailed as the new
Messiah, the Labourites form the line,
and turn their face from a very cheesed
off Bruce Golding.

It was clear to anyone who had seen
Golding on between the day his resignation
was leaked to the media and the day he
made his his resignation speech, (8 Days)
that this was a very angry man.

This was a man who, (unknown to the lumpen)
had been in almost physical conflict with
members of his Party during the year, and
that the polls, which hailed Holness, were
seen by him as insults.

Golding surrounded himself with the kind
of syncophants who insure that his reality
does not match Jamaican reality.

His 'team' was a slapped together botch
of those who had despised him for leaving
the JLP, creating his NDM, then forcing his
way back in, much to the displeasure of
Edward Seaga.

The 'team' was not loyal to Bruce, they
were loyal to Power; and as he was the
'leader' they would be as 'loyal' to him
as they needed be.

They knew, from his entrance into office
and the 'look yonder' style that a lot of
nasty business would be going on.

To focus on PNP scandals as Government
meant that like any magician it was
misdirection; look there not here.

Having appointed Dorothy Lightbourne,
a doddering fool on her best day as
Minister of Justice and Attorney General
insured that Golding would be Minister
of Justice and Attorney General.

He needed this because he knew that
there was an intensive investigation
of the "Shower Posse" which was run
by his campaign manager, Christoper Coke.

Without Coke, Golding couldn't have run
and been elected in Tivoli.

Aware that there might be repercussions
Golding couldn't chance a person of
integrity, so shoved the very round peg
of Dotty into the very square hole of
Justice.

The indictment was stonewalled, and if
it wasn't that the Police Commissioner's
wife worked at the American Embassy it
would not have been leaked so early.

But leaked it was, for it was beyond
evident that Golding would do all in his
power to avoid extradicting Coke.

Of course, the Coke/Manatt situation was
just one of many acts of corruption.

Joe Hibbert, a trusted MP had been getting
kick backs from an English firm for years.

Questions about another MP, the somewhat
erratic Warmington and the contracts he
received were whispered.

The Garbage collection so vociferiously
proclaimed by Webly, another JLP MP was
proven a lie as TV crews filmed the
pile up.

The costs of things fell under question,
and the number of trusted persons who
embezzled funds, whether at the Ministry
of Finance, the Student Loans Bureau, on
and on.

Golding so believed in his brilliance and
immutable status he strode as a colossus
never appreciating that those behind him
weren't followers but executioners.

It was not until 2010 and the disasterous
Inquiry that those in the JLP gained their
voice, and together decided to force
Golding out.

They knew what the public believed, they
let Golding make a clown of himself with
denials.

Holness, a protoge of Eddie Seaga knew
how to create a self-destruct mechanism,
and made sure that while Bruce fell apart
his stock would rise.

Why should Holness have gained the greatest
support of the people?

The teachers hated him, he didn't so one
thing to assist education during his time
in office.

He was not a long time stalwart as Pernel
Charles or a respected Ken Baugh, he was
just there...

Unlike a Paulwell, who during the PNP's term
became the giant killer who defeat C&W, unlike
a young Portia Simpson who would stand in front
of a bulldozer, Holness never did anything.

So how did he gain so much standing?

Statistics are easy to manipulate. Everyone
who takes Sociology 101 can write a treatise
on it.

Where one does the survey is crucial, what
the demographic is; hence taking a survey
in an area which is strong for Manchester
United F.C. will turn up different results
than taking one in Arsenal F.C. territory.

All Holness had to do was get the proper
place, the proper demographics and he would
appear to be the most popular member of
the JLP.

Anyone who writes online knows how to
manipulate hits; knows that traffic is
sent to a site by Google.

If one can hit on the right Search Terms
and sort of seed the path, thousands
maybe millions of people will click on
the site and their click raises the item
higher in results so that the items on
the first page of a Google may not be
the best but have had the most hits.

This kind of self-filling simpleton rally
is the paradigm Holness used.

If the crowd is marching behind him, the
simpletons join the crowd.

Golding saw it coming and couldn't get
out of the way. He was forced out, he
didn't resign; that speech was crafted
for him and as a zombie he read it, word
for word.

Those who had gotten the early copies
of the speech followed along, insuring
he kept to the script.

The special reference to youth almost
gagged Bruce Golding. He was never a
man who thought youth some special
magic in politics.

But the reference was there to guide
the public to Holness as a

"Secret Hideout, 1 Mile"

The Party hierarchs were trotted out
to support Holness, and they dare not
buck the tide.

Mike Henry knew he was going nowhere
but the grave so didn't have to
attend the coven at Terra Nova...
the coven which could NOT be held
at Party Headquarters on Belmont
road due to the large number of
persons in the JLP who were not
supportive of this kind of Holness
coup.

For the next weeks Bruce Golding
must pose as P.M. for a Party that
despises him.

And finally he realises it.

The Resignation of Bruce Golding

On Sunday, September 25, 2011, thre was a banner running
along the bottom of the TV screen, stating that
Bruce Golding had resigned.

Then, a Bulletin cut in, the announcers repeating the
same remark in ten different ways.

Reporters on spot were trying to get information, and
there wasn't any.

The final remarks before the Bulletin ended was that
it May be true.

On Monday, 26th, the resignation was confirmed by
reporters shoving microphones into the faces of
members of the JLP who were leaving a meeting.

Let me make a Contrast here.

In 1992, Michael Manley, then President of the PNP
and Prime Minister, called a private meeting at the
conference centre to which members of the Party
were invited in which he announced his resignation to them.

Subsequently, the Nation was personally informed that
he would resign and that inter party elections would be held.

He knew he 'owed' the nation some sort of explanation,
he knew he owed his Party, those who voted for him some
kind of alert so that the first time they wouldn't hear
about it is when someone rang them up. Or they happened
to hear it over the radio.

If anything proves the complete arrogance and corruption
of Bruce Golding it is the manner in which he resigned.

Over 24 hours and he has not seen it fit to make any
statement to the nation as to why. So Speculation reigns.

Some Labourites say it is because the JLP will never win
another election with him as President and Prime Minister.
This is usually followed by silence then some kind of
touting of another candidate for Party President.

Labourites, especially those veranda sitters who are
so far from any connection to the Party they could
live in Trinidad, refuse to appreciate how the
Jamaican people viewed the stonewalling of the
extradition of Dudus, the lies about hiring Manatt,
then the abrupt about face and sending in the army
to murder the people of Tivoli Gardens, Golding's
constituency.

That Golding didn't see it fit to inform his
Central Committee, his Constituency, his
followers of his intention raises a great deal
of speculation.

Chief among them is the fact that he was
indicted by the same Grand Jury which brought
charges against Christopher Coke as a
'criminal associate'.

Those with good memories may reecall Golding's
threat to sue ABC Broadcasting for slander,
which was quickly forgotten as what they had
reported is true.

That Golding might be resigning as part of a
'deal' formed by the pleading guilty of Coke
is unknown.

What is expected is that after enought people
tell Golding that he is supposed to speak to
the public about his resignation, that he will
come on television and make a bunch of empty
remarks, many not true, then disappear into
the woodwork.

And Labourites, especially veranda sitters,
will sprain their tongues trying to match
pieces which do not fit.

The Bottom is About to Fall Out

As the Jamaica Labour Party took power in 1980 housing prices began to rise.

The market had been ridiculously depressed due to fears that 'communism' was about to arrive and if one had two houses the government would take one and give it to the poor.

People sold mansions in Beverly Hills for the same price asked for a house in Rockfort.

As the JLP took power, prices increased by 100%; and people were buying everything they saw with a 10% down, expecting a rapid turnover.

The house that had been purchased for 45k in 1981 changed hands as soon as the transfer was stamped. Some lawyers slowed the process by fixing money on 90 day calls which were paying 30%.
By the time the purchaser got the house he paid 90k for he could sell it for 240k.

Eventually there was the crash.

The over extended mortgagee could not meet payments because he couldn't get rid of the houses he owned. Others borrowed and left the country; after all, if one had paid 17k for this house which is now worth 4M, get a mortgage and leave.

Banks became the major land holder in Jamaica.
Billions of dollars of property, thousands of dollars of liquidity, and having to pay it out as interest on debentures and other investments.

In the early 90s, banks failed, properties were foreclosed and soon inhabited by squatters. The PNP government created a scheme, which, if intelligently run would have solved the problem.

Of course, being a Kakiscracy, nothing is ever intelligently run in Jamaica.

Squatting was the only way to get land for many people, and so many places turned from Middle Class areas into slums.

In some areas, one house might be captured, the owners of the others would fight to gain a mortgage so as to rent out the premises and live elsewhere or sell, below 'list value' and escape.

In some areas the prices kept going up but there was still buyers. In others it became a joke.

A Valuator, ignoring negative dirt, that is the location of the building and going for how many square foot at how many dollars per foot, insured that vacancy until dismantled by squatters was the result.

Premises in Kingston have stood vacant for thirty years. No one will ever pay more than 10% of the asking cost.

By the 2000s there was a short period of true value.
A house going for 10M was actually worth it.

By 2010 the cost of rental, of purchase became so ridiculous that there is a revolving door of tenents for property which will never be sold.

Persons who assumed they would make the bag on rentals are often out of pocket, because the in and out of renters and the wear and tear leaves many owners with unpaid electricity and water bills, damage and the need to quickly find others to bear the burdens.

With so many houses foreclosed and auctions fetching only a fraction of the so-called value, the time to act is almost over.

Where a land owner of a lot in ghetto which is used as a toilet by the neighbors is 'valued' at 1.8M, (and the only purchase offer received in the past fifteen years has been for 150k) it is clear that the Fantasy which caused the collapse in the late 80s/early 90s is coming over the horizon.

The owner of that lot could probably borrow One Million Dollars. Handing the bank his title, he can happily incur a foreclosure. The Bank, seised of a toilet will never be able to sell it for even half that price.

With money tight, with property overvalued, a defaulting on a mortgage is the wisest investment an owner can make.

The dangers of course, as seen in America, is that when the bottom falls out of housing, when money is difficult to come by, honest mortgagees who lose their job will join the ranks of squatters.

And another financial crisis will engulf Jamaica.