Moontown

JamaicaObserver.com

EDWARD Seaga, former leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and Member of Parliament for West Kingston is calling for the resignation of his successor, Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

The man who built the community of Tivoli Gardens, Seaga is accusing Golding of mismanaging the United States extradition request for local area don Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, who is wanted on gun and drug trafficking charges.

“Frankly that is my view because he is showing day by day that he cannot cope,” Seaga said in an interview aired on TVJ last night.

He said that Golding should have intervened in the extradition process and should seek another constituency. During a tour of the community yesterday residents strongly expressed their opposition to their MP whom they accuse of abandoning them to the assault by security forces that began Sunday.

The assault began after gunmen aligned to Coke attacked police. 73 people have been confirmed killed so far amid allegations that the death toll could be much higher. Just four guns have been seized together with more than 7,000 rounds of ammunition.

Seaga has said that an atrocity took place. He is also calling for Coke to surrender himself to authorities. (Jamaica

Coke

Golding

Wilberne Persaud, Financial Gleaner Columnist

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News reports, commentaries and opinion pieces on contemporary events in the press are often considered first drafts of history. This is true to the extent that all the information is never available in the heat of the moment. So, for instance, there is a 30-year bar on confidential deliberations of state. We shall not, for now, know of communications between the US and Jamaican governments on the matter of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke’s pending extradition to New York to stand trial, having achieved the unenviable tag ‘drug kingpin’.

We do, however, have sufficient information to piece together elements of reality, so badly mismanaged, that have led to terrible waste of human life and immediate deconstruction of Jamaica’s fragile, faltering steps to fix our economy; not to mention the glimpse of a potentially better future for our population.

In August 2009, the US requested Coke’s extradition. This was denied. It was not put through the requisite legal procedures because critical evidence was said to be tainted - illegally obtained. Nine months later, with no apparent change in these circumstances, our prime minister sanctions extradition proceedings and an arrest warrant is issued. Attempts to execute this warrant created four days of siege in a military/police operation to combat marauding criminal elements whose objective seems to be Coke’s protection. As this is written, at least 44 lives have been lost. Forty-four weapons have not been retrieved. Perhaps some of the dead were not combatant criminals. Perhaps others took their weapons and fled. Who knows?

Edge of the precipice

From the standpoint of the Jamaican nation, handling of this whole episode, the set of decisions taken by the main protagonists - the Government and JLP on the one hand, led by Prime Minister Golding, and alleged drug kingpin Dudus on the other, warrants but one truly valid description: unadulterated, or rather unmitigated, completely unwise, dangerous and sadly but entirely predictable, deadly folly. To an outside observer, the whole shebang may appear inexplicable. Not so. The simple truth is that garrison politics inexorably led us to this edge of the precipice as a state and society.

More than 30 years ago, Carl Stone, my late colleague to whom Jamaican society still owes a debt of gratitude for our fragile, damaged democracy, expressed fear about the nexus between criminality and politics. He worried that “what started in garrison communities could easily be extended to the national level, in which we all become hostages to warlords and leaders using violence as an organising principle”. Violence, as an organising principle, has finally become an undeniable reality. We can walk around like zombies in denial about it no longer, it is in the open.

A friend writing from New York and commenting on Franklin Johnston’s (’Two-faced Golding, vile senators, a corrupt state’, Jamaica Observer, May 21, 2010) candid view of Golding’s failings raises the question of fear. He must, he says, “respect, admire and commend the man, although ensconced in the security of a UK hideaway he has little to fear.” He speaks of a column in a newspaper, so op-ed colum-nists and journalists have to fear. But this is mild. Peter Phillips has been threatened, so have RJR news reporters. God knows who else. MPs ignobly scampered from their cars into Gordon House. Our former and current prime ministers, lords of the garrisons, dare not, it appears, do a walkabout of their former and current constituency! The political ombudsman, public defender and religious leaders take their place. This is the reality. The foreign press willingly risks describing spades. We’ll stop and listen now, won’t we?

But why has Stone’s terrible fear come to pass? The fact is, our Chief Servant, ‘Driva’ Bruce Golding, presents an appearance more of a creature of contending forces, not the embodiment of the set of guiding principles [his NDM sojourn] and a vision for self and country that he is impatient to implement. For his return to the JLP, there were complicated and drawn-out negotiations before he was able take his place in Parliament and become the effective ‘leader’. Dudus, it is said, blocked the proposal of JLP stalwart and Seaga protégé, Ms Babsy Grange, as member of parliament for West Kingston; Golding, it is said, was his choice. It appears that from the very beginning he has been unable to develop that aura of leadership associated with his predecessors Bustamante, Shearer and Seaga, who were seen as ‘undisputed leader’; even the description ‘leader’ among equals now seems stretched. This must, in part, be a result of his razor-thin majority in Parliament but competition with ‘President’ Dudus couldn’t have helped.

Here are the plain facts that were apparently either mis-understood or overlooked. First, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips’ representation of a foreign entity had to be in the public domain. It could not be kept secret. JLP and seasoned lawyer Harold Brady should have known this. Coke and his lawyers, Prime Minister Golding and JLP strategists must also have known that, given the Shower Posse’s unique tactic of no discrimination between law-enforcement officers and gangland rivals and the drug-kingpin designation meant the US government would not relent. Resistance was futile and could only lead to a tremendous backlash, as it has done, for Jamaica.

It is now being said that Coke, recalling the fate of his late father, vaporised by a white flash in his jail cell and older brother allegedly shot by police, prefers surrender to US authorities than a cell in a Jamaican jail. So what was the purpose of the nine-month stand-off? What was the purpose of the folly of the claim or admission that Bruce Golding puts party first? Why must junior minister Ronald Robinson take the fall as scapegoat? Were the consequences not so horrible, this could only be described as a comedy of errors. Yet the crisis, the mayhem, the enforced jolt to emerge from denial of the garrison cancer, the call of the dead, may yet cause Jamaican society to demand of our politicians that they cauterise it, once and for all. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Fish fillets

Avia Collinder, Business Writer

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MOAF) has exercised its rights under World Trade Organisation rules to suspend imports of cheap tilapia from South East Asia.

The ban was implemented in April following concerns of the local veterinary division that the imports have not been meeting sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards.

Dr Marc Panton, chief technical director in the MOAF, said Tuesday that the action was based on international reports received by his ministry, which was also moving aggressively to reinstate the once-vibrant tilapia sector, which was wiped out by the cheaper imports.

An Aquaculture Fish Monitoring Committee has been created by the ministry for the revival of aquaculture and to calibrate supply and demand, he said.

“We were the largest producer of tilapia in the Caribbean but, due to a liberal trade policy, productive capacity was wiped out. We have the capacity to produce and we want to bring it back.”

Revealing that commitment for the purchase of 30,000 kilograms monthly had already been received from Burger King and KFC, the technical director said the ministry was in talks with local producers who had asked for the additional commitment that their investments would not be wiped out by another about-face in import policy.

The fast-food sector was previously a strong market for Jamaican tilapia, but lost a big source of supply when Jamaica Broilers Group gave up local markets in favour of exports in the last decade, resulting in a downgrading of fish on several menu boards for a while. The poultry group, however, lost big on fish overseas sales and withdrew from the tilapia export market in 2008.

Development of land fishing, Panton said, would both provide employment and reduce pressure on sea sources of fish, which are currently depleted.

As noted by the 2009 Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica, a publication of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), marine fish production was relatively stable, but inland fish declined by 12.6 per cent - leading to an overall decline in fish production of 5.3 per cent.

The overall de-cline was due to increased competition from cheaper imports,as well as reduced consumer demand, reflecting the impact of the downturn in economic activities on consumer spending, the PIOJ said.

At the close of 2009, there were 19,738 fishers and 4,986 registered boats operating from 187 fishing beaches. This compared with 18,250 fishers and 4,936 registered boats operating from 187 fishing beaches at the end of 2008.

But, real value-added fishing is expected improve this year based on programmes which assist farmers in terms of technology, markets, extension services and loan financing.

Panton said that tilapia required by Burger King and KFC were fillets of a particular size.

The ministry, he stated, would be solving the problem of what to do with the remainder of the fish.

Locally, he added, there was also a strong demand for whole fish, pointing out that the reluctance to consume land fish, because of tradition and taste, was changing.

The ministry’s Fisheries Division last year launched a nationwide campaign to have all fishermen registered and licensed for planning purposes.

It is estimated that more than 30,000 fisherfolk - of whom approximately 89 per cent are unregistered - operate locally.

According to Panton, legislation to ensure the sustainability of the industry being pushed for passage by year end includes the regulation of destructive spear-ground fishing, and changing the size of wire mesh on nets from 1.25 inches to 1.5 inches to allow younger fish to escape.

Compressor diving is also to be regulated with a view to reducing its harmful impact.

The changes, the technical director said, will be implemented in consultation with the sector. He added that loss of income to fishermen would be compensated through land fishing, community-based aquaculture projects. (Jamaica Gleaner)

avia.collinder@gleanerjm.com

Jamalco plant in Clarendon. - File

Contractor General Greg Christie has slammed the Government for its attempt to justify a proposed multibillion-dollar deal to sell its 45 per cent stake of the Jamalco alumina refinery to Chinese firm Zhuhai Hongfan Non-ferrous Metals and Chemical Engineering Limited (Hongfan). He accused government bureaucrats of “obfuscating” the real issues when it responded to the initial alarm he raised about the deal.

In a media release, responding to concerns raised by the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) two weeks ago, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Mining (MEM), Hillary Alexander, pointed to, among other things, operating losses at Clarendon Alumina Production Company (CAP), which created a debt of more than US$400 million, an obligation, she said which cannot be accommodated in the current economic programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

But in a sharp rebuke, Christie described the ministry’s response as an “interesting attempt … to obfuscate the real issues which are the subject of the OCG’s contention in the matter”.

“As you are very much aware, the OCG’s primary contention is that the proposed multibillion-dollar Government of Jamaica/Port Reliant/Hongfan contract award is not one which was borne out of an open, competitive and transparent tender process,” the OCG letter which was released to the media said.

“Indeed, to date,” the contractor general continued, “you have failed to provide to the OCG an acceptable explanation for your ministry’s aberrant and potentially damaging conduct in not putting this major asset divestment to public competitive tender.”

In the letter, which was copied to the prime minister and other state officials, Christie pointed to the ministry’s references to the “drain on the public purse” and the allusion that the IMF standby agreement made no provision for the servicing of CAP’s J$36-billion debt.

“While the OCG is acutely aware of the referenced constraints, we must, however, respectfully caution you that neither of these two considerations gives you, your ministry or the GOJ a licence to bypass those of the government contract principles which are mandated by Section 4(1) of the Contractor General Act.”

“The law on the matter is crystal clear, and you are bound by it,” the scolding continued. “Government contracts must be ‘awarded impartially and on merit’ and ‘in circumstances, which do not involve impropriety or irregularity’, and it is the OCG that is empowered to make this final determination - not you, the MEM or unspecified ‘experts in the industry.”

Questionable actions

Christie maintained that ministry’s action was questionable, and had not been subject to a competitive tender process.

The Chinese firm had all but put pen to paper to close the deal when the OCG stepped in.

Any agreement between the Government and the Chinese needs the blessing of Alcoa Minerals, Jamaica’s partner in Jamalco.

Under the Jamalco agreement, Alcoa has the right to match any offer made by a third party for the Government’s stake in the company.

Once equal partners, Jamalco is now 45 per cent minority owned by Jamaica’s Clarendon Alumina Productions and 55 per cent by Alcoa.

The American firm, though always the operating partner, gained the additional 5.0 per cent equity in exchange for its financing of a 125,000-tonne Early Works Expansion project that was meant to be the precursor to a larger upgrading of the refinery.

In the middle of the decade, Alcoa and the Government agreed on a US$1-billion project to double Jamalco’s capacity, but that arrangement foundered on their inability to secure the supply of LNG as a power source for the plant.

Alexander was unavailable to comment on the matter. (Jamaica Gleaner)

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com

World and Olympic 100 and 200 metres champion Usain Bolt crosses the finish line to win the men’s 300 metres race at the IAAF World Challenge Golden Spike athletic meeting in Ostrava, Czech Republic, yesterday. Bolt clocked 30.97 seconds. - AP photos

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (CMC):

For once, Asafa Powell overshadowed his more celebrated compatriot Usain Bolt at the rain-soaked IAAF World Challenge Golden Spike track and field meet on a wet, chilly Thursday night.

Powell clocked a world-leading time of 9.83 seconds in the men’s 100 metres dash to erase three hundredths-of-a-second from the previous best this season set by Bolt in Daegu, South Korea, earlier this month.

“I was disappointed when I saw the rain, but I was happy then when the rain stopped, shortly before the start,” said Powell.

“I’m very satisfied with the time. The weather condition didn’t mean a lot. I feel good, I’m in good shape.”

Bolt also appeared at the meet, but failed in his bid to set a new world record in winning a rarely contested 300 metres, and this allowed the performance of the 27-year-old Powell to capture the headlines.

Over the last two years, he has operated in the shadow of Bolt, whose record-setting in the Olympics in Beijing and the World Championships in Germany have made him a household name around the world.

Powell is seeking to re-establish his reputation this year, and he took a small step towards this goal, when he got out of the blocks quickly and ran unchallenged to the line, more than three metres ahead of his nearest rival.

Powell led a Jamaican sweep of the 100, with Lerone Clarke running 10.18 secs, and Dexter Lee a personal best of 10.20 secs.

World-best time improved

In victory, Powell also improved the world-best time over 100 yards to 9.07 seconds, after organisers of the meet took the split time at 91.41 metres.

Powell broke the previous best of 9.21 set by Charlie Greene of the United States 43 years ago.

Bolt missed the trick in the 300 by 12 hundredths-of-a-second, after a 20-minute delay for heavy showers.

The Olympic and World 100 and 200m champion clocked 30.97 seconds to finish well clear of compatriot Jermaine Gonzales, who clocked 32.49.

Bolt had a strong start, but several puddles on the track, and a strong headwind in the final straight, prevented him from taking away another of Michael Johnson’s world records.

At the Beijing Olympics, Bolt eclipsed Johnson’s 200m world record, but the American’s 30.85 over 300m was just beyond the Jamaican megastar.

Another victory for Jamaica came in the women’s 100, where women’s Olympic and World champion Shelly-Ann Fraser, whose exploits have also gone unnoticed, gained a timely boost of confidence.

Fraser won the 100 comfortably in 11.04, with Chandra Sturrup of the Bahamas second in 11.13, and Sherri-Ann Brooks of Jamaica third in 11.17 in a Caribbean clean sweep of the top spots in the women’s 100.

Lavern Spencer of St Lucia was second in the women’s high jump, where American Chaunte Howard Lowe cleared the bar at 1.98m to win.

Spencer cleared 1.92 to beat Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic in a count-back in an upset of the World indoor and outdoor champion.

Jamaican Delloreen Ennis-London also finished second in the women’s 100 hurdles, four hundredths-of-a-second behind Canadian winner Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, whose 12.69 was her fastest time of the year and the fourth-fastest in the world this season.

Jamaicans Shericka Williams (51.13) and Rosemarie Whyte (51.28) could finish no higher than second and third, respectively, in the women’s 400 metres, which was won by hometown girl Denisa Rosolova in 50.85.

Isa Phillips of Jamaica was the other English-speaking Caribbean national to make it to the podium, when he finished third in 49.16, behind Trinidad and Tobago-born American Kerron Clement (48.69). (Jamaica Gleaner)

As a result of the unrest and instability in the corporate area, some inner city residents have been unable to leave their homes for several days. Many have run out of food and medical supplies.

Food For The Poor - Jamaica is working with the Jamaica Red Cross to provide food and medical supplies to those in need.

The Jamaica Red Cross has made arrangements with the commanding officers leading the military operation to grant them access into Tivoli so food can be distributed.

The Red Cross said residents have not had access to food for several days. Additionally, efforts are being made to obtain medical assistance for those in need. Once the necessary approvals are obtained, other affected communities will be visited for similar distributions.

“We take our mission of serving the poor very seriously,” said Ryan Peralto, chief executive officer of Food For The Poor-Jamaica.

“We urge all Jamaicans to pray for our beloved nation as we seek to restore peace to our country.” (Jamaica Observer)

Residents of Tivoli Gardens look blankly at the media as Jamaica Defence Force soldiers stand guard during a media tour of the community yesterday. - photos by Ian Allen/Photographer

Children finally get a chance to stretch their legs after days of very little movement in the West Kingston community of Tivoli.

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Project for the Advancement of Childhood Education PACE (Canada) has expressed great concern for the well-being of children who were caught up in the violence associated with west Kingston.

According to a release the organisation sent, its president, Mary Anne Chambers, was calling on the Government and the Opposition, as well as security forces, to provide protection for the young.

“Children need our support and protection at all times and even more so during times like these. Media coverage has focused on the participation of women in the protests that are taking place. The media have also focused on the violent activities of gangs. We are not seeing reports of concern for children or of action being taken to protect the most vulnerable, young children,” she said.

PACE (Canada) provides financial support to approximately 235 basic schools in Jamaica, including 50 in the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew. The 10,000 children in the schools that PACE (Canada) sponsors are between three and five years of age, with a large number being from the inner cities.

Chambers further said: “The children are the real victims of all of this. They are at the most impressionable age and are no doubt traumatised by these incidents. We cannot have them thinking that what is happening is acceptable or the norm. There has never been a more important time to invest in these children. They represent Jamaica’s future and the island’s hope.” (Jamaica Observer)

Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke

This resident of Tivoli Gardens walks past soldiers who have been camped inside her community since Monday. - Ian Allen/Photographer

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OMG! The Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke extradition saga and the ensuing anarchy unleashed across parts of the island have done more than put people on edge; it has also got them tweeting, texting, facebook-ing and BlackBerry messaging like nobody’s business.

“Oh no! What’s happening in Jamaica? This place is looking more like Iraq than my island paradise!” wrote one confessed Facebook addict in Kingston, in a post made on Wednesday.

Helen Shirley, a 36-year-old business owner from St Andrew said she gets most of her updates on the situation in Kingston from Facebook and messages from friends on her BlackBerry.

“When I get up in the mornings there are already dozens of messages on my BlackBerry. That’s how my friends and I keep in touch in this hard time. We send messages to each other to find out if each other is okay. Sometimes we get information about what’s happening on Facebook and on BlackBerry before I even hear it on the news,” she said.

A service called On the Ground News was recently launched on Facebook and already has more than 5,000 members. The aim of the service is for Facebook-ers across the island to share their thoughts on the extradition affair and for those close to the action to tell what they are witnessing.

And as the saga drags on, the word continues to spread across the Internet.

Christopher Coke, an accused Jamaican don who, it has been reported, hates the limelight, is now a bona fide Internet celebrity. A Google search for ‘Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke’ on Wednesday produced 2,530,000 results, many from International media houses like The New York Times and the The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, a similar search for ‘Bruce Golding’ produced 274,000 results. (Jamaica Gleaner)