Tweet
-
-
Re: dwl dwl dwl dwl dwl bravo indeed
[img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70394-bawlout.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/704555_dwl.gif[/img]
funny as it is AND on point it is actually very real and sad [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif[/img] The Jamaican Govt really needs to be held accountable for selling out wi land soh [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/bexbad.gif[/img] -
Hmmmmmmm..mek u tink , dont?
Comment
-
Let's show them we have the cojones
Let's show them we have the cojones
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The nation is anxiously watching to see how the scandal at the RIU hotel in Montego Bay is going to play out and, specifically, if this Government is about to sell our birthright for a mess of Spanish potage.
Without the requisite approval, the hotel chain RIU is building two four-floor buildings at lot 1-3 Mahoe Bay, three kilometers east of the Sangster International Airport. The matter takes on greater urgency because the hotel is directly in the flight path of aircraft taking off or landing at the Sangster airport.
Environmentalists have also informed us that the Spanish-owned hotel has also breached the setback from the highwater mark, thereby endangering the nearby beaches because of its serious potential for erosion.
They have also warned that a greater room count than legally approved by our state agencies could bring untold sewage problems, an area in which many big developers do not have an enviable record.
Moreover, the hotel is accused of carrying on construction activity which is a nuisance to neighbours, outside of the specified daily hours of 8:00 am to 6:00 pm and on Sundays.
The picture that is emerging is one that is hard for us to fathom. We find it hard to believe that anyone, let alone a foreign guest, could act with such wanton disregard for the concerns of the host country.
Let us back up a bit. The RIU hotel in 2006 sought approval for a four-storey hotel. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) denied the request, saying that the hotel is in the flight path of the airport and it could only build three storeys.
The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), through the Natural Resources Conservation Authority Act, also frowned on the request for four floors and approved three.
The St James Parish Council, acting under the Town and Country Planning (St James parish) Provisional Development Order (Confirmation) Notification 1982, upheld the decision not to grant the four floors and instead approved six three-storey buildings. The building permit was stamped and dated June 29, 2007, bearing the signature of the superintendent of roads and works, Mr Tubal Brown.
Lo and behold, two to three weeks ago, a building plan in Spanish, signed and stamped, bearing the signature of Mr Brown, mysteriously appeared on the Parish Council files. The million-dollar question, or maybe the millions of dollars question is: who is behind the appearance of this plan showing four floors?
It is abundantly clear that Mr Brown has much to explain. It is also abundantly clear that the RIU hotel has an equal responsibility to say how it came to be building an unapproved fourth floor using this plan that had not gone before the established channels at the Parish Council or NEPA.
Furthermore, what could explain why RIU would want to persist with a fourth floor that would put the lives of Jamaicans and other airline passengers at risk? Everyone who flies into and out of Sangster is in danger.
The Jamaican Government must move with dispatch to get the Spanish to correct this breach before it is too late. They must demolish that fourth floor now. There is grave danger in further delay.
No behind-the-scenes negotiation with the Spanish investor must be countenanced. Let us show that we have cojones.
We are not a two-bit country.Comment
-
Development at what cost?
Development at what cost?
HENLEY MORGAN
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Like a careless person with legs spread apart, Jamaica is wide open for business. The resulting rape of the country's resources, culture and values in full view of an applauding audience of our citizens who are hungry for power, money and jobs is pathetic.
Foreign takeover of the economy under the guise of increasing foreign direct investment is a sign of economic success in an age of globalisation - so we have been brainwashed to believe. It is time to remove the scales from our eyes in order to see what is really happening.
Recent front-page stories in our local newspapers reported on a major Spanish hotel development in Montego Bay, which has allegedly breached the building code by going up four instead of three floors. If that was all, it need not cause one to have sleepless nights. Word on the streets in Montego Bay is that a full Spanish invasion is in progress.
Some have cited as evidence of this troubling situation the Spanish-managed Sangster International Airport where advertisement contracts, food concessionaires and a whole slew of tourism-related businesses are allegedly going to Spanish interests apparently without tender. At least one case of what appears to be unfair competition is heading for the courts.
Any Jamaican who has even casually followed reports in the press would suspect that there is more to the construction boom taking place along the north coast of the island than meets the eye. There are constant complaints about damage to the environment. But it's when one views the so-called progress from the air that the extent of the damage can be realistically assessed. Jamaica is fast losing its competitive advantage as a country with great beaches. With hotels built almost on the shoreline and the threat of rising tides from global warming, not only are we losing our beaches, but a catastrophe is looming.
The Spanish are here, but the Chinese just keep coming. Has anyone stopped to notice that immigrant Chinese have virtually taken over the retail grocery and haberdashery trade? In downtown Kingston and spreading to other urban centres across the island, the destruction of small local retailers is at an advanced stage. The prevailing mantra is, "If you can't beat them, join them" and so many Jamaican shop keepers are managing to stay alive by forming alliances with the "invading force". Not until one of the major local distributors collapses will our policymakers, city managers and government revenue collectors step in to tame and control this specious beast of development.
From the Rollins land deal at Rose Hall to the sale of Air Jamaica slots at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom, there is a lingering suspicion among Jamaicans that those who negotiate on behalf of the rest of us, either out of desperation to see investments come to the island or the low value they place on national assets, have sold us out. That is one reason why I am not jumping up and down celebrating the recent announcement of government's decision to introduce casino gambling and reap the "rich" rewards of multi-billion US dollar investments.
[b]What are we giving up or putting at risk to get this golden egg laid by a goose? Will it take us further down a road (gambling) which like prostitution, pornography and human trafficking has an economic value but is known to be detrimental on a larger scale and over the longer term?[/b] Will it further erode pricing of rooms and attractions in the segment of Jamaica's tourism where locals who kept the industry alive when others turned their backs on it are heavily invested? Will it be a further retreat down the path of enclave/garrison tourism (tourism behind high walls with a sentinel posted at the gate), which benefits only a few and delays government solving the problem of crime and violence which affects every Jamaican? Will it be another case where we sell off prime national assets (land) at a discounted rate to gain low-paying jobs and the payroll taxes that these generate while the fleshy part of the fruit is repatriated overseas? Will the minister of tourism give to me, a citizen of this broke but still proud country, an iron- clad guarantee that we will not be told later on that the deal was a bad one entered into by the previous administration?
Our painful recent history has been one of government ignoring the opinions, sentiments and warnings of significant segments of the Jamaican populace, undermining local investors, creating an un-level playing field, and discounting the value of our national assets to gain foreign investment. Years later, there is nothing to show for it: no significant increase in Gross Domestic Product, no improved education, no better social services, no reduced crime and violence.
I, like every well-thinking Jamaican, welcome foreign investment and the resulting development. But based on current trends in how we go about attracting such investments, one must ask: development at what cost?
[email protected]
Comment
-
Re: dwl dwl dwl dwl dwl bravo indeed
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TanyaZeen</div><div class="ubbcode-body">[img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70394-bawlout.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/704555_dwl.gif[/img]
funny as it is AND on point it is actually very real and sad [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif[/img] The Jamaican Govt really needs to be held accountable for selling out wi land soh [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/bexbad.gif[/img] </div></div> Yeef no like si teef carry long bag.
What benefit has Jamaica get from the current crop of hoteliers?
chamber maid and bar man work?
the inport all the top executives,and ban dark skin from front desk. as to the farm produce.
It ios yime for a change of investor base. the current crop has not benefited the country.Comment
-
Re: Let's show them we have the cojones
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Like a careless person with legs spread apart, Jamaica is wide open for business. </div></div>
<span style="color: #660000">Actually most so-called careless people are not so careless, but quite deliberate, contemplating the price arrangement, and protection issues, before the legs get spread apart...so don't discredit them...</span>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Lo and behold, two to three weeks ago, a building plan in Spanish, signed and stamped, bearing the signature of Mr Brown, mysteriously appeared on the Parish Council files. The million-dollar question, or maybe the millions of dollars question is: who is behind the appearance of this plan showing four floors?</div></div>
<span style="color: #660000">I think you answered your own question with, "the millions of dollars question..."</span>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Furthermore, what could explain why RIU would want to persist with a fourth floor that would put the lives of Jamaicans and other airline passengers at risk? Everyone who flies into and out of Sangster is in danger.</div></div>
<span style="color: #660000">An aircraft soon decide this matter...unfortunately, at the cost of some lives, and an expensive aircraft...</span>Comment
-
RIU Hotel defiant
RIU Hotel defiant
Disputed fourth floors to stay while approval is sought
Thursday, May 01, 2008
THE Riu Hotel Group appeared yesterday to be digging in for a long fight to keep its three four-floor buildings at Mahoe Bay near Montego Bay, which are in the direct flight path to the Sangster International Airport.
In its first public comment on the scandal, which broke last week, over the unapproved four-floor buildings, the hotel said it would remove "architectural decorations on top of the buildings" but suggested that the disputed fourth floor on three buildings would remain, while approval is sought from the relevant state agencies.
Riu, in a press statement, also appeared to point to the St James Parish Council's Superintendent of Roads and Works, Tubal Brown as the man who should answer for an unapproved "revised plan" that the hotel said it had submitted to the council, but which Montego Bay Mayor Charles Sinclair said had not been logged with the municipality. Neither was any of the requisite fees received, said Sinclair.
"...These revised plans were submitted to the Parish Council and approved," Riu maintained in its press statement.
But the Spanish-owned hotel chain admitted that it could not accurately reconstruct the sequence of events around its submission and approval of the "revised plan".
"Accordingly, Riu will resubmit the revised plans to the Parish Council who will forward copies to NEPA (National Environment and Planning Agency) and the other relevant agencies to have the three buildings with four storeys approved," the statement said.
Mayor Sinclair had up to yesterday not received an explanation he requested from Brown as to how his signature and the Council's stamp appeared on a building plan in Spanish that did not follow the established channels.
Brown's transfer to St Ann has been put on hold pending the investigations into the appearance of the mysterious building plan.
And as the controversy deepened, Prime Minister Bruce Golding has instructed his junior minister, Daryl Vaz, to provide him a full report on the matter today, to put him in a position to take action.
"I am sure that will be followed by a meeting of the prime minister with all the relevant parties," Vaz said.
For its part, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) yesterday sent an independent commissioned land surveyor, Grantley Kindness, to Montego Bay, to measure the absolute height of the buildings above ground and sea levels.
In response to Riu's claim in its statement that the CAA had asked the hotel to reduce its main building from six floors to four, the deputy director general for regulatory affairs, Oscar Derby, denied last night that the authority had specified the number of floors to be built.
"We gave a height. It does not matter how many floors are fitted in, as long as they do not exceed the approved height," Derby told the Observer. "We don't know how many floors can fit in so what we are concerned with is the measurement at the highest point of the building."
Riu's press statement did not comment on a stop order, notice of which was served on the Mahoe Bay property by the St James Parish Council about midday yesterday.
"The stop notice identifies the breaches and where they are located and this means they cannot continue to work where the breaches exist," Mayor Sinclair told the Observer by telephone yesterday.
"We have done what the Town and Country Act, section 22 (a) requires, that where an approval has been breached in any way the first action is to serve a stop notice. So we have done that and we expect them to seek to make the necessary adjustments to correct the breaches and I am told that they are in the process of doing that," he said.
But Sinclair pointed out that the developers were "free to continue" construction where there was no breach.
The stop notice followed a site visit and inspection by teams from the National Land Agency, the NEPA and the Parish Council on Tuesday. The hotel has also been told to stop construction activities outside the permitted daily hours from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm and on Sundays.Comment
-
Re: RIU Hotel defiant
Comment
-
Re: RIU Hotel defiant
what specifically can be done to stop the construction? short of obeah, i mean?
the Spanish dem seem to have every confidence that nobody really can stop them doing what they want to do.Comment
-
u know , mi a read conflicting reports from yaad
Emergency meeting called to address RIU building controversy
Thursday, 01 May 2008
The circumstances which led to the unapproved construction of a section of the RIU Hotel in St. James are to be the focus of an emergency meeting of the Parish Council Services Commission.
The meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday, is to decide whether action should be taken against persons involved in the building approval process at the St. James Parish Council.
News of the meeting comes ahead of the submission of a Parish Council report to Prime Minister Bruce Golding Thursday.
The Parish Council on Wednesday served a stop notice halting construction on sections of the 700-room hotel.
The order was presented to the developers following reports that the fourth floors of three buildings were built without approval from the Parish Council.
When RJR News visited the hotel on Wednesday, workmen were seen knocking down sections of the building which is situated close to the Sangster International Airport.
A statement from the RIU Group said three buildings at the centre of the controversy were found to have architectural decorations on their roofs.
The RIU Group pointed out that while the architectural decorations would not pose a threat to aircraft they will be altered to come within the maximum height permitted.
Comment
-
Re: u know , mi a read conflicting reports from yaad
sound like them would need to knock down more than that. wat a ting.
vannie you fi tap change di tikle dem enuh caw right now mi lass di miss jamaica "i don't have to speak patwa to represent jamaicans" discussion caw mi cyaan fine ie unda di original tikle. cho man.Comment
-
Re: u know , mi a read conflicting reports from yaad
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: HemGee</div><div class="ubbcode-body">sound like them would need to knock down more than that. wat a ting.
vannie you fi tap change di tikle dem enuh caw right now mi lass di miss jamaica "i don't have to speak patwa to represent jamaicans" discussion caw mi cyaan fine ie unda di original tikle. cho man. </div></div>
Comment
-
Enforcement order to be served on RIU ..PM sez
Enforcement order to be served on RIU
Thursday, 01 May 2008
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has intervened in the controversial construction of an unapproved fourth floor at the RIU Hotel in Mahoe Bay St. James.
The Prime Minister said his government will not tolerate what he called a blatant violation nor would it entertain any request for breaches to be regularised.
A release from the Office of the Prime Minister Thursday stated that an enforcement order is to be served immediately on RIU requiring them to comply with the approved building plans.
This development comes after a meeting at Jamaica House Thursday afternoon between the Prime Minister, State Ministers Robert Montaque and Daryl Vaz, officials of the St. James Parish Council led by Mayor Charles Sinclair, the National Environment and Planning Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority.
Mr. Golding said the Police are to be called in to investigate possible criminal violations in relation to the role of the Superintendent of Roads and Works in the St. James Parish Council and his refusal to provide any information in the matter.Comment
-
Re: Enforcement order to be served on RIU ..PM sez
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style='font-size: 8pt'>Enforcement order to be served on RIU
Thursday, 01 May 2008
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has intervened in the controversial construction of an unapproved fourth floor at the RIU Hotel in Mahoe Bay St. James.
The Prime Minister said his government will not tolerate what he called a blatant violation nor would it entertain any request for breaches to be regularised.
A release from the Office of the Prime Minister Thursday stated that an enforcement order is to be served immediately on RIU requiring them to comply with the approved building plans.
This development comes after a meeting at Jamaica House Thursday afternoon between the Prime Minister, State Ministers Robert Montaque and Daryl Vaz, officials of the St. James Parish Council led by Mayor Charles Sinclair, the National Environment and Planning Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority.
Mr. Golding said the Police are to be called in to investigate possible criminal violations in relation to the role of the Superintendent of Roads and Works in the St. James Parish Council and his refusal to provide any information in the matter. </span> </div></div>
For sure somebody got a kickback for turning a blind eye on this breach.
I remain guardedly optimistic about the current government's ability and will to enforce the law of the land on all its residents, citizens, and visitors. If the government is successful and consistent, this will be a great step for Jamaica.Comment
Comment