Portia's budget speech

[Wahalla]

Re: Portia's budget speech

And that comes fram a contemporary of the missing Fledgst...

I must admit while I think the speech was not long and filled with aunties homilies... I kinda feel sorry for her. I mean apart from the begining it was not all that different from Pattersons speeches.. And while Doctor Nemhard may be right in is analysis. It is simply more of the same. It is expected that the party in power will spend to get relected.

I actually like Golding budget presentations, I find them simple to understand but that is not a reccomendation because if I can understand his points then it shows how dumb it is. He actually has an easier job than the governetn side to poke holes in their presentation. Economics I learnt from Golding is not an exact science and each action has multiple effects both negative and positive. It is suppose to be the function of the goverment side to do a set of actions which are by enlarge positive. Since you can examine the consequence of each action, then it is their function to sell the negative.

It is worth noting in the parlimentary process, the actual buget is present by the minister of finance not the PM. So while Golding presentation was a rebuttal to Omars.. So while every one is looking at the pms they seem to ignore Omars.. Smoke and mirrors .....

[johnnycakes]

Re: Portia's budget speech

I found it most strange that P.M. Simpson made no mention atall about the debt situation in which some 70% or so of the nation's wealth is used to pay off it's debt obligations.
How is it possible to seriously discuss Jamaica's budget without mentioning that huge amount of money?
What is her plan for resolution of that problem?

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Portia's budget speech

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I found it most strange that P.M. Simpson made no mention atall about the debt situation in which some 70% or so of the nation's wealth is used to pay off it's debt obligations.
How is it possible to seriously discuss Jamaica's budget without mentioning that huge amount of money?
What is her plan for resolution of that problem?

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God left out:

Crime
Development
Debt and other important matters out of her speech, if this is what god has in store for Jamaica and Jamaicans then what good is god. Should we trust this emissary of god?

[wolmersboy]

Re: Portia's budget speech

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I found it most strange that P.M. Simpson made no mention atall about the debt situation in which some 70% or so of the nation's wealth is used to pay off it's debt obligations.
How is it possible to seriously discuss Jamaica's budget without mentioning that huge amount of money?
What is her plan for resolution of that problem?

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Excellent question! Maybe we will learn the answer after the Sunday Morning service......

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Portia's budget speech

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I found it most strange that P.M. Simpson made no mention atall about the debt situation in which some 70% or so of the nation's wealth is used to pay off it's debt obligations.
How is it possible to seriously discuss Jamaica's budget without mentioning that huge amount of money?
What is her plan for resolution of that problem?

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It is not 70% of the nation'swealth. It is 56% of the annual budget expenditure.the budget is not the same as the nation's wealth.
There was a time 40 years ago,during independence where 90% of the country's taxes use to go to britain,we have come a long way. taking into consideration that 40 years ago when jamaica got independence,UK only lefy 11 days operating cost in our Central bank,after centuries of rapiong the country's wealth. Hey It takes time.If jamaica did not borrow itv would not have much of the infrastructure it has today as inadequate as it is.
Without loans there is no saying that jamaica would not be in a similar position as Africa.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Portia's budget speech

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I found it most strange that P.M. Simpson made no mention atall about the debt situation in which some 70% or so of the nation's wealth is used to pay off it's debt obligations.
How is it possible to seriously discuss Jamaica's budget without mentioning that huge amount of money?
What is her plan for resolution of that problem?

[/ QUOTE ]
It is not 70% of the nation'swealth. It is 56% of the annual budget expenditure.the budget is not the same as the nation's wealth.
There was a time 40 years ago,during independence where 90% of the country's taxes use to go to britain,we have come a long way. taking into consideration that 40 years ago when jamaica got independence,UK only lefy 11 days operating cost in our Central bank,after centuries of rapiong the country's wealth. Hey It takes time.If jamaica did not borrow itv would not have much of the infrastructure it has today as inadequate as it is.
Without loans there is no saying that jamaica would not be in a similar position as Africa.

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DWL….so are we in a better position because of the loans?
Where is it written that Jamaica only had 11 days worth of Central Bank funds immediately after Independence?

Are you aware of a document by Hugh Small claiming that Jamaica only had 18 days worth of purchasing power left just before the 1980 Elections? This was thought to be one of the main reasons why Menlie chose to go to the polls.
The document was published as part of a two-part article on the collapse of the Financial and Business sector. It was published on or about November 29, 2004 in part 1 of the two part series.

I have been searching for it on my hard drive but I can find it, anyhow when I do it will destroy the theory that it was Eddie who screwed up the economy. If I am challenged I will personally buy a search from the Gleaner.

[Hopyoneson]

Re: Portia's budget speech

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Where is it written that Jamaica only had 11 days worth of Central Bank funds immediately after Independence?


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We collided again in 1962, shortly before Independence, when with Sir Alexander Bustamante in tow, he demanded that the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation fire me because of a commentary I did in which I belittled the British Government's farewell gifts to Jamaica: after 300 years "enough cash to run the government for 11 days and Up Park Camp, which they cannot take away

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Jamaica observer

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anyhow when I do it will destroy the theory that it was Eddie who screwed up the economy.

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Seaga's Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) swept to electoral victory on October 30, 1980, with a mandate for change as great as that won by Reagan less than a week later. On becoming Jamaica's new Prime Minister, Seaga promised an ambitious program to reverse eight years of socialism that virtually had destroyed the island's economy To do so, he promised to pursue a free market strategy. T'o show his strong pro-Western stance on foreign policy, Seaga broke relations with Cuba and downgraded ties with other Soviet bloc nations.

Today, Jamaica's great promise remains unfulfilled


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Yet the main cause of today's economic woes is that Seaga's government has failed to create a fertile investment cl-imate for foreign and local businessmen. The sad truth is that state control of Jamaica's economy has actually increased in some sectors since the JLP assumed power.

Jamaica is too important to U.S. and Caribbean regional security to allow its potential to remain. largely untapped Unless.Seaga can revitalize his nation's economy before the island's next elections which could be.called at any time, but must be held by the end of 1988 former Prime Minister Michael Manley and his socialist People's National Party (PNP) could return to power. This would be a blow to the validity of the free enterprise concept for the developing world and to U.S. efforts to stem Soviet and Cuban influence in the Caribbean As Seaga meets with top U.S. officials this week, they must make it clear that continuation of the nearly 1 billion in U.S. aid given to Jamaica since 1980 is contingent upon the rapid structural reforms that will ignite the power of free market forces for the country's 2.3 million inhabitants.


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Jamaican resistance was strong against policy reforms As such, the island's economy today is only marginally better than under the Manley regime, with 30 percent unemployment, a 25.5 percent inflathon rate; and a debt higher than Mexico and Brazil.


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SOURCE

[Hopyoneson]

Re: Portia's budget speech

Another side to the story

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Four decades ago then Prime Minister of Jamaica, Alexander Bustamante, arrived at my workplace, the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, to demand that I be dismissed, fired, because I had dared to expose a truth: that the British, after exploiting us for 300 years, were leaving us with the munificent gift of the Jamaican army headquarters –which they could not take with them – and enough money to service the government for 11 days.It was lese majeste to speak like that.

What I had forgotten to say at the time was that the British had 'forgotten' to return a quarter of a million pounds they 'borrowed' from us during the war, and had not recognised the blood sacrifice of Jamaicans killed in Imperial service in West Africa, in the Boer War, in both World Wars, or to even say they were sorry about the hundreds of thousands they had sacrificed in slavery in Jamaica and the millions elsewhere.


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SOURCE

About the writer

John Maxwell of the University of the West Indies (UWI) is the veteran Jamaican journalist who in 1999 single-handedly thwarted the Jamaican government's efforts to build houses at Hope, the nation's oldest and best known botanical gardens. His campaigning earned him first prize in the 2000 Sandals Resort's annual Environmental Journalism Competition, the region's richest journalism prize. He is also the author of How to Make Our Own News: A Primer for Environmentalists and Journalists. Jamaica, 2000.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Portia's budget speech

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Where is it written that Jamaica only had 11 days worth of Central Bank funds immediately after Independence?


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We collided again in 1962, shortly before Independence, when with Sir Alexander Bustamante in tow, he demanded that the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation fire me because of a commentary I did in which I belittled the British Government's farewell gifts to Jamaica: after 300 years "enough cash to run the government for 11 days and Up Park Camp, which they cannot take away

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Again you quote mere opinions, was John Maxwell Minister of Finance?
Where is his proof?

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Portia's budget speech

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Another side to the story

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Four decades ago then Prime Minister of Jamaica, Alexander Bustamante, arrived at my workplace, the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, to demand that I be dismissed, fired, because I had dared to expose a truth:

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What truth?
Where is the proof?
Who was John Maxwell that he was privy to information that no one then and now can verify?

[Hopyoneson]

Re: Portia's budget speech

Let me get this straight,so you can post some jamaican letter to the editor of the gleanah to support your position and in the same breath try to discredit a seasoned respected journalist from UWI??? my proof is staring you dead in the face, all you have proven yourself capable of lately is calling other names, insulting fellow posters and "figet whe yu put stuff pon di hard drive".

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Portia's budget speech

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Let me get this straight,so you can post some jamaican letter to the editor of the gleanah to support your position and in the same breath try to descredit a seasoned respected journalist from UWI??? my proof is staring you dead in the face, all you have proven yourself capable of lately is calling other names, insulting fellow posters and "figet whe yu put stuff pon di hard drive".

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First let me disabuse you of your erroneous positions. It was not a letter to the editor. It was an article on the financial collapse of the 90s that was published in two parts on November 29 and 30/Dec 1, 2005 in the Business Section of the Gleaner. The writer was quoting from a Cabinet Document table by Hugh Small then Minister of Finance.

As for the second bit of falsehood, John Maxwell is a lying, drunk who is nothing if not a tribalist, anyone can coat himself or herself in Platinum. So Busta tell him something that is not published anywhere else?
I am not saying it is not so just find me a source other than a known pathological liar.

John once said Menlie-The-Younger came to England and begged him to run for the PNP against Eddie. John and very dead Menlie are the only one that knows that.
Similarly he claimed that he got a job for Motty Perkins at the Gleaner, only John can recall that.
The same way he conveniently forgets that he called for attacks on Tivoli Gardens after the PNP won the election. The Tivoli Community Center that housed a library and the trade center was sacked.
I am not saying it was John's doing but him did call fi something similar. He has a way of placing himself at the epicenter of every important or important in his own mind event in and out of Jamaica.

[niceniss]

Re: Portia's budget speech

John Maxwell has been known to make stuff up to service his immence ego. he and every major personality in Jamaican politics has had some sort of relationship or tiff, if you are to believe his self-aggrandizing ramblings. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Portia's budget speech

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John Maxwell has been known to make stuff up to service his immence ego. he and every major personality in Jamaican politics has had some sort of relationship or tiff, if you are to believe his self-aggrandizing ramblings. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Here is a recent example:

Unfortunate report

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Dear Editor,

I write with reference to information in an article in the Sunday Observer of May 7, "The many embarrassing cases of mistaken identity". In the section referring to me and my namesake John Maxwell, the journalist, I am reported as having once received a libel summons intended for him and simply threw it away as I knew it did not apply to me. This is absolutely incorrect, and I well recall the situation.

When the summons was served on me as from the Gleaner at my home address where I have resided since 1976 ( incidentally, I had left Boys' Town in 1963), I immediately contacted the Gleaner and spoke with Mr Richard Ashenheim, indicating the obvious error. He advised me to write a letter indicating that I was not the John Maxwell referred to, as I would otherwise be expected to appear in court. (As I recall it, the summons was returned along with my letter.) In my effort to ensure that John was alerted, as I did not then have his unlisted telephone number, I took it upon myself to find out, and to contact the law firm representing him - which was Daley, Thwaites and Fairclough - to alert them as to what had occurred. After that, I was not aware of how the case proceeded.

In light of the steps that I took beyond what was required of me to indicate that the summons was delivered to the wrong person, it is unfortunate to be reported as having acted in such a callous manner as to have discarded something as significant as a court summons. I have had a listed telephone at this address for 30 years and, as my namesake's number has always been unlisted, I have constantly received calls for him, both local and overseas. After he gave me his number, I have usually redirected callers to him. All members of my household can attest to this.

I note with regret that I am the only person discussed in the article who was never contacted by your columnist for any information!

John A Maxwell
3 Hope Blvd
Kingston 6
Unfortunate report

Here is IMax on the incident and professor John Maxwell:

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More unfortunate was journalist John Maxwell's experience. "It was in the mid-1970s when a libel writ was issued by the Gleaner and delivered to another John Maxwell at Boy's Town," he recalls. "He knew he never libelled anyone so he promptly threw it away."
Years later, Maxwell tells SunDay, he got a letter that the court had handed down a judgement against him in his absence.

"I had to be in a mad rush to get lawyers to file a defence, but the dice were stacked against me," he says. He was unable to get a jury trial because so much time had elapsed and it was almost impossible to file a proper defence. He eventually lost the case to the tune of $40,000.

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The many embarrassing cases of mistaken identity: Same name, different man

[RichD]

Re: Portia's budget speech

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First let me disabuse you of your erroneous positions. It was not a letter to the editor. It was an article on the financial collapse of the 90s that was published in two parts on November 29 and 30/Dec 1, 2005 in the Business Section of the Gleaner. The writer was quoting from a Cabinet Document table by Hugh Small then Minister of Finance.



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what years did Small serve as finance minister?...was he after Bell and prior to the 1980 election loss?