PM signs off on another massive tourism project and sez she

[Tuff Gong]

Re: PM signs off on another massive tourism project and sez she

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him always behave like the world revolve round him "bout how seaga hate him and mutty grudge him" when ppl nat even a fawt pon him. plus him is a pnp lackey and has no business calling himself a journalist.

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I've read about the "business" between Seaga and Maxwell, and it does sound like much ado about nothing. To be fair though, I've never heard him say anything nice about PJ, but why he's so infatuated with Portia is just beyond me.

Having said all that, I almost always learn something from his columns. It's not because someone is unlikeable that they can't talk the truth...

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No it is not much ado about nothing. He really hates Eddie and Tivoli. After a famous Menlie Election victory he one declared Tivoli Gardens, here we come, wi a goh mash yu dung. The Tivoli Gardens Community Center was sacked shortly after the elections and all the books in the library and the machines in the skill-training center were either removed or destroyed.

Hi columns contain useful information but John himself is not a good person, he is a very committed party apparatchik who once ran an accrediting program for so-called journalists in the 70s. If you were not given the green...err red lightly them you were not a journalist.

[Blackstar*]

Re: PM signs off on another massive tourism project and sez she

Here's another precious gem from the PM. She is very dangerous - I'm truly afraid for JA. [ QUOTE ]
"I note with interest that some people, because there are talks of election, would love for me to put development on hold. For me, no election or anything else in his country will put development on hold," the prime minister told the public session of the 28th congress of the National Workers Union (NWU) at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston.

Simpson Miller was reacting to the controversy surrounding the response given by minister of labour and social security, Derrick Kellier, to questions from Jamaica Labour Party labour spokesman, Ruddy Spencer, in Parliament last Tuesday about the number of work permits issued to foreigners between January and August this year.

Kellier admitted that there had been lapses in the issuing of the work permits, including failure to advertise the jobs locally prior to the approvals.

Spencer chided the minister for issuing over 2,000 work permits to persons within the construction sector without advertising them, and also for issuing a significant number of work permits to exotic (go-go) dancers from abroad.

But yesterday the prime minister tried to play down the issue, stating that it didn't make sense not training Jamaicans for the jobs and then complaining.

"It doesn't make any sense we do not prepare, have our people trained, and then we complain about people coming in to do the job, because we cannot stop development," the prime minister said. Link

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[Tuff Gong]

Re: PM signs off on another massive tourism project and sez she

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Here's another precious gem from the PM. She is very dangerous - I'm truly afraid for JA.

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She is truly a very dangerous ooman that is the JLP had any good strategist would be able to exploit her weaknesses. That is one of the reasons why I wanted her to win. It would have been very difficult to go after Omar, Peter or Dr. Blighe is the ways that one can go after Portia.

But sadly I see the JLP is about to let a ramshackle PNP cease the high ground from them by allowing their candidates to be divided and savage in the press.
Gelding himself is going along with this, no doubt thinking of the all the promissory notes he will left holding if the big donors get gun shy.

You can trust this ooman she is worst parts of the hybrid of a Menlie-the-younger and PJoke.
Last week and this she was/is concerned about violence, yet she was telling her constituents less than a month ago at the handing over of keys to their new homes, that if shat a fiyah nuh call Portia.
Of course with a lackey press any PNP Governmet can literally get away with murder.

[Blackstar*]

Re: PM signs off on another massive tourism project and sez

Bauxite company breaches mining laws in St Ann
published: Sunday | October 1, 2006

Damion Mitchell, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Commissioner of Mines, Clinton Thompson, has confirmed that the St. Ann Bauxite Company has failed to restore mined-out lands within the stipulated three years.

But Mr. Thompson says the Government is not considering applying the penalties that accompany such breaches.

Restoration schedule

"The aim of the Government is not to collect the penalty but to ensure that the backlog is addressed," Mr. Thompson told The Gleaner/Power 106 News. "We are in an agreement for the company to start addressing the backlog along with their current liability. We have to give it a chance."

Under the mining laws amended in 2004, bauxite companies in breach of land restoration regulation are liable to be fined US$25,000 dollars per acre of land not restored, plus a fee of US$2,500 dollars for each year of the breach.

Mr. Thompson was not immediately able to indicate the extent of the breach, but Member of Parliament (MP) for South West St. Ann, Ernest Smith, says about 70 per cent of mined-out lands in South West St. Ann have not been restored.

Speaking on Good Evening Jamaica on Power 106 FM on Friday, Roger Clarke, Minister of Land and Agriculture, said the Government would, however, consider imposing the penalties if St. Ann Bauxite Company fails to honour the new restoration schedule.

He also revealed that, so far, 6,780 hectares of land have been mined in Jamaica, with just over 4,000 hectares being certified as 'restored.' According to Mr. Clarke, the majority of parcels yet to be restored are located in south-west St. Ann.

Legal action

Meanwhile, the South West St. Ann MP said from as far back as 45 years ago, Kaiser Bauxite Company (now St. Ann Bauxite) has failed to restore some lands.

Mr. Smith has warned that by October 15, he would be pursuing legal action in the Supreme Court to force the Mines Commissioner to impose penalties against St. Ann Bauxite Company.

He is also insisting that if the claim, which could run into billions of dollars is awarded, it would be used to fund infrastructure development in the affected communities of his constituency.

According to Mr. Smith, for several years, the Government has failed to invest the earnings from the bauxite levy in his constituency.

The Commissioner of Mines says he is unaware of Mr. Smith's intention to take the matter to court.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: PM signs off on another massive tourism project and sez she

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Just putting this here, because Maxwell's commentary above mentions the damage bauxite mining has done to Marlborough, Manchester. The article doesn't say what kind of damage was done to the homes. Subsidence, I suppose.

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St Ann residents sue firms over bauxite mining damage
published: Saturday | September 30, 2006

Devon Evans, Gleaner Writer


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<font color="brown">JAMAICA: NO PROBLEM?</font>

I was disappointed in the presidential speech at the recently concluded PNP annual conference. I am not alone.
There are a great many Jamaicans who had looked to the prime minister to blow a fresh wind of change through the politics of Jamaica, as she had promised in the speeches before her election.
Instead, the prime Minister declared forthrightly that she proposed to continue with the heavy metal development which is now destroying what is left of Jamaica.

In the first place, as someone who says she treasures the Jamaican countryside, Mrs Simpson must know that these developments have never been properly examined before they were put on track.
The government of Jamaica is continuing the trend started by Mr Patterson in disobeying, disregarding and ignoring its own rules.
What is worse is that if as they say, Mrs Simpson Miller and the PNP are serious about sustainable development, they do not seem to understand what that means.

Last week I reported on the government's intention to destroy the Cockpit Country in the effort to scrape the last pound of bauxitic earth from Trelawny. And there are apparently plans to create some mad theme-park based on the Maroon heritage, no doubt in carefully packaged, plastic and concrete monstrosities built on the bones of some of our heroes.

Mrs Simpson Miller has welcomed Mr Patterson's parachuting himself back into the electoral direction of the PNP. That sends the wrong signal to those who support the new prime minister across party lines. And when Mr Patterson claims to be the dean of election winners in Jamaica, Mrs Simpson should not forget that while she won her seat against the odds in 1980, Mr Patterson lost his - the seat of FLB Evans - to an unknown.

The egregious disclosure of the financing of part of the PNP's campaign by Trafigura SA is another bad sign. I don't care whether Trafigura does not expect a quid pro quo. No foreign body has any business in Jamaican politics. That was my position when the CIA inserted itself into Jamaican politics in 1975 and it is my position now.

And it does matter that Trafigura is currently involved in a noxious affaire in the Ivory Coast in which several people have died.
Since Trafigura is not unconnected to Glencore - which mines bauxite in Jamaica, and both are not unconnected with Marc Rich - I find it even more difficult to stomach any connection between them and the governing party of this country.

Political parties should not accept gifts from people with whom they may have to deal later. Whether the dealing is honest or not, justice will never appear to have been done.
Coincidentally, the German word for poison is gift.

Copyright ©2006 John Maxwell
jankunnu [at]yahoo.com

http://www.jamaicans.com/forums/newreply...mp;vc=1&amp;q=1

[Blackstar*]

Re: PM signs off on another massive tourism project and sez

Environmentalists move to 'Save the Cockpit Country'
published: Friday | October 20, 2006

<font color="grey">
The forests of the Cockpit Country in Jamaica's interior are a world-famous karst (limestone) habitat, home to many plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. The spectre of bauxite mining here has raised the ire of environmental groups. - Andrew Smith/Photography Editor</font>

Upset about what it said are plans by a major company to start mining the Cockpit Country for bauxite, a group of environmentalists has lashed out at the idea and are planning a national and international 'Save the Cockpit Country' campaign.

The group that calls itself the Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group said a bauxite company has made an application for a special exclusive prospecting licence to prospect for bauxite in the area.

In a statement, the group outlined the environmental significance of the area, noting that mining the Cockpit Country would have devastating ecological effects.

According to the group, the Cockpit Country has the world's most outstanding karst topography, steep-sided hills and deep, round valleys eroded from the limestone bedrock. The wildlife of the Cockpit Country is specially adapted to this landscape and numerous species that are found nowhere else in the world are in this ecosystem.

The group noted that the area is the largest remaining region of intact wet limestone forest in Jamaica and is a refuge for at least 79 of the over 100 bird species found in the island, including Jamaica's two endemic parrot species.

Major rivers
Five major rivers are fed from the aquifers under the Cockpit Country - the Black River, Great River, Montego River, Cabarita River and the Martha Brae. Five parishes derive their water supply, in whole or part, from this forested area - St. Elizabeth, Hanover, St. James, Westmoreland and Trelawny.

"The Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group is advocating that no prospecting licences or mining leases be issued without careful consideration of the views of this Group," the statement declared.

The stakeholders include scientists, educators and other members of Birdlife Jamaica, Bluefields Peoples' Community Association, Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation, among other interests.