Commentaries

[Dr.Dudd]

Shaking off slavery's malignant legacy

Diane Abbott
Sunday, January 14, 2007



There was a Hollywood movie starring Marilyn Monroe with the title Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The Jamaican version might be 'Gentlemen Prefer Brownings'.


Diane Abbott
In a recent article in another newspaper a prominent journalist robustly defended his preference for light-skinned women. His argument was that it was all a matter of personal taste and aesthetics. It was no different, he contended, from some women preferring tall men. He graciously accepted that, if his preferred light-skinned woman was actually not a nice person, he might accept a darker woman. But his overall message was that all things being equal, lighter-skinned women were more desirable.

My first thought about this article was that you could not get it printed in Britain. This is not for any political reason. It is because the average white newspaper or magazine editor would not know what you were talking about. The gradations of skin colour that Jamaicans obsess about mean nothing in Britain.

As far as white people in Britain are concerned, once you have discernible Negro blood you are black and that is an end of it. This has come as a shock to generations of light-skinned Jamaicans who have come to Britain to settle or study. They fondly believe that their light skin means that they will be treated differently from ordinary black people. But (unless you are so light you might be Mediterranean) racism in Britain is no respecter of gradations of skin colour.

In America it is different. There they had words for gradations of skin colour: Quadroon if you were a quarter black, octoroon if you were one-eighth black and so on. What Jamaica and America have in common is that they were both countries based on mass holdings of slaves. Of course, Britain made huge sums of money out of the slave trade.

(Historians like Trinidad's Eric Williams argue that profits from the slave trade funded Britain's Industrial Revolution). But in Britain itself, slavery was confined to domestic servants. There was never the mass slaveholding that characterised the Caribbean and the southern states of America. An obsession with the exact shade of black that a man or woman is would seem to be a feature of slaveholding societies.


DAVIS. symbol of the black power movement in the USA
So black men who prefer light-skinned women cannot get away with explaining it away as a mere aesthetic choice. What they are actually doing is replicating the values of the slave master. Under slavery, white blood gave a slave privileged status. They were above a mere field hand. Black men who lust after light-skinned women are subconsciously trying to elevate their own status. And they are certainly consciously buying into the hierarchy of skin colour imposed by slavery. Two hundred years after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, this is more than a little sad.

In some ways, black people appear to have gone backwards on this issue. The 1970s were the era of "black is beautiful" and Angela Davis and her iconic Afro hairstyle. Skin bleaching was scorned. Now, the media is saturated with images of light-skinned black women with long (false) straight hair. This is particularly true of TV stations like MTV and on music videos. And these media are hugely influential with young people.

Improvements in false hair technology (the weave) mean that every black woman thinks long flowing hair can be hers. They do not seem to stop and think: whether it actually suits them; what it will look like when it starts to grow out and looks matted and what it says about their racial pride.

Skin bleaching is on the rise. Apparently even young men are bleaching in Jamaica. Again, no one seems to consider what damage they are doing to their skin or how bizarre it looks to have a bleached face and black hands. They are in the grip of an obsession with looking more like white people.

And yet, at the same time as many black women want to look more white, increasing numbers of white women are trying to look more black. A deep tan has been fashionable amongst rich white women for some time. But the latest thing among actresses, models and socialites is having their lips injected to make them full and pouting, just like black women.

Some white women are even going as far as to have buttock implants in order to give themselves the sumptuous large bottom that has always characterised black women. Because, of course, black IS beautiful. And that is why it is depressing to hear (supposedly) intelligent black men proudly rejecting women who look like their mother and sisters in favour of the browning.

A preference for light-skinned women is not a simple matter of taste, like preferring red wine to white. It partly shows the extent to which we are brainwashed by the images of "ideal" female beauty pumped out by the mass media. But it also reveals how far some of us have to go in shaking off the malignant legacy of slavery.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Commentaries

'Bushism' in US/Caricom relations
Analysis
Rickey Singh
Sunday, January 14, 2007



AS governments of the Caribbean Community plan for a first-ever "Caricom/United States of America Conference on the Caribbean" in Washington this coming July, they can hardly be unaware of the growing apprehension over the costly politics- - in lives and money - of "Bushism" that can negatively impact on our region as well.


Rickey Singh
There is much apprehension and fatigue with "Bushism", not just among citizens of our Caribbean Community and those of the diasporas, but also among a growing majority of the American people themselves, according to opinion polls that are so much a feature of the political culture of the reputed "best democracy money can buy" - the USA.

The current tenant in the White House, President George W Bush, has made of "democracy" a bad word by his reckless interventionist politics abroad (Somalia being the latest victim) and, concurrently, the diminishing of civil liberties at home.
The latter aspect reaches deep into the personal lives of some citizens, including their tapped telephone conversations; what books they purchase, or borrow from libraries, and also with whom they associate.

'Uncle Bush' is watching over our "rights" and health of our "democracy" while Iraq - invaded on sheer falsehood - is being torn apart, sober assessments, like that of the Baker/Hamilton Study Group are expediently ignored; Somalia is under punishment with air strikes on claims of crushing Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists; and Iran is being provoked into armed conflict by the military attack on its consulate in Iraq.

Having previously abused his powers in dealing with foreign nationals unilaterally deemed as "terrorists"; in determining their imprisonment, inhumane and degrading treatment without a court trial - like the hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay for five years now - President Bush's concept of "democracy" clearly differs from that generally understood in our own Community.
It is an ongoing irony for US ambassadors in some Caricom states to be engaged in doing what Washington expects of them - lecturing on electoral democracy; freedom of expression, association and other basic human rights; on upholding of the rule of law and integrity of the justice administration system.

And they do so when, under the Bush administration electoral malpractices are a feature of presidential/congressional elections; people are imprisoned without trial; politically accused prisoners are denied access to lawyers; the torture of foreign nationals held as suspected terrorists is outsourced; telephone conversations are tapped; political pressure is put on the justice administration system; and "consultation" with Congress is merely a farce - experiences that have so tarnished the reputation of a very great nation and people.


Luis Posada Carilles
Caricom should be well prepared for the coming "Conference on the Caribbean" that will coincide with "Caribbean-American Heritage Month". It simply cannot be a public relations hoopla with plenty of photo opportunities and the regurgitating of old political shibboleths and assurances or those time-worn caveats on honouring "democratic traditions" and battling "narco-trafficking" and "terrorism" to qualify for economic aid and fair trade.

At their 27th Summit in St Kitts and Nevis last July, Caricom Heads of Government concluded that the scheduled Conference on the Caribbean would be "an excellent opportunity for the Caribbean to showcase the region and to cement its relationship with the United States based on mutual understanding of the trade and development issues affecting the future of the Caribbean."
The conference, they felt, would also allow for the "energising of the Caribbean Diaspora" and for broadening of the range of US decision-makers and policy shapers with whom the region interfaced".

Clearly, the expectations are high. The level of preparation by Caricom could well determine the measure of success, not only on trade and economic matters, but on crime and security, including mutual respect in information-sharing, as distinct from the arrogance often displayed in reports from the US State Department and Drug Enforcement Agency.

The covert pressures with which our Caricom region is often treated - contrary to reassuring official public rhetoric - whenever it refuses to genuflect to Washington, is certainly no secret to those familiar with varying examples.

These would include, for example, matters involving the International Criminal Court; United Nations Security Council; co-operation on maritime interdiction in narco-trafficking; justice in the case of the Cuban emigre Luis Posada Carilles in connection with the Cubana bombing tragedy off Barbados, to its relations with Cuba; and also in our principled relations with Cuba and now Venezuela as well.

In seeking, therefore, to "cement its relationship with the United States based on mutual understanding", as our Caricom leaders determined at their St Kitts summit, it is incumbent on them to ensure that while the peoples of this region certainly appreciate the value of friendship with America, our limited size and resources should not be taken for granted in efforts to deepen the relationship

We are indeed a comparatively small subregion of the global community, but we should not be treated as some off-shore states of the USA as right-wing American policy-shapers think. Remember Elliott Abrams?
Caricom leaders would have two scheduled occasions to collectively review and refine their strategies for the forthcoming Washington Conference on the Caribbean. First, at their three-day Inter-Sessional Meeting next month in Kingstown, St Vincent, and then at their regular annual summit being planned for Barbados in July.

With four national elections expected this year, it would be surprising should any of the current Community leaders choose to face the electorate before Cricket World Cup; or miss either the Caricom Summit in Barbados or the Washington Conference on the Caribbean - each of which potentially provides useful political exposure.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Commentaries

The case of the missing files
The Farquharson Forum

Sunday, January 14, 2007



The case of the missing files at the Supreme Court is nothing new. It is just the latest manifestation of the rotten justice system that the people of Jamaica have had to endure for decades.

The Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs has long been a member of the chorus calling for reform. The Government, albeit belatedly, has invited Canadians to examine the situation, but it is no cause for comfort that civil society in this country continues, in our view, to be largely ignored in the process.


The Morant Bay courthouse in St Thomas.

This business of losing documents, postponing cases time after time, inconveniencing litigants and otherwise delaying the course of justice should not be quietly tolerated; and in this regard it is appropriate to refer to the acceptance speech by the present Chief Justice, in which he promised "to bring the courts into the modern world".

A proper justice system requires serious planning for its orderly administration and it is evident that in Jamaica there is no plan in place for the recording, storage, tracking and transportation of court documents. The same thing applies to many, if not all of the departments run by Government.

The Jamaican people cry daily for justice, yet the system continues to creak with old age, still relying on archaic filing procedures, pen and pencil note-taking and manual methods of retrieval and delivery of documents to the respective parties. All this in an age of computerised document management systems which, with the aid of trained systems operators, can, in a minute, do what is now a week's work in our justice system.
It is clear that those in charge of the courts must plan and put in place a system that suits the number of cases the court handles, and train personnel to perform their duties with speed and efficiency.

Frank Phipps, eminent counsel and chairman of the Farquharson Institute, has long been in the forefront of the call for justice reform. He and his client were personally affected by the breakdown, but his is by no means an extraordinary incident. (The irony is that the file was no longer missing after the chief justice arrived on the building.)

Not an unusual occurrence

It is not unusual for courts to lose files. Another attorney has related the case in which he and his client were kept waiting for two hours while the clerk advised them that the judge was handling some in-house matters. The story goes on: "While waiting, the plaintiff's attorney realised that his client was not present in the hallway, he called his office to find out what happened to the plaintiff and was told that the plaintiff had passed away weeks before and would, consequently, not be appearing in court.

"Seeing that he had no plaintiff and thus no case, he advised me of the demise of his client. Thereafter, we agreed to put a dismissal of his case on the record and asked the clerk to summon the judge from chambers.

"Upon arrival on the bench, the judge advised us that she could not do anything with our case as she had been waiting from the day before for the clerk's office to deliver the court file to her chambers. We were further advised that she could not even take our stipulated dismissal on the record. No file, no action. We left in disgust, both counsel agreeing to file a voluntary dismissal by mail. This was done within a day or so.

"Believing the case had been appropriately dismissed, you can imagine the shock, nearly a year later, when we received notice from the court that our case was going to be dismissed as we had not appeared for a scheduled trial a year previously! The file had not been found for a year and the dismissal we mailed to the court was never entered in the file."

This kind of mishap should not be occurring in the Supreme Court, which should be setting the example for efficiency and be on the cutting edge of technology. This may well be just another example of the powers-that-be not giving due diligence to our document management systems.

Some efforts made

The Farquharson Institute has been made aware of stalwart efforts made to get the State to implement a Records Management Policy. It is known that the Ministry of Justice and other Government departments have been approached in this regard and that private business has gone to great expense seeking to demonstrate the need for progress in this direction. Enlightened civil servants, too, have laboured in vain to get action from the Government.

Much more needed

The Farquharson Institute, in its 90th year of existence, will continue to press for better record keeping and general administration as they affect the dispensation of justice in Jamaica. More than this, the organisation calls for the urgent development of a Records Management Policy that will ensure the security of official documents and facilitate the rapid retrieval of information.
As it is now, vital records are scattered in various places in conditions that make them vulnerable to inclement weather, destructive insects and even criminals who may find it advantageous to steal or destroy important files.

There can be no doubt about the need for storing certain documents in disaster-resistant safes or vaults to protect against fire, flood, earthquakes and such occurrences. In some instances, there must also be specialised environmental controls including temperature and humidity.

The Government claims to have an over-riding interest in the communications and information industry. It is happy to proclaim new and substantial private investment in this area, yet it is doing little or nothing about its own information house-keeping which, in many cases, is a throwback to the late 19th century.

If the Government is serious about progress in this information age it must demonstrate awareness that progress is not to be judged merely by the increasing use of cell phones, cable entertainment and wireless telephony. It must also be reflected in greater use of computer technology to do the business of the state. Modern machines can keep track of more things than any human can remember, and it is surprising that many Government departments in this country still rely on antiquated means of record-keeping.

Vital for the operation of access to information legislation

In this day and age, governments are required to account for their actions through the records they generate; and through proper records management they ensure and protect the rights of citizens. In Jamaica, there is an Access to Information Act that looks beautiful on the books, but is stymied by a glaring lack of technical resources and qualified personnel.

To effectively and impartially operate an Access to Information Act the Government must have swift and easy access to recorded information. For without reliable, verifiable and authentic records there can be no transparency.

This case of the missing files may shock the populace, but we cannot leave it there. The Farquharson Institute hopes that it will also energise the Government and propel us towards establishing a Central Records Office as well as up-to-date machinery for storing, processing and retrieving material at the departmental level. It is essential to have a Records Management Policy and a strategic plan to avoid contradictions, duplications and loss or misplacing of information.

This management of recorded information is the basis of the State's ability to ensure integrity, accountability and the transparency necessary to ensure that the Government is serving the public interest. The issue requires urgent remedial action.

The Relevance of the Judiciary in combating crime

From the chairman's desk:
Two items in the Observer of Friday, January 5 caught my special attention. The first by Barbara Gloudon, her article entitled "It's too early for wickedness" (p 10). This referred to the day before, when 13 murders in three days were reported and the chilling announcement by the commissioner of police that we could be faced with a violent general election this year.

The second, a statement by Justice Dukharan (p 6) where he is quoted as saying, ". the judiciary is the last bastion preventing anarchy in this country." (I had read them in that order.) The two statements led me to consider the relevance of the judiciary in curbing wickedness and preventing anarchy.
One can fully understand Mrs Gloudon's frustration and disappointment when so early in the New Year the hope for peace has been shattered.

There can be no challenge to the judge's statement, but while it is important to guard society from anarchy by punishing the guilty and freeing the innocent, there is a more important function to be considered to prevent wickedness that may lead to anarchy.
The often repeated mantra reminds us, 'There can be no peace without justice'. This is justice that is beyond the reach of wig and gown; and if it is not addressed, justice will be seen as a 'cloistered virtue' and the judiciary as irrelevant to the realities of the day. This is why the judge's statement must be balanced against what takes place in society that breeds wickedness.

Guaranteeing our rights

The function for achieving justice and peace in the country must include a guarantee of the right to life - the most fundamental of all rights which is being denied too often, the right to freedom, and the right to social and economic benefits that are necessary for a happy life. Without a guarantee of these rights, society will continue to have areas that are breeding grounds for "early wickedness" and the time will come when it will be too late to prevent the country from sliding into anarchy. A failure, therefore, to understand that any reform of the administration of justice must begin where injustice is most keenly felt and most loudly decried.
To start the exercise for reform by assessing the institutions and the organisational structure of the Ministry of Justice is taking a first step in the wrong direction and pouring old wine into new wine skin.

Review of the justice system

The Government is at present carrying out an exercise for a comprehensive review of Jamaica's justice system to be executed by the Ministry of Justice with expert assistance from the Canadians. The Farquharson Institute had asked for an opportunity to make representation to the body conducting the review, but this was politely denied in a letter from the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice, in which is stated, "At the end of the exercise, which will be conducted to include mechanisms for wide consultations with specific stakeholders and interest groups as well as the general public, there will be a fully articulated feasibility modernisation plan for the justice sector."

The review will examine both the civil and criminal jurisdictions and the linkages to the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Correctional Services Department, and assess the organisational structure of the ministry to ensure that the appropriate mix of skills and competence are engaged. As the review proceeds, the institute's input will be invited.

This approach is an outstanding exclusion of public involvement (pardon the oxymoron) at an early stage of the review of the administration of justice. A similar exclusionary approach was taken by the Ministry of Agriculture in preparing a Mining Policy for Jamaica, which incurred the wrath of the environmentalists to the chagrin of the ministry.

Nevertheless, Barbara Gayle, the competent and hardworking court reporter for the Gleaner, was good enough to send me a copy of a letter under letterhead Jamaica Justice System Reform, "Together for Justice with Civil Participation" which she had received from Professor Barrington Chevannes, chairman, inviting her views, by written submissions, on reform issues and priorities, and asking her to pass on the invitation to others.

It is commendable that a person who is not a member of any of the organisations referred to earlier in the permanent secretary's letter was actually invited to make a contribution. It is a pity such an invitation was not extended to the public at large to make an input in open session at the beginning of the exercise.
Justice for inner-city communities

Justice is sorely needed in inner-city communities where the gun rules and the people live behind zinc fences in inhumane conditions - with an accumulation of uncollected garbage, stagnant water in gullies, the threat of malaria, and smog from the city dump. It is in the inner-city communities where the cry for justice is loudest, where there is wickedness every day. Where there is no time frame for wickedness, it is neither too early nor too late for wickedness.

This is where the need for justice is greatest - where men and women live in fear and children are terrified. There is no balm for their suffering and very little hope for relief in the foreseeable future. They are now shut out from making an input for improvement of their lot.

It is therefore deplorable that evidently no invitation has been issued to those who live in the inner-city communities. Any review of the "Justice System" should go beyond an assessment of the existing institutions and must include input from those who are directly affected. These are the areas where justice is most needed. It will be a sterile exercise to make an assessment of what is needed for the "Justice System" without first knowing where it is most urgently needed and why; whether the call comes from victims of injustice, concerned citizens, the media or other outside organisations.

The role of the police

The terror that is an everyday experience for citizens of inner-city communities is aggravated by police excesses. There is always uncertainty as to whether the arrival of the police in their community signals the beginning of justice or the end of justice for the community.

Not to be excluded from wickedness is the hostility towards the police and danger the policemen face to go into communities where there is a high risk of death or serious injury.
We mourn the loss of life in whatever way it occurs. We sympathise with both those who live and those who are by duty required to work in these depressed areas. This is manifest injustice.

My choice for persons of the year

I salute the policemen for showing bravery in the line of duty. I salute the residents for their resilience to survive in the filth and horrors of the inner-city. If I were asked to nominate the outstanding personalities for 2006 my vote would go to the residents of the inner-city communities for their toughness to withstand the difficult conditions of everyday life.

The search for justice and
peace must continue

The realities of wickedness and perceived injustice did not end in 2006 and disappear with a new year. The search for the peace must continue in 2007 and beyond. There is another important consideration for the relevance of the Judiciary in combating crime. The Judiciary, the "bastion" against anarchy, must be seen as providing justice for all.

In maintaining the principle for justice, the Judiciary must perform with openness and inclusiveness. Indeed, all the required services for justice, - the courts, the legal offices and the police - must at all times act in a professional manner with openness and without the appearance of networking.

Inclusive system needed

These organisations must carry out their functions with inclusiveness for them to be relevant to the needs of the society. What is needed is a system that is inclusive and where no sector of the society is excluded from making input for improvement in the administration of justice.

In the present "Justice System" there is a perception of us against them, "us" being the agencies of the State and "them" as the people. The people for whom the system exists and who are directly affected by how it performs are outside the system and must now be brought in.

Jamaica belatedly is becoming aware of the fact that injustice anywhere will be felt everywhere in the country. The sad story coming out of Mandeville reminds all of us that no one will be safe in Jamaica until there is peace and justice in the entire society.
We must all with one voice protest against injustice. Our voices must be heard in the assessment of the performance of the courts, in the behaviour of the police and in the activities of all the institutions in place for justice in Jamaica.

Let this be our New Year resolution, to "bawl out" against anything that displeases us, not only against conditions and happenings that affect us directly but also against everything that corrupts a peaceful, free and democratic society, regardless of who may feel offended.

Frank Phipps QC
Chairman

For queries comments and membership application you may contact us at 5 Lyncourt, Kingston 8 or e mail
[email protected]

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Commentaries

Tourism on a growth path

Dennis Morrison
Sunday, January 14, 2007



The three millionth visitor to Jamaica in 2006 touched down on December 31 when we reached this important milestone in the history of the local tourism industry. We also received, for the second year in succession, more than one million visitors from the USA alone. Both of these outcomes came on top of the record performances achieved in 2005 and 2004, which indicate that the industry is on a growth path.


Dennis Morrison
Of the 3.015 million visitors who came to Jamaica in 2006, 1.68 million were stopover arrivals, representing a 13 per cent increase over the 2005 figure, the highest number ever. Cruise passengers amounted to 1.334 million, 17.5 per cent above the total for 2005, also a record. The total number of tourist arrivals therefore increased by 15.3 per cent. These returns put Jamaica at the top of growth rates for the Caribbean region, for the first time in a long time.

In terms of foreign exchange earnings, the picture was just as encouraging, as gross foreign exchange earnings from the sector climbed to US$1.9 billion, or 24 per cent above the out-turn for 2005. The effect of this was felt throughout the year, as the foreign exchange market was stable and the country's net international reserves actually went above the target that was set. Along with the improved performance in the inflation rate, the gains in the foreign exchange situation made possible reductions in local interest rates that have had a positive effect on the Government's debt payments and private sector lending.

Increased investment in the sector, particularly those by foreign investors, was also an important source of the stability in the foreign exchange market and the build-up in net international reserves. I expect that the country's balance of payments for the year would also have improved because of increased earnings from the sector and the investment flows.

Happily, this coincided with the growth in merchandise exports, which was achieved last year, as the bauxite-alumina sector enjoyed another record year in terms of both production and gross foreign exchange earnings.

Total bauxite production reached 15 million tonnes, which is the second time ever that this has been achieved. In addition, alumina output climbed to a new record of 4.1 million tonnes, despite the friction associated with wage negotiations in the industry. Investment in the Early Works expansion at Jamalco contributed to increased earnings by the sector and, in this year, the plant's capacity will increase by 150,000 tonnes of alumina. Regrettably, the further major expansion phase at Jamalco is still not finalised, as negotiations with Trinidad and Tobago for supply of natural gas have fallen behind.

These results in both tourism and bauxite tell us that it is important to maintain the momentum gathered, if we expect to register another good year in 2007. On the tourism side, it will take even greater efforts by both the private sector and the agencies of government to keep visitor arrivals climbing, particularly because the competition will be stiffer with Cancun having fully returned to the market.

Last year, Jamaica benefited from the diversion of business from that destination after the damage done by hurricanes in 2005. The Dominican Republic also remains a strong competitor as it continues to benefit from increased investments.
Some major challenges are already being felt, including warm weather in the northern hemisphere, and especially in the US North-East region, which has had record temperatures since early December, and just had its first snowfall. It is the latest in over 120 years.

The violence affecting St James is eating away at our image, and if it is not significantly curtailed, will pose a very serious problem, having regard to Montego Bay's position in the tourist industry. The clampdown by the security forces on hot spot communities in St James is a move in the right direction, and I was pleased to hear that Operation Kingfish, which has established a presence in Montego Bay, will remain there until criminal gangs are dismantled.

While the JTB and its partners have mounted a public relations campaign with agencies of the US Government, and the private sector is offering incentives to new holders of US passports travelling to Jamaica, the US passport issue remains a challenge. The reality is that part of the island's business comes from last-minute bookings from that market, and the need for US citizens to secure passports in order to re-enter their country is a disincentive for this category.

The data indicates, however, that there was a significant increase late last year in the percentage of US visitors travelling on passports, which means that there is movement in the right direction.

Reports indicate that the outbreak of malaria has now been contained and the programme to eradicate the disease is in full swing. Success in this campaign is essential if the issue is to be removed from the limelight. It is unfortunate that attempts were made to politicise the issue and hopefully, we will quickly get past this.

One understands the great concern that arose from the outbreak, but like the dengue fever episode in the early 1980s, we should have avoided inflammatory language in the early discussions of the problem. This illustrates that Jamaica's leadership is still not sophisticated in how it handles the matter of the country's profile.
Current investment projects in the tourism sector will continue in 2007, led by the Grupo Iberostar in Rose Hall, the Palmyra Luxury Condominium Resort in the same area, and Fiesta in Hanover. These are mega projects in both scale of investment and the number of new rooms involved.

Bearing in mind the comments that have been made about the quality of resorts being developed by Spanish investors, I am sure that many people are going to be surprised by the high quality of the Iberostar Rose Hall resort. It will open 360 rooms of its 980-room complex by the Spring, and the second phase will come on stream late this year or early 2008. Other major projects that have already been approved will also begin construction in the first half of this year.

This means investment flows will remain high and employment in the construction sector will expand further. With cement supply expected to be stable, activity in the sector should be more settled. There is, however, the challenge of improving the approvals process, especially in regard to time, even as careful attention is given to environmental consideration.

In this regard, we are struggling with the contradiction between those who are rightly insisting that the approvals process must be speeded up and others who claim that approvals are being rushed through the system without due regard to consultation and proper planning.

Another contradiction surrounds the issue of the beautification programme announced in the latter part of 2006 by Prime Minister Simpson Miller. At the time of the announcement, the prime minister was sharply criticised for what was described as a "crash programme". Now, the same people who put forward that criticism are expressing dissatisfaction that the place is not being cleaned up.

Joining this group is the mayor of Kingston who, quite justifiably, pointed to the necessity to clean up the city for World Cup Cricket. It is also being said that the Tourism Enhancement Fund should not provide money to support the clean-up, although the Fund was earlier criticised for moving too slowly to pump resources into putting our resort areas, which include Kingston, in better shape.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Commentaries

More heat waves coming to already hot radio market

Claude Robinson
Sunday, January 14, 2007



The more things change, the more they remain the same: A year ago I wrote in the space, "As we usher in another 'New Year' there is a lot of buzz in media circles about pending changes in the highly competitive radio market".


Claude Robinson
Then, the buzz was about The Breakfast Club moving from HOT 102 to Radio Mona as part of a major revamping of the UWI-owned station; Government was getting ready to select a commercial partner for KOOL-FM; and we were again being promised that a public service radio station would 'soon come'.

Radio Mona has since been re-branded News Talk 93 with Anthony Abraham's Breakfast Club Company assuming station management, but the other promises remain mired in Government indecision.

Now, the buzz is that Cliff Hughes's Nationwide News Network (NNN) will shortly ink a deal with the RJR Communications Group for a long-term lease agreement of airtime to launch a brand new 24-hour station, Nationwide Digital AM, using RJR's AM frequencies.

As a result, NNN's flagship programme, Nationwide @ Five, will move from its current home on KOOL-FM and, This Morning with Emily Crooks, Arlene Amitregala and Beverley Manley, which recently lost its place at HOT 102, will also find a new home.
Word also is that Paula Ann Porter will be leaving Fame-FM to become station manager for the new venture and will also be a leading on-air personality in the mid-afternoon.


SPAULDING. 'we are in discussion with lots of people about leasing airtime on both AM and FM frequencies'
A critical slot to fill in the schedule is the highly competitive 10:00 am to 2:00 pm period day time talk and there are strong rumours that efforts are being made to woo Wilmot 'Mutty' Perkins away from POWER 106.

At the time of writing (Thursday), the principals were not confirming the deal, which reliable sources said was all but done. One source close to the discussion told me, "The lawyers are working out the final details".

Lester Spaulding, RJR chairman, would only confirm that "we [RJR] are in discussion with lots of people" about leasing airtime "on both AM and FM frequencies" but declined to comment on whether Hughes was among those people.
And Hughes said, "We are in discussion with several parties to secure an agreement that will provide islandwide distribution outlet for our news and other radio content".
My impression is that part of the outright refusal to discuss details with the media is that RJR is listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange and so they have to report the plan to the JSE before it takes effect.


HUGHES. we are in discussion with several parties to secure an agreement that will provide islandwide distribution outlet for our news and other radio content
In a related move, Hughes' television programme Impact will also relocate from CVM to the RJR Group and will get a prime time slot on TVJ, thereby making a complete break between Nationwide and the CVM Group and starting a new relationship with the RJR Group where Hughes first cut his teeth as a reporter back in the day.

IRIE, TVJ top media survey

Amidst these changes coming to add more heat to an already hot radio market, there has been considerable discussion in the industry this past week over the latest ratings survey, which has again confirmed the highly competitive nature of the media business and an uncertain future for many existing players.
The All Media Survey 2006 conducted by Don Anderson's Market Research Services has produced results that have some media heads happy, others very upset and some others - as we say in Jamaica - just kiss them teeth and ignore the findings as irrelevant to their business prospects.

The biggest winners were TVJ in the television market, which separated itself from its main rival, CVM; and IRIE-FM in the radio market, which created more daylight between itself and the number two, RJR-FM 94.

The survey gave TVJ a market share of 54.9 per cent, up from 47.8 per cent in 2005 while CVM dropped from 44.5 per cent to 38.2 per cent. In radio, the gain by IRIE was even more impressive, reaching a 30.3 per cent share up from 25.2 per cent while RJR-FM 94 plummeted from 19.8 per cent to just 12.2 per cent.
In the newspaper market, the survey gave a 52.1 per cent share to the Daily Gleaner compared to a 47.9 per cent for the Jamaica Observer. On Sundays, the gap widens with the Gleaner at 69.9 per cent compared to 24.0 per cent for the Observer and 6.2 per cent for the Sunday Herald.

The 2006 survey was the 24th carried out by Market Research Services. It was based on 2,011 interviews among persons 10 and older. Data was collected over a six-week period commencing September 6 and ending October 19.

While winners and losers will differ about the reliability and value of the document, there is no doubt that as the media industry expands and becomes more competitive, and audiences become more discerning, stakeholders need more frequent surveys on which to make important programming and related decisions.

It is unacceptable that an industry comprising four national newspapers and several weeklies; some 12 TV broadcast and cable channels with near national reach; more than 100 international cable channels and some 14 national radio stations should only have an annual snap shot of the state of the market.
Furthermore, when field work is done in September and results are only available in January of the following year then the value of the information is considerably reduced.

Researchers, the media, advertisers and advertising agencies must come together and agree how to tackle the issue of ensuring more frequent surveys and measurement tools in which there will be greater confidence.

In the meantime, the current annual survey is the only consistent measurement available, and despite whatever misgivings some might have, I do believe the data offer insights and signposts about the state of the media and can be used as one of the tools required to meet audience and advertiser expectations.
The data on the radio market, for example, is an excellent context for analysing the pending deal between Nationwide and RJR and assessing which of the parties will benefit more from it.

The 206 survey listed the top 13 radio stations with national reach (in order of ranking) as: IRIE, 30.2 per cent; RJR FM 94, 12.2 per cent; LOVE, 9.0 per cent; FAME, 8.4 per cent; POWER 106 FM 6.7 per cent; ZIP 103 FM, 6.6 per cent; MUSIC 99 FM, 4.8 per cent; HITZ 92 FM, 4.0 per cent; KOOL, 3.0 per cent; HOT 102 FM, 2.5 per cent; KLAS, 1.5 per cent; NEWS TALK 93 FM, 0.3 per cent; MEGA JAMS, 0.3 per cent.

Community stations which do not have a national reach have a combined market share of 10 per cent.
With such small audiences for some stations many will face survival challenges in the year ahead and we may yet see more mergers and acquisitions or decline in technical and programme quality to the detriment of the public.

The three stations in the RJR Group (94, Fame and Hitz) have a combined market share of 24.8 per cent down from a 45.4 per cent in 2000. This continuous slide over the years must be a source of worry from the top brass at Lyndhurst Road and, indeed there have been changes in response.

One change was the hiring of the imaginative and focused Judith Bodley away from IRIE's second station, the fast improving ZIP-103, which seems to be making gains among the hip-hop crowd. Then there was the re-branding of Radio Two into HITZ 92 late last year, although the target market is still not clear to me.
At issue is whether the latest numbers will spook them into knee-jerk changes or whether they will allow time for changes initiated last year to take hold.

Challenges of the new deal

Enter the deal with Cliff. Over the years, RJR has moved away from broadcasting on AM to FM, which is more efficient (transmitters use less electricity) and deliver a better quality sound demanded by today's consumers with their high fidelity receivers in home or in car.

So it makes sense for RJR to make some money by getting a monthly cheque out of assets which have been dormant since the station was re-branded and most of the AM transmitters turned off or turned down to save on electricity.
I can easily understand the thinking because it is not unlike what we did at JBC-TV in the 1990s when we leased redundant transmitters to CVM.

It improved our revenue stream (from lease) but it also gave us a competitor for audience and advertising which is exactly what the RJR stations - in decline since 2000 - will now face from Nationwide with some well-established brands and personalities.

From Nationwide's perspective, they will be entering a very crowded market where struggle seems to be the order of the day for everybody but Irie. Furthermore, they will be using a radio band, AM, which is totally unknown to more than 50 per cent of the population and which is known to have challenges with night time reception.

But some broadcast engineers believe that the technical challenges can be overcome by advances in high definition digital upgrades which can cover the island cheaper and with better sound quality than the old energy guzzlers.
Time will tell who will benefit most from the deal. Next week, I will analyse the TV and cable market.

Claude Robinson is senior research fellow in the Mona School of Business, UWI. [email protected]

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Commentaries

The church and the environment

Raulston Nembhard
Saturday, January 13, 2007



Raulston Nembhard
The Minister of Agriculture and Lands Roger Clarke is a man blessed with an affable personality. Not exactly a brilliant intellectual who expounds deep philosophical positions on certain issues, he is a quintessential plodder who by and large gets the work done. He is able to read political winds and to act in tandem with them, often gaining political advantage for himself and the political party he represents.

His ability to read political winds was evident in the revocation or suspension of the licences to prospect for bauxite in the Cockpit Country. Mr Clarke sensed that the government would be caught up in an interminable struggle with the environmental lobby and decided that this was not a fight that should absorb his energies or that of the government at this time. He opted for collaboration, negotiation and hardcore common sense, the path that should have been chosen before the licences were granted. But we appreciate the rapid turn of mind and give him some credit for this.

For too long the Jamaican environment has been treated with scant regard. When the licences were granted to the bauxite companies in the 1950s, no one could have anticipated the devastation that would have been done to the environment by the desire to remove the precious ore from the ground. No one could have envisaged the craters that would have been left in parishes such as Manchester, Clarendon and St Elizabeth where the mining activities are mainly carried out. Successive governments over the years have allowed the bauxite companies to do very much what they want, so long as the industry provided employment for people, showed some corporate social responsibility to the communities in which they operated, and added revenue to the government's coffers.

The net result of all this is that bauxite mining has destroyed thousands of acres of prime agricultural lands. Reclamation has not proceeded as the bauxite companies promised. In any event, reclamation is not able to restore the integrity of the precious topsoil that is removed to get to the bauxite. By the time the soil is reclaimed, precious minerals would have been leeched from it, thus rendering it adequate for subsistence farming only. These lands hold out great possibilities for housing solutions but this is yet to be approached in any serious, determined way.

No one can easily dismiss the view that the environment is under siege in Jamaica. It is not just bauxite mining that constitutes an ongoing threat. The Kingston Harbour is a royal mess with tons of sewage pumped into it regularly. Deforestation has compromised our watershed areas while pollutants of all description are pumped or dumped into our rivers. The sad truth is that the Jamaican environment is not clean and the health of our people is in great peril.

Which brings me to the church. Standing at the apex of the creation, man was given the divine command to subdue and have dominion over the earth. The divine intention was that the earth with its fruit-bearing capacity and healthy livestock would be able to sustain human life. This could only happen if man exercised responsible governance so that the creation would be renewed and the quality of life would continue uninterrupted.

The truth is that there has always been a symbiotic relationship between man and the environment. It is almost an unwritten contract in which each side agrees to nourish the other. The death of one will eventually result in the death of the other. The optimal health of one will guarantee the optimal health of the other. The need to protect the environment is not just a theological matter; it is one that is essential to life itself. It is a matter of stewardship of the resources that God has placed under our governance. There is perhaps no other organisation that is best suited to this responsibility than the church. The church is not only under divine commission to see to its protection, but has a moral responsibility to protect its integrity for future generations. To destroy that patrimony for selfish reasons will doom the health of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren for years to come.

It is interesting that in the matter of the Cockpit Country we have not heard anything from the church, even to suggest that it understands its divine mandate to care and protect the environment. I know that some of the environmental lobbyists have religious persuasions and may approach their activism from their religious convictions. But my concern is for what appears to be a lack of care for the way in which the environment is being despoiled and an unwillingness by the church as a body to be informed about this despoilment. To be frank, the environment is not something that is going to be central to the church's concern. It does not bring big bucks into the church's coffers. It is not likely to be something that is going to interest its members, especially those who are more concerned about millennial issues and who are preoccupied with end-of-time events. Matters of social justice and poverty eradication, though very important, will always swim to the top of the church's agenda of concerns. I do not think if you scrutinise the agenda of the major church gatherings (synods, general conventions or conferences) that you will find any great prominence given to the environment in their deliberations. Any mention is at best tangential.

As a churchman myself I will confess that, although I have always been concerned about the environment, I have not been active enough in exercising the kind of stewardship that the Lord has required of me. My pledge is to redress this. It is not a New Year's resolution as I came to this position towards the end of 2006 when I saw the government's deception regarding mining in the Cockpit Country.

Will the church as a collective body come to a similar resolution? Will it give environmental concerns a greater prominence in their deliberations than it has done in the past? Will it become more proactive in developing strategies that will challenge government and developers alike in protecting the integrity of the environment so that there can be a higher quality of life for the Jamaican people? Should I dare to hope that we will see a change in 2007 on the part of the church even though we are in the silly political season, and even though the commissioner of police is signalling greater political violence in these elections? Caring for the environment is more a bread-and-butter issue than we could imagine. It is about life itself. We must all wake up before certain calamities overtake us. What does the leadership of the church think?

- [email protected]