JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

[Lazie]

<SPAN class=news_summary>Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) is demanding that Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller breaks her silence on the Trafigura Affair. </SPAN>

<SPAN class=news_body>Spokesperson for JFJ, Susan Goffe, says Mrs. Simpson-Miller's failure to act on the deepening controversy has made the situation worse.

Trafigura has been in the spotlight in recent days following revelations that it gave the ruling People's National Party (PNP) $31 million to cover campaign expenses.

The controversy over the donation took another turn Friday when the company allegedly issued a statement denying that the money was a gift.

It is reported that the company made statements to the effect that the money was part of a commercial transaction.

PNP General Secretary Colin Campbell has demanded that Trafigura clarifies its statement.

The party is insisting that the money was a no-strings donation.</SPAN>

[Lazie]

RE: JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

Portia a wait pon 'god' (Vin Lawerence?) fi a PR that will con the people. Chances are she come tell we its a gift from god. Guh see fanatics like Sickko fall fi it.

[Jawge]

RE: JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

Yuh right fi call mi damn fool, all this time

I thought the JFJ was a human rights group. I now see that their line of business extends to politics and banking. Please do not come with the argument that you can see human rights here because the mere walking out my door is a human rights issue. Yes I am the fool because the JFJ is not just a human rights movement and here ia ma thinking .... ah boy.

[Lazie]

RE: JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

hehehe ... bredren, stop mek people laugh after yuh. The people within the JFJ nuh taxpayers and voters to? Here is a quote from the JFJ's website, "Justice, Truth be ours forever. People like you and Sickko may not be interested in the truth, others are.

[Mosiah]

RE: JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

And more from their website:



Jamaicans for Justice: A Citizens Rights Action Group

2 ****an Avenue, Kingston 8, Jamaica, West Indies.

Tel876)755-4524-6 | Fax: (876) 755-4355



This is the last straw for me. This govt. gots to go!



The woman will get her justice. The people deserve theirs.

[Jawge]

RE: JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

so wha yuh would ah do, if yuh fine

out say di opposition get fi dem money from ah not so honest crowd? Lazie start distance himself aready by saying it matters not to hime where di money come from. Mo Joshua gave you th opportunity to attend school stop act like yuh cyaan read. Use yuh mind boss.

[Mosiah]

RE: JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

When that happens, Jawge, I will decide what I do.



Listen, for me, what is worse than the "transaction" with Trafigura is the the attitude of the PNP following the revelation. They have been arrogant, unremorseful and insulting. I think that is dangerous. They need to be reminded that it is the people of Jamaica who have put them in govt. for the past 2 decades and the people can take them out. When questions are asked of them, answer with humility and with truth, the whole truth and nothing but!



Time for them to go! It's that Joshua-funded education that has led me to this decision. Thanks, Joshua! You would have been proud of me!

[Westman]

RE: JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

Mosiah, I have never thought you were capable of balance. You have now proven me wrong. I erroneously thought you were among a group here that would always show blind loyalty to a political party. Forgive me for my judgement of you.

This has nothing to do with my support for the JLP. I think the JLP has major problems also. They need to ask themselves hard questions about why it is that the people still hold on to the PNP in the face of so many PNP scandals. It is because the JLP do not get a clear message out that resonates with the people. Also, the people really do not have confidence that a chnage would be better. For the good of the country, the JLP needs to overcome these things. This would give the country a good alternative and it would force the PNP to be better. When they are both better, the country benefits.

[Mosiah]

RE: JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

So, I guess voting for Rasta was not enuff, huh? Thanks, anyway!



Westman, I have long considered myself liberated from the tribal shackles. I wisened up about 10 years ago. I cannot support any party that gives guns to its supporters, or at the very least, do nothing to remove them. The PNP and JLP have done that for decades and I dare them to sue me! Look at what wi come to!



I have witnessed a PNP govt. that has now become too pompous to respond to the people. From the Portmore leg of Highway 2000, to Sandals Whitehouse to this Trafigura scandal, they have displayed an arrogance and rudeness that is dangerous. It smells of dictatorship - I will tell you when it's okay to criticise me!



They need to be cut back down to a manageable size. Perhaps sitting in opposition will knock some sense into them and give them time to "wheel and come again", next time to truly serve the people they say they love.



Trafigura brought down the Ivory Coast government. It would not a bad thing if it brought down another.

[Karl]

RE: JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

This a major problem for Portia and the PNP.

On the surface it may be that those within the PNP are prepared to lose the election as the price to remove Portia.

On a stand alone note this issue could of and by itself lose the PNP the election.

It would be an ass who could not immediately see that accepting funds from an entity with which business is done would not have undertones of a in Jamacia parlance "one hand wash the other" connotations. It matters not whether or not the receiving of that "gift" rises to the level of criminal behaviour. You cannot be receiving business benefits from an entity with which I am in on the decision making and I am receiving "gifts" from you...and, the receipt of the "gifts" do not consciously or in an subliminal manner affect my decision(s) making! Can't be!

Heads must roll...and, not just resignation of ministerial positions and or from the decision making process of deals involving this entity/or of this nature...but, 'kicked straight out of the PNP'...and, any area of representational politics.

I would and perhaps still vote for the PNP...but, all persons who are implicated in this matter and any other similar matter must go!

Unfortunately if such a person is kept by the PNP and is in my constituency I would be duty bound to vote against that person and thus cast my vote for the only other viable entity the JLP.

[Karl]

RE: JFJ demands that PM Simpson-Miller explain Trafigura ‘donation’

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>The soulless, lost PNP</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline>Wignall's World</SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Mark Wignall
Sunday, October 08, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=330 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>On Wednesday last as information began to flow in copiously to journalists and politicians, I listened to PNP General Secretary Colin Campbell, PNP Chairman Bobby Pickersgill and PNP legal advisor A J Nicholson speaking to the people through Morning Time and Nationwide. All men hold powerful Cabinet posts in the PNP administration.<P class=StoryText align=justify>As I took in every stuttered word, every painful attempt at forming a phrase and every mentally stressful moment behind each answer, I sat back and wished that I could cry. If I could I would have shed a bucketful of tears for this nation. After hearing this trio of 'honourable' men engaging all gears for the party they love and would wish to protect much more than the people whose lives they had long ago promised to increase in happiness, I hung my head in shame and felt real pain for this nation.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Years ago, the PNP's party chairman and everybody's nice guy, Bobby Pickersgill, told this nation that it was the PNP's belief that it was incumbent on it to form the government and anything that could be done to attain that end, the PNP would embark on that 'anything'.
As the ministers hung precariously to the letter of the law and discarded all attempts at even feigning decency, morality was suspended and we began to understand a part of the content of the 'anything'.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Here it is we have a company Trafigura Beheer BV based in Amsterdam. According to its website, Trafigura was founded in 1993. In its first decade the group developed a large infrastructure specialising in the energy and base metals market. The group's equity is now in excess of US$600 million.
Trafigura maintains over 55 offices in 36 countries in Europe, North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia in order to provide global coverage. Last year it made US$28.4 billion in its activities.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In short, in 1978 the government of Jamaica entered into a contract with the Nigerian government to purchase crude oil (presently 30,000 barrels per day). The contract which we later entered into with Trafigura is one of those called 'Evergreen', meaning it is renewable annually around September, and is terminable by either party giving at least 90 days' notice in writing. The oil from Nigeria cannot be refined at our refinery in Kingston because it is too light for the required specification of the Petrojam refinery.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Because of that we use Trafigura to 'lift' this oil from Nigeria and sell it on the world market. Knowing that Trafigura Beheer B V as a large transnational is much more intimately involved in the very complex international markets than we are, in any contracts we have with them, we begin with that information-gap disadvantage. According to the PNP government, the US$0.12 per barrel we receive is the best they could negotiate not just through Trafigura but when all the other offers from the other large oil traders are considered.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=360 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>If Colin Campbell (left), the adored Bobby Pickersgill (centre) and our most holy attorney general AJ Nichol