Opposition hoping Cricket World Cup will be a fiasco

[Lazie]

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<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Lloyd B. Smith
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Lloyd B. Smith</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>"Crisis, what crisis?" - former Prime Minister PJ Patterson when quizzed by journalists during a turbulent period of his administration.<P class=StoryText align=justify>If last week's staging of the 10th Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival in Montego Bay is anything to go by, then this island state is the closest place on Earth to Paradise Regained. Apart from the horrendously long lines of slow-moving traffic along the elegant strip (the Rose Hall main road), excruciatingly aggravated by the North Coast Highway Project (all in the name of progress?), everything came up roses at the high-profile festival.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But this writer cannot escape the bitter-sweet irony that just at the start of the music festival in Montego Bay, five men were brutally slaughtered in Flower Hill, a usually quiet community overlooking the tourist capital's elegant corridor; then just at the end of it, the police mowed down five alleged criminal gunmen. Kind of surreal, isn't it?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller was in her ackee on Friday night when she addressed the very large crowd at the expansive new venue. No doubt, if she were asked how come, amidst all the crises, Jamaica is so capable of putting its best foot forward, she would retort, "Crisis, what crisis?"
Just about every Jamaican now has at least two cellular phones, numerous more are now mobile than ever before ("More man have more gal now", as a result); and look at those sumptuous, palatial dwellings dotting almost every hill and plain in this "poor Third World" country.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The "bling bling" is everywhere, and just standing on the roadside and watching the types of vehicles that pass by daily surely does not suggest that this is a poor country in crisis! Indeed, just about every Jamaican now has all the modern amenities - from fridge to stove, microwave, cable TV, DVD, component set, settee, washing machine, you name it - even if they are living on captured land in a makeshift shack, they are living in fine style. Crisis, what crisis? And thanks to remittances, the informal (underground) economy and various hustlings and scams, not to mention the lucrative drug trade and extortion rackets, "whole heap of money deh pon street" and "things a gwaan".<P class=StoryText align=justify>It is against this background that the ruling People's National Party has been able to stay in power because of this feel-good factor. No wonder the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party is hoping and praying that the Cricket World Cup affair turns out to be a fiasco. Can you imagine if it is a resounding success? Early elections to boot, and with the feel-good factor in tow, Bruce Golding would have to start looking for another job. or party!<P class=StoryText align=justify>But the flipside of all of this is that the PNP has been assiduously digging its own political grave. After all, all the polls, if we are to take them seriously, point to the fact that with all that is happening in the country (crisis after crisis), the PNP has still managed to hold on to much of its support ,while the JLP is still struggling to be in a comfortable position to be first past the post.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Throw in the scandals, the crime, the unemployment, the corruption, the lack of accountability, the crass indiscipline and the general breakdown in the social fabric, and all of this spell "Crisis". So one wo

[Muadib]

RE: Opposition hoping Cricket World Cup will be a fiasco

It is interesting that people would give up on politics, claiming no alternative.

Of the 35 years of underperformance and non-production.. only 8 years showed any sign of potential and growth.. coincidentally when the current admin was OUT of office.

So what is behind this fallacy of no alternative.. and why is it perpetuated ??

What is the fear factor driving this irrationality ?

Is this a Black Man Time thing..... being able to go to the beach ?

There are few places in this regionwhere black people are treated as badly as in Jamaica by the State.. that is why if you build a road between here and Cayman, USA, Bermuda... traffic will be going in one direction.

So.. what exactly is Black Man Time buying the Black Man ????? A Black Leader Being able to Travel First Class and pay $1000 per night for hotel accomodation ??

PJ Patterson was black, Portia Simpson is a black woman from the masses... and so ? How does this help the average black person in Jamaica enjoy, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ?

The consumption exhibited is subsidized by the wealth created by black people 'suffering' in countries run by white people and left-overs falling from the drug-corridor table.

White Tourists are not touched in JA, German Cruise-Ship touristscan walk about downtown without incident, while black people are killed like cattle daily.. 2007.

The Plantation Owner is away but the atrocities continue AND the 'sugar crop' returns dwindleorare consumedand eaten by the'stand-ins' before it can get to market.

Need some serious therapy or daily motivational speaking by Les Brown in Emancipation Park.