On Thursday, March 4, 2004 in the days subsequent to Aristide's forced removal from Haiti by the US, I wrote a column titled, Haiti and the Lunatic Right. In one part of the column the following was written:
'Pat Robertson is one of those preachers who represents most of what is wrong with America.

Early Tuesday morning, this incredible man was on TV saying that Haiti's problem began 200 years ago when Haiti's black leaders kicked out the French army. According to Robertson, God has been punishing Haiti for the last 200 years because of that fact.'

Pat Robertson

One year before that in 2003 this man who represents close to 50 per cent of white American opinion and is one of the chief bulwarks of US televangelism called for the assassination of Osama bin Laden, Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Saddam Hussein. Now that he has called for his country's special forces to kill Venezuelan leader, President Hugo Chavez, some, especially our local clergymen, have expressed surprise.

The question is, why the surprise?
Rev Howard Gregory, Suffragan Bishop of Montego Bay believes that if it is good, it is God. If it is evil, it is the devil. Trapped by his profession, it is incumbent on the good bishop to wallow in the simplistic thinking of his faith.

According to him, "What has come from Robertson is clearly of the devil - this call to eliminate a duly elected leader is nothing short of demonic."

Rev Howard Gregory

Bishop Gregory, what has come from Robertson is standard bigoted Pat Robertson, not some demon deep inside him. It represents some, if not most of the thought processes of the WASPs in the present US administration and in previous American leaders. I grant you, Bishop Gregory, that it is evil thought but don't let Robertson off the hook by ascribing to him some external (or internal) influence.

If Bishop Gregory was on top of his game, he would have long ago distanced his church from the war whoops and the racist ramblings of Pat Robertson.

President Hugo Chavez and Venezuela are friends to the Jamaican government and people. Friendship is a concept alien to the present US administration and the conservatives in the Republican party. In the 1970s America made us pay dearly for our friendship with Cuba and its leader and eventually 'assisted' in the process of regime change in October 1980.

Last year P J Patterson scored very highly for me by bringing Aristide all the way from the Central African Republic for a holiday in Jamaica. It was very powerful symbolism from a black leader who has no real power on the world stage.

Those of us who criticised the move were really hitting out at PJ's poor governance at home even as the conservatives in the White House must have been rankled by Jamaica's stance on Haiti.

And while I am on the subject, what in the world is conservative about the war hawks in the present US administration? Conservative means traditional, old-fashioned, careful, unadventurous.

The actions of the men in the White House along with the predictable tedium coming from Robertson are the actions of closet fascists whose very reason for existence is adventure (war) and domination. There is nothing conservative about these conservatives.

Too many of our local clergymen are beholden to the cash-rich, evangelical charlatans from the US who espouse and preach the gospel according to St Dollar. Black televangelists have learnt well from the whites with the really big bucks.

They have learnt to conveniently discard their bigotry because of one common factor - the holy dollar. It is common to see on TV a black Candi Staton and the white aging barbie Jan Crouch both teary-eyed while raking in the dollars from the gullible.

Pat Robertson takes it a step further by melding his political side to his religious fanaticism. In his gospel, America has the right to dominate and decimate because God is on America's side.

In the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament) God or Jehovah or Yahweh was constantly 'smiting' those who were unbelievers. In the violence of the Old Testament, Robertson finds his ultimate - his nirvana, heaven.

In truth, Pat Robertson is an honest man - and quite consistent. Many of our poor, black people are as afflicted by religion as Robertson finds in it the author of America's destiny and its need to run rough-shod over the rest of the non-white world.

It comes hard on the devout Christian to acknowledge that some of the religion's most 'holy' spokespersons are really very dangerous men who see in the Bible the blueprint for world domination.

Poor, black people in the Christian world who become confused by these mixed messages continue to 'watch and pray' while the non-black races grow wealthy, rule the world and recognise the religion not for what it is but what it does - it keeps the dirt-poor, black race happy with their cheap labour, low wages and underdevelopment because, being meek, they believe they shall inherit the earth.

Robertson has an acute understanding of this and carries the Word while Bush and his cronies push along with the (s)word. It is just the new version of the Atlantic Slave Trade but this time it is global, 21st century style.

One reader of the Miami Herald wrote the following in response to Robertson's outburst:
'This incident calls to mind the legend of Hatuey, a Taino whom the Spanish conquistadors burned alive in Cuba in 1512.

Just before the fire was lit, a priest showed him the cross and asked him to accept Jesus so that he could go to heaven. "Are there people like you in heaven?" Hatuey asked. "There are many like me in heaven," answered the priest.

Then, Hatuey said, he would prefer not to go there.'
Another writer from Coral Gables wrote the following in support of Robertson:

'What's all the hoopla about Robertson's remarks about Hugo Chávez? Don't we believe in freedom of speech? Robertson's comments are tame compared to Chávez's repressive government aided by his teacher, Fidel Castro.

I am not an extremist, but maybe this is the only way to go. Maybe the Venezuelan people would have better luck and a shorter time under this dictator's rule. Maybe, just maybe, a 10-year-old Venezuelan boy will not have to risk his life to leave his country in order to have the essentials in life.

I was raised to not wish death on anyone. But this time I have to put aside my grandmother's teachings and support Robertson's approach.'

A Portia Simpson/Omar Davies alliance?

"Much too far-fetched, Mark. It is an impossibility," said the company director to me in response to my suggestion that there appears to be a warming of both sides to each other and 'alliance' may be in the making.

The two high-powered ministers were both invited to Michael Peart's South Manchester conference last Sunday. It is no secret that the PNP Pearts are supporters of Omar Davies in the PNP leadership race.

At this crucial time in the life of the main leadership aspirants in the PNP, it would be imperative that Peart invite Omar Davies to his conference so that the delegates can look him up and down, listen to him, love him and make judgments of him. All standard political stuff in another coming-out party for Davies.

But, to me, it goes into political heresy territory to invite a powerhouse like Portia Simpson Miller to South Manchester. That is going against the grain.

Information reaching me is that the crowd warmed so much to Portia that it got minds ticking over into overtime. The speeches of both aspirants were very accommodating of each other but when Portia told Davies that she needed him to work with her because, 'there is a lot of work to be done', the crowd erupted.

The team behind Davies is a very high-powered one with no shortage of the cash needed for mobilisation and the campaign. There are also some very savvy strategists on board. Could it be that the Peart invitation was an experiment? Is it possible that the Davies team has hit up on political reality?

With a significant part of the economy (the financial sector) supporting the Davies challenge, there was always the concern that Davies was not attracting the 'crowd' needed to convince the team that he could go it for the long haul.

Another concern was that as each aspirant became locked into his own objectives, the overall party efforts became dispersed, watered down. Additionally, Portia needed the nod from sections of the influential, moneyed middle class.

Three years ago, a Karl Blythe/ Portia Simpson Miller combination was in the making. With the resignation of Blythe and his current doing-it-alone style, that alliance which would have been an insurmountable, winning one, is now off the books.

In the public domain, Peter Phillips is very much 'on his own.' Placed in an unforgiving ministry, Phillips has suffered immensely. Every time he gets up to make a speech the public sees the man who is unable to solve the crime problem and who finds it difficult to smile.
Omar Davies has his own hands full in that regard, especially where it refers to increasing prices.

There is nothing ironclad about a merger between Portia and Davies. But weeks ago, Portia Simpson Miller was pretty much going it alone, safe and 70 per cent sure of winning with no thoughts of 'alliance'. If an alliance is really in the making, what would be in it for the parties involved.

For Davies who is not a very popular man among the poor, it would give him the needed fillip in his future endeavours in government, especially as either finance minister or deputy prime minister. Simpson Miller as prime minister would have Davies the super technician in her team even as the country rallied around her.

Let no one fool you. The aspirants for PNP president are in it with a PNP win in 2007 as their main objectives. With Davies as PNP president, the PNP would be slaughtered in a general election.

I believe the Davies' strategists have tacitly acknowledged that. At this stage therefore, the delegate vote must be decided on by what is likely to occur after the delegate vote in 2007.

The synergies in any Portia/Davies alliance would be unquestionably huge for the PNP. One PNP source who told me the 'alliance' is not a done deal but that 'the teams are looking at it', also told me that one of the major concerns was resuscitating the flagging fortunes of the PNP.
According to this source, a Michael Peart supporter, 'Only Portia can do this.

The party, however, owes a lot to Dr Davies and I believe that he as finance minister under a Simpson Miller administration can best project and carry out the new objectives of the new prime minister.'
Any thoughts on this?

In praise of beautiful Jamaican Women

I met Lady Cooke in the vegetable gardens of King's House in the early 1990s. She was warm, gentle, smiling and she was beautiful. She reminded me of my mother.

I have a picture of my mother as a teenager and she is a knockout in her quiet, demure way. She is now 79 years of age and is hardly any less beautiful than she was at 18. Although she is not 100 per cent in the peak of health, she and my 85-year-old father are still playmates although my father cannot chase her around any more as I grew up seeing him do.

Many years ago I fell in love with a Jamaican beauty contestant named April Parchment. A few years ago when I wrote about her, a male reader e-mailed me and said he had married her and they were still very much in love. Lucky man.

Years ago, too, I interviewed David Panton at his apartment. What I never told him was when he introduced his wife Lisa Hanna to me and invited her to sit in on the interview, I basically tripped out. So stunningly beautiful and bright she was. In subsequent meetings when I saw them at social gatherings, I was forced to resist the urge to just storm into their midst and kiss her.

As I write this column, my beautiful lady is close by me, on her computer. It amazes me that after eight years I am still so very much in love with her.

As a lover of beautiful women, it is hard on a man who wants to keep the fires burning bright at home. Jamaica is never ever short of beautiful women capable of stopping a man in his tracks and diverting his attention from the home fires.

It happens in the malls, in the supermarket, at cocktail parties. Ninety per cent of the time whenever I come upon a particularly stunning woman, I play the calm fool, trying desperately not to let on that I am in her spell. So I say hi, how are you, then goodbye and walk away as I allow my natural instincts to cool.

They exist at Caymanas Park, in the pews at church, on the streets of Kingston and in the hills of our rural areas. But one is also at home and if I want to remain in her good graces, all I must allow myself to do is admire those outside, move on and get my you-know-what home.

With our present difficulties Jamaica has that blessing of beautiful women walking the land and calming the restless nature of our men.

Executive Class

Gardens with Gravel

Necessary Luxury