In the best of times in the past few years the fortunes of Air Jamaica have always seemed to be representative of the worst of times. On April 13, 2008 (Article title: Air Jamaica Board should face the Tough Reality) I wrote," Against a background of continued inefficiency and mismanagement, which seemed to have escalated during the time when Vin Lawrence headed the board and which has not become any better under the chairmanship of Shirley Williams, the new JLP government is still asking taxpayers to continue propping up Air Jamaica.

"In 2007 Air Jamaica lost US$170 million and in 2008 the loss is not only expected to continue but is projected to reach US$200 million; the airline's management seems hopelessly out of touch with the trend in the last decade towards leaner, meaner and more efficient service. Air Jamaica has racked up accumulated losses of US$1.2 billion and it is time for the board to realise that in a year where every Jamaican is going to be asked to tighten his and her belt, it has to be seen that those at the top are prepared to lead off in this effort."

With a record like that and with the clock on present losses still ticking like a time bomb, one would have expected chairperson Williams to have signalled to all the levels below her that with increases in fuel cost and a general increase in inflation/the cost of living, all of the measures designed to increase the efficiency of the airline and the company would be in full, automatic, blitz-like operation in all areas. Wishful thinking? Yes!

This is Jamaica, where the word 'waste' as it refers to spending your tax dollar has no real meaning. So, what does the chairperson do? On June 5 she orders an Air Jamaica flight to take a passenger after it had closed off on boarding passengers. The end result was, the plane which was on the runway had to turn back to pick up the lucky passenger.

It is your duty to know, Chairperson Williams

In her defence Shirley Williams admitted giving the instructions but insisted that she did not have all the facts. Which facts, Ms Williams? The Air Jamaica chairperson admitted that she ordered the boarding of a representative of IADB after being told that the doors were closed. According to Williams, 'The decision would never have been made to return the aircraft for anyone, had the facts been known.' Let me ask again, what are these unknown facts you keep on mentioning, Ms Williams? Would it not be simpler for you to have given us specific reasons? It seems to me that the missing 'facts' were really your way of saying, 'I have no plausible, publicly saleable reasons for causing an airplane on the runway to turn back and pick up a "special" passenger.'

It is not the duty of the shop-floor clerk or even a junior manager to 'know' about company matters at a macro level. Once the call came in to Williams requesting special treatment, she had two options. Refuse it, as should have happened. High-powered officials miss their flights regularly all over the world, and they do what other mere mortals do. Sit in and wait for the next flight.

If she decided that the IADB official was worth the 'kowtowing', then it was her duty to determine all the other factors. Based on the signal that she has sent to executive and staff at Air Jamaica and the overburdened Jamaican taxpayers paying those handsome salary packages, it is clear that the management is not really serious about sharpening its efficiency. I believe the prime minister should immediately invite her to engineer her own departure.
Her actions indicate that she is seriously misplaced in her post. I don't know the lady, never met her, but when her recent actions are placed alongside the perennial waste at Air Jamaica, I believe that she needs to go.

Is the Patois Bible a joke?

Like most Jamaicans who are able to handle the English language with ease, I am even more at ease (depending on the company) conversing in our patois or native language. While I was a child my father insisted that ALL communication in the home be conducted in Standard English.

I am under no illusions that my father enforced these rules because he knew that my siblings and I would have learned patois from the street, and at school, and he wanted to ensure that we were bilingual. Dad operated from a class position, called patois 'broken English' and frowned on it, just as he called pop music 'rag songs'.

This forced all eight of us to be fluent in Standard English while enjoying the usual comfort level with patois when entertaining our friends or in settings uniquely Jamaican. If I have learned a few things in the English/Patois debate, it is that those of us who speak only patois cannot read it. Even a person like me who speaks and writes in Standard English and patois has tremendous difficulty in reading patois.

Now comes the revelation, not new I should add, that the Bible Society of the West Indies is embarking on a five-year, J$60-million project to translate the Bible into our native dialect. It is good to know that the Society is cash-rich and can deploy funds, personnel and time to something that will give it no ends of satisfaction in seeing 'God's word' written in Jamaican although very few us will be able to read it.

In my view, this is just another of our misplaced priorities. Even if a poor person could afford a copy, would he or she be able to read it? I think not. Our dialect is a spoken one, and even those Jamaicans who have a problem speaking English, if they are literate they will be able to read Standard English more easily than they will be able to decipher the dialect written down.

Quite apart from my belief that the Bible is mostly ancient fable drawn heavily from the lore of other pagan beliefs which predate the Bible, to me the translation effort will be a massive waste of good money. In plain talk, our local dialect, when written down, is best understood when it is sparse and used as conversation quotes. An entire Bible in patois! A most foolish idea.

Failed men and pretty women

Most men are familiar with the saying, 'Behind every successful man is a good woman', even if he is a bum scrounging for white rum in a two-stool bar or living like a fairly young politician from the last administration - falling fast and hard from his pedestal, but leaving a bevy of trophy women in the wake of his demise.

If you jog your memory a little and think about it, you will recall some man who had 'a pretty browning' beside him when he was swimming in cash and social prominence or parading with an 'ebony empress' while he was on the prowl from Acropolis to Half Moon and to an apartment in the sky in New Kingston.

In this article let me define a 'failed man' as the sort who climbs the ladder of 'success' seemingly overnight, then in almost the same breath, he topples in a week, a month, and is an ordinary man again. He may be a hard working businessman who does a 'little hustling' on the side, and, in quick time rises like a shooting star while colleagues of his who are running businesses similar to his own become confounded at their inability to make the grade.

He may be a professional politician taking home $4 million per year, but with a 'little scuffling' is able to bank regular amounts of $10 million, either here or, usually in US dollars, in overseas accounts. Or, in the 'profession' that we are most familiar with, the 'druggist' who moves from a poor ghetto youth to taking in $60 million in one year.

With those definitions out of the way, let me state one truism. Every man loves and desires a pretty woman, or two. He may be Hog Head Justin wearing a size 11 shoe on his left foot, size 12 on the right and a personality which only a mother could love. Or he could be Mr Casanova, tall, dark, and handsome who has women lining up to sample his wares. All men desire pretty women.

In the early years of the Lotto, I knew this young man, Chuckie, a very un-handsome type who hung around bars for free drinks, did odd jobs for quick small change and lived wherever he fell drunk. Women never gave him a second look and I remember one day seeing a 'mad woman' cussing him out and calling him, 'Fresh and damn ugly.' It was that bad for him.

He got five numbers and won over $400,000. Imagine $400,000 in the hands of a man who had not held $500 in years. Immediately a pretty girl in his neighbourhood 'pitch on him' because the poor guy that he was, he could not keep news of his good fortune a secret. Why should he when it gave him a 'status' he never had before?

Some of his friends complained to me that they could not get him to buy them more than a beer while he and the girl were sporting all over the place, taking a taxi to every fancy hotel where they bedded and buying her clothes at stores that before, he never even knew existed.

Within two months the money was gone, the girl and the sultry nights disappeared, and Chuckie was back at the bars, scrounging for drinks and handouts for food. Now I am not making out a case that all pretty women are evil. Absolutely no such thing. At the same time, if I had the power to place the mythological devil on Earth, I would place him in a pretty woman's body.

And why would I do that? Men, especially those with money and more easily prone to all manner of perfidy, are easy prey for the type of pretty women who prefer self-importance and staring in mirrors to maintaining a viable relationship and raising children.
Fifteen years ago I knew this customs officer, a married man who was not only doing well at his work but, based on what happened to him a few years after, he was dabbling in a few wrongs. He was as tall as he was wide and very, very short on good looks.

Because he had money he 'purchased' a pretty young girl, furnished an apartment for her, paid the rent, gave her a healthy allowance and 'visited her' intimately a few times per month. "Mark", she told me, "It is not that he is just ugly, but he is loud, coarse and no good where it counts. When we are involved, I stop my breath especially when he wants to kiss me."

Sometime after, he was implicated in some wrongdoings, lost his job, and one day when he came around to his pretty girl, she seized her chance to get rid of him. She refused to open the door. He returned the next day, banged incessantly on it and ordered her to open up. She called the police. They came, slapped him around a bit as she told them that she had no idea who he was. The police took him away and about a year after that, his wife left him and he eventually made the streets his home.

Within two months the pretty girl had anoth---er willing fool bank-rolling her and lying in the very king-sized, pillow top bed that the poor man had bought for cash. Now that is evil!

History and ancient lore are littered with pretty women at the centre of the fall of men. If Delilah had been ugly, Samson would not have lost his hair over her. If at the time that David spied Bathsheba she had been ugly, he would have probably drawn the curtain, said 'ugh' and allowed Uriah to live longer.

Lastly a pretty woman who has become used to a life of plenty and being pampered and worshipped will, in the event of a termination of a relationship, will make it known that she is available. At that stage the floodgates will open and she will have her pick of the gullible but rich, and the adventurous but stupid.

Alas, it is the way of this troubled but beautiful world.

observemark@gmail.com

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