"I am sure you are well aware of the crime situation in Jamaica. I am responsible for managing all the crime investigations - the police resources for over 1,500 murders each year plus all the other crimes, etc. As such, my time is very limited.

"There is absolutely no Government influence in this investigation and we will follow up the allegations made, although it is essential that we have the full facts and details, including the relevant documents to show that a fraud has been committed!!!"

So wrote Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green to Dr Christopher Walker who describes himself as 'a concerned Olint investor'.

The communication, an e-mail, copied to about 10 different addresses, including me, was dated October 7, 2008.

On two days last week The Breakfast Club had as its focus Olint, a much- publicised lawsuit brought against it by Dr Walker and wild allegations made in a series of e-mails sent to Les Green. Dr Walker also wrote to the prime minister on October 17, in which he made a recap of events, namely, "Of note, since January 2008, I have made multiple requests to recover the money I invested, this being as of May 2008 US$2.4 million. Based on the unwillingness to refund the outstanding amounts owed, I have asked the Jamaican police to investigate Olint in order to protect the Olint stakeholders from losing everything.

"It has become obvious to me that despite several attempts to have senior law enforcement officials interview and arrest David Smith and his brother Wayne Smith, CEO of Olint, the response has been lethargic to say the least."

I too would be interested in any third party information which would shed new light on the demise of Olint beyond the plethora of rumours and wild allegations of who got what, when, how much and by what route.

That said, during the series of communication between Walker and Green which was copied to various media houses/journalists, I got the distinct impression that not only was Dr Walker interested in keeping certain media persons informed of his actions, he also wanted to convey to us, to sell us his untrammelled allegations as nothing but 'facts' just as how he was 'directing' the police to 'interview and arrest David Smith and his brother Wayne Smith.'

I have no doubt that there are many Olint investors who would like to see someone behind bars for the Olint debacle. But, although we are no fans of the snail's pace of police investigations in this country, Walker in his communication came across as pushy and imperious in trying to tell the police what it should do in light of what he saw as 'government influence' in the investigations.

In his letter to the prime minister he wrote, "Recently, I communicated in confidence my concerns to Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green and shockingly I received an intimidatory e-mail from Mr Daryl Vaz, a Minister of State in your Cabinet."

This is not entirely true even as much was made of it by the hosts of The Breakfast Club, Trevor Munroe and Tony Abrahams, very definitely no friends of the JLP in a time when the ruling administration is fast running out of friends.

It is not true to say that Walker 'communicated in confidence' his concerns to ACP Leslie Green. As said before, many persons were also copied and at no stage was there any request for any of us copied to 'see and blind, hear and deaf'.

On seeing the communication which involved Vaz, I immediately sought clarification from him (Vaz) on the wild speculations and suggested that he should respond in a matter which to me no attempt was being made to keep in confidence. Indeed, I got the impression that Walker wanted the very opposite - the press to run with all the hearsay, wild speculation and undocumented 'chat' that was adding nothing new to what the rumour mill had already produced months ago.
So, what was this dangerous, 'intimidatory' e-mail from Daryl Vaz? "Since u have so much info on my association with olint I advise u to do as ACP Green has suggested. Give him all details. Put up or shut up.

The e-mail advises Walker to, one, do as ACP Green suggested, present all details. While I would not have recommended the 'put up or shut up' bit, Vaz was in essence saying to Walker, assist in leading the police towards the facts (put up) or cease the wild speculations (shut up).

Tony Abrahams has made much of what was said to be a 'string of bad words' which he alleges Vaz reeled off to him on the phone after he had called Vaz for a response. When I called Vaz he told me that Abrahams and company on The Breakfast Club were playing political games and revelling in propagating the wild accusations. According to Vaz, he told Abrahams, "You are a despicable character and on behalf of the many who would like to tell you that, I am telling you so. I would also like to add one other thing. Something I am certain that the many would like to tell you too. Go #@ yourself."

Security minister says details in fighting extortion cannot be divulged

In response to my Thursday column, The Enemy between the Sheets in which I suggested that no extortion ring can exist successfully without collaboration with rogue cops, I received a call from ex-army man and ex-commissioner of police Colonel Trevor MacMillan, presently minister of national security.

I concluded that column with, "It is amazing that extortion, which is helping to fuel much of the violent criminality in turf-defending and the extremes of ego tripping, has been allowed to proliferate under the noses of the political directorate and the police force. It is so because the politics, in the days when it could, failed to liberate the people from hopelessness when it was extracting the votes from them. Well, guess what, the people have 'liberated' themselves but it is without direction and leadership. In the process, the political leadership created a police force, too many elements of which are safely in bed with the criminality which provokes the shootings and the killings.

"If we could awaken our security minister, maybe he would see them across the room."

Minister MacMillan said when he called, "Quite obviously much of what we are trying to attain in breaking down the doors of extortion across Jamaica is operational and cannot be divulged. We have to buttress that approach by beefing up our forensics. You know people will tell us that they are being forced to pay extortion but they are not prepared to take the witness stand and admit to it. There is a real fear there."

When I questioned him about seeking new legislation to deal with the specific matters, he said that to a large extent the state is tied into broader laws that would not allow any new flexibility in tackling extortion. He said that legislation existed which allowed complainants to give evidence on video and cited that as one way forward.

One reader saw us as fooling ourselves that we will ever solve our crime problems. She suggested that we market it.

"I worked in the tourism industry for over a decade and became aware that many people visit Jamaica to be able to smoke a 'spliff' on the beach with the wind in their hair and reggae music in their ears. It's a powerful combination. And in light of the fact that our morals have been pitched over the precipice, why can't we just embrace the fact that we are outlaws and begin to capitalise on the outlaw status? Why is Amsterdam not a pariah nation with their coffee shops and legal funhouses?

"If we legalise marijuana and allow the US to patrol our waters to ensure it doesn't get out, so many more tourists would come just to enjoy a week of lawlessness. I'm serious. No government is interested in curbing crime. None. So why not just sell who we are and stop the pretence."

"Every time I travel to the Pacific Rim, I marvel at the airport signs in Taipei, Jakarta and on my single trip into Singapore, how they proclaim drug trafficking to be punishable by death. And they are SERIOUS. We are just caressing the problem and it makes people laugh at us. We should just make some money off the damn thing. Sell it for local consumption and the government control the sales."

Minister MacMillan, the state of the JLP government's public relations is 'dead'. More and more of the public is buying less and less of the little that oozes out through the increasing miasma that has fallen over the administration.

And this becomes increasingly unfair to hard- working Cabinet members like Education Minister Andrew Holness who will be forced to carry much of the deadweight of the JLP when next it faces the polls.
In the face of dead public relations, Minister MacMillan, I will be looking from you much more of that great foil of 'dead' PR. Performance which can be seen, felt, embraced and celebrated.

McCain, Obama step up battleground blitz

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AFP) - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain took their White House duel deep into the American heartland late last week in a final push for votes ahead of next week's historic election.

With just two days left before Tuesday's presidential ballot, front-runner Obama was to hold campaign rallies in the midwestern states of Iowa and Indiana while McCain was wrapping up a two-day bus tour of Ohio.

The two candidates have been trading body-blows after grim new figures showed the world's largest economy is staring at recession.

The US government said the economy had shrunk by 0.3 per cent in the third quarter through September, its worst contraction since 2001.

McCain's campaign insisted the bleak economic outlook would be made even worse by an Obama administration, saying his opponent would raise taxes on small businesses and so stifle growth and kill jobs.

"Today's announcement ... confirms what Americans already knew: the economy is shrinking," McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said in a statement. "Barack Obama would accelerate this dangerous course."

But Obama, 47, bidding to become the first black US president, pounced on the news to say his rival would pursue what he called failed Republican policies promulgated by President George W Bush.

"If you want to know where John McCain will drive this economy, just look in the rear-view mirror. Because when it comes to our economic policies, John McCain has been right next to George Bush," Obama said.

"He's been sitting there in the passenger seat, ready to take over, every step of the way," he told a crowd of more than 60,000 supporters on a daylong blitz though the battleground states of Florida, Virginia and Missouri.

"It is time to change drivers. It is time to have somebody else at the wheel."

In an interview with NBC News, Obama said the job facing the president-elect taking office on January 20 had gotten much harder as a result of the financial crisis.

"It's going to be a lot tougher. I don't think there's any doubt about that. We know that the next president is likely to inherit a significant recession," Obama said, while sticking to his list of big-spending priorities.

McCain, 72, has struggled to compete with Obama on economic policy as polls show the issue remains the overwhelming concern for voters.

The latest national poll by the New York Times and CBS News gave Obama a yawning lead of 11 points among likely voters - 52 per cent to 41 for McCain.

On Thursday McCain wheeled out Ohio tradesman Samuel J Wurzelbacher, better known as "Joe the Plumber", to buttress his case in a state that he must win if he is to take the White House.

No US president has been elected without winning Ohio since 1960, and Obama is ahead in state polls.

McCain was to call on former movie star turned California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to campaign alongside him in Ohio on Friday, before heading to Pennsylvania.

Obama was enlisting former vice-president Al Gore to campaign for him in Florida, where the anti-global warming crusader suffered his agonising loss in the 2000 election to Bush.

After his Iowa event, the Democrat was to break for a Halloween visit to his two young daughters in Chicago before heading to an evening rally in Highland, Indiana, just over the Illinois border.

Will Barack Obama make his second bit of history?

It is a history that is at once scary as it is highly anticipated. Barack Obama, an unknown four years ago, a black American headed for the post of President of the USA, the most powerful job in the world.

There is something surreal about the picture. Something that Martin Luther King, 39 years old in 1968, would only be dreaming of and, were he alive 40 years later, at age 79, he would willingly go to his grave in peace. But this time, the objectives are less narrow because King and Malcolm X and others in the 1960s identified the ultimate possibilities and the wider reaches which all spring from human yearnings and, among an oppressed people, sold them more than the idea that they too could 'be somebody'.

Barack Obama has not just captivated Americans in his own space, he has done so globally. Indeed no candidate can run for US President without forcing the presence of those elections into every living room discussion globally. But this time around, the Obama candidacy has not only aroused the attention of every village in every country in the world, it has captivated them and in the process, it has made the contest into a very one-sided affair. It is a Barack Obama love affair.

Much of the actions and the criticisms emanating from the Republican Party seemed to have centred around the real likelihood that white America would never elect a black man as its president. What other conclusion could one reach after McCain went to sleep during the latter stages of a bitter fight to the end in the Democratic primaries when it had to be obvious to him that Obama would prevail?

And when McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, assuming that he knew that her knowledge of domestic and global matters, her basic pedigree, made her more aligned to 'Barbie' than anyone who wanted to occupy even an outhouse in the White House, he must have seriously underestimated Obama, his transformational message and a nation grown tired of eight years of Bush-ism.

At each stage of the contest in the Democratic primaries, Obama's skills, organisational abilities, knowledge and political wiliness increased exponentially. He was unafraid to seek out the best in all spheres and in doing so, his colour blindness was stunning. Running as an American who just happened to be black, he brought King's 'non-violent' approach to what Bill Clinton called a rough 'contact sport'.

Like King, he faced down his political opponents with the breadth of his intellect and his ability to weave a human story into it. With a huge network of volunteers Obama used to full effect the duality of his good looks and charm along with his ability to work himself into the minds of 'Everyman' USA. But beneath his pleasant exterior is a shrewd man and a wily politician.

While Hillary Clinton was extolling the virtues of herself and, unbelievingly, John McCain, she was putting him down. In the process he brought about her political bankruptcy and the end to her political ambitions, for now. When white America's press began to flay him because a black preacher did what all evangelical preachers do - cry down damnation on Babylon, America - he turned the nation on its head by delivering a speech that asked the people of the USA not just to reopen the debate on race but to accept that the matter had to be viewed from two sides.

At the last presidential debate, the contrast between himself and John McCain was glaring. At the end of the debate Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama walked on stage to greet their respective husbands. The warmth between the Obamas was obvious while the McCains went through the motions of ceremonial half hugs and near kisses. There was something false about them. Then as the Obamas walked off the stage together, John McCain made a stunning move. He hurriedly strode off the stage and left his wife alone. She was forced to follow, something the American press, usually so engrossed in sideshows, deliberately missed.

That simple action told me that McCain was not a man at peace with his political life. On Tuesday we will see if the pockets of deep racism is enough to overturn Obama's chance to bring back America to the space it has carved out for itself, especially since the end of World War 2.

President Bush has made the US into the very thing the nation was said to despise. A pariah state. Barack Obama has already shown a level of organisation in his campaign that has eclipsed all presidential candidates before him. It is that skill along with a steady hand, calm, quiet judgment and a steely resolve that will convince a majority of voters to make him the 44th president of the United States.

observemark@gmail.com

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