NOT even the most rabid JLP supporter and follower would have expected that the Government’s Debt Exchange arrangement with the big money players in Jamaica — set to save the country over $40 billion per year — would have been a ‘set it and forget it’ policy.

When the Government was confusing itself in trying to come up with a tax package, former finance minister Dr Omar Davies suggested a one-off tax on the interest earned on government paper which would have filled a hole in the budget of the JLP administration to the tune of $9 billion.

So when the Government called in all the players and eventually announced the Debt Exchange programme which would lower interest rates, make the country more amenable to business start-ups — bureaucracy notwithstanding — and save the country over $40 billion per annum, it would have knocked the wind out of the PNP’s sails.

A little over a week ago when the Opposition PNP showed up at the factory (Parliament) when the machines were turned off (that is, when Parliament was not in session), to protest the Government’s ‘refusal’ to debate important matters, even though the debate date was set for January 19, I criticised their move for the raw, crass politics that I saw it as.

The very fact that on January 19 when Parliament was convened, (when the factory was open and the machines were up and running), the PNP cried foul, made an ass of itself and claimed that important information from the Government useful to the debate was sent to it late so it could not engage the Government in a debate, told me that the PNP was not prepared to admit that the JLP Government had scored well at the national level.

Leaders of Jamaican political parties are blooded in divisive politics, and it is not the norm for one political party to congratulate the other for a policy which has obvious benefits for the country.

What could have been the reason for the PNP’s petty and highly immature approach to the nation’s business? Dr Omar Davies, we were told, was ill and could not attend Parliament. Could that have been the reason for the PNP’s refusal to participate in the debate?

Why could not the leader herself lead off the debate? We know of her limitations when it comes to financial matters, so let us not fault her too much for not pushing forward only to be cut down in embarrassment.

Why could she not have charged Dr Peter Phillips to lead off the PNP in the debate? It is my belief that not only Portia Simpson Miller lacks knowledge in economics and finance, but she also lacks basic leadership skills. I also believe that the politics she practises is one steeped in divisiveness, shouting and cantankerous behaviour.

What did she believe would have happened had Dr Phillips taken the podium and presented the PNP’s side of the debate? Did she fear that Phillips would have been the nationalist that he is and offer congratulations to the JLP administration and leadership, even while warning the Government that the sustainability of the policy would need only the best political management?

Was she fearful of Dr Phillips taking too much of the spotlight even as it becoming quite clear that her lack of leadership, especially in these tough economic times, is making her style of delivery increasingly redundant? The fact that the leadership of the PNPYO found reason to criticise the PNP parliamentarians must mean that, in an environment where the youth leaders in both political parties tend to be clones and petty impersonators of their political elders, things must have been judged as gone beyond the pale.

Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller must learn that there is life outside of the aura of Dr Omar Davies. So, Omar doesn’t show up and she doesn’t seize the moment to show that she is fully aware of the current issues, most of them long out in the public domain. Peter Phillips is there, but it would be, I assume, politically incorrect and perhaps signal a new politics to allow him the primacy which she would allow Davies.

Many of our people are moving far ahead of our political leaders. A leader such as Simpson Miller will be the last to recognise that cold fact.

Goodness vs Religion

One early morning on a typical Jamaican day in the mid-1990s, I was watering my lawn when I saw a woman, obviously a street person, sitting on the outer lawn of the house facing mine.

I shut off the hose and walked down the driveway. Havendale was not normally a neighbourhood where street people would gather and sleep.

“Where are you coming from?” I asked. She smiled, seemingly oblivious to my presence, my voice. I walked across the road and said to her, “Have you eaten since morning? Are you hungry?”

The smile remained etched on her face. It didn’t take long to figure out that she had mental problems. The sun had begun to come out and she was fully in its glare, its heat. So was I. I asked her again if she wanted something to eat and she nodded yes. I led her across to the outer lawn on my side and suggested that she sit with her back against the concrete fence — to shade herself from the sun.

I went inside and prepared strong black coffee and I carried out some pastry that I had bought the day before. She devoured the food and the steaming hot coffee in less than three minutes. Afterwards, I engaged her in conversation and was able to gather that she had been a patient of Bellevue hospital.

It was about a quarter to eight (am) when I called the hospital. The person who answered the phone suggested that I call back at 9:00 am. When I went back outside, the woman, about 70 years old, was sprawled out on the outer lawn.

I convinced her to come inside, on my verandah. I had a bit of old camping gear and I opened it and told her to lie on it. As she did, she urinated on it. By that time my then wife was about to leave the house to take one of my sons to school.

Said she, “What are you doing?” I explained the situation to her and told her that I would have Bellevue come and pick up the lady. My wife gave me a rather long stare and shook her head as if to suggest that I was the one who needed some evaluation and medication.

As she left I noticed that an unusual amount of phlegm oozed from the woman’s nose. I felt sickened. I was no Father Ho Lung, but I got tissue and wiped her. A few minutes after she fell asleep.

When my wife returned, she said, “Daddy, what exactly have you got us into now?”

“Be cool girl, be cool,” I said.

When I called back Bellevue and explained the situation all over again, the man on the other end said that they had three minibuses but one had three wheels and a bad engine, another had four wheels but no brakes and the last one was at the end of a cannibalisation process.

“Sir,” he said to me, “why don’t you carry her here?”

I told my wife what we would be doing. “Why are you getting me involved in this, Daddy?” she asked.

“Honey,” I said, “mek wi jus do dis ting nuh man.” She shook her head again.

The long and the short of it is that we prepared the back seat of the car — placed mounds of newspaper on it, then pillows for the woman’s head — and took her to Bellevue. As she exited the car, she urinated then bolted. As I waited for them to get her — they eventually did and identified her as a patient — I voiced concern about her safety. The man at the front office said, “Sir, stop worrying yuhself. Yuh do what 90 per cent of Jamaicans would never do. Go home and relax.”

As we arrived home, my wife and the helper burned everything that the woman had even remotely touched. Then my wife called my mother, a very Christian person, and told her what I, a non-believer – an agnostic then, but heading towards atheism – had done.

“Mark, when are you going to give your life to Jesus?” my mother asked. “What you have done is very good, very Christian.” I saw this as extremely simplistic reasoning, but it was my mother.

“Mama, why should I give my life to anyone if I am already doing good?”

Go to hell, Wignall

My column last Thursday, “In the beginning, Man created God” not only brought out the beast in the religious, but it also unearthed many closet non-believers who are afraid to voice their position.

One reader wrote, “I hope God does not use this against you in judgement. If He does, your hell will be hot, but I assume you have sense and have begged for forgiveness already.”

Less simplistic but with no less venom was another reader who quoted a part of the article, “‘Devastation in the form of earthquakes, hurricanes attracts the ignorant and the gullible.’ Well said, because you are one of them. Cock mouth kill cock. One knows a tree by its fruits.”

Most of those raining down condemnation on me and trying to prove that God exists simply use some passage from the Bible as if once they open its pages, their reasoning ability goes.

“I have read your article in today’s paper and I paused and uttered a prayer for you because as the Word of God says, it is only a fool who believes in his heart that there is no God. God, the Almighty One, is sovereign and none of us can understand completely the mind of God. His ways are not our ways, neither His thoughts our thoughts. So let’s not get into the habit of trying to decide on what God can and will do. He is the one who created this world and whether we go about living our lives in a sinful manner, we need to understand that God still hold our lives in His hands. HE IS IN CONTROL!

“I pray though, that you will come to realise that we didn’t just exist from nowhere — God created us in His image… Thank God He is merciful.”

Nothing new. Just the usual dogma and reminding me that he or she is at a better place than I am.

One person who signed as Simple-Minded Christian wrote, “Did you know the largest planet in our solar system Jupiter’s orbit around the sun mirrors the orbit of the Earth? Why is that? It protects the Earth from the danger of meteorites. Our knowledge of Jupiter indicates that Jupiter is bombarded with meteorites. If they were not hitting Jupiter they would be coming straight at us. That is protection from a loving God. We are not the only creation in this universe, but we are the ones who disobeyed.”

Tell that to the Haitians.

By midday there were close to 50 emails, but not all were filled with the usual religious I-am-at-a-better-place-than-you dogma. One person, a highly educated woman who had not declared her hand, asked me, “What if man did not create God or the Devil?” My response accommodated the idea that God, fashioned or real, has a real role in man’s existence on this planet.

The need to have his philosophical flights to no intended destinations is as much a part of man as is eating to survive and for pleasure. Inherent in this is the understanding that the primary search on that flight will be a need to determine man’s place in the hierarchy of the cosmos. Are we masters or are we mastered? It is death which renders us as mastered. But the death of a loved one presents man with his ultimate pain, so he goes off again on another limb of that philosophical flight and creates a destination post-death. Two actually: Heaven and that other place.

But a problem connected to the former (life) arises. Who determines what is good? Why, the guy who runs Heaven, of course, who just incidentally leased that other place to a guy one rung down the scale: Satan.

The ducks line up. God determines good from bad. God, who controls Heaven, does so for the sole purpose of hosting his judged ‘good’.

It is all a self-reinforced fairytale designed to ease man’s pain in life.

And because of that, I can appreciate its legitimacy even though I accept it as a big lie. What if man did not create God? Or His alter ego? Damn good question, and one which pushes one to a greater appreciation of the universal chaos which could arise if there was no man-created God. Man has a need to arrange for his own order in his community. So as chaotic as it is in the world today, we cannot rule out the thought that if there was no God, real or fashioned by man, our existence here on Earth would probably have been one of pure barbarism; an almost feral existence.

Support the Jazz Festival

It will be for me to believe that as tough as times are in Jamaica, some of the better-off in our society will not be able to afford tickets and hotel accommodation to attend the Jazz Festival, which kicks off today. They will flock to it like pigeons to corn.

In the nights, our A-rated nightclubs in Kingston and MoBay are filled to capacity. Where does the money come from? Over the Christmas holidays, some were out spending as if the recession had blown past us.

Well, my exhortation is go out and spend some more of that money and help the parish of Trelawny. Sports Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange may have no real plans for the Trelawny stadium, but those with money to spend, I bet, will be there dancing and singing along with their favourite artistes.

The Jazz Festival line-up is, as usual, an excellent one, and the town of Falmouth could do with the influx of tourists and the money inflows.

observemark@gmail.com