If veteran politician Karl Samuda had his way, and if Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller was a gambling woman, we would be donning our voting colours and heading to the polling place in the next few days. Last week, Samuda dared her to call the elections in the next 10 days from when he was speaking. She hasn’t paid any notice to the challenge.

Meanwhile, out in the public, there are those who are preparing, not just to take on the challenge, but are ready to get to the starting gates, confident of winning the race. Reports of who wants what makes the daily headlines. The spotlight is turned this week on Delroy Chuck, who you could say, in dancehall parlance, “chuck-i pon dem”. His presentation was about reshaping the society for a more profitable use of land, for both the poor and the wealthy.

Chuck is a very pleasant person, always ready with a word of greeting. He works hard to see that his St Andrew North Eastern constituency, especially in the section where the poorer class lives, is kept as neat as possible. On the other side, he presides over one of the most expensive and elegant suburban areas. In such an atmosphere, many people couldn’t understand what he was up to in the presentation which he made in Parliament earlier this week. His recommendation for Government to buy out the areas where the poor reside and then sell it to the rich was puzzling. The “buyout proposal” was that Government would relocate poor people to settle on cheaper lands, while those with the cash would invest in developments which would benefit the wider society.

When I read the report, I began to wonder if Chuck “head tek him”. For one, the prime minster, with elections nearby — or so it is said — would have had to be out of her mind to get embroiled in a “move the poor” action, allegedly to enrich the rich and chuck them out.

On reflection, I remember that this is not the first time that a recommendation like this has come to the fore and the disfavour with which it was received. It was during the reign of Prime Minister Bruce Golding that the suggestion was made for marching orders to be given to Up Park Camp to be relocated to Caymanas Park, or somewhere like that, and the historic long-held residential areas around Camp be sold to higher bidders.

The recommendation was to redevelop the adjoining areas for lower-income residences and use the Camp lands for more expensive enclaves for those who can afford it. The public debate was heated and unrelenting. The heat finally cooled and the proposal and the proposers went back to where they came from.

I’m surprised that a veteran like Chuck would fly a kite to “move the poor to please the rich” at a time like this. Soon after, he was back in the news explaining that he was not “anti-poor”.

In our style of governance, we are famous for copying ideas from outside which, more often than not, are of no practical value to us. Gentrification might well be one of them. If we are so determined to take example from others, then we should be prepared for the consequences. In other places, England and the USA for instance, gentrification is a way of life. Neighbourhoods where poor people lived have been bought out, resuscitated, and transformed into more socially acceptable and highly expensive areas. I don’t know if that is what Chuck had in mind.

The rationale, according to some views, is not so much about making the poor feel better, but creating a new source of making nuff money in the real estate industry — the new “cash cow”. The current ‘big dream’ is that the poor doesn’t belong in this. Let them go cotch somewhere else. The question is, where is that, please? Have you been travelling around the island and seeing how much is being whittled away for new development and not necessarily for us? Come again, Chuck.

Bring on the brownings

It has been debated for many years and the result is still the same. The question still resonates. Why has no competitor of substantially darker complexion ever been chosen as Jamaica’s representative in any of the so-called world beauty contests (except for Joan McDonald, in my opinion)? Is it because the rest of the world does not see us as worthwhile, or is it because we ourselves have such a low opinion of the largest ethnic group in our nation?

Dark skin is obviously ideal for beating the world on the athletics track. Not so, when beauty is the game. I’m not even upset about it anymore. I’m too bored by it. So, what if in the land of the browning all the winners look the same? Ah, Garvey, none but ourselves can free our minds. Alas!

By the way, didn’t Donald Trump used to hold the franchise for Miss Universe? How come he never came here to check wi? Well, now that he intends to crown himself king of his own universe, will he be coming here to visit the Universe of the Browning? One love!

gloudonb@yahoo.com