Do not sell or lease Petrojam

It had to happen. The significant finding emerging from a Petrojam Review Committee, comprising 10 individuals, the vast majority from the private sector, was that the Government should turn over the running of Petrojam to a private company with a long term lease, within the next two years.

This is one Jamaican who does not agree with such a move. We have got to a stage in this country where we believe that State entities should not be run by its officers. Rubbish! Petrojam can be run by the Government, and run profitably. What needs to be done is to weed out those at the company now, and those who have exited but who still have a foot of shoe with laces left at the company, to be, themselves divested from having anything to do with the organisation, ever again.

There are competent people in the public sector who can run Petrojam. We are not all thieves in this country. If you were to take some of the officials we now have working for the Government, and shift them to the private sector, their attitudes will change. That is what the Government needs – people with a positive attitude.

We must stop this foolishness that Government can’t run entities. Everything cannot go to the private sector. The State must keep some of the key entities too.

We must all remember that the Government sold out the Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd, when it was profitable. It is still profitable today, but fraught with complaints, as it continues to treat the Jamaican people with scant regard.

Remember too that National Commercial Bank, for example, was sold (majority shares) to a company led by Jamaican-Canadian businessman, at a time too when it was profitable. So why is there this mad rush to get rid of everything that Government controls?

The public sector requires honest and competent people, and many of them exist. All that needs to happen is for the Government to cease its appointment of political lackeys to key areas of industry, get qualified people to head up these organisations and allow them to do their part in the overall quest to achieve GDP growth and better for the people of this country.

It can be done. This quack talk about private sector is the only answer must be shut up.

ACP Gary Welsh … you will need more than divine intervention

The last time I checked, Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary Welsh was also a bishop.

He has now been mandated to, among other things, manage the police division that oversees traffic, specifically the conduct of minibuses and taxis on Jamaica’s roadway.

Well, it will take more than divine intervention for ACP Welsh to succeed, and I’m sure he knows how to pray, far better than the average citizen. It will take a steely resolve on his part, to rein in those creatures of death and make the roads safe again for sober people to use.

But it’s no joke. This business of giving up the road to taxis and minibuses to do whatever they choose to, seems nigh impossible to correct. The authorities allowed them to venture too far down the dungeon already.

I often wonder how the passengers who use those mobile devices of evil sit and allow the drivers to put their lives at risk, without as much as a murmur (I am assuming), because it happens every day and you never pass a passenger gesticulating in objection to the way the hooligans drive.

ACP Welsh should start praying … long and hard… a different kind of praying. He must urge his superiors to lobby for legislation to be enacted that would see the hooligans being taken from their vehicles and taken directly to a police lock-up whenever they ‘bad drive’ people and put their future in doubt.

Anything less would be simply swapping black dog for monkey.

Oh what a headache called the West Indies

Lawd, a wa wi ago do wid the West Indies cricket team?

This is the worst performance by a West Indies team in the history of the World Cup with only two victories to report – against lowly but talented Afghanistan, and an intermittent Pakistan.

It was a breath of fresh air when Ricky Skerritt replaced Whycliffe Cameron as president of Cricket West Indies. Now, there is some amount of concern. No, no, no, we should never ever go back to Cameron, or think of having him back; but some of the things that the Skerritt administration has done since it took office last March requires a few slaps on the butt.

The choice of Floyd Reifer as coach, influenced by, among other people, Sir Hilary Beckles, was a disastrous one. While I agreed with the decision to get rid of Richard Pybus, it needed someone far more competent than Reifer, who now appears to be out of his league. My choice would have been Gordon Greenidge, someone who knows cricket, is a no-nonsense man, and whose record as a player speaks for itself. As things turned out, Greenidge passed through a bout of illness last week, but I’m sure he will rebound. He should be a serious contender. I do not think that Reifer will make it, but I’m open to corrective action.

The Skerritt administration should slow the pace down a bit. Making widescale changes can have consequences, as we are now seeing. There is more to be said on this one, including a view on the future of Chris Gayle. But there’s no rush. I too can slow things down.

How South Korea keeps crime down

Rich and proud South Korea has to be one of the finest places on earth to live.

Unlike the North, the people of the South are economically comfortable, well-off you might even say. The population is a healthy one … the people for the most part are fit and trim. You would have to search long and hard to find a big belly Korean, man or woman, and their reason for that is simple: they tell you that it’s no fun to be overweight, because it could mean that you have to spend a lot on medical bills, and excess weight prevents you from doing some of the physical things that they would like to do. So eating healthy foods is the order of the day. And they are not forced at gunpoint to choose their diet.

It’s remarkable infrastructure must be the envy of most countries of Asia, if not the rest of the world. But one of the things that struck me on my recent visit to a country that has one of the friendliest people, is the low level of crime that exists, particularly in the huge capital city of Seoul, which has 10 million inhabitants – a fifth of the country’s overall population.

You walk in any area of Seoul, at any time of day or night without having to be looking over your shoulder, unless you want the additional exercise. I tried it, as a rare and distinct black man, numerous times, up to 1:30 in the morning, without having to ward off an unworthy ‘friend’.

What’s one of the security secrets? Virtually every street corner you walk, there are cameras stalking you. So if you have the intention of committing a crime, think again. Electronic eyes are on you. And you will be caught if you transgress.

Jamaica … what are we waiting for? Don’t tell me that it costs money. Everything does. Cameras are among the key ingredients if this Caribbean island is to get the crime monkey off its back. Let’s stop wasting time.