No such thing as a "Jamaican Halloween"

Today is the 31^ST of October and this say is known by many different names, Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Samhain among several others. The Halloween festival is known for several things including trick or treat, a tradition normally carried out by children and in some cases the young at heart,  lighting of bonfires, playing of pranks, visiting of haunted houses, dressing up in all manner of costumes, some of them rather bizarre, the hosting of Halloween theme parties and of course the most famous of Halloween  traditions, the Jack-O-Lanterns carved out from hollow pumpkins.

                              

 The Origins of this festival remains rather obscure, some say that it is an all Christian festival that is celebrated the day before the traditional Catholic Festival known as all souls day, November 1, others however reject this idea, pointing out its pagan origin, such people decry all Halloween celebrations as being part of a satanic culture, with the view that nobody who calls himself a Christian should take part in Halloween. Regardless of your view on the matter, it is certainly not the intention Jamaican Tory to express his own view on the matter one way or another, as that is not the subject of the debate here.

                     

I have my own reason for not taking any part in any such Halloween celebrations, simply put it is totally nontraditional. Some of you might be puzzled as to where I’m going with this, after all Halloween has been celebrated for hundreds of years, how can it not be traditional?,  Answer: It’s not Jamaican tradition to celebrate Halloween. How is this possible? Let me explain, Jamaica was ruled by the British for 307 years, over that time period we inherited many aspects of British life and culture and incorporated with our own local culture which was also influenced by African, Amerindian and Asian aspects, one thing the British did not bequeath to us however was the celebration of Halloween. Sure we have our own myths, legends and horror stories (or as we like to call them Duppy Stories) which included figures Annie Palmer, Rolling Calf,  River Mumma and the like  but none of them have never been associated with Halloween in any shape or form, hence there is no historical or cultural justification for the celebration of Halloween in Jamaica.

                       

There has been somewhat of a cultural shift however where for the last few years Halloween is now becoming more popular in Jamaica. As a child growing up, the only time I was ever made aware of Halloween was through the influence of television programmes (especially horror movies) which were all imported from the United States, besides that there was no other mention of Halloween and most certainly nothing that was ever connected to Jamaican folklore. That however is changing as more and more people seem to be getting inot the Halloween spirit around this time of year, dressing up in Halloween costumes and going to Halloween-themed parties on the weekend closest to October 31, If we’re not careful we’ll soon see Jamaican children engaging in trick-or –treat to mimic those children from other countries as often seen on television.

                      

To be frank, I have nothing against those who wish to celebrate it, especially in countries where that is the norm after all  they have a right to participate in all aspects of their national cultural life and maintain the traditions of their forefathers, however being a traditionalist I am wary of the erosion of our own local culture to give rise to something that is foreign and alien to us, tradition must be preserved and in the case of Jamaica, our own customs does not include Halloween celebrations, it’s high time to stop wanting to copy everything that  foreigners (particularly Americans) like to do and stick to our way of doing things. This is by no means meant to decry or announce American culture really after all other countries celebrate Halloween too and  some  might even ask so why pick on them?, the answer is quite simple,  It's not a matter of picking on them per se  but  let's be honest here, while other countries have Halloween as well, it is the imposition of American culture through the mass media that has caused so many Jamaicans to become more in tuned to Halloween, the mentality that causes so many to be brainwashed into thinking that it’s better to follow fashion than stay original. The fact that many Jamaicans now choose to celebrate Halloween is only a symptom of a bigger problem: that of cultural erosion and the damaging effect that this new cultural shift is having on our people.  

Race Heats Up

With just two weeks before the annual conference of Jamaica Labour Party, things seems to be heating up in  race to the top between incumbent Andrew Holness and challenger Audley  “Man-a-yard” Shaw and right now the competition is still anyone’s game  with both leaders still managing to pull very strong support from the grass roots base of the party. However the Jamaican Tory is deeply concerned with the turn of events with the campaign becoming more and more hostile , this leadership challenge is tearing the party apart, as we’re now seeing Labourite against Labourite, when what we’re more used to seeing over the years is Labourite against Comrade (PNP). Perhaps this is what Olivia Grange meant when she declared that whoever seeks to challenge the leadership at this time might not have the best interest of the country and the party at heart.

                  

               

To be frank blame can be thrown at both sides, since the announcement of the leadership challenge every issue has turned into a major squabble from the selection to the delegates list to disputes over who has the most parliamentary support and which side has more to spend on the campaign trail. This race is getting way too petty, with both sides airing their dirty laundry in public as it were, this is not doing either side any good rather it is hurting the entire party.

I’m rather shocked at the amount of tribalism that is being displayed within the ranks of the JLP itself, just last week as senior JLP MP, that is a known supporter of the incumbent evicted a counselor from his constituency office simply because she supported the challenger, this was irrespective of the fact that the counselor was still a loyal member of the party . Other statements and actions by the leader's supporters are also calls for concern, such as Everald Warmington decrying Shaw’s leadership of his area council as the worst in the island, effectively branding him as incompetent. Then of course there is the leader himself who was also found making uncalled for comments about his opponent , he accused his challengers of being traitors deliberately undermine his authority to the detriment of the party, which is why it where it is today,.

               

The Shaw camp is not spared either, regardless of  calls by the self-styled Man-a-Yard to  “bring back the love” , it is quite clear that this party is anything but united, it is quite telling that many of those who lost their seats in the last general elections are supporting Shaw, and even placed blame at the Holness feet for their election  losses, this criticism however seems rather unfair considering that Holness managed to retain his seat while they loss thiers, he must have doing something right that they were doing wrong, they also further state that since that time until now, Holness has yet to meet with them. And then of course there is Shaw himself who made a huge fuss, criticizing the leadership style of Holness  by discussing several internal party matters on a public platform and complained about Holness being weak and indecisive, allowing the PNP to get away with too much and promising that should he win, he will be the PNP’s worst nightmare, much like the present Prime Minister threatened when she lost the election back in 2007.

                       

Being a High Tory I still believe that a government that subscribes to conservative principles is best to lead a country, which is why I prefer to support the conservative JLP over the liberal PNP, but this race is tearing the party apart so much that it’s heartbreaking. The more I watch, is the more that I’m of the view that regardless of who get most of the delegates votes, the real winner in this whole saga will be neither Holness nor Shaw but rather the People’s National Party, while Labourites are busy infighting the  comrades of the PNP are having a joy ride ruining the country with no serious challenges to their incompetence and mismanagement .  I would not  be surprised if Prime Minister Simpson Miller did exactly what Holness feared she would and call an early general election soon after the leadership race is over just to spite the JLP. So the question here is: if she does, can the JLP  recover in time to take on the PNP and hopefully retake the reins government or will they miss the mark and end up spending another 18 years as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition?.

The Real Cause of the Deadlock

Without a doubt, the biggest story in the news for all of last week, has to do with the shutdown of the United States Congress and the ultimately the entire United States Government due to differences between the President and  both houses of  Congress over the budget for the upcoming fiscal year which normally begins on the first of October. Since that time there have many theories as to who is to blame for this whole fiasco as this as the first such incident in seventeen years, some persons blame the president, others blame the Democrats and still others blame the Republicans and each have their own theories as to why, some say it’s  the Republicans fault for being so stubborn, others say the President shouldn't be pushing his own agenda on to congress, I even heard one ridiculous theory that claims that it’s a personal attempt to sabotage Obama due to his race (a preposterous notion, how someone could even fathom that is beyond me).

                    

The truth of the matter is that all of these are side arguments, any blame for the shutdown should be placed squarely at the feet of the Constitution of the United States, a document written over two hundred years ago by rebel colonist who led a revolution to overthrow their rightful monarch and set up a republican form of government. It is said that if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it as truth, that is exactly what has happened here, the lie that has been spun over and over again that says that the US constitution is the best model in the world, that falsehood continues to permeate despite evidence to the contrary. The truth of the matter is that the political constitution of the United States is riddled with errors, in their effort to divide government function between three separate branches, while putting in measures to avoid any one branch from becoming too powerful, they have ultimately failed to putting in safeguards to deal with inefficiencies that may occur from a government shutdown of this nature, after all this is most certainly not the first time something like this has happened.

                   

The first and biggest failure was of course the lack of a monarch, the United States Constitution clearly states that the Union shall guarantee to every state a republican form of government, thus clearly stating their rejection of monarchy once and for all, this was a most ill-advised and short sighted move on the part of the founding fathers. With a monarch at the helm of the nation this crisis would have been much easier to solve as he would have the authority to dissolve the legislature and call new elections, since unlike a President he would not be aligned to any political party and as such can be a totally neutral figure acting in the best interest of the nation on a whole rather than in a partisan manner   the president  who is himself a politician cannot do this as the constitution has placed limits on his domestic power in relations to his dealings with congress, a move originally meant to intend that the President can never exercise too much control over the legislature has turned into one where he is instead so hampered by it so much that he becomes politically impotent , the founders probably never  thought about that when they wrote the constitution. Ironically enough, the American revolution was never meant to be a republican experiment from the outset, until the declaration of Independence the Colonial Army were fighting only to be free of control from the British Parliament and not from King George III, it was actually the declaration of Independence that later falsely and unjustly fingered the King as the main villain of the story. And even after they had won, many in the new country would have crowned George Washington as the new King had he wanted it, he refused and decided to run for president instead thus ending all hopes of a monarchy,A wiser man would have taken the Crown when it was offered to him but Washington did no such thing.

                            

The second constitutional flaw that is ultimately responsible for this foul up, is this whole business of separation of powers where the executive and legislature are totally independent of each other , in a Parliamentary democracy, the Prime Minister cannot remain in office if he cannot command the support of the lower house, in the US the President can stay in office whether he has the support of congress or not leading to a great political deficit, if the chief executive cannot even get congress to support his proposals how can he get laws passed? Especially since he himself does not even have a seat in the house (which is of itself another shortsighted move). Clearly there must eventually be some political fallout from such a system. It grieves me every time I hear some idiotic Neo-Marxist claim that we in Jamaica should adopt a similar model by claiming that such a separation is more democratic as it allows for greater balance of power between both sides rather than Prime Ministerial dominance of parliament. Nothing however could be further from the truth, that kind of separation of executive and legislative only makes it easier for a dictatorship to come about, while it is true that the US itself has never become a dictatorship, many other countries that adopt the Presidential model cannot same the same.  The simple fact is that the Westminster Model with its constitutional monarchy and its parliamentary structure has been proven as the most efficient of all forms of democracy that have been tried so far.

                      

To illustrate take a look at the 1975 crisis in Australia where a similar situation was occurring, seeing that talks between the government and opposition was getting nowhere and that the Prime  Minister was willing to use underhanded methods to get his way, the Governor-General  dismissed the Prime Minister and appointed someone else in the interim until new elections were called soon after , while he eventually paid a high political price for his interference at least he had the good sense to know that the situation was untenable as is and was willing to use whatever means at his disposal the break the deadlock, unfortunately for the US no such thing can occur as they chose to play their game  by a different set of rules altogether.

The deadlock is still on in earnest with no end in sight as yet , while it is expected that all parties involved will eventually come to a compromise that will end this crisis, that does not change that fact that someday in the future this might very well happen again unless they make some drastic changes to their constitution. 

Another Hollow Speech

            Unless I’m mistaken, the very first post written in this blog was in reference to the 2012 Annual Conference of the People’s National Party, time has certainly flown as just yesterday the Peoples National Party held its 2013 national conference to culminate a month long of activities in which the PNP celebrated its 75^th anniversary as a movement having been founded by the Right Excellent Norman Manley in September 1938.

                            

As is traditional of party conferences on both sides of the political divide, the highlight of the day was the speech by Party Leader Portia Simpson Miller (who also happens to be the current  Prime Minister of Jamaica) , the speech of the Prime Minister was somewhat lacking, she focused much of the first half of her speech retracing the history of the party and its leaders from Norman Manley, his son Michael Manley and then to P.J. Patterson in which she over exaggerated the achievements made under various PNP administrations  over the many years while at the same time completely ignoring some of the failings that also happened in the same  period such as the great social-political upheavals of the 1970s and the Finsac Crisis of the 1990s which did much damage to the middle class and the productive sector, a big part of the reason why Jamaica is where it is today .

                       

                       

The latter part of the comrade leader’s speech was  just as uninspiring , the Prime Minister extended her speech by constant repetition,  glorifying the few achievements of the PNP since they retook the reins of power while failing to accept responsibility for much of the problems that are now facing the nation, choosing instead their populist tag line “it’s JLP’s fault”, how convenient of her to forget that the People’s National Party was in power for 18 years from 1989 to 2007, while the Labour Party had only a four stint from 2007-2011, there is no way that the multi-billion dollar debt that the country now has could be all JLP’s fault.  Comrade Portia in her speech missed the mark by failing to address important national issues such as unemployment, the debt burden and the crime rate, she also did not hesitate to cast cold water on those who criticized the secrecy of her dealings with the Chinese concerning the global logistic hub, though she mentioned a few points it was not enough to give anyone a real idea of what the vision of her government really was. Also surprising was her total silence on the matter of corruption, which given the scandals that are currently rocking the People’s National Party one would have expected that she would be more forthcoming on the matter yet she continues to give full support to both Philip Paulwell and Richard Azan who has now resigned his cabinet post as though they did nothing wrong (see http://jamaicatory.blogspot.com/2013/09/contractor-general-vs-pnp.html).

                      

In like manner as 2012, the Jamaican Tory must again classify the PM’s 2013 conference speech as being devoid of any real substance (see http://jamaicatory.blogspot.com/2012/10/i-really-must-comment-on-speech-given.html), a view shared by many political commentators and private sector interest groups ,The PM should take care to remember  that even though those  seated in front of her are primarily fellow comrades, her speech is broadcasted live to the entire nation in which Comrades, Labourites and all manner of other stakeholders are looking to her not only as Party Leader but more importantly as Prime Minister  to hear what plans her government has in store for the country, clearly her speech has fail to hit home with many audiences hence the reviews. 

Contractor General VS The PNP

So finally the long awaited reports of contractor general Dirk Harrison are finally out and both have been laid before parliament for consideration, the report  into the  Spaulding Market scandal  has concluded in no uncertain terms that Richard Azan, a government MP and Junior Minister acted in a most inappropriate and corrupt manner and even went as far as to recommend to the Director of Public Prosecutions that he be prosecuted for the offence, the report from the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has described Azan as being involved  a deep web of conspiracy. And if that were not already bad enough a second report from the OCG with regards to the bids for the right to construct a major power  plant found that the Minister of Energy Philip Paulwell also acted in an inappropriate manner in order to allow an unauthorized bidder into the process well after the bidding time was over, the report from the OCG goes on to give details of meetings between the minister and said bidder giving them an unfair advantage in the entire process instead of following the rules that were originally set forth when the bid was first being announced.

Given the damning nature of these reports and the public outrage that ensued, one would have assumed that the government would at least be attempting some serious damage control in order to soothe tempers but instead the response of the administration has been anything but.  Speaking at the weekly Jamaica House press briefing Information Minister Senator Sandrea Falconer got herself into hot water with a couple journalist after refusing to say much on the issue, it later turned into an ugly spat and ended with the microphones of several journalist being cut so as to prevent them from badgering the minister who came with a prepared script which said very little on the matter and was not prepared to tolerate any questions on the matter regardless of it’s national significance.

                       

And if that was not bad enough, one should hear the response of Mr Paulwell who declared that he rejected the findings of the contractor general, the arrogant minister  went on to call the report as rubbish asserting  that the CG did not know what he was talking about in the first place claiming that he (Paulwell) will be proceeding as planned, in other words a report from Parliament’s oversight agency means very little to the minister because it did not fall in line with what he thinks it should be, this is nothing if not the most  blatant act of disrespect to the intelligence to the people of Jamaica.

                               

Similar sentiments were also echoed by Mr. Azan who claims that he had no regrets whatsoever about his part in the whole Spaulding Market fiasco claiming that those who now occupy the market are benefiting from what he did and that was politically corrupt then so be it. To be frank one can be tempted to sympathise with Azan given that his intention at the outset may have been noble, but that does not change the fact that he failed to follow procurement rules, he overstepped his boundaries as a junior minister and on top of all that he was actually collecting rent from the venders in the market which by right should have gone to the Clarendon Parish Council, if that is not the heights of corruption then I don’t know what is.

                         

This sort of arrogance has resonated with the People’s National Party ever since they first took back the reigns of power in 2012, they had often campaigned on the ground that the Labour Party was too arrogant and distant from the people, but in truth the response from these two individuals coupled with the lacked from response from everybody else in the government goes to show that the PNP is guilty of the very  thing the accuse the JLP of, who could forget the infamous statement of one PNP counselor back in April boldly congratulating Mr. Azan for his corrupt deeds and declaring that the Clarendon Parish council will be theirs indefinitely, that was beyond arrogant, delusions of grandeur would be a more appropriate term to define such utterances

The actions of both gentlemen has led to calls from all sectors of the society from them to resign or for the Prime Minister to relieve them of their post, the government is yet to respond to this. One can only hope that they will do the honourable thing and resign as is expected in such a system where accountability is key to wiping out corruption for good .

Leadership Challenge? Bad Idea

One could not have been in Jamaica and not have heard this story, after all it has been in the news for an entire week, and is one of the hottest topic of discussion right now particularly on local talk shows. There are quite a bit of rumblings going on in the opposition Jamaica Labour Party as it is indicated that Audley  “Man-a-Yard  Shaw”  might have is eyes on the top job in the party and is carrying on consultations to see whether or not he should challenge the incumbent  Andrew Holness for the leadership when the Party host it’s annual conference in November , Shaw is currently one of the 4 deputy leaders of the JLP, Chairman of Area Council Three, Member of Parliament for North East Manchester, a former finance minister and the current shadow minister of the same portfolio. Holness on the other hand is Member of Parliament for West Central St Andrew, a former Prime Minister and Minister of Education, he is also the  current Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.

Given what has been said so far it seems as though the tide is swaying in favour of the incumbent rather than the challenger, something Shaw probably did not anticipate given the recent defeat the party had faced at both local and national levels. However it seems as though many labourites are still loyal to the incumbent leader , several senior JLP MPs have already publicly declaring their support for Holness continuing as leader, Everald Warmington one of the most outspoken MPs and Chairman of Area Council Two had no qualms about publicly declaring where his loyalties lie and urged the delegates in his constituency in do likewise, while former culture minster Olivia “Babsy” Grange even went as far as to assert that any member of the JLP that wishes to mount a challenge at this time has an alternate agenda that means no good to the party or the country.

                    

Looking over the history of the Labour Party ever since it’s foundation 70 years ago, a certain trend has been noticed, since 1943, the JLP has had four leaders and none of them were elected by popular vote of the delegates of the party. The JLP was founded by Sir Alexander Bustamante to challenge the People’s National Party and others in Jamaica’s first general election that was held the following year. Although he retired for parliament in 1967, Sir Alexander remained as Party Leader while the senior deputy leader (Sir Donald Sangster and later Hugh Shearer) served as Prime Minister. In 1974 when Bustamante finally retired from the party, labourites began searching for a new leader. Shearer was not seen as the most suitable candidate given his election loss to Michael Manley and the PNP in 1972, so they turned to Edward “Papa Eddie” Seaga and he took the party in hand and lead it from 1974 to 2005, serving as Prime Minister from 1980-1989. When Seaga retired the senior hierarchy of the JLP unwilling to have the party divided by a leadership contest decided to work with who they thought was the most winnable candidate and settled on Bruce Golding who led them to victory two years later after 18 years out of government.  After only one term as JLP leader and Prime Minister, Golding also decided that it was time to go and again a succession crisis arose and the party leadership was settled in the same way as it was in 2005, this time with Holness emerging as victor, the delegates of the Jamaica Labour Party were for the most part left out.

              

Of course in all fairness one cannot blame the party leadership for all of this, the delegates too must share the blame, after all according to the constitution of the JLP, the delegates in theory have a opportunity to elect a new leader every November when conference comes around, it’s just that they have never exercised this right, that will certainly change this year and one can only wait and see what the results will be (personally I’m betting on Holness). Some have accused Man-a-Yard of trying to unseat the leader by surreptitious and underhanded means and they also claim that he has no right to mount a challenge but is being driven solely by personal ambition; of course Shaw denies these charges. These are baseless accusations, in truth Shaw has every right to challenge for the leadership and so far he has not gone contrary to the party’s constitution. That does not however mean that the decision to challenge is a wise one as the opposition surely has better things to do than internal squabbling.

                        

Overall the situation is like this, Labourites are more interested in a change of government than they are in a change of party leadership, many resent Shaw for what they see as his attempts to divide the party for personal gain (some have even accused him of being a PNP comrade for doing so), personally I think that it’s not too late for him to back down after all he has not officially announced a challenge, but in either case the Jamaica Labour Party will have everything to loose and nothing to gain if it remains divided along sectarian lines and distracted by personality issues. 

The Russian Way of Doing Things

The Russians have often been known for having a system of cultural norms and values that are entirely different from countries of the West and as such it comes as no surprise that they would clash on several   issues of importance from the civil war going on in Syria to relations with states deemed unsavoury   by the west such as Iran and North Korea, The Russians have always have their own way of doing things, it’s part of what makes them who they are. This time around another issue has served to divide Russia from it’s western neighbours, the issue of LGBT rights whereas Great Britain and New Zealand have both recently  legalized gay marriage, whereas several US states seem to be on the verge of doing the same, The Russians are doing the opposite, instead of granting more rights to the LGBT  they are instead getting stricter on them, gay pride parades are now banned , gay couples are not allowed to marry or adopt children (in fact they are not recognized at all) there is now a ban in place on cross-dressing and other transgender activity  referred to as “homosexual propaganda” and the LGBT community seems to have very little voice in public affairs, if this continue in this trend, Russia will soon rival our own beloved Jamaica as the most homophobic country in the world.

                  

The anti-LGBT movement in Russia is led by none other than the President himself Vladimir Putin, a man who I was at first very apprehensive of given his past connections with the KGB and also the way that the western media seems intent on casting him as a villain, but overtime I have grown to appreciate Putin and what he is doing, he certainly seems to be traditionalist and conservatives than many so called conservative leaders in North America and Western Europe, his support of strong family values, emphasizing the rekindling ties between the Russian State and the Russian Orthodox Church, his strong support for his allies no matter how badly western government and western media try to portray them as villains but most of all his no-nonsense attitude when dealing with particularly with the USA, at least the man has guts to tell them exactly what he thinks which is more than I can say for some countries  which  basically hero worships America even when the US government constantly insults them. 

                     

Quite frankly I think that Putin is on the right track here, it’s full time some sensible world leaders stand up and tell these LGBT lobbyist that their country is not for sale, Putin has lead the way for other nations that wish to preserve their traditions and not  have these deviants destroy their societies, other countries especially in the third world have long been apprehensive of the gay communities in their countries but have felt pressured by western powers to give in even when they really don’t want to, Russia’s example showed them that there is another way, they don’t have to accept alternative lifestyle in their country if that’s not what the majority of the people support , neither should they ever be forced to accept foreign imposed value systems into their societies.

                     

The Russian Government and particular Vladimir Putin has received criticisms for their stance from many quarters , US president Barack Obama even went as far as to cancel a summit that was scheduled to be held between the two leaders because of this (and the Snowden issue), claiming that he has no patience for countries  that do not recognize gay rights, I’ll deal with that in a subsequent post. Celebrity figures and gay rights lobbyist  have also spoken out on the matter calling for him to repeal the laws. However I cannot help but notice that all the criticisms are coming from people outside Russia  whereas the mood inside Russia is quite different , Russian Athlete Yelena Isinbayeva, was overheard defending the stance of her government, in fact one survey done found that up to 74% of Russia agreed that homosexuality should not be permitted in their society, those on the outside can vilify Putin all they want but it’s quite clear that he has the support of his own people and at the end of the day that’s what’s really counts after all they are the ones who elected him to power. All the protest noise being made up are coming from outside not from within. Which begs the question, who gave these people the right to dictate to Russia what laws it can and cannot enact? Since when does celebrities and lobbyist who are not even citizens have more say in a country’s governance than it’s elected leaders, clearly they have never heard of sovereignty and Russia as a nation state has every right to exercise its sovereignty for the good of the people, outsiders have no business trying to take that away from them. 

                           

As said before Russia has its own system of norms and values and has every right to exercise them within its own borders as an independent nation, they might not be the same as the west but that does not make them any less valid after all it’s not as if they’re trying to impose on the west so it stands to reason that the west has no business imposing it’s values which are totally alien to the Russian people and their own unique way of doing things.