FI WI CONCERN - Michael Spence 20150726

License Plate

It took me six months waiting time to replace an old plate for fear of getting a ticket for “obscured license plates”that is inefficiency. Is there any good reason in this day and age when vehicles go really fast to have two plates on a vehicle and who is going to stand in front of an incoming vehicle to read plate numbers? Issuing one plate for the rear of the vehicle would be more cost effective. Could the shortage be resulting from deliberations while contemplating a total changing out of the plates back to parish specific numbers or some other plan to rake in billions of dollars? Think about it one plate for the same amount of money and remember the Tax Administration Department (TAD) is another government shop like the passport office (PICA).TAD could now increase prices saying they want to put in some facial recognition chip in the plates along with all your other information like what is being pursued by PICA so the government could “kill more than two birds with one stone”. The police could now use equipment similar to the speed guns or other to know all about you and the vehicle status would eliminate the random waste of time stopping of vehicles without probable causes which could translate in less policemen focusing on traffic. and allow technology to do the talking. With a more efficient system and the police being able to go investigate more serious crimes is a win for the country. That plate could be or almost as expensive as the passport but could be justified. So now Jamaica could have high technology Motor vehicle Passports (MVP) instead of a simple licence plate. By the way if animals can have passports why not motor vehicles and allow technology to do the talking.. 25/07/15

 Loader Men

'Loader men' (LM), have become embedded in the public transportation culture all over Jamaica. They can be quite helpful especially when you travel with loads and provide a kind of back up security/order for you and the bus parks as they are always vigilant. My experience is over time you become a customer and brethren who look out for you and you for them with something To Insure Prompt Service (Tips) if you have it, if you don't its usually “no problem" because the transport owner usually takes care of that. The Transport Authority or other private entity could offer customer service training for these men even on spot, identify them, register them, uniform them although not absolutely essential with IDs and make them a part of the transport service could also limit the influx of overbearing untrained loader men and allow the professional LMs to do their jobs. I am totally opposed to the wholesale idea of stamping out things which are productive innovations that arise from people’s needs. These LMs could be guided to pay their NHT, NIS etc as part of the package of incentives. Therein lay the development of a new profession in Loader men and women. 24/07/15

Cutting Down Trees 

People who cut down trees without a license to do so could be fined up to $50, 000 or asked to serve a year in prison, Environment Minister Robert Pickersgill told a People's National Party Youth Organization congress on Saturday in St Ann. What about public education they just wake up and put in fines which are never policed. Another item from the Jamaica Talk Shop I guess. We can’t catch capital and non-capital murderers so now they going after a new category non capital "tree murderers" and "tree slaughterers" the climate really change. What is the definition of tree for the purposes of this law for which you would have to get that $15000 license. Is it like the Guango Tree that was cut down in Liguanea some years ago what would that be tree murder or tree slaughter and was anyone charged?22/07/15

All the politicians young and old are mired in tax and borrow policies so by the time the ganja industry is to get started it may have died. The industry should have been allowed to develop and then government ride with the flow and to see where it is going and then put necessary regulation/protection. With the present policy of having expensive license at the start will destroy the small people who were bearing the brunt of the persecution trying to keep an industry alive.22/07/15        

Taxation 

Most people it seems are unable to think of any solution that does not involve increased taxation, but what about education? Jamaica is already one of the world's most taxed countries with one of the highest interest rates in the world. A writer in a letter to a newspaper comes with ideas however well intentioned  that would add to the burdensome tax misery of the people. He should wheel and come again with better ideas. Plastic bags are banned in countries like China that export scandal/plastic bags to us and others are we using our brains to think, why tax us for those bags while still importing so that the taxpayer would be subsidizing those imports? I am sure Jamaicans use millions of plastic bags annually that translating to billions of dollars directly and indirectly that gets burned at Riverton and other dumpsites contaminating the air and water with dangerous cancer causing substances. We should outlaw those plastic bags and use the foreign exchange on something else like enhancing our health facilities. Besides China, other countries having a ban on plastic bags are: Australia, Bangladesh Burma,  England, India, Mexico and Rwanda the first to have such a ban. Why not do the same or pass a rule that supermarkets and shops sell plastic bags instead of giving it away for free? At least two major stores in Jamaica have successfully done away with plastic bags without any howls of protest from consumers. Ban plastic bags save the environment and stop making Jamaica dirty. We could at least start with banning non-biodegradable types then move on to utensils forks spoons etc I do my shopping with the good old time crocos bags over my shoulders which could become fashionable one day while saving the environment. Just stop dutty up Jamaica with plastic bags we should outlaw /ban them.22/07/15

Michael Spence