FI WI CONCERNS 20151001 - Michael Spence

The PNP & Miss Hanna

Paul Burke, the general Secretary of the PNP, said that with South East St Ann being a recognized constituency under the party's constitution, the results of the delegates would weigh heavily in determining who eventually represents the constituency in the next general election. 468 votes to Richards' 10. Six ballots were spoilt.Some 1,056 eligible delegates were on the voters' list for the polls. This is evidence that here is a constituency divided and she has a lot of work to do and fences to mend. This is also evidence that local power brokers wanting to get rid of Ms Hanna is not as powerful as being led to believe and being defied by delegates. Let us say taking all into consideration democracy is alive and well despite possible flaws and material influences the delegate process has been empowered in several constituencies and let us say "delegates are right they speak for the majority" even though sometimes misguidedly scoffed at by middle and upper class intellectuals and others. Whatever the case Ms Hanna has to move swiftly to unify the constituency bringing all detractors on board so that progress  can continue.28/09/15

Barell Children?

People cannot get jobs they migrate and send back money to the country helping foreign reserves as in important earner then now some of those benefitting are branding the children of those who make the sacrifice and in the process sacrificing their children. These parents and their children are now being branded with the children being now called " barrel children". People like Norman Allen JTA president who knows better should not perpetuate this negative branding of our children started by Dr Crawford-Brown, in her publication Who Will Save Our Children but do something to save those children. 25/09/15

Prickly Pole Primary

Initial reports suggested the child 11-year-old Akella Lewis of the Prickly Pole Primary School in St Ann died while being ushered on to a bus with other students to participate in a protest against South East St Ann Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna, in Claremont in the parish. The Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) has now indicated it was in full support of the termination of the appointment of Vinnette Robb-Oddman by Education Minister Ronald Thwaites as chairman of the board of the Prickly Pole Primary School in St Ann. “Robb-Oddman and the child's mother, Andrea Jones, have since denied that the student was involved in any way with the protest." Tell me where is justice, with no proper hearing or investigation or are they just taking advantage of another weak link of a poor rural based black woman not connected with the intelligentsia or the upper and middle influential classes of Kingston and St Andrew and the wider Jamaica. The demonstration against Ms Hanna is democracy at work and people should not be muzzled or intimidated by any minister or group of persons like the JTA.The major question that needs to be answered is "would the child have been alive but for the occurrence of the demonstration in which Ms Robb-Oddman and parents help to organize and participated"? If the answer is yes then let the chips fall where they may. Prickly Pole by the way is a district that adjoins or is close to Nine Miles the home and birth place Reggae icon Robert Nesta “Bob” Marley and would therefore be one of the places he would have trodden. I have heard the students of this school entertain thousands of tourists and visitors alike travelling to and or from visiting Bob Marley’s birth place with classic renditions of Bob Marley and other songs that I urged them to make compact discs of like renditions. This a small school has a lot of potential in the midst of an agricultural heartland of great closely knit family of people in St Ann the garden parish and should be developed as a centre of excellence. With all this “good” publicity more help should be going their way soon and very soon. 25/09/15

The JLP

The Jamaica Labour Party has increased its call for an independent audit of the Tablets in Schools Project by writing to the Auditor General of Jamaica asking for her office's urgent intervention. Calling for audits of tablets is not an issue that resonates with the masses of people all over the country focus on some more serious issues affecting the Jamaican people especially rural people. Tablets are mainly a Kingston and St Andrew issue. Why not call for national/rural discounted internet accessibility, making libraries, post offices, police stations and schools internet free zones in all parishes.21/09/15

Michael Spence