Illegal Pedestrian Crossings

I didn’t take long for me to figure out what the more “industrious” Kingstonians were doing yesterday. The winner, and still most popular Labour Day project in the corporate area is...drum roll please…painting illegal pedestrian crossings across the nation’s thoroughfares. I passed three such suspect pedestrian crossings on the way to work this morning. Though traditionally a job for the National Works Agency (NWA) it has become a favourite Labour Day activity in most communities. Who cares about the legitimacy, feasibility, safety and whatnot? Jamaica is quite possibly the only country where citizens can paint their own pedestrian crossings wherever they damn well feel like without consequence.

Review: Digicel Electronics Expo 2009

I went to the Digicel Electronics Expo held at the Hilton Kingston on Saturday. While I didn’t expect to see any alien technology, I was hoping for a little more than the usual suspects (flat screen TVs, game consoles and car stereo equipment). I was a little disappointed because I can see these things on any given day if I visit the plazas. I questioned the organizer’s decision to include an insurance company, car dealer, day spa and credit union (Globe, New Line, Adam & Eve and COK) as exhibitors at an electronics expo. I also thought the legion of scantily clad twelve year old promotion girls was inappropriate. I found the surveillance (IP cameras) and vehicle tracking product offerings from Digiview Security Systems particularly interesting. Entertainment included body painting, a magician, live shows and performances. The only thing missing was the cotton candy. This marriage of school fair and electronics expo was well promoted and well attended. Sadly, It would’ve only been worthwhile for techies if they brought along their entire family.

$5,000 Bank Note

The $1,000 bill just lost its position as the “high note” in Jamaica. The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has announced plans to issue a $5,000 bank note in September. The note will bear the portrait of late former Prime Minister Hugh Lawson Shearer. Is the new note justified? Is there any other reason for the new note besides commemorating the life of the late prime minister? That can easily be achieved by naming a school, park or a highway after him. Generally the premise for a higher note is because the current one has lost its purchasing power and no longer carries the same value. Yet local financial analysts insist that the new note isn’t an indication that our economy is headed in the same direction of other countries with very high inflation rates and equally high-value notes. The highest denomination of currency for other Caribbean territories like Trinidad, Barbados and Cuba is $100. The Jamaican government has just announced to the world that our economy is on life support. What message are we sending to the global financial community and potential investors? No point in objecting now, it’s already a done deal they’ve already made the stencil, ordered the ink and paper. Now if they would just do us all a favor and discontinue some of these damn coins.

See article here

Pet Peeves

A pet peeve is a minor annoyance that can instill great frustration in a very small group of people, yet is experienced by everyone. I’ve listed a few of mine, they aren’t enough to change Bruce Banner into his alter ego but they sure do get under my skin.

1. Street boys and junkies. “No, Don’t Wipe It!” How many times have you screamed that to windscreen wipers at stoplights and intersections in the corporate area? I’m becoming less tolerable of these junior extortionists who insist on spraying soapy water all over my windscreen and then charging me for a service that I didn’t ask for. I’m just as annoyed by persons who wash your car without asking during the fifteen minutes you spent in the KFC and then demand money.
2. People who spend “forever” in ABM machines. You don’t need five minutes, even if your PIN is twenty characters long.
3. People who wait until they’re in front of the cashier at fast food restaurants before they look up at the menu board to decide what combo they want. Why didn’t you decide while you were waiting in line?
4. Tattoos on breasts. Why would you deface works of art? That’s like drawing a mouthstache on the Mona Lisa. Ever considered a hickey?
5. Unsolicited text messages from my mobile carrier. LIME, I’m not interested in subscribing for your silly Blingback tunes! 

What are your pet peeves?

Tax, a four letter word

In Jamaica nothing can be said to be certain except death, taxes and more recently debt and/or death by taxes. The Golding Administration has finally released the list of the previously tax-free goods and services that are now subject to GCT. Literate chicken farmers with asthma, who lease land, are thinking of buying a stand-by generator and need to have their goods transported to the market to earn some money to repair their tractors are going to be the hardest hit.

Here are 7 of 59 goods and services that will now attract GCT.

1. Brochures, pamphlets and leaflets for religious purposes and books other than schoolbooks and booklets.
   
2. Animal feeds (excluding pet food) reinstated as zero-rated
   
3. The rental or lease of land used for agricultural purposes or as a building site.
   
4. All drugs used primarily in the treatment of asthma
   
5. Apparatus or machinery designed to produce motive power, heat, light or electricity through the utilization of renewable sources of energy, for example, sun, wind and water.
   
6. Transportation of goods within Jamaica.
   
7. Repairs to agricultural equipment, tractors, implements, and aircraft and vessels used in international transportation.
   

Jamaicans have been protesting against the recent taxes imposed by the Government. Police have been busy clearing several roadblocks across the corporate area from as early as 8am. I’m not going to take any chances, I think its time I get home.

There’s a hole in the budget

There’s a hole in the budget, dear Bruce, dear Bruce
Then fix it dear Audley, dear Audley, dear Audley
With what should I fix it, dear Bruce, dear Bruce?
With taxes dear Audley, with taxes of course!

The Golding Administration has no intention to borrow to finance the 55-billion dollar shortfall in their 548-billon dollar 2009/10 budget. You don’t have to be an economist to know that this can only be achieved by increasing revenue/taxes. Adjusting General Consumption Tax and imposing a cess/tax on gasoline are most likely to head the list. Ironically this month marks the 10-year anniversary of the April gas riots in Jamaica, in 1999. Jamaicans took to the streets to protest the imposition of a gas tax by the then government, shutting down the country for four days. A reintroduction of a gas tax coupled with the hardships being experienced as a result of the current economic crisis would surely ignite wide-scale public protest. We won’t know for sure until tomorrow when the Finance Minister, Audley Shaw opens the 2009/10 budget debate. Maybe I should full my tank on the way home. Stay tuned to your radios folks.

Jamaican Hijacker?

I just had to remove “Jamaican airplane hijacker” from my list of things that I’ll never live to see. Twenty-year-old Stephen Fray somehow walked in off the streets and got past all the security checks at the Sangster’s International Airport in Montego Bay, all while carrying a loaded gun. He then made his way to the runway, boarded CanJet Flight 918 and held the crew and 140 passengers hostage. Fortunately no one was harmed in the eight-hour standoff but the damage to our already ailing tourism sector and reputation is irreparable. The international media is going to have a field day with this one. In addition to being stereotyped as always having drugs in our luggage and our tummies Jamaicans are now terrorists. We are going to be subjected so much scrutiny, security checks and searches when we travel that its best we just turn up to the airport naked and put on our clothes after we’ve boarded the flight.

See article here