Giving Thanks (My last Blogger post)

I give thanks that Jamaica was spared the full force of Hurricane Wilma. Bwoy if is only the rain we get an so much roads damage, you can well imagine if we did get it full force 175mph winds and all.

Must also give thanks that the residents of the Cayman Islands were also spared a direct hit even though you guys got some exciting waves.

Didn't have any internet connection on Friday and Saturday….Cable & Wireless said that the wave action caused by Wilma disturbed the submarine fiber optic link.

Well I guess all good things must come to an end, all future posts will be made at http//www.cmatheson.info



Love and Peace

And the Rains Came (Gridlocked)

Yesterday the citizens of Portmore experienced the mother of all gridlock as both exits from the sunshine city; namely the Portmore causeway and Mandela highway were flooded resulting in a traffic snarl beyond belief.

Persons who had left home at 6:00 am found themselves still in the confines of Portmore at 10:00 am; others unable to cope with the frustration returned to there homes.

Undoubtedly many hours of production have been lost due to this occurrence; as the majority of Portmore residents work in Kingston.

The French contractors who are responsible for the construction of the Portmore leg of Highway 2000 have said that the flooding of the causeway is in no way caused by the construction work being carried out.

Score one for the Portmore residents who have maintained that the Mandela highway is a poor alternate route to the proposed toll bridge.

What will be the Prime Minister’s proposal at his meeting with the citizens of Portmore, and will the citizens be in a receptive mood after the events of yesterday…..we shall see what we shall see.





Love and Peace    

The Rains Have Come

Since last week we have had heavy rains daily in Jamaica, this has led to flooding, land slippages and general dislocation for many persons living in flood prone areas.

This time around the drains in Kingston seem to have held up pretty well thanks to some judicious cleanup work organized by the “Energizer Bunny” Mayor Desmond Mckenzie.

The Yallahs Fording in St.Thomas is impassable, so is the Bog Walk Gorge and Barry, several roads in and around Spanish Town are inundated, so too several communities in the Sunshine City of Portmore. There are communities in the parish of Clarendon that are also marooned.

My worst fears have been realized; Tropical Storm Wilma has become a hurricane and is expected to brush The Cayman islands and the northern tip of Cuba within 36 hrs. as a category 3 hurricane. I pray that the people of Cayman are spared a hard hit, as they went thru hell last year because of hurricane Ivan.

The experts predict that Wilma will make a sharp turn to the north, strengthen and probably make landfall in southern Florida sometime during the weekend.

Poor Florida; bwoy unu salt to rahtid a wah so.

My prayers go out to all who are in the path of this storm; may you and your loved ones remain safe and dry.





Love and Peace.  

Unplugged Keyes

Alicia Keyes has increased her legend once again by being the first artist to be featured on the resurrected MTV Unplugged series.

Miss Keyes delivered a formidable live set that featured reworked versions of some of her best known hits. There was thumping, clear acoustic harmony as Miss Keyes wove her signature instrument (that beautiful, grown folks, sexy voice) in and out of the music.

She had her audience and yours truly mesmerized, she worked her magic like a snake charmer from the Asian continent.

Her performance ended with a rollicking performance of Love it or Leave/Welcome to Jamrock where she rocked with Common, Mos Def and Damian Marley.

I’m gonna buy this cd, it’s a keeper.





Love and Peace
  

The Mother of All Bull@#$!*

The recent comments of the head of the Jamaica Defense Force, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, that, the Jamaica Labour Party enclave of Tivoli Gardens is “The Mother of All Garrisons” is very intriguing.

This statement needs to be carefully analyzed as Rear Admiral Lewin went on further to say that Tivoli Gardens had perfected the art of “garrison warfare” and that in other garrisons gunmen ran away when confronted by the security forces, but not so in Tivoli Gardens.

1. I can clearly remember watching the evening news a few years ago as a police operation was being carried out in the Mountain View area. Thousands of Jamaicans saw as I did, a bare-chested shorts-clad young man standing in the middle of the road beside a garbage skip, firing at the police. This incident clearly angered then Police Commissioner Forbes who commented after seeing the footage, that it seemed that some of his officers had their M16s only for show. This “shoots” down (pun intended) the Rear Admiral’s statement that only gunmen from Tivoli confront the police.


2. If Tivoli Gardens is this “Mother of All Garrisons” this den of garrison warfare, how come more force is not brought to bear more frequently on this pariah in a sea of wholesomeness (deliberate sarcasm). It seems that Tivoli Gardens is subjected to this action in 4yr. cycles hmmm I wonder why.


3. Why has such a force not been employed in trying to quell the bloody ongoing turf war recently raging in Arnett Gardens.


4. The stated objectives of the police action on the morning of October 4th ,2005 was, the capture of three wanted men and the recovery of weapons and ammunition

None of the objectives stated above were accomplished yet members of the upper echelons of the security forces have been trumpeting the success of the operation……a success at what?
At the end of the operation three women and a man were left nursing gunshot wounds, no reported injuries among the security forces, no gunmen captured, no signs of any gunmen being injured (this after it was reported that gunmen had engaged the forces of “Law and Order” in pitched battle)…….yuh a tell mi seh di solja an police dem nuh know ow fi shoot or wha? Not one round of ammunition or a spent shell recovered……….the only thing found was some marijuana which can be found on any corner in Jamaica.

Were the comments of Rear Admiral Lewin grounded in reality, fantasy or political propaganda? Your guess is as good as mine.




Love and Peace.