NOTES FROM ALL AROUND

The politics of destruction has begun

2012-01-26T00:46:00.002-04:00

For this past week, I have been quietly following reports from Grenada that some members of the “triumvirate”, in cahoots with others, are on a specific trajectory to politically destroy some of their own.

There has been a strong suspicion that the phones of some members of cabinet have been bugged.

The evidence has largely been circumstantial – and so I have never written about it, since I was quietly digging deeper for a few weeks now.

But the writing is on the wall, when it became clear last week that a specific request had gone out to the FIU – Financial Intelligence Unit – directing that they demand the phone records of a very senior government official. And I mean very senior. (However, more on that to come someday very soon).

There is no doubt – in my mind and in the minds of many others – that a clique in this government has embarked on the politics of destruction. The Glen Noel-led Tillman Thomas wing of the NDC has declared a scorched earth policy.

They are satisfied that they cannot win the next election on their own – and nobody else will stand to win it, which makes the Prime Minister – without him realizing – being the biggest agent for the return of Keith Mitchell.

It is both sad and amusing, when it has been government officials – and not the opposition – that have begun floating stuff that Joseph Gilbert somehow might have been involved in some impropriety – even though there is zero evidence to suggest anything such thing.

Peter David’s own government has floated all manner of things about him – some, if I repeat here, he would have all reason to make his lawyers send me a note. (I don’t know how he keeps going with so much friendly fire).

Unless the likes of Gilbert and David are strong, their own government will devour them.

Watch the train wreck – sped on by rumor, innuendo and half truths.

Remember what they did to Boxer in Animal Farm? They slaughtered him after he did all the great work in building the farm.

About a year ago in an article, I referred to David as Boxer – and the analogy might have been lost on some people.

Here I was sympathizing with these folks – but little did I know they were coming for me too.

They arrived this morning.

But to put things in context is to go back two Novembers ago, when the Prime Minister went infamously on George Grant’s show and suggested that I am angry at this government because of a proposal that was supposedly turned down.

And then on cue, George Worme printed the “proposal” – as if to suggest I demanded some huge amount of money – didn’t get it and was peeved.

Now let me say this regarding that issue, which I never said before – but which the Prime Minister knew – but omitted to obviously give the wrong impression:

(a) That referred to proposal was something that they sort me out on and ask if I can draft. I had pleadings made not once by at least five times. I finally said I would send one – when the last appeal to me was – “Man, help out a brother, nah!”

(b) The proposal was tailored, meaning the figures were based on what they said was a budget they can spend for one year.

(c) The proposal was not a job or project application on my part; it was a comprehensive plan that looked at a structure, staffing, rent, electricity etcetera, and it did not have to be executed by me. (In fact, I had verbally said to them that I can help them identify potential staff because don’t expect me to do it, because I cannot afford to stay in Grenada at that time).

(d) Unlike what the Prime Minister alluded to, I was not aware until he said it that the “proposal” was rejected. Was always under the impression they were seeking funding for it.

(e) On their request I developed a plan (for free) of what they requested and never once inquired about it again – because they did not necessarily have to get back to me on it.

(f) I had no reason to be “peeved” about a rejection because I did not know if there was one – and even so – it was up to them anyhow.

(g) Two weeks before the blow up that November 2010 (on the kind request of a colleague and for free), I drafted an address for the Prime Minister. (Not the act of a man who was upset).

Now, with that history, I understand first-hand the appetite in the top level of this government to want to destroy friends and perceived enemies.

Remember two years ago I wrote that ungratefulness is in the DNA of National Democratic Congress – and that was before any so-called “rejection” of any proposal.

So George Worme has been on this campaign about me being – as he put it a “money mercenary” – for supposedly wanting to be paid by government. Never mind all his friends are.

To understand this penchant for mischief, we could even go back to the midst of the 2008 campaign – when one of the current main advisers to the triumvirate – went to a top party official to say, “Be careful with Hamlet he is a paid Keith Mitchell spy.” (An adviser who boasted he wanted no job from NDC should they have won the 2011 election, but was among the first to receive a job in the Ministry of Finance and was front and centre of the infamous Sewang One World project on behalf of his minister).

But back to the current situation.

On Wednesday morning, I had a discussion with Michael Baptiste – “me pardner” – who as he put it – “one Munich man touching base with another Munich man”. Of course, we don’t always eye-to-eye on things, but we go way back – and we talk. In spite of his politics I regard him as a “brethren” – as “a Munich man.”

In the midst of “old talking” about the current political situation in Grenada – and a promise to one day meet and sit down to exchange notes – he asked me what is this about me sending a proposal to Keith Mitchell to do some stuff for him.

I actually started laughing – thinking he was joking around – and I said to him: “Cawoe (that’s his Munich name), you know better than that.”

At that point I did not make anything of it until, about half an hour later, I received a call from Wayne Modeste of the New Today – asking me some strange questions – which I got the drift of only midway through it.

It was then I asked if this was an interview or we were just chatting – colleague-to-colleague; colleagues who have gone way back to our Grenadian Voice days.

He asked me about some Florida company making a proposal to do work for Keith – and called two names; and if they work for me, etcetera.

I have known the ladies from long time – though none of them, incidentally, resides in Florida; and one of them I have not actually seen for about 10 years.

I don’t know if I am supposed to be guilty by the people I know – and I was not sure of their exact connection with the Keith Mitchell thing.

But basically Wayne – and I suspect the New Today eventually – would accuse me of working for Keith Mitchell – of sending some proposal.

Now he had initially mentioned a company to me and asked if I knew about the company – my response was it sounds familiar; it rings a bell but off the top of my head, I can’t say definitely I know of such a company.

He called back subsequently to say that the company was registered to my address.

I asked him to call back while I explore that detail – but he obviously was not interested in the whole truth.

Now my wife registers companies for many people in New York and Florida, mostly for work-at-home situations – and at registration routinely puts the address of the office to get it going.

Those people will change that documentation at the time of their first filing – which for that particular company will be by April this year.

Having spoken to her after the conversations with Wayne Modeste, I now know fully who ordered the company etcetera – but that’s her client’s information that I, on principle, can't state unless the principals choose to do so themselves.

How this development is important? The Georges are fighting a phony war on behalf of the ‘triumvirate,’ and specifically on the behalf one member of the “triumvirate’’ who is not Prime Minister Thomas, and will seek to discredit anyone they think is in their way.

This, to which I refer, is child’s play to what will come next.

But for now, this is where I suspect they seeking to go with this – it’s all an attempt to get at David I suspect – to say because he is my friend, I am acting in cahoots with him for Mitchell.

Guys, is that the best shot you’ve got?

In St George’s, it is clear that desperation has set in.

But there is a saying, “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.’’

PS: I was listening to Bob Marley just now. “Them ah go tired to see me face, but they can’t get me out of the race.”

The sky isn't falling, but the party is over!

2012-01-21T08:37:00.001-04:00

WHILE many in Grenada continue to debate the recent firing of Joseph Gilbert, it is important not to over-react, but to put everything in its proper context.

There are varying degrees of opinion about both the letter – delivered or undelivered, signed by the now fired minister, and whether it was deserving of the action of Prime Minister Tillman Thomas.

Let me say the obvious, that under our system, Prime Ministers have a right to decide who they want in their cabinet – and can fire for good reason or no reason.

As a student of the broader science of politics -- I try to always go beyond debating what happened – to the more fundamental point – what it means.

Last week’s political developments in Grenada did not change the fundamental realities on the ground – social and economic. The people in Snell Hall, Hermitage or River Sallee are not any better served or worse served for it.

So when my response to the news last week was that people should not get too excited or get their “undies’’ unduly wet because “the sky is not falling”, it is because fundamentally nothing has changed.

This current National Democratic Congress government is being run by the triumvirate of Prime Minister Thomas, Finance Minister Nazim Burke and the Minister of Everything (my phrase) Glen Noel; a triumvirate supported by a cabal of official and unofficial advisers that former Attorney General Jimmy Bristol described as the “Second Cabinet’’.

Every other member of cabinet – except for Thomas, Burke and Noel – is expendable. And every member of cabinet is subject to the highest standards of behavior – save the triumvirate.

Accept my sympathies Patrick Simmons, Michael Lett, Peter David, Sylvester Quarless, et al – you have no power to effect the change people voted for – more than I have.

And that brings me to the crux of the matter – the policies of this government would not change from its IMF-inspired obsession of balancing the books without caring too much about balancing people’s lives.

Make no mistake about it – this debate and this struggle is about power. But not narrow political power. It is about economic power. It is about empowerment.

People see danger signs where there are none; and the emergency lights that are flashing in the real things that matters, people miss them.

Another budget is upon us, maybe the penultimate one before elections, and the seniors still won’t have the campaign promise of $400 a month fulfilled; unemployment will still hover near 30 percent with no real break in sight and small businesses will be tottering on the brink of closure.

I am less concerned about the job of Joseph Gilbert – he is an engineer, he would probably now make more money anyhow than he did as a minister – than I do about my friends in Munich and La Digue and wherever.

As I listened to the Prime Minister this past week and as I read Joe Gilbert as well, I was asking myself – how does that all matter – how does that all make sense to my cousins who could not pay the cable or internet bill to watch the speech on TV or read the statements online?

What happened last week was more important in the context of what will happen next – as who will be our new government next year.

Yea, I said next year. I don’t think there will be a general election this year.

Most politicians are not Jean Bertrand Aristide. They do not allow themselves to be put on a plane to be flown off to an unknown destination.

So this will be drawn out for as long as the constitution allows.

What is maybe clearer to a lot of people now – though it’s been clear in my mind for a while – is that this ruling party as we know it is effectively finished. The party is over.

Even if friends and well wishers say a million Hail Marys while holding the rosary, a miracle won’t happen that will make Tillman Thomas bring himself to run on the same platform with David, Roberts, Quarless, Walker, Gilbert and Hood. (And vice versa. Neither can they go on a platform and still say Uncle Tilly is the best thing since – well, Keith Mitchell).

Of course, Lett is not a factor because he is retiring; Simmons has no stomach for the fight, he will go too.

Given that scenario – who can boldly declare that the party now exists as we once knew it?

We say it clichéd, but it is true – it is the majority of Grenadians that will have to find a way to sort this out.

They will have to decide if there is a third way – and whether there is no choice but to go back to Mitchell.

There is a myth that NDC won the last general election – and that somehow Thomas, Burke and David delivered us from all evil.

It was a broad coalition of NGOs, trade unions, churches and community organizations that came together and ushered this bunch into office.

It is the people of the coalition that must reclaim their change because the current keepers have given it a bad name.

In the end though, with eternal faith, this will sort itself out – and the people in the end will get some kind of government they deserve.

PS: Democracy does not guarantee us a good government; but it guarantees us the opportunity to change a bad one.

I won’t call it a hijack of democracy! (At least not so loud)

2012-01-18T06:30:00.001-04:00

IT HAS BEEN interesting to note the attempt at spin at the now talked-about caucus that was convened by Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas at Mt St Ervans in St Andrew’s on Sunday.

The only thing so far with the spin is that it has not been well coordinated -- the Prime Minister says it was "a party meeting", Information Minister Glen Noel says "a meeting of stakeholders" and Sports Minister Patrick Simmons says "a meeting of community leaders".

Outside of the normal pot-shots about who broke the story (alleged friends, real or imagined), the critics such as George Grant and Keshawn Thomas who somehow felt the story should not have been told, could not tear apart the facts of the report.

It might make troubled reading – but unlike this piece (which is opinion) – that initial report was all fact.

First of all, some people may ask why is the meeting of any significance and worthy of reporting.

It is for the following reasons:

· When a Prime Minister or a significant political leader – let’s say Keith Mitchell – holds any such meeting, especially close to a general election it is of general interest.

· If as the Prime Minister says the meeting was called to discuss the current state of politics of the party and the way forward, it begs a million questions. Should not the entire management team of the party that handles strategy be involved? Shouldn’t such a meeting be handled in coordination with the Chairman?

Everyone concedes the meeting took place – and there is no dispute as to who attended and who did not.

A natural question that should follow, how did the Prime Minister decide who should come to the meeting?

Is there any significance in that decision making process?

And what does that tell us about the state of play within the party?

And for George Grant and Patrick Simmons and the PM who say the meeting was no big deal – answer this: Let’s say Chairman Kenrick Fullerton called such a meeting (and he can convene party meetings), and leave out the political leader, would we say that it is no big deal?

Remember this was not a barbecue fete, or a backyard get-together for whom the Prime Minister could invite whoever he wants with no questions asked.

This is, by his admission, a political strategy session to figure out the way forward.

So does the way forward include the eight MPs and/or the party management team?

It may well not include them – which if it is so – then the meeting was in proper order.

Why waste time with people you not running with?

And if the majority of your party branches, and the elders of your party, request in the interest of unity to make nice and find a way forward, then you turn around and send a different signal – what does that say?

Maybe calling this a hijack of democracy might be too strong a phrase.

I don’t want to be a threat to society anymore. I still have a home in a beautiful place call Munich that I want to get back to.

PS: My good friends George and Keshawn it’s your right to be apologists for this kind of behavior. Check me the day after the next elections – I will have the tissue to help dry your tears.

Another PS: I suspect somewhere in Happy Hill, they are stocking up on champagne. Doc, don’t forget to invite the Mt St Ervans crew to the party.

Leader gives his party the middle finger

2011-10-03T09:49:00.001-04:00

When Prime Minister Tillman Thomas gave his national address and announced what appears to be minor changes to his cabinet – as is his right to do – he effectively launched his re-election campaign, putting Glen Noel in charge of the process, while continuing his move to bypass his party.

The changes he announced on Friday night were more a blatant political ploy rather than any attempt to increase the efficiency of his cabinet – and in some ways is the continuation of the Prime Minister giving his own party the middle finger since last July’s convention.

Prime Minister Thomas went out on a limb to openly campaign for Noel as Chairman of the party – a fight that ended in the humiliating defeat on the floor of the convention.

Since then, despite all counseling to let it fly, the Prime Minister and Party Leader has insisted that the new chairman Kenrick Fullerton should not keep his government job – if he wants to remain chairman.

When organs of the party have sought discussion on the issue – he has shrugged it off as none-of-their-business, since it is a government issue where the party has no jurisdiction.

Even if you buy the arguments against Fullerton, at best it is inconsistent, since about a dozen active party members have similar arrangements – and they have not been asked to choose.

There is a team that is advising the Prime Minister not to go into the next election with the so called ‘Gang of Four’ – and he is beginning to lean this way.

For him, it is the natural progression of his mission to exorcise “the evil” from his party.

Prime Minister Thomas has always seen Noel as his enforcer – but without him having a formal role in the party, he has now created a Ministry of National Mobilization, that will give him the space and reason to roam the nation.

Under the cloak of ministerial duty, he will be running parallel streets to the party’s chairman and general secretary, whose role based on their positions in the party, would have been to mobilize for a general election.

To Noel’s credit, he is the only one brave enough – his detractors will say stupid enough – to do the ground work for the “go-it-alone” committee.

Some of his own team is still a little uncomfortable with the very idea, and whatever you may think of Nazim Burke, he is neither stupid nor suicidal.

The king of nervous is getting jittery as to where all this will lead.

In the end, Burke is the only one capable of stopping the madness if he ceases being crippled by indecision.

Noel is the one who will identify alternative candidates – and a few names have already been scribbled down.

For now that team covets Pamela Courtney instead of Kenrick Fullerton for St Andrew’s North East; Merle Byer instead of Peter David for St George’s; three potentials in St George’s South instead of Glynis Roberts, and virtually anybody but Joseph Gilbert in St Patrick’s West.

There is an open path in St David’s since Denis Lett, the respected conscience of the party has always indicated he was going to retire anyway.

Their narrative in St Andrew’s South West is that Sylvester Quarless can’t win and must be changed and Alleyne Walker, has outlived his usefulness in St Andrew’s North West.

Of the incumbents, only three candidates are really safe.

Thomas’ inspiration for candidate overhaul is Trinidad and Tobago’s Patrick Manning, who kicked out his PNM old guard in dramatic fashion.

Except he would do well to remember how that all ended.

The parallels don’t end there. Manning felt he was on an ordained divine mission. So too is Thomas.

He should start praying harder that God answers his prayers, better than he did Manning’s.

Or else this will be a case of dead men walking – or I should say – running!

Heartbreak when the love is gone

2011-06-29T07:34:00.004-04:00

I remember the night of July 8, 2008 as if it were yesterday.

There was an excitement and an expectation in the air – that I had not seen before on an election night - and I had covered every victory celebration since the so-called return of democracy after 1984.

It was clear that a country, which by 2006 had grown fed-up with the emerging arrogance and unrepentant cronyism that three terms of New National Party government had fed, was eager to exhale.

In an odd way – there was love in the air. People were offering you free drinks and free rides; and strangers were hugging each other.

It was a good election to both win and lose.

NNP, in its final years, was in so much tension with so many sectors of the society, there was a sense that if it had returned, there was going to be a dramatic clash some time, somewhere.

The economy had just begun to grow sour too though, and what NDC inherited, in some ways, was a poisoned chalice.

Nobody thought it was going to be easy – but the change in tone would have been a good place to start.

Three years later, a lot of the optimism of that July 8 night is gone (it had to because it was just too high).

But the most regretful part is that it feels that the love is gone too.

It is not easy to fix an economy that was structurally unsound and saddled by unacceptable debt.

But a politician courts his own demise, when followers feel the love is gone.

The National Democratic Congress’ biggest danger of not getting re-elected is not the still too sluggish economy or the increasing activity of the opposition New National Party.

It is the failure to win the empathy stakes.

Though some of it is not always well founded, most of the leadership, it is felt, does not have enough personal empathy for people who have been through difficult times.

When you ask the many NDC activists who were on that 2008 train, why it appears that they have back ‘slidden’ – the complaint is not about the economy or them not having a job. It is always a variance of – ‘boy them boys ain’t care about anybody.”

In Grenadian politics empathy is the biggest asset to have.

Recently I was in New York when Prime Minister Tillman Thomas made his statement about Grenada being the best-governed country in the region.

While the point may be grudgingly taken – there is no way to absolutely measure those things.

However I walked away on that nice New York spring afternoon with a refrain in my head – good governance, bad politics.

That is the recipe for defeat.

To explain today’s leadership style of the NDC, is to fully understand the old GNP – Grenada National Party – of the likes of Herbert Blaize, Ben Jones, John Watts and Rawle Charles.

They were good and decent men, who did things by the books – and who you would want to send your child to spend a weekend with because they will learn some positive things.

But you yourself won’t want to hang out with them.

Given the chance in the 1970s, you’d want to drop off your child at Blaize’s house, while you yourself spent the night drinking margaritas and talking cricket at Evening Palace with Eric Gairy.

And so to understand why NDC is in danger in 2013, is to understand why Blaize and company could have never beaten Eric Gairy.

It was not obeah – just political magic.

While a turn-around in the economy will surely help – it is improving empathy and love, translated into words and action, that will be the only thing that will give the Thomas-led NDC a chance two years from now.

A genuine dose of the Bill Clinton school of “I feel your pain”.

Prime Minister Thomas’ declaration in New York confirms his own feeling of correctness – of having successfully reinvented GNPism.

And parties are, by and large, shaped in the likeness of their leaders.

In an odd way, the opposition New National Party is still seeking to paint the NDC as some radical party of ex-revolutionaries.

The reason why that analogy never resonated with anybody of note in 2008 – and it’s even worse now – is because it is just not true. (In addition of course that fear is not a viable political strategy in an information age).

NDC’s leader is more Blaize – than he is even Nicholas Brathwaite or Gorge Brizan. Its deputy Nazim Burke is more Ben Jones than Bernard Coard; chairman Glen Noel, in an attempt to belong, thinks it’s convenient to ignore his class position.

Peter David is an odd man out – a populist who genuinely feels bureaucracy should not stand in the way of helping ordinary people. But he is ‘Boxer’ in the Animal Farm novel; a workhorse who will eventually be slaughtered by his own party.

His own party has set him up – dismissing him as wanting power – when what he really aches for are results.

The opposition NNP has increased its activity – and the only reason it is yet to catch on like wildfire is that it has a record of its own that is not easy to downplay.

And while NNP touts solutions for everything under the sun, many are still asking how come they could not pull them off in 13 years rather than ranting and raving of three years of what is decidedly yes – under achievement.

NDC’s other problem is that it has become good at devouring its own.

Scholar; Chester Humphrey; Stanford Simon are no less anti-NNP than Tillman Thomas.

But you won’t know that by how some in influence in the ruling party has sought to demonize them for any friendly criticism they may make – whether you agree with them or not.

But what Chester and Stanford and Scholar are learning lately -- and the so-called Gang of Four (the six or seven of them) will soon learn - is when a heart breaks, it doesn't break even.

Buju takes to the stage in emotional concert

2011-01-17T16:34:00.000-04:00

JAMAICAN REGGAE STAR Buju Banton made an emotional return to the stage last night in a live concert in Miami— his first in over a year – and possibly his last in the United States.

In front of a packed audience of flag-waving supporters, Banton closed the five hour concert with a two-hour performance, ending with a rendition of the 23rd Psalm before walking off stage in the arms of his lawyers.

Banton sang his classics, praised the support of his fellow artistes, declared his innocence in the upcoming drug conspiracy trial and told the thousands that he had missed them.

The Jamaican singer faces a retrial next month after the first one last fall ended with a no decision.

One of the emotional high points of the night was when he brought out Stephen Marley, the follow artiste who stood his bail with a lien on his half million dollar property in South Florida.

Bracing warmly, the two started a short set by singing Bib Marley’s Duppy Conqueror, with a line that says “yes me friend dem say we free again.”

He also sang with Marcia Griffiths, Wayne Wonder and Gramps Morgan.

Before him a slew of mainly Jamaican acts performed at the show—including reggae’s latest sensation Gyptian, international acts Sean Paul and Shaggy, Freddie McGregor, Everton Blender and Nadine Sunderland.

There were also cameos from rappers DJ Khaled and Busta Rhymes.

All expressed delight of coming to the aid of their fellow entertainer.

Banton, whose entertainer’s visa has already been revoked by US immigration, was granted special permission to perform by the court.

Many say it could have been his last performance in the United States, since he faces deportation even if freed of the charges.

Why cry wolf?

2010-12-22T11:44:00.000-04:00

We are not sure if the guys who run the opposition New National Party are pushing the panic button too quickly – crying wolf, while there is – at least for now – none in the neighborhood.

If the party’s statement about pending arrests was meant to be some kind of information pre-emptive strike, it just exposes the reeking fear at their headquarters.

My advice to them will be have your lawyers a phone call away, and in the interim, to use a popular local phrase from the 80s, “cease and settle.”

The one good strategic political move from the statement is who read it.

Roland Bhola is one of the genuinely nice guys in Grenadian politics, and one of the few with the credibility to make it.

Dare I say, he is one of those who will also genuinely not worry about the work of any special prosecutor.

However, we can’t seem to find, from any credible independent source, the details of this special prosecutor waiting to take action of which they speak.

From our research, there have been investigations from the office of the DPP into a number of areas, and there has been talk of hiring a special prosecutor and a couple of people have been contacted in that regard.

Based on whom you speak to, the Canadian Bob Lindquist has either been spoken to or has been working on a few matters – but we have no official confirmation.

However the picture that has emerged is that there has been progress on a number of matters – but as with those things, it has been relatively slow.

Whatever our views of this government or the past, it is clear that there are many grounds for concerns about some of the behavior in the former administration.

Whether it has reached the stage where formal charges could be laid, I am not sure based on what we are hearing that they are quite there as yet.

Given the state of play however, we are also not anywhere where anyone can claim, with any serious credibility, that the process that is unfolding is a political witch hunt.

This is far too premature.

We will all have to wait and see the nature of the charges - if any.

There are a few things that however should be clear – and one of those is that there are enough things that happened in the latter stages of the NNP reign to give all of us pause.

Are they criminal? We just don’t know. That’s why any investigation is in order and appropriate.

The NNP claim that the current administration is trying to fulfill an election promise to investigate their conduct might be true. And I am not sure what’s wrong with that.

Having come to power on the argument that the quality of governance left much to be desired, I don’t think the NDC would have any credibility left in not seeking to investigate what had concerned so many in the first place.

And about this investigation being an attempt to take people’s minds from the tough times they are facing?

For once, NNP is giving the rag-tag bunch at Botanic Gardens more credit than they deserve. I don’t think they are politically smart or organized enough to pull that off.

Nor do I think that the opposition is giving ordinary Grenadian people enough credit to be able to separate issues.

It will be a grave political miscalculation – never mind the legal one – to move forward with half-baked charges.

Up to this point, I am comfortable with the credibility of the people involved in this legal process – who for two years have withstood shouts for political blood – and have gone ahead studiously following the spirit and the letter of the law.

The value of any country is its ability to take care of its most vulnerable citizens, and to be able to apply justice to all – cost it what it will.

We must not put off any appropriate investigation merely on the basis of some phony argument about the cost of doing it.

The cost of not seeking justice and of not demanding proper behavior from all of our public officers – in and out of office – is far greater.

Peace of Earth!

2010-12-13T19:11:00.000-04:00

It’s been an interesting period.

But sometimes I am not sure what to make of this entire furor of the last what – nearly a month now.

In that time, Grenada has been enjoying – at least on the face of it - a great cruise ship season – one time recently there were four ships in port and I was told eight-thousand people ashore.

The Prime Minister went to CANCUN and back and was supposedly at the center stage of the Climate Change conference – a process that Michael Church as Environment Minister, we are told, chaired so well before he had to leave just on the eve of it.

But in recognition of his good work, the UN organizers invited him over as a special delegate.

Tonight I saw on the TV that ‘nuff charter flights coming from Canada for the entire winter – Jazz Airways, Air Canada and Sunwing.

Forget the yankee dollar. If it works out right, a strong Canadian buck will be just fine.

But did I say Sunwing? Yea they’re back. Don’t feel “no way” Willie, a special ceremony still ain’t planned.

The traditional “meet and greet” at the airport will suffice. For now! For this time!

It’s been an awkward year for most of us, but even so I noticed we are finding creative ways to get into the Christmas spirit.

And talking about spirit – man too much rum flowing in them bars in town. But I thought all you said “we brokes”?

We were brokes in November, and we will be more brokes in January. But don’t worry about yesterday or about tomorrow. Just pass one for today.

When man drinking rum, nothing else is relevant.

So come to think of it, why did they not try the reshuffle on Christmas eve? We would have all been too drunk to notice.

A little lady told me in town today that shoulder ham scarce.

Man it ain’t no Christmas without a little salt ham boiling in a huge black pot on the makeshift fireside behind the house.

And even if the chicken is a little pricey, no worries there. Mama still got enough yard fowls around the place.

We will run down a few “ below the cocoa” – and some waters will be in order.

The real holiday breeze has already started to blow. But I have one complaint. Too much senseless parang on the radio.

Man this is Christmas. This ain’t carnival.

And why every day got to be like carnival? I go to the church harvest, they make it carnival. I go to the cricket, they make it carnival. Now Christmas is carnival.

The good thing about the last few weeks is that ‘nuff people vex with me.

Now I have less people to send gifts to. The downside I guess, is that I won’t be getting many either.

But that’s alright.

All I want for Christmas is to give some love, and expect some back as well.

Given the last four weeks, that will be welcome indeed.

Peace on Earth!

Here is the official declaration of a unilateral ceasefire. They can fire if they want, but I ain’t sending back any bullets until at least January 3.

I have more important things to attend to.

I am looking forward to my son’s soccer, midnight service in St Maurice Church in Miramar and watching Miami take on LA Lakers (Wade & Lebron versus Kobe and Gasol), with the kitchen smelling good and friends, family and beer (not that I drinking that), keeping good company.

When I really think about it – what was this fuss of the last four weeks about?

This is Christmas man! (And I’ve got to get out of this town).

Merry Christmas everybody, especially to Ray, George (by two), and a cool uncle of ours.

Yea man, he is a real cool ruler, until he hears the word hijack.

But it’s all cool.

One Love!

And once again Merry Christmas!

Allow me to wallow with the pigs for a while

2010-12-11T07:30:00.004-04:00

UP UNTIL now, I have kept my blogs about commentaries on broad ideas and concepts; given views on matters that are of more collective than general interest.

Over the last few weeks – the likes of the Georges – have sought to shift the national debate on how democracy is being practiced within the government and its consequence on the nation.

At a time of 37 percent unemployment; when people are worried about the holiday and the New Year and when a government is grappling to get its 2011 budget right – both George Grant and George Worme – doing the biddings of the goons who yield influence at Botanic Gardens, have taken aim at me.

There are two fundamental reasons they do this (a) to change the subject in a most disastrous political period for the government and (b) to try to discredit me in any way possible because in their minds I am one of the few bold enough to damn the consequences of speaking up.

I predicted on my Facebook page a full week ago that a cabal of loose advisors and volunteer character hit men have come together, with the knowledge if not blessing of some in the Prime Minister’s office, to get at me.

What they are really are a bunch of cowards who hide behind believed anonymity, and who will use the two Georges to do their public bidding.

What these two sets have in common is full syndrome desperation, watching their pet project, which is this government, in free-fall and complete meltdown.

They are so worried that if it completely collapses they have nowhere to run – professionally and personally. But, rather than try to positively influence a stuttering confusion that passes as governance, while ordinary people hurt and worry; they hit out in desperation at their self created enemies – of whom I am number one.

These are men who pass off their own ingrained selfishness as patriotism; and who think the only way they can make us believe they have integrity is, by innuendo and omission, paint everyone else as crooks.

Indeed these are desperate times, and these are desperate graying men who have long slipped pass youth, with no spring in either their steps or ideas.

Desperate men can do desperate things – and there is more to come. Only that while they fiddle, the real people who are mad with them because of broken promises, continue to burn.

For the most part this is not about me really – or even in a real sense about them.

What this debate should be about is a nation that is on pause, if not regression; of a leadership which is in contempt of its party and out of touch with ordinary folks who had enthusiastically waved yellow bandanas.

This is about a country which has gone from yellow and green – and is now blue. Blue with hurt! Blue with despair! Blue with even rage!

And I will get back soon to what really bothers this nation – and what really gives this odd assortment of public servants, academic misfits, blundering senators, broken hangers on and low talented media men, sleepless nights.

But excuse this one time while I wallow with the pigs. These pigs!

For over the past 14 days, rather than deal with the message – a convenient section of a government, using state resources and time – has been bent on destroying me.

And naturally, any half decent self-respecting man will at least stand up and defend his family in the face of attack.

And I need to do that for my three sons, who I have always promised that daddy will be uncompromised; unbowed, unconquered and unapologetic. And for a wife whose faith I have never deserved; and a mother whose prayers have never stopped. Also crucially, for my father, who died seven years ago, and who realizing he was reaching his end, said to me – Hamlet don’t ever let them take you and make a fool.

If anything, I want him to smile from heaven, and claim: “Whitto (as he called me) you giving them hell on earth.”

Rather than deal with innuendo and half-truths (and in one case this weekend in the New Today newspaper) outright libel, I want to challenge the Georges to a debate face-to-face anywhere at anytime on the substance of the challenge that faces this nation.

Rather than deal in personal insults, I want them bring their ideas to the table, and I will bring mine, about how to get this government working for real people from La Fillette to La Tante; Belmont to Byelands.

I pity the Georges – one operates from a position of perpetual hatred, and another from crippling fear; collectively they sing choruses of jealousy.

It is that hatred and that fear; and that collective jealousy that have moved them to publish documents handed out from Botanic Gardens – as if to suggest that I have been campaigning for some major post with this government.

They conveniently ignored cover letters that show that these corporate proposals were specifically requested and reluctantly offered by a man who was running away from any suggestion that he needed to be pinned down in St George’s.

Those proposals gave an outline of cost to be paid for rent, equipment, utilities and to take a half a dozen people from the jobless line – no suggestion of money for me to individually pocket.

Obviously they would not have known about Vincent Robert’s email to me which said: “We need to get concrete proposals so that I can sell the concept.”

Nor of a soon-after follow up that said: “Thanks for all that you have done before. I sincerely depend on your advice, guidance and support. Let's do it "For Love of Country".”

In the New Today’s illiterate interpretation, it meant Hamlet Mark was asking for nearly quarter million dollars a year – a claim so ludicrous that it will have one of the Georges back to the judge’s chambers while he shamelessly hides assets to avoid another big payout.

They ignored that since 2000, my capitals have been Kingston and Kingstown; Basseterre and Bridgetown; Miami and New York.

They forgot to note that I have not waited to collect any crumbs to fall from any one’s table in St Georges – like is their lot; but I have created my own bread and that of many other people too, in diverse places.

Unlike them, St George’s for me is not a center of business; it’s simply a playground where my weary soul often takes a break.

That’s why the naked emperors in St George’s don’t bother me; instead I bother them.

Here is the scorecard of lies printed by the New Today this weekend.

LIE: That Hamlet Mark sought a contract for $280,000.

TRUTH: That on the specific request of the party (not the government), West Park Global Media (a registered company in Florida) had made a proposal to cover rent, equipment, utilities, hiring of six people that would have amounted approximately to that amount a year.

LIE: That the proposal was addressed to the Prime Minister (the Dear Prime Minister was inserted there by the New Today).

TRUTH: The document itself was addressed to no one. But the cover letter that was conveniently not published was addressed to Vincent Roberts, who is not an officer of the government, but a member of the ruling party.

LIE: That Hamlet Mark was to have been paid from the sum

TRUTH: The segment of the document published listed how the money was going to be used through the National Media Center.

Ongoing in all this reporting, there has also been the innuendo, that somehow I am upset at the government because my proposal was rejected.

Up until now the proposal has not been rejected, and as far as I am aware external funding is being sought. And so, if I was to so directly benefit I had reason to shut up, not speak out.

But that would not be said because it would not suit the narrative, they trying to build.

Inspite of the New Today’s and to a lesser extent grenadabroadcast.com to spin it otherwise, (eat your NDC hearts out the Georges), but verifiable evidence can show that I turned down every single personal offer made to be by this government – from press secretary down.

Ask the current holder who first begged him to take the job (and my motive he may not have known because I was “breaksing” from them asking me again).

Let’s be clear what’s happening here:

(a) I am this administration’s worst nightmare because I cannot be easily dismissed as a babbling NNP since I have more friends in the government than outside of it;

(b) No power in St George’s can frustrate any project I am working on in the Caribbean and North America, so they have no control over me. (And I’ll be soon be working on one in St George’s that they cant stop either).

(c) The Georges cannot bad mouth anything I am working on to cause it to stop. Operating from their little world, they are powerless in my bigger world.

So they will seek to discredit me – but in their over-zealous drive they have already discredited themselves.

Here’s a little lesson in journalism 101 – you two Georges – even when presented with what appears to be authentic documents, you need to cross- check sources and context before publishing. And it might be useful to seek the other side of the story too.

But when it comes to that point – I am not really mad. Never really thought you had the basics really.

PS: Now that I have wallowed with these pigs, forgive me for not fighting in my class. Please now permit me to leave discussing little people to talk about bigger ideas.

George Grant’s unfortunate broadside against MWAG

2010-12-08T19:37:00.001-04:00

IN the last 24 hours, a media colleague of ours, showed where his allegiance lies as regards to any perceived threat to press freedom, and the ability of commentators (no matter what their point of view), to add their voices to national debate without seeming to be threatened by the most powerful person in the country.

In his self-appointed righteousness, George Grant demanded that the Media Workers Association of Grenada (MWAG) withdraw its statement that condemned Prime Minister Tillman Thomas’ ill-advised and ill-tempered rant.

Left up to me, MWAG need not make a statement, for different reasons than George would argue.

In one infamous hour on George Grant’s show, Prime Minister Thomas did more damage to himself, than any commentary any of us could have written.

His rant said less of me, and a whole lot about himself – or at least his current mindset, made deviant and strangled by pressure and desperation, which is understandable from a person who leads a government that promised so much hope but instead delivered so much despair.

I could not be intimidated because for me this emperor has no clothes.

But MWAG said what it did because it was defending a principle that will always be bigger than me.

They were not defending what I said – for alas a group like this can’t have an opinion on that.

They were not declaring that I have some personal bias, or I am some upset out-of pocket commentator. –If that were true, it would negate my right to have an opinion – and a strong one at that -- in the land of my birth.

MWAG was defending my right to write what I did.

It is that principle that the likes of George Grant find it inconvenient now to defend because it involves one of his favorite sons.

I just wonder what his position would be if it was Keith Mitchell who said the same things, Tillman Thomas did on his show.

It is that which is frightening about this Grenada – that for too many people a supposedly sacred principle shifts based on the personalities involved.

George Grant rants about an “unsigned” statement as if to question its authenticity, which begs the question then why did he publish it.

He also said the statement was put out without the knowledge of the rank and file, as if he does not know that things like these are not brought to a general body, but the elected executive is mandated to so act.

That was no different from the many statements MWAG had issued during the reign of the Mitchell administration – a process up until now, George never questioned or had a problem with.

He implied that the statement did not have unanimous executive support, but he did not say that there was only just one hold out, which as I understand it, was what made the statement so late.

And by MWAG’s tradition, I am told, such statements are made once a simple majority of the executive agrees.

In this particular case, it was an overwhelming majority.

The only hold out came from an executive member who frankly should have excused himself from the discussion, since Prime Minister Thomas is his boss.

And it is people like these, using half-truths and innuendos (printing corporate proposals without the cover letter as if to make it look as my personal proposals), who will want to school some of us on integrity.

'Then they came for me!'

2010-12-04T21:31:00.002-04:00

Just a short very personal note on this Saturday (even while I am watching England murder Australia in cricket).

Some people have asked, how come the Media Workers Association of Grenada (MWAG), has not issued a statement following the Prime Minister's tirade on the George Grant show last Sunday.

In defense of MWAG, 100% of its executive committee are my friends and colleagues; and 98% of them are genuinely concerned about issues of freedom of the press, and the a ability of media practitioners (journalists, commentators, talk show hosts etc) to be able to express their opinions -- whether we agree with them or not.

They understand that is a broader principle that is bigger than me or any one else.

I am satisfied that the right thing will be done eventually -- and I have been heartened and encouraged by MWAG's President Rawle Titus, who since Monday had made a strong and unequivocal statement in is own personal capacity on the TV news.

Left up to him and almost every other single member of its executive -- and every single member of the general body -- a statement would have already been issued.

I have the utmost faith that this aberration will be corrected.

We must understand this for what it is -- and this is not the time to ever be up in arms against MWAG, which is a worthy organisation that has served the community well; and which we must continue to support and encourage even when its inconvenient.

MWAG has done a lot of good work lately under the leadership of Titus, including organising a current series of training for practitioners.

But for the very few (fewer than the fingers on half of one hand), we must continue to remind them about the importance of solidarity based on principles.

And, it is in this context, I will like to quote Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. (And to remind the few the danger of inactivity).

Niemoller once wrote:

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak for me

I'M Just Another Shade of Gray

2010-11-29T04:18:00.003-04:00

AS A LATE VENERABLE U.S Senator once said –and I am paraphrasing here – people have a right to their own opinions, but not their own facts.

In an appearance on George Grant’s talkshow yesterday, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas gave us heavy doses of his opinion – which he has the right to do – and inter-mingled with anecdotes he tried to represent as fact.

In his calculated anger, he successfully failed to tear apart the main points of my recent commentaries; resorting desperately eventually to impinging sinister motives, and to cast me off as a cheap opportunist.

In doing so he both cheapened his office and strengthened my resolve.

In spite of his innuendos (that are strangers to verifiable facts), neither his government nor party owes me anything; nor have I expected or demanded anything, for which I might have some reason to be upset.

The many invitations that were made to me two years were ago were politely declined either because (a) it was not worth my while (b) it did not fit into my family commitments (c) I could not give up the other stuff I was engaged in at the time and/or (d) I did not feel it was the best career move then.

At no point was there animosity about any matters, and subsequent to this all – I have always volunteered my time, efforts and contacts in non-partisan matters, when I have been asked and when I felt it was in “the national interest.”

Volunteering my time included training government information officers and helping out national committees.

To suggest otherwise is to seek to muddy the waters and to deliberately mislead.

(Out of a deep sense of self respect and not to reduce this to childish levels, I refuse to take the bait to speak in more detail than this).

To equate my commentaries to personal attacks was unfortunate, especially coming from someone that I have privately and publicly shown the greatest respect and regard.

Over the years, including the last few weeks, I have written a lot of opinion pieces on politics, sports and entertainment.

They have never been presented as the gospel of anything – just the view of one writer, using facts as they unfold – interpreting them and giving an opinion.

Of course, no matter what anybody says, there is no one with complete objectivity.

Everybody’s views will be colored by the place they were born, their race, class, family connections, religion (or lack of it), financial interests and that of their families and friends; the sporting teams they back, the music they like – and all those other variables.

What commentators try to do is come to a fair conclusion, given the facts presented.

So Mr Prime Minister, opinion pieces are not true or false, right or wrong. They can’t be, because they are not facts. They are what they are – opinions. You judge opinion pieces on whether the commentator reached a fair conclusion based on the series of facts he might be commenting on.

A commentary piece is different from hard reporting, which just present the facts.

The Prime Minister had a lot of his own opinions on the George Grant show on Sunday; and he sure has a right to them. And we can debate them, like anyone can debate mine. That’s s just part of the state of play.

Where we differ is that I don’t consider his strong opinions on what I wrote a personal attack, though he obviously saw mine as one.

It bothered me a bit though that he found it necessary to set me up as this straw enemy which he needs in his time of crisis.

We all must be careful about trying to suggest other people’s motives, when they have not been stated clearly.

If he reviews all of my pieces, I never speculated on his motives – because they are not only hard to tell, I find it patently unfair.

But in his appearance on Sunday – and sometimes urged on by a willing interviewer – he went on to suggest my motive for my commentaries.

This was the most disappointing part of his posture.

Instead of seeking to debate on the merits or demerits of the points, the Prime Minister threw up a childish tantrum, punctuated by coded phrases, he hopes will intimidate me.

In his mind, he has set up this straw enemy, and convinced himself that fighting this is an extension of his personal crusade in his own war of good over evil.

It is unfortunate for both him and the country.

He once again displayed an uninformed rigidity in which he sees everything as black or white.

Like George Bush, he has a puritanical certainty that there are no grays – you either for me or against me.

Life’s got different colors Mr Prime Minister. See me for what I am sir. I am neither black nor white. I am just another shade of gray.

Redemption after rebellion?

2010-11-29T04:16:00.000-04:00

The raging debate of the last seven days has been widely ventilated in the local media and on online fora.

Rightly, it garnered our attention – and in many cases our passion. No doubt there are outstanding arguments that are still to be made, and should be made.

Even while we await those, we must be careful about over analyzing what has happened. In fact, the more appropriate focus should be why it happened.

The issue of why is important, especially since this is not the first time we have had such a rupture in Grenadian politics – and one is left to wonder if ever there were lessons learnt.

At some time in our history we may also come to address the contradiction of us wanting democracy, but frowning upon its greatest strength – the need for debate and dissent. We treat dissent as if it were treason; but if we properly embrace it, that will in the end make this not just another nation – but a great nation.

Some people have tried to equate the past week to 1983.

To do so, is either playing loosely with history; over estimating the significance of the recent developments, or playing to a cheap political choir of fear that 1983 breathes by default. For one, there was never a constitutional crisis, and the government was never in any serious danger of falling.

Neither the MPs themselves nor the general population had the appetite for that. As disappointed as people are with how things have panned out these past few years, they still have not regained the desire to return to what they voted against in 2008.

For all the missteps of the NDC, the New National Party has yet to transform itself into a serious alternative for the independents and the disappointed “yellow people.”

NNP may still win an election by default, but not necessarily by expanding its base, or inspiring a new generation.

There is a dangerous resignation to and about the modern Grenadian politic – a lingering staleness and an uninspired slush.

NNP’s series of weekly meetings has in a strange way kept in the forefront some of its bankrupt ideas and approaches. Mind you, it has played well to the base, but has had very little appeal beyond that.

NDC, for its part, has been on auto pilot for a while (and in good times that’s safe enough), but now the malfunction light has come on.

The party has shown little ability to reinvent itself; the leadership has run out of ideas, and there is a disconnect with the rank and file.

There have been times when the NNP as an alternative had an opportunity to look forward – and lean forward – but strangely at each juncture they have tended to reach to the past – in both rhetoric and deed. (Juts like it did when it brought back Gregory Bowen to the senate).

Rather than explore bold new frontiers, the NNP has been paralyzed by its own internal fears; frozen by the very thought of dreaming something different.

Having not learnt from its recent past, it appears to have done worse than that. It has been ‘miseducated.’

To understand what last week meant, is to remember 1987 and 1990 (not 1983).

For those who forget history quickly -- in 1987 George Brizan, Francis Alexis and Tillman Thomas led a rebellion against the leadership style of Herbert Blaize.

In 1990, concerned that an ailing Blaize, unable to inspire his troops, was leading the NNP to defeat, Keith Mitchell launched a bitter challenge to him and took over the party even while Blaize was still Prime Minister.

Blaize went on to form The National Party (TNP) taking the likes of Ben Jones, Alleyne Walker and Pauline Andrews with him.

This current NDC is obviously bleeding from its self inflicted wounds, but to believe they are fatal is to ignore the fickleness (and in some broad senses "farcicality") of politics.

Six months is a long time in politics, never mind two years.

Ask Brizan and Mitchell. They would tell you, that played right, there could be redemption after rebellion.

I'm A Rebel; Soul Rebel!

2010-11-22T05:32:00.001-04:00

From fear of dating myself, I remember those days back in 1986 -1987, when George Brizan, Francis Alexis and Tillman Thomas were so fundamentally opposed to the way Herbert Blaize was treating them, that they had made up their minds that the arrangement was untenable.

By the time Brizan and Alexis had attacked their own government’s economic policy in parliament, blasting the retrenchment plan; to paraphrase Mighty Chalkdust – I picked up my gun (pen) again.

By the time they resigned, Tillman Thomas had joined them in walking out of the Blaize cabinet – convinced that MPs must be treated with respect or else.

I remember those letters in the Grenadian Voice (I was sub editor then, and had to review them all), all calling them selfish, unpatriotic, wanting to have their own way and giving trouble.

Leslie Pierre, Lloyd Noel and Willie Redhead in their columns were weekly blasting their stands. I was the lone writer standing up for the right of MPs to dissent and to fight for causes (in that case, the jobs of public servants), that may put their own jobs at risk.

As far as Mr Pierre and Mr Noel were concerned, the guys were not acting in the national interest.

But I was always at odds about this concept of national interest. Who really defines it? And what really defines it?

By the time they (Brizan-Alexis) decided to go to Carriacou one Sunday morning to give Blaize an ultimatum letter, I was the only other person there.

In fact wheel-chair bound Blaize could not bring his hands up to open the letter, and I had to open it for him.

At the time, I was not sure why they called me that Saturday night and asked me to come to Carriacou with them. I suspected it’s because I was a lone voice in the weeklies supporting their “open rebellion.”

But I was glad to get on the “Carriacou plane” that Sunday morning; because for me, I was getting a first hand scoop in a history making moment. (By that time I was also writing for EC News, Barbados Nation and Inter Press Service).

The first time I ever interviewed Tillman Thomas was about a week after he resigned from the Blaize government.

He struck me as a quiet man with strong resolve, willing to risk his ministerial job in a fight for respect – his own respect.

When Blaize died a few years later, Thomas was the lone voice in the parliamentary sitting that lambasted his leadership skill.

In remembering Blaize, he said – something to the effect – that a man cannot be considered a great leader if he becomes so arrogant that he can’t hold his team together.

Afterwards, I told him I saw his point, but I am not sure a parliamentary tribute session was the best place to make them. But still -- point taken.

That point has been in my mind for long moments this past week.

I just thought last night that it is funny how history repeats itself. And how, after all these years – I am still in love with rebels.

The end of innocence

2010-11-22T05:29:00.001-04:00

(This was first published online on Friday November 19, 2010).

TODAY is Friday -- and in Grenada there will be some sideshows.

And long after today, there will be a raging debate – that’s for certain – on what today would have brought.

But what it is really – is a sideshow.

I am so sorry that most of us have already missed the real show.

There was a 48 hour window this past week when our democracy was effectively hijacked – and nobody said a word.

The furor about the reshuffle is in itself only significant in the context that it reflects a wider problem of the Tillman Thomas administration.

Thomas is right; reshuffles are par for the course. But there is confusion over this one for a reason. The rumblings are not a protest against a system that has failed us; instead it is a protest against us who have failed the system.

Michael Church has got something to answer to. But today, we should be more fascinated about who will answer for stealing innocence.

The constituency leaders who met last night and rebuked the Prime Minister about his handling of this situation, was not challenging his right to reshuffle his cabinet.

They were protesting the collapse of collective governance.

For all practical purposes, the leaders abandoned their own party about a year ago. (Refer to my February article of NDC’s Problem With Itself).

With the party abandoned, the only linkage to what people voted for in July 2008, was through their MPs – as absent and non performing as some of them are.

Then at some point in the last year, the cabinet system was being treated with contempt.

Collective decisions taken, were being subsequently unilaterally abandoned. (Which makes Michael Church’s alleged sins look as child’s play).

The second cabinet – of exclusively non elected members and all of whom are not even members of the party – took over, with the supposed knowledge and acceptance of the Prime Minister.

Jimmy Bristol spoke of the destabilizing effect of the “second cabinet” – but we missed the warning because as usual we got caught up in the sideshow.

Then, the sideshow was Bristol, his son and so on.

And now, to today….

I predict once again the debate will be on the sideshow – our comments colored by who our favorites are in a government that’s going around in circles, rather than going forward.

Only if we can talk about the problem, instead of the symptoms – things will be so different.

This brings me back to a 48 hour window this past week when democracy was hijacked.

For two days the Prime Minister was not talking to the majority of his cabinet. On the other hand the Party Chairman was canceling a General Council meeting – which he had no authority to do. And (remember) the General Council of the Party is the only real official mechanism for the government to report to the party that brought it to power.

There was a time this past week, when the end begun. That was the hour when the mechanisms for the leadership to talk to both cabinet and party were suspended all at once.

The General Council was canceled because a select few took the view that they cannot risk going before the party to report to the body that brought this government into power.

So, when a government officially runs from its people – you know it is indeed – the end of innocence.

And now, back to today… again!

Michael Church may lose his job; or the cabinet may lose its Michael Church. And while both will claim victory in their own arrogant collective self righteousness, covered in legal rather than moral authority, we would have lost innocence.

No wonder DON HENLEY’s song has been in my head all night long.

O' beautiful, for spacious skies

But now those skies are threatening

They're beating plowshares into swords

For this tired old man that we elected king

Armchair warriors often fail

And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales

The lawyers clean up all details

Since daddy had to lie

But I know a place where we can go

And wash away this sin

We'll sit and watch the clouds roll by

And the tall grass waves in the wind

Just lay your head back on the ground

And let your hair spill all around me

Offer up your best defense

But this is the end

This is the end of the innocence

Seeking my personal interest

2010-11-22T05:26:00.000-04:00

Forgive me for saying, but I could care less about the job status of Karl Hood, Glynnis Roberts, Peter David and Michael Church -- as much as I would want them to make a living.

What concerns me – and should concern all of us – is the 37 percent of the working population desperately seeking jobs and can’t find one.

For me this is personal.

I have got a cousin in Munich who has been out of work for 16 months. His girlfriend's got a baby – and they find it hard making a living. And sometime I have to give them a little change too. You see how it’s costing me?

My ex-girlfriend’s mother, living somewhere close to Grenville has been seeking a new job after there was none on the estate she used to work.

No offense to Karl, Glynis, Peter and Marchy – my problem with Grenada is far more personal than if they keep their jobs.

I am sure these four ministers have a mortgage.

Thank God my mother ain’t got one. And she is cool – not starving either.

This government took away the pension NNP gave her months before the general elections in 2008 in hopes of getting her vote. The truth is, not that she really needed that $200 – she has never been that desperate. But it had helped pay a bill nonetheless.

It has not made her worse off. It has made me worse off (told you it was personal) – because I just need to give her an extra $200 a month. But that’s cool. That’s not even $US100. Anyhow it’s better for my health, cause I have less money to spend on fast food.
You see I told you it was personal.

Yea, Grenada is a small place, and everybody knows everybody. I manage to know Glynis, Peter, Marchy and Karl well. And I am cool with them. I wish them the best. But they are not my headache right now. For that matter, I don’t think they’re Tillman’s headache either.

But the only reason, I feel I should talk about some of the broader issues, is that I have not given up my Grenadian passport yet. And I still have this Utopian dream of retiring in Munich – some time. And so, I kinda have a self serving interest here.

I want more people in Munich to get work. For me the smaller picture is the bigger picture. You see why I say it’s personal?

And I know finding work is easier said than done. How about just giving Munich people a little hope? I don’t want to retire in any village where people have been so short-changed by their government and their system – that they take it out on me. So I am here protecting my own self interest.

Hey – and what is this talk about national interest? Who determines national interest anyhow? The truth is, in the real world, it doesn’t exist. What we have is a collection of individual interests. All of us have our individual interests – that we –when it’s convenient, use the cover of the state to protect. My national interest ends with my personal interest.

I vex with this government that not enough people in Munich have work. But I am a realist – and I know those things don’t come easy. I am madder because Munich people don’t have hope. And I don’t know why I am feeling guilty about that.

What about you Mr Prime Minister?

This emerging summer of madness

2009-07-02T02:46:00.002-04:00

THERE has been a growing debate in Grenada about the possible reshuffle of the island’s cabinet that Prime Minister Tillman Thomas has said will come in a matter of days to mark the first anniversary of his party in power.

There has been an unprecedented level of public discussion about the reshuffle – what shape it will take and what that will mean.

Frankly some of the discussions have been inspired by mischief on one hand, petty political spite in other instances, plus the more substantive fight to define and determine the philosophy of this government and party.

It is also being inspired by a genuine concern in many circles that this government has in some ways under achieved in its first year. But the analysis has neither been deep and thorough enough so it is likely to miss the real point.

It has gotten to the place now that what you’d likely to get is a knee jerk reaction that may not fix the inherent problems of this government – and if anything will lay a foundation for dissatisfaction and suspicion.

Unfortunately the seeds are being sown by a process that is not being managed properly, and by a humble arrogance of right, shrouded in constitutional soundness but political naivety.

Only that student of politics will tell us that successful politics is not only about the legal soundness of an action, but how that interfaces with the complex human preferences.

To ignore that – is not only to lose the essence of politics – but the very power it bestows.

For now, I’ll refrain from getting into the name calling – and the fashionable blame game that is consuming this town.

It is pointless because the set up has already taken place, and the dialog has been framed. Both recent history and the current reality have been already painted with a distorted brush.

The debate has not been served well by media colleagues that have not asked the smart questions or look beyond an analysis steeped in only the personal.

There is an emerging summer of madness on which we hope the sun will set, before the rain clouds blow over and the storm washes away the hope of July 8th from just one year ago.

But in this beckoning madness – it’s even frightening to hope.

It is not just money – but good sense – that is in short supply.

NOTES FROM ALL AROUND: So who is conspiring to kill the soca?

2009-07-02T02:39:00.000-04:00

NOTES FROM ALL AROUND: So who is conspiring to kill the soca?

So who is conspiring to kill the soca?

2009-07-01T05:10:00.004-04:00

BEING IN GRENADA these past few days, I have had a greater opportunity to listen closely to Grenadian radio as they have now turned to an almost complete diet of music related to the island's upcoming carnival.

I have also had the opportunity to visit a couple of local recording studios and listen first-hand to some of the material being prepared there for the festival.

While it is something that has been bothering me for a couple of years now - I am becoming more than satisfied that local Grenadian radio is doing a disservice to both carnival, and its array of promising artistes.

If you were to only listen to most of the stations -- you'd come to the conclusion that there is a less than exciting crop of music this season.

But I am satisfied that it is not as bad as it sounds.

If I was a believer in conspiracy theories, I would have said that some industry players in the radio are part of a wider plot to destabilize Grenadian music.

You listen to the stations and you'd get mostly ill-baked jab-jab laced one- dimensional rhythms with lyrics as empty as Caribbean treasuries and hopelessly pointless.

Indeed that refreshing authentic Grenadian sound is quickly being diluted and short changed -- aided and abetted by people who make choices of what needs to be played on radio that don't have the artistic appreciation nor cultural depth to do so.

SOS someone -- because this is a crisis -- and its slipping fast.

The thing about what the radio is deciding to play -- is that it sets it up as THE standard -- and a lot of the artistes who are capable of much better end up giving the stations -- not the people -- what they want.

Only that could explain how within 12 months Brother B can go from that cheeky infectious song of last season, to a pointless ode to liquor.

(Coming soon on this blog, the 10 most over hyped song of the season that aint worth it; and the 10 songs that should have been played more).

Don leaves a great vibe for the beat of life

2009-06-24T05:02:00.005-04:00

DON CHARLES is a Grenadian music icon – but many may not know it if they were not paying close attention.

But they would have heard it – without knowing it

Charles was the man in charge of engine of the island’s music, not the showy ‘upfronter’ looking to soak up the applause.

A generation has grown up under his music influences, manufactured under the label MOSS.

He has never convinced me what it really meant – but a long time ago it was decided is means Masters of Sweet Sounds.

So that was the story – and everyone stuck to it.

It made sense anyhow, because in reality it was true.

Don – and his brothers Ricky and Leon – and their friends from around St Mary’s Road in Grenville came together in 1974 to establish Moss.

And they were to give an independent nation, the birth of its new sound.

A few years later, Moss established Kalypso Kastle, which for about a decade and some, was Grenada’s foremost calypso tent. Indeed the heights they reached –n in terms of packaging, organization, marketing and execution – have not since been surpassed.

There was a historic generational shift in appreciation for local calypso music by 1978 – the marquee breakout year for the Super Tent, the forerunner to the Kastle, and the period when Don introduced the synthesizer – which was the best thing then – to his arrangements.

Some of Grenada’s best calypsonians are graduates of the Kastle:

the late Timpo and African Teller – who won major crowns in the earlier 80s;

Squeezie (in the days we used to spell it Squeezy) who established himself early on as a road march champion on the melody that Don made.

Mr Dee, the first prince of Grenadian calypso soul

Darius, the master of satire from The Party Done to Ras,

Black Wizard, in his second coming after the days of Young Baron

Singing MC, and Leon Antoine, and

the discovery of a young Randy Isaac, doing his breakout hit FREE SOUTH AFRICA.

The influences went beyond those who worked directly with the Kastle.

Just ask the likes of Ajamu and Smokey who speak highly of the influences Moss and the Kastle had on their formative years.

Ajamu has the highest respect and felt that the least he could have done was invite him as a player at his highly successful 25th anniversary concert last year.

It was the house that Don built that set up Grenada’s post music industry since Independence.

Those who complain it has not gone further maybe missed the point. Don was always a little head of the time.

Those foundations were laid in an album of top class called CAN IT BE that the band produced in 1978, which included what to me what is an all time, yet under-rated Grenadian classic Slaves Living In Luxury -- (where is the cover anybody) – and the equally impressive and more widely played You’re Gone, showcasing Agnes Forrester at her best.

The album, one of first high class Grenadian recording of our generation, introduced us as well, to the soulful singing of the Laldee brothers and a young Agnes Forrrester.

By then the baton had genuinely passed from Rhythm Riders – which up to independence was the band of Grenada,

Through the years, Moss International under Don’s guidance, churned out the big ones – Caribbean Party Music (made popular in the days of Radio Antilles), Too Hot, Party Animals, Dance The Night Away, Bacchanal Breeze, the ‘anthemic’ Join Hands and of course the most celebrated of them – that haunting road march from 1991 Jambalassie Rule.

The song was to have been called ‘Same Damn Thing’ – but then somebody said in one of those creative sessions – that would be hard for any announcer to say that on the radio.

Did not think we had a hit on our hands, until Singing MCs magic was captured on the camera at a 5 AM video shoot at the back of the studio.

We were rushing to completion – because carnival was about 10 days away – and it was already late.

When we were finished, we were discussing – is Grenada ready for this? Will they grasp it?

We nervously sent it on to radio and TV and hoped for the best.

The truth is, we suspected, people partied to the song because of its irresistible hooks and haunting melodies, pleasingly transformed in song by the charisma of a young Singing MC in his prime.

Perhaps it was after the carnival was over– that many noticed – this was a seriously sneering political commentary.

You say to stain we finger
But only one year later
The country catching heart failure

You vote, you doh vote same damn thing
The heart and the hand, same damn thing

Jambalassie was the song that was almost never made – that’s why it came out so late for the carnival of 1991.

The band was in studio months before working on al alternative album concept called THE BEAT OF LIFE, with no mind on doing music for the carnival of this year.

But then belatedly in one of the sessions, the issue was raised about the need to contribute to carnival – and that after so many years it would be an anomaly not to.
Somebody suggested – I think it was Singing MC – that we do something rooted in Grenadian culture; something that has a sought of ‘jab jab’ feel.

It was then the creative genius of Don went to work in creating what turned out to be the Grenadian soundtrack.

Jambalassie Rule established the authentic Grenadian sound that has been so well exploited years later by the likes of Tallpree, who used it to make Old Woman Alone, a regional hit, and by General Pepe who won road march in 2004 with Never Say Never, a direct and deliberately intended sampling of the original road march of 13 years earlier.

The chants of modern day Lava Man and Don Carlos - are rooted in that authentic Grenadian sound Don manufactured, as much as there are influences by the urban vibe from Jamaica and the USA.

Jambalassie Rule, was the first Grenadian song to have been nominated for a Caribbean Music Award back in 1992.

It was the first Grenadian soca that played extensively on the regional carnival circuit – long before Flying Cloud's Raise Your Hand, or Tallpree’s Old Woman and Super P’s Peeping could have made their mark.

Moss International made its mark oversees, doing the Caribana circuit from 1990 to 1995, opening the festival on one occasion, as well as the New York Labour Day scene from 1991-1994. Those were days before it became fashionable for Grenadian carnival acts to appear at those festivals.

The group was also Grenada’s representative at the CARIFESTA Festival in Trinidad in 1992, and served as the opening act of a young Lucky Dube at a concert in Boston.

Moss was not only the first Grenadian act to have produced music videos, but among the first in the Caribbean – just when that aspect of the music industry was being promoted internationally through the establishment and explosion the American network MTV.

Those were the days in the 1980s of the three quarter machines (long before beta, mini DV and digital) – expensive and bulky. Don found it necessary to invest in it – and inspite devoid of all the effects we yearned for, still had fun using the system.

Only last month he spoke about transferring all those analog tapes into some digital format.

Like the Jambalassie video – now I think we need to rush to completion.

There was a project called THE BEAT OF LIFE – an unreleased album that has been nearly 20 years in the making.

It is another one that maybe needs to be rushed to completion.

For all the tings he accomplished – as a musician, a businessman, a travel industry specialist, and a father – Don’s his biggest gift was his temperament.

He was one cool dude under pressure. He was never flustered when things went wrong. He was never complaining when a session that was supposed to end at midnight went until 5 AM.

He never had any recriminations when one of the bold experiments went wrong.

Never fretting he would calmly say: “Let’s try something else”

Don had wonderful sense of humor and he could have found the funny side even in the most difficult circumstances.

It was that same sense he had, even when he was facing the battle of his life, threatened by this invasive cancer – when he told me – “I am making the best of it; but I have had my good days and my bad days.”

When we got the news on the weekend – it was decidedly one of the bad days – for all of us.

In a generation of making good music, it was as if finally one bad note was played.

But thankfully there are so many good memories in this beat of life.

Where are your own ideas for a stimulus?

2009-04-05T11:13:00.000-04:00

Listening from a distance, I got the feeling that the Town Hall-style State-of-the-Union type address and question session by Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas at the Grenada Trade Center went down very well.

Of course the critics – and there seem to be a small minority of the Allan Campbell level – has dismissed it as purely as a public relations stunt.There is always an aspect of public relations in every aspect of explaining policy and ideas. But to dismiss it as just that – is either to miss the point, or is a roundabout way of saying there were good ideas which I could not really criticize.

I have read elsewhere the comments of former Finance Minister Anthony Boatswain and New National Party’s current spokesman on economics Kennedy Roberts – who both dismissed the outline of the stimulus package as nothing new.

They both claimed that what was outlined was just some of the old policies and approaches for the former NNP government.By saying that they either did not hear, care to listen or being plain disingenuous. If you ask me to bet on any of those I would take the very latter.

But that aside, if we buy that argument, I would have thought that these two would have hailed the “policies” they had help crafted as the genuine panacea for Grenada’s faltering economy.

Somehow I got disconnected from the argument that these are some of our old policies, and the implicit criticism that they are not adequate.

So what does that say about their previous approaches to the economic challenge?

And while, they are at it – accepting the view that the policies outline were not enough – what are their own ideas for what else can be done?

Give us some concrete ideas sirs, rather than grandstanding.

OFF AND RUNNING

2009-04-04T20:13:00.001-04:00

WELCOME to my own little space on the internet, where from time-to-time at irregular intervals I would want to share my thoughts on life, economics, politics, entertainment, sport and even musing empty nothings.

NOTES FROM ALL AROUND was the name of a column I once wrote for about a year back in 1989 for the Grenadian Voice newspaper, which allowed me to comment broadly on my myriad interests.

I want to go back to that vibe and to those roots.

My work allows me to live through and witness new experiences everyday -- mostly ordinary, but sometimes extraordinary.

Extraordinary stories are told easily. My challenge here will be to find extra-ordinary ways to tell ordinary stories, without embellishment.

Sometimes you may have to wander with me about something that may otherwise be considered a small detail.

In my story telling I will seek to turn my wander into a wonder.

The amazing thing about the web is that it also allows for immediate feedback -- and yours will be welcomed -- from the brutal to the kind.

Rest assured that my back is broader than my ego.