price of fried chicken

One of the things I think I learnt in politics is that it is better to 'take in front before in front take you'. By coming up front and dealing with a situation is by far the preferred way rather than others setting the tone, you must control the narrative. Seeing the pictures of the MP in Washington D.C after recovering from a long illness was for me a sad indictment of how we treat people on the Rock. The MP became ill almost a year ago and even though the population knew of it the Government tried every which way to disguise, deny, gave information that did not stand up to scrutiny, avoiding the inquiries and basically telling the citizens to mind their own business.
All the Government had to do was level up front with us, yes he was ill, he is suffering from 'X', he is in recovery, the Parliament has determined that he should be given leave of 'Y' months, we will keep you posted, full stop. No, instead we are given the old 'heave ho', with the population now wanting to question everything. MP's are people, humans like all of us. During the PPG a number of MP's, Cabinet Ministers fell ill, including me, and as far as I know, nothing ever was a deep dark secret. Seeing the pictures today with the MP and his wife I really sympathize with the family and wish them all the best and for a speedy recovery.
The goodly Senator in the USA who was diagnosed with brain cancer has kept everyone up to date on his progress. On the Rock, we were told that the MP had a 'medical situation' whatever that is? In the Parliament, there is no medical plan for the MP's. If you did not already have a plan in your private capacity then crapaud smoke your pipe! And that is considered a fair deal! Worst if you are a Cabinet Minister and you should require medical help whilst traveling for the State.

Things are not getting any better with our crime situation. The PMOTT can try and hide from this, denying the facts, play politics with the international community but you have a population that wakes up to a new, more dangerous situation nearly every morning. The newest crime is the resurgence of the home invasion. A 92 old man is murdered at 11.00am at his home. Not only is he murdered but he is beaten first, tied up and then strangled. Another home invasion, a 60-year-old man is murdered and his 54-year-old wife chopped, other horror stories of assault, rape, kidnapping, beatings are reported. People have curtailed their movements at night, the citizenry is ever alert, you think that you are safe in your own home, think again. These thugs roaming the neighborhoods looking for easy prey. The 92-year-old might not have exactly put up a fight. The violence perpetrated on the innocent is reaching unparalleled proportions. It is not about stealing the flat screen, no it is about the control, the showing of who really is the boss. The accused, sometimes teenagers or in their very early 20's. What gives? At a crime rate of 40 murders per 100,000 compared to many other countries or cities with multi-million populations is just totally unacceptable. New York City with a population of say 11.0M has a murder rate of fewer than 2.5 persons per 100,000.
We have now entered a zone that unless the authorities act with immediacy we are going to become a country that will prove to be very difficult in which to live. We will soon be the 'new refugees' heading as far north as we could possibly get probably beginning with Grenada. Imagine that could be a very real scenario soon.
The PMOTT can no longer try to dodge this bullet, this is real it is fact it is not going to go away by hoping that it will. The situation requires tough decisions, leadership not seen before and it must be dealt with once and for all. Jamaica just gave approval for the extension of emergency powers to deal with the gang warfare in certain parts of the island. I am pretty sure that the PMOTT will get full support from the general public, but he must be decisive. Failing to eradicate this scourge will have another effect on the population one that will deal its own fatal blow to the politicians that continue to hide their heads in the sand.

This posting is not a happy one because I really feel for the Rock. Things are not good, the people of the Rock seem to be more interested in SEA, plastic bags and the price of fried chicken. How many horrors do we have to witness before it actually sinks in that we are in a dangerous place or is it that we are already numbed to the situation? I hope it is not the latter!

Good night people, how about we reassess our priorities, let us make this place livable again, oh and good luck!