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UK Privy Council needs to goOne has to wonder why Prime Minister Holness is seemingly so reluctant to start the process of moving Jamaica away from some of the colonial or neo-colonial obstacles that stand in its way.It seems like every time a discussion is started about making Jamaica truly independent, the prime minister goes on the defensive. Granted, he was last May appointed to Her Majesty's Privy Council, for God knows why, as it serves no useful purpose. But that cannot be the only reason for his nonchalant approach to a matter that is too serious to ignore.Okay, even if he wants to move at snail's pace in stepping to have Jamaica become a republic, and make the due constitutional adjustments; continuing to have the Judicial Committee of the United Kingdom Privy Council as this country's final appellate court is getting more pungent than can be tolerated.Of those invited to be members of the Privy Council, only Michael Manley, arguably Jamaica's greatest prime minister, declined the invitation. For Manley, it was irrelevant.When a poor man, for example, sees his matter end up before the Judicial Committee, after the Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeal ruled in his favour, embracing the cost of having it decided there is more than a headache for him.If he is to go to the UK, he will have to find airfare, accommodation, hire a battery of lawyers whose fees can finance any housing development, look after ground transportation, meals and hidden costs. Now, which individual who operates on a budget that can barely provide him with the essentials of life can manage to maintain that? I have seen a friend of mine forced to take out a loan, at high interest rate, to finance a trip to the UK to have his matter heard.Justice must be available to every individual without the roadblocks that an institution like the UK Privy Council presents. The clincher is that someone could have a matter being heard in England and cannot attend because he is refused a UK visa. Jamaica must be one of the few countries that still recognises the Queen as head of state, whose people need visas to visit. Apart from being foolish, it amounts to discrimination.There is nothing too, that convinces me that the judges of the UK Privy Council are better than those at Jamaica's Court of Appeal, which, as far as I am concerned, remains the bastion of fairness in this land. Those who have lost matters there are welcome to disagree.It makes no sense creating a court in Jamaica that is higher in authority than the Court of Appeal. We should just go the route of the Caribbean Court of Justice, whose rulings so far, even in a matter that involved a Jamaican and the Government of Barbados, have been sound and fair.Too often we believe that only certain foreigners, in this case, strangely, our enslavers, are better than us, and can continue to make fundamental decisions on our behalf. It must stop. The prime minister should delay no longer. It is time for the Privy Council to go.Firing Whitmore now makes no senseIt was not surprising at all when the executive of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) decided to fire long-standing national men's football coach, Theodore Whitmore.Following the vote by the technical committee before that, at which only two of seven people - Elaine Walker Brown and Denzil Wilks - opted to keep Whitmore, it was only a matter of time that the executive would accept the majority recommendation to place the former national star's neck on the chopping block.The problem is that the decision came two matches too late - he should have been let go when Jamaica had a more realistic chance to be in the top four finishers of World Cup 2022 qualifiers, but the pussyfooting of the JFF put paid to that. So, firing him at a time when it is most unlikely for Jamaica to move forward is quite foolish.What's even stranger is that Whitmore's successor, in the interim we are told, that's Paul Hall, is unlikely to lift the fortunes of the team. Already, he has been utilising his British accent to convince those who have the appetite to listen that he will be going for a more attacking style of play than the man whom he succeeded had adopted. How strange! Wasn't he a part of the team that agreed on the style of play and the formation, etc? So how come he is muttering such a thing, which, in a subtle way, is hinting that there were technical and tactical differences between himself and Whitmore?Hall is no coach. The only thing that he might achieve is getting the UK-based players to better understand his accent.But the problem is not with Hall. It is with the people who brought him to Jamaica to be a part of the coaching team in the first place.When we continue to have people like Michael Ricketts, Raymond Anderson, Bruce Gaynor, and Dalton Wint rolling the JFF administrative ball, this country's most popular sport will continue to be caught offside.We can't dump vaccines foreverIn recent weeks, other batches of COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Jamaica. And now, Dr Christopher Tufton has stated that booster shots are available to those 18 and over, which seems like a good move.But come January, sadly, more of the dependable vaccines that can prevent people from dying will be thrown away, adding to the over 360,000 doses that have been dumped already.No number has been suggested by Dr Tufton, nor the 'Ministry of Health and Unwellness' yet, but a source close to the leadership of the ministry has said that it will be over 100,000. Why does Jamaica continue to have such a challenge its COVID-19 vaccine distribution?, is the million-dollar question.Methinks that if there was better handling of the vaccines regime, far more people would have joined the queue and had their arms pinched. But the message has not been good and effective. Had it been, at least a further 250,000 people would have been vaccinated - representing a further eight per cent of the overall population, if we feel confident in relying on figures put out by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica.Dr Tufton and his team should try and include some of the island's doctors as part of a nationwide campaign, to be part of a collective voice in mainstream media, as well as social media, to sensitise unwilling, or reluctant members of the populace to buy into the vaccine programme.Arguably, people do not want to hear the cries of too many political leaders, whether they are the prime minister, leader of the opposition, Dr Tufton, or other officials. They would rather listen to the people who can make them well when they are sick, feed them when they are hungry, or offer them spiritual guidance when they feel down and almost out.With the coming of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which some Jamaicans have jokingly nicknamed 'Homing Corn', I get the feeling that this one will be no laughing matter, judging from what has been happening across the globe.That means, a more serious approach must be taken as far as this variant is concerned, and this is where people who can gain the respect of the foot-draggers should be brought into to star the public relations show.The reality is that Dr Tufton has fallen way short of the mark in terms of the island's handling of the pandemic. The focus should no longer be on him to get the message out.Urgent action needed to stop goat thievesPrepare for a shortage of curry goat soon. Goat's flesh (chevon) is the target of thieves, who will kill as fast as they can blink.There is a theory put forward by the police, that criminals have been stealing goats, selling them and using the proceeds to buy guns and bullets. That's a sad situation if it is true. Over the years goats have been stolen in abundance, but the added drama of using guns to kill and main farmers is a new phenomenon that law enforcers must correct as once.How will that be done?, some may argue, when the police cannot even contain bandits who go around and kill people every day.First of all, the Praedial Larceny Unit in the Ministry of National Security is dreadfully under-staffed. For the over $1 billion that farmers islandwide lose from praedial larceny annually, the Government should have had an elaborate squad in place to temper those losses.When I was young and growing up in St Mary, stealing goats was a big risk for anyone to take. There were scores of incidents in which men, instead of goats, were slaughtered when they were said to be caught 'red handed' either trying to steal goats, or in the process of cleaning up the carcass. The trouble with some of these cases though, is that some innocent few have been killed. But try to argue with an angry mob if you are brave enough.I had a goat stolen once, and as a boy trying to guide his own animal into adulthood, it was a most hurtful thing. So can you imagine when a farmer who depends on goat rearing as his main source of income gets fleeced?The economists will tell you that this is a simple one-two. That a shortage of the already expensive low-calorie red meat must, naturally result in higher prices, if we are to rely on the demand and supply reasoning.It seems to me that the only way for this country to rear goats for meat and milk is to do so on a large scale basis with secure properties, cameras all over, and security personnel armed to the toenail to take on daredevil gunmen.