Who is popular today?

Bunting need not resignFollowing the resignation of Bobby Montague from the Cabinet a week ago, calls have come for Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate Peter Bunting to quit also. Is it really necessary though? It seems to me that some people just like to get up and tell others to resign without understanding the circumstances of the matters in question. I have read and heard the so-called social commentators, political analysts and others with similar styled nomenclatures making arguments that have no basis or foundation.In Bunting's case, based upon the findings of the Integrity Commission, he, acting on the recommendation of the Review Board of the Firearm Licensing Authority while he served as security minister from 2012 to 2016, approved the applications of two people who were originally turned down by the board of the FLA.Why did it happen? He agreed one licence for a man whose US records for drug trafficking were expunged. Precedent has been set by the FLA in that respect. The other concerned another man whose assault charge against him was dismissed by the court.As far as I can recall, the review boards between 2012 and 2016 comprised people of impeccable integrity, just like the panel that exists now. In the early period of that Administration, it was chaired by Court of Appeal retiree, Justice Clarence "Billy" Walker, and included Frank Phipps, a distinguished veteran lawyer, and retired senior police officer Isadore Hibbert.Later, the review board comprised retired Director of Public Prosecutions, Kent Pantry as chairman; retired judge of the Court of Appeal, Justice Karl Harrison, and retired senior cop Clarence Taylor. Now, you really cannot question those for quality.In that period too, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security was Major General Stewart Saunders, the former head of the Jamaica Defence Force, who would also have gone with the review board's recommendation too, although, legally, an input from him was not required.So what are these overly righteous critics fussing about? And remember now, Montague resigned as a Cabinet minister, while he was based in the phantom ministry of economic growth and job creation, he did not quit as Member of Parliament. Do the righteous few want him to step down as MP too?If in the case of Montague, he decides to stay on as MP, why then should Bunting not stay fixed as senator, which is more or less similar? Leading up to the 1980 General Election, I saw goods being hoarded by business people and families of some of the same ones who are making these calls.Maybe now is the time for us to have a truth and reconciliation commission to determine why some of these families who sabotaged Jamaicans across all walks of life then, seem to have 'turned the corner' of their moral journey and are now as sacred as you can find. I remember those days quite well. As a youth, I felt the harsh economic climate that existed. There is too much hypocrisy in this country.Hurting praedial larceny uniquelyWith farmers bawling left, right, and centre about praedial larceny, and prices of food items galloping way out of control, now is the time that more of them will be on the lookout for thieves.Goats, pigs, cows and even chicken aside, thieves have no conscience when it comes to crops too. In fact, overall losses in that area may even be higher than livestock. It means that apart from strengthening the security apparatus by broadening the praedial larceny unit for example with more numbers, cute, unorthodox ways of catching culprits must be employed.I remember Dr Rerrie, who raised chickens for eggs, was being fleeced every day by, it turned out to be, one of his workers. He got advise to put up the skull of a dog, a black flag, and two red ones next to the chicken coop, which he did. Amazingly, the foreman on the farm resigned the following day, telling Dr Rerrie 'me nuh feel good sah. All of a sudden me kin (skin) dis a cratch mi, an mi jus feel sick.' He left, and not one more egg was missing.In Belfield, St Mary, where I was born, I also remember Mr Felix, who had returned from England after spending several years working there. He had a farm opposite my mother's just under one-acre plot which she paid $100 for, and they would steal from it as you blink.So Mr Felix put up a big sign at the entrance: "Anyone Found on this Property will be Beath to Death under International Law Society'...scary to some it seemed, especially to those who could not read and understand well. But it worked. The thiefing stopped. Years after, Mr Felix was found dead at home. A search of his house revealed a 'criss' 9mm pistol which was not in the police's book of records. You see, Mr Felix had been prepared in writing, and practically. Is this an approach worth considering?A small way to chop the Privy CouncilA video of the burning of what appeared to be wigs on behalf of a prominent attorney-at-law last week, sought to reignite already deep-pitched calls for Jamaica to cut ties with the Judicial Review Committee of the United Kingdom Privy Council as this nation's final appellate court.Interesting it was, that such a move was instigated by Hugh Small, QC, a former Member of Parliament, Cabinet minister, and undisputed legal mind. What diluted the 'ceremony' though, was that Small, instead of doing the act of burning the articles himself, those which were used by barristers in court since the start of colonislism, afforded that 'privilege' to his worker, Sheldon, who was instructed to pour some gas on the wigs, and on behalf of the Jamaican people light that fire to indicate that it's time to leave the Privy Council and "go on our own".Had Small done the physical work in that burnt offering, he would be amazed to find how powerful the message would have been.Instead, the act was doused by a clear move of neo-colonislism, because it portrayed a master issuing clear instructions to his servant to do as he says in destroying, in this instance, historical objects, howsoever emotionally oppressive they may have been to those who wore them.Maybe Small could still hit the jackpot by rounding up the wigs of some of his colleagues who are strong-willed that the UK Privy Council has no place in Jamaica's appellate system, walking to Jamaica House, and dropping them off at the entrance.Trust me, unlike the Speaker of the House of Representatives, he will not be issued with a ticket, or charged with illegal dumping. Even if he is so treated, he, too, would be freed on a no-case submission. Who knows too, maybe the prime minister - one of the latest additions to Her Majesty's Privy Council - would gladly receive and store the items as part of his historical showpiece.How will poor people survive?Wonder who will want to start an argument that Jamaica's poor people are not facing the worst suffering at this time? Sometimes I wake early in the morning trying to figure out how some families are faring, especially those who do not have even an inkling of steady income. The rapid increase in the price of basic food items is quite worrying, and this has been happening before Vladimir Putin decided to put even more pressure on the globe.Stopping at a wholesaler last week to determine the true price of chicken led me to a rather rude awakening. If, for example, you wanted one pound of chicken, as some families, believe it or not, can afford, you had to pay $300 and over for it.Should it be a case that you wanted to buy 50 pounds or more, the wholesaler would offer it to you at $2.70 a pound. Wow! What have we here? Why is that so? You would be told that the unstable price of chicken feed was pushing up the price of chicken.Chicken used to be that meat protein that was most affordable. Now, you cannot raise chickens without having to pay heavily for the inputs, and if you decided to buy the product, you can hardly afford it. I am in a position in which I am able to survive with some amount of comfort, but what about the people who do not earn 10 per cent of my salary?Just how do they make ends meet day-today? That is why whenever I am asked by people on the street for money to buy food in particular, as long as I can afford to assist, I do. I never cough up money to those fellows in the innercity or rural areas who consistently ask you for a 'change' to buy a ganja spliff.No. Not worth it. But providing food for an individual, or assisting him with 'a money' for bus fare or medical fee to go and see Dr Wright at his offices in Port Maria, or Dr Fraser at Winchester, for example, is definitely worth considering, with a view to doing what is necessary. Jamaicans, by and large, are kind people.They react even more to cases that are in dire need, for example, that young fellow from Guy's Hill High School, whose family has been living in conditions not even fit for prisoners who commit heinous crimes. At the macro level, remittances from North America, and the United Kingdom, is, alongside tourism, the real glue that has been holding the Jamaica economy in place. It seems to me that far more of that generosity, at the local level, will have to be applied to temper some of the suffering that lies ahead.