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'Tis the season for resigning
MICHAEL BURKE
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Let me tell the news that's shining fa la la la la la la la
'Tis the season for resigning fa la la la la la la la la
What are we to make of all this fa la la la la la la la la la
Serious business not a ball this fa la la la la la la la la.
So Derick Latibeaudiere has resigned as Governor of the Bank of Jamaica and Hardley Lewin has resigned as Commissioner of Police. From his days at Jamaica College, "Latty" was not one for much talking, so there were speculations until the prime minister addressed the issue in parliament.
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| MICHAEL BURKE |
According to Golding, his wage and fringe benefits were so high that it was embarrassing. It will be interesting to see what the next Bank of Jamaica governor gets. I am not one for exorbitant salaries, but if you want a certain level of competence, such a person will demand a certain level of wage and fringe benefits. I understand that "Latty" had not yet started to receive 38 million gross but would have as of November 1 had he not resigned.
In the case of Hardley Lewin, the prime minister says there were concerns that the crime levels were not falling. I will be interested to see who can lower the level of crime on the basis of police action alone. A fall in crime has to do with social and economic issues more than anything else. In the late 1950s, Monsignor Gladstone Wilson, reputed to be the seventh most learned man in the world (yes, he was a Jamaican), said: "Give the masses of the population something to live for and the birth rate will take care of itself." But I am sure Lewin has learnt one thing: running the army is different from running the police force.
Speaking of police, today is Guy Fawkes Day in England. On November 5, 1605, a plot to blow up the British parliament was foiled because one of the conspirators revealed the plan to his brother-in-law who was a member of the House of Lords. It was a time when Roman Catholics were oppressed in England and Robert Catesby took it into his own hands by getting Guy Fawkes, a former soldier, to blow up Parliament. Guy Fawkes was executed for his role in the plot which never took place. At that time the Spaniards were still in control of Jamaica. But 50 years after in 1655, the English captured Jamaica and the Roman Catholic Church was banned here for 137 years until 1792. I write this lest we forget.
And speaking of England, I return to my campaign to have a National Family Day. I have suggested that we keep the December 26 holiday, but change it from "Boxing Day" to "National Family Day". Since we need to emphasise proper families in Jamaica, what better way than to use a holiday where families already gather? And as we strive to throw off even more of the colonial anachronisms, we should not have a holiday that we call "Boxing Day", especially for what it means.
There was a time in England when servants of the nobility worked on Christmas Day to serve their employers. As you would expect, the employers would get Christmas presents, which really replaced the old clothing and so on. The old clothing along with scraps from the Christmas dinner were then put in boxes and given to the servants, the postman, the garbage collector and so on. I doubt if it will change for this year again so we will have another year with a public holiday disgustingly called "Boxing Day".
At the same time a big non-issue has also made the news. That Jamaica has a national dish is nothing but a rumour, one started by restaurateurs after Independence in 1962. I have pointed this out more than once and written it in the Jamaica Observer, perhaps the last time being April 26, 2007. I did this as a service so that people do not misunderstand and mention a "national dish", especially in public. Now a senator has done just that.
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| SALTFISH... not referred to as national dish |
Our national symbols are written in the constitution of Jamaica. Among the many symbols it speaks of a national fruit, which is the ackee. It does not follow logically that because ackee is used in the folk dish, ackee and saltfish, that it is the national dish, anymore than a soup made of the national bird (the humming bird) is the national soup.
The German tyrant Adolph Hitler was reputed to have said that if a lie is repeated often enough the masses would believe it. Even the Jamaica Information Service has misled people on this business of a national dish. In its publication in dealing with the ackee being the national fruit, it speaks of ackee being a component of the national dish. Absolute nonsense! Ackee is one of many folk dishes like curried goat and rice, chicken and rice 'n peas, stewed peas cooked with pork and patties. If Senator Sandrea Falconer had said that we need to de-emphasise the eating of ackee and saltfish for whatever reasons, that would have been a different thing altogether.
ekrubm765@yahoo.com
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