Jamaican Pollster Don Anderson
Courtesy of The Jamaica Observer

Is it just me, or does Don Anderson's poll seem to be going out on a limb this election? I get it that he's supposed to be better than the others but when they were saying JLP by 2 or 3 percent, he was saying the exact opposite! They can't all be right. If he was saying dead heat at that time I could understand but a 4% lead? Are the others so bad that they both got it so wrong? Remember that Bill Johnson did get it right the last time. He differed from Don by only one seat! People forget that fact in all the hype about Don being right & the other pollsters being wrong in the last election. Now we are supposed to discard Johnson's results all together?  It looks fishy to me. What do you think?

PNP Captured by Gays?

OK, so we're hours away from election 2011 & as usual the polls are showing the PNP ahead. Tell me something new please. I hope people just go out & vote. After all, we don't want what Portia's promising do we? This is our home & we should be free to live here how we want. If she's beholden to the gay rights movement that's her business. That kind of thing could never get my vote.  I say let the views of the society evolve over time. Look at oral sex. Hardly anyone now is as hostile to it as used to be the case. Look, I'm not going to peep in anyone's window  to see what he/she is doing in bed.  Just don't bring it out in public, force me to look at it & tell me I must like it. Their time will come; maybe in another ten years or so. God help us then!

Poor Windies

When are we in the West Indies going to take the West Indies Cricket Board by the scruff of the neck & shake it up. It needs to be emptied, cleaned & refilled. Its policy seems to be to employ mostly semi successful former cricketers. Their focus seems to be on getting for themselves, attention & a lifestyle that they couldn't attain in their  cricketing career. They seem to have ego problems, to resent & even envy current players. As long as this continues, the team can't prosper. The best players are demotivated or worse, excluded because the board members & or staff don't like their attitude or lifestyle! This is madness!!! What can we do?? Help!! Somebody HELP!!

The Beginning of The End For Portia.

The fact that the JLP has caught up to the PNP in the polls is no surprise to me. The government has done well in the face of terrible world conditions. They have escaped the "Dudus trap" and are accelerating smoothly away from it. In fact I give full credit to Bruce Golding for this acheivement. It was his admission, apology & resignation that made all this possible!

It was easy to foresee that the government would lose popularity in the effort to fix Jamaica's problems. Added to that difficulty would be the extradition issue. I think Golding calculated that if he tried to mitigate the effect of the process, he could get his party through it. I think he went further & capitalised on it. He, I believe, knew early on that a big political sacrifice would be needed.

What our government & ruling party did, is common around the world. Golding must have known that the Opposition & the press would say the opposite. I believe that in order to overcome the expected fatal fall in popularity, he made a big show of  "confessing", apologizing &  then resigning. These actions, stretched over time led uncommitted voters & the middle class to think that they had pushed him. They now think that they have the JLP by the short hairs. Here is a party that they can influence!! They remember the PNP style of  "pretending" to consult for months before doing precisely what they had intended to do in the first place.

The uncommitted are flocking to the JLP now and are responsible for the jump in the polling numbers. This jump & the new, younger PM are energizing the JLP base. This combination of active, vocal JLP base and the uncommitted is fast becoming unstoppable. The PNP is heading for another defeat.

A defeat for Mrs Simpson-Miller after the well laid Dudus/Manatt episode would cause a revolt in the PNP by the youngsters, against her inner circle. This, because the old guard would not step aside. It is not the PNP way. Besides, they believe that they have not had there full chance at glory yet. I think Golding foresaw this & realised that a hard fought, marginal victory over the PNP with himself at the helm would be the lesser option. The better option would be a big win despite Manatt & the better mobilisation of the Opposition in the voter enumeration exercise. That decimation of the PNP's expectations & internal turmoil would buy Golding's men at least another ten years in office. The job of fixing Jamaica once & for all will take at least that long. A carefully thought out selfless plan by a great leader or the wishful thinking of a JLP sympathiser? What do you think.

Dirty Politics

 I'm as Jamaican as anyone else but I wonder sometimes if we aren't just hopeless. Only in the bitter politics of the U.S. lately, have I seen this scorched earth attitude that the Jamaican Opposition has been employing.
 How can it help us if the Opposition and its proxies campaign to block everything the government attempts in the hope that the government can then be accused of inaction or failure? If it was the JLP doing it in this blind way, it would be just as wrong.
 When things that were always the norm are suddenly, hypocritically attacked as wrong, I smell a rat. Everyone associated with the government is suddenly to be tarnished & his/her reputation questioned & destroyed. Every project or programme is deemed  questionable & needing urgent halting, pending  a laborious investigation. Their desire to regain political power can't override our need for development can it?