SPANK THREE TIMES - Black Ottawa 411

M a k i n g C a n a d i a n s Vi s i b l e
Vol.27 No.8
September, 2010
Ottawa•Phone 226-2738
The Performance
“I’m sorry…”
ReggaeFest promoter:
Spectrum Reporter
A
The Reward
Jamaica Opposition Leader Portia Simpson
Miller was in Toronto recently to speak to a
luncheon staged by Jamaica Diaspora Canada. Serenaded before her speech by saxophonist Dave McLaughlin, she was moved
to reward him at the end, as the crowd applauded.
ll sorts of troubles are swirling
around him but the
man behind last month’s
aborted Ottawa Reggae
Festival at Lebreton Flats
is also attracting strong
sympathy and support from
community members after
being “crucified” in the
mainstream press – Ottawa
Citizen, Ottawa Sun and
CFRA radio.
Indeed, it has been the
talk of the town. On Junior
Smith’s Reggae in the
Fields program Saturday
August 28, several callers
were heard supporting the
young man for his efforts
and calling on the community to build on the longestablished foundations of
reggae in Ottawa.
Yet, Benjamin Williams,
25, faces some major hurdles as he struggles to confront the disaster that befell
his efforts on August 21
when major artistes did not
show up and bailiffs seized
whatever cash was in the
till.
When the telephone
rang at The Spectrum on
August 27 the caller introduced himself simply as
Benjamin. He wanted to
be interviewed, he said,
so that he could tell his
side of the story. It was his
first contact with the community newspaper since
he began Ottawa Reggae
Festival three years ago.
First
and
foremost,
Benjamin wants to let
Ottawa know that he is
very sorry. A graduate of
Ridgemount High School
he has lived in the capital
city for ten years. Coming
here at age 15 from
Jamaica, he was struck by
the absence of a big reggae
festival in Ottawa and felt
people should not have to
go to Toronto or Montreal
to see one. With that he
set about Ottawa Reggae
Festival and sought funding from various levels
of government as well as
investors.
The first year racked up
some $86,000 in debt but
by the second year that
had been almost halved to
$44,000, he says, noting
that he had given himself
five years for the festival
to grow into profitability.
However, in the process he
ignored a fundamental rule
of business: “Pay yourself
first.”
“I have not paid myself,”
he says simply. “I have
worked hard, worked long
hours to establish this
event,” he noted, adding
that he expected to pay
off the debt with proceeds
from this year’s show.
His festival received
grants of $10,000 from the
City and $40,000 from the
Federal Government this
year. But he dived in at the
deep end, engaging what
observers told him were
too many big-name artists
at a very steep cost. And
when two of the biggest
– Sean Paul and Kymani
Marley – failed to turn up it
was a matter of everything
crash.
To make the crash more
depressing, he says, his
corporate sponsors who
had made initial downpayments, also pulled out
citing recessionary times
and higher than expected
expenses.
So, what happened?
“Things happened on the
weekend that I was not
aware of,” he says. “On the
day of the Festival I found
out the Sheriff was there
with an order…” and the
show was still-born.
“I had a dedicated team
executing the plan this year
to make it work,” he says
while conceding that he
“moved too quickly from
a one-day to a three-day
festival.”
“I made all contracts with
the performers. The members of my team reviewed
the contracts. But then the
investors looked at the contracts and reneged because
of the market situation.”
Reneged?
Well,
he
explains, they had made
downpayments.
The budget last year
included $70,000 for performers and $60,000 for
logistics, he says. This
year the total budget was
$210,000 of which performers would net “about
$90,000.”
But he faced a tall order;
he needed to sell 3,000
tickets at $35.00 to break
even.
Benjamin Williams
For the Ottawa reggaeloving public it was a disaster of numbing proportions. But something was
salvaged. Top-billed singer Tarrus Riley who was
scheduled for the Sunday
night at the Festival, did
give a top-class performance on Sunday night
but at the church hall at
St. Joseph’s Hall and not
Lebreton Flats. B&B productions run by Brooks and
Sharty B had been watching the proceedings and
they stepped in at the 11th
hour to partially rescue
things.
In the event, the hall
was full and patrons from
Montreal, Toronto, Western
Canada and several points
in the United States, some
of whom brought their children, were able to salvage
their Ottawa reggae trip
somewhat.
Continued on pg. 2
Rear penalty for growing marijuana
SPANK THREE
TIMES
SUVA, Fiji – Any villager found cultivating marijuana in a district of the Northern Division will be
punished by spanking despite the age group.
The village law recently introduced at Visoqo Village
in Namuka, Macuata, was launched in conjunction
with the youth program that aims to stop youths from
engaging in criminal activities including drug-related
issues.
Visoqo Village spokesman Jone Waisele said the villagers had accepted the rule.
They also vowed that they will not have any more
drug cultivation in the district of Namuka or to entertain other criminal activities.
“The youths know that when they entertain criminal activities and cultivate drugs, and having police
arrest them, it brings a bad image to this vanua
so we have put up this rule to deter them,” Mr
Waisele said, adding that anyone found guilty of
cultivating drugs would be spanked three times.
- Fiji Times
Jamaica High Commissioner Sheila Sealy-Monteith speaking at the opening ceremonies for Jam
Day at City Hall. Partly concealed at right is Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Christopher
Tufton who was visiting Ottawa.
Page 2 • The Spectrum • September, 2010
COMMUNITY Pulse
D
r. Stephen Blizzard
retired some years
ago but the citations and
honours for his pioneering work in the field of
Aviation Medicine continue to roll in. This time
it will be from his own.
The Trinidad & Tobago
Association of Ottawa has
invited Dr. Blizzard to
be guest of honour at a
banquet in his honour on
Saturday September 18 at
which they will also be celebrating T&T’s 48th anniversary of independence
from Britain.
***
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Crossroads in fighting for
a more just and equitable
world. For more details on
current openings in West
Africa and Bolivia, check
out our web site at www.
cciorg.ca or email us at
[email protected].
***
Photographer,
teacher,
husband, father, grandfather, church administrator,
scout leader and philanthropist. Stanley Gardner
Metcalf was all of these,
and a nice man to top it
off. A man of compassion,
wisdom, eyes that twinkled
incessantly and a face that
mostly smiled, Stan placed
a high value on his friends
and was the essence of
joie de vivre. He valued
his God even more highly
and was a lifetime member of the Fourth Avenue
Baptist Church where he
served as clerk for 27 years
and greeted visitors with
his ever-present smile. Stan
died August 5 at age 86. His
funeral service reflected his
longevity at the church, for
three ministers – Rev. Sam
Holmes, Rev. Ernie Cox
and Rev. Clark Dixon, covering some 50 years – participated before a crowded
sanctuary. Our condolences
go to his wife Laura, sons,
Derek, daughters Janet and
Jennifer and his grandchildren Scott, Lauren,
Brayden, Abbie, Dereline,
Gracie, Sam, Sophie and
Daniel.
***
Funeral services were held
Monday August 30 for
Beryl Natheline Wignal at
the Central chapel of Hulse
"I'm sorry..." - pg. 1
Now the task to salvage
Benjamin!
There are lawsuits to face.
Understandably, he would
not speak about them as per
his attorney’s advice. “It is
in court; I can’t discuss.”
Benjamin conceded that
he over-extended himself.
“I got advice that I was
bringing too many big
artistes but it was too late.
That was good advice but
contracts had been signed
already.”
Meanwhile his collaborators sought to distance
themselves with a statement on their website
which includes the following:
“In the role of festival
president, Mr. Williams’
youth and inexperience
caused him to make decisions that were ambitious
and ill-advised. His financial decisions were made
without consultation, and
ended up costing the festival its’ reputation, and put
him in over his head.
“The team of volunteers
who worked for the festival had no knowledge
of Mr. Williams’ financial
decisions, transactions, or
previous financial issues.
As such, all volunteers
associated with this event
were blind-sided when revelations began to surface
that there were monies
owing, and that there were
financial issues beyond the
norm.”
Benjamin feels that much
of what is being said about
him is “unfair, very unfair,
but I can’t stop what people have put out there…”
He said he wanted to
apologise to the community. He thanks Sharty B and
Brooks, Biggie Irie and the
artistes local and foreign,
his volunteers, community members, his team,
government agencies and
sponsors “who have supported me wholeheartedly.
In any new venture it is
expected that debt would
be incurred… but most of
the debt was manageable
and we were able to reduce
the debt lead in the second
year. This year, despite our
best efforts most support
came as in-kind.”
He is trying to start over
“but this year took a big
toll on me.”
Why should people trust
him again?
“I work very hard. I put
a lot of heart and passion
into what I do. I brought
the festival to an international level. Yes, I calculated the effect of the
recession but we expected
that each performer would
attract a certain demographic.”
Attempts to contact
the person(s) who filed
lawsuit(s) against the
Festival were not met with
success.
Layout by
Yvonne Pike
[email protected]
Playfair and McGarry.
Mrs. Wignal leaves husband Clifton, step-daughter
Janice, and siblings George
Miller, Mavis Benjamin,
Linneth Wilson and Eunice
Gardner. Mrs. Gardner
is the widow of Vincent
Gardner whose shooting
by a policeman some years
ago created consternation
in the community for some
five years.
***
Friday Sep 10, 6:30pm
City Hall 110 Laurier
Avenue West - Black Votes
Matter!!! The Ottawa
Young Black Professionals
(YBP) along with Umoja
and the African Diaspora
Association of Canada
(ADAC) together are presenting a themed event
entitled: Black Votes Matter
10.25.10!!! Did you know
that there is a municipal
election in Ottawa October
25? Do you know who is
running?? Do you even
care??? If you answered
“No” to one or more of
these questions you need
to come out and see why
Your Vote Matters. This
year Ottawa has a record
82 new candidates running,
of which five are Black.
Together, YBP, Umoja,
and ADAC are bringing you an event that will
allow you to meet some
of Ottawa’s potential
councillors and provide
a forum to express how
you would like to see the
Nation’s Capital improve
for you. Remember, Friday
September 10, City
Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue
West @ 6:30pm. Come
early as seating is limited.
Light refreshments will be
served.
***
Sunday, Sep19, 2010 1:00
pm - 4:00 pm A Luncheon
Concert
St.
Hugh’s
High School Alumnae
Association, Woodbridge
Banquet & Convention
Centre, 4000 Steeles
Avenue West, Woodbridge,
Ontario. Jamaica’s chanteuse
extraordinaire,
Karen
Smith,
O.D.,
and
Communications
Consultant and Broadcaster
Fae
Ellington,
O.D.
Contacts: e-mail - wezums@
aol.com or TORONTO.
FEDELITAS@YAHOO.
COM Tel: 416-578-3394
****
Sunday, Sep 19, 2010
Mlacak Halls B,C,D – 2500
Campeau Drive, Kanata.
Mark your calendars for
September 19, 2-4 PM for
the second annual Kanata
Seniors Council Retirement
Living Fair will be held.
The
Kanata
Seniors
Council is organizing this
event in one convenient
location, the Mlacak Centre
/ Mlacak Halls. Come and
find out about retirement
living options, services and
programs that are available
for Seniors in Kanata and
Western Ottawa. Coffee
and refreshments will be
available.
FALL FUNDRAISER!
Join us for an evening of Fun and Dancing
Enjoy Excellent Caribbean Cuisine
Dance The Tango
Meet new friends
Enjoy great company
at
Mugena’s Restaurant
Friday 17th September, 2010
911 Richmond Road, Ottawa
Dinner: 7:30 pm • Tango: 9:30 pm to 1:30 am
Dinner and Dancing: $40.00 • Dance: $10.00
Music By:
Ottawa’s Best David Supersound
For Tickets and Information Call:
Host: Marcia Mathoo
(613) 265-7096
Ticket Master: Keith Charles
(613) 523-0541
(All proceeds to BCSF)
Reflections on
the Equatoria
Experience
T
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Narcisse as they prepared to leave the First
Baptist Church at Laurier and Elgin Streets after their wedding there.
hird World Players
apologises for the
glitch which delayed the
start of its new series
on “Reflections on the
Equatoria Experience.” It
started on Thursday August
12 instead of August 5 as
previously announced, and
will run for several weeks.
This series is produced
by Marilyn Wilson a key
member of the group, first
assembled in mid-1988 at
the instigation of journalist Mairuth Sarsfield to
advance “literacy through
literature” for children of
colour in Ottawa and elsewhere, by starting a collection of books initially
dubbed The Carrie Best
Collection in honour of
the distinguished Nova
Scotian–born
activist
Carrie Best and later named
the Equatoria Collection.
The group undertook many
notable initiatives besides
the collection and has
left a legacy which we in
Third World Players think
deserves renewed recognition. We are particularly
interested to get the reflections of members of the
group on the role of ‘literature in their lives’.
The series aptly started
with the first part of a telephone conversation with
Mairuth Sarsfield. The second is the continuation of
that exchange, while the
third and fourth broadcasts will feature the reminiscences and insights
of her sister Lucille
Cuevas, an award-winning
librarian,and her husband,
Ernesto Cuevas, short story
writer. As usual, we broadcast at 6 p.m. [Eastern
Daylight Saving Time in
this season] on CKCU-FM
at 93.1 FM in the National
Capital Region and world
wide, live, on the Internet
at www.ckcufm.com
September, 2010 • The Spectrum • Page 3
Ottawa Liberians
celebrate 163rd
Independence
On July 31, the Liberian
Association of Ottawa
(LAO) hosted two events
in celebration of the oldest
African republic’s 163rd
anniversary of independence. There were a friendly soccer match between
Liberia and Cameroon
at the Greenboro Park,
and a dinner-dance at
the Margaret Rywak
Community Building. This
year’s theme is unity.
“These events not only
bring Liberians and wellwishers together in celebration of our dynamic and
evolving connection with
Canada, but they also promulgate the fact that our
Association is working
hard to build meaningful
connections and partnerships with other community group, stakeholders and
government towards mutually beneficial objectives,”
LAO president Augustus
Reeves said.
“Unity is strength. Years
of division and civil arrest
back home have taught us
that much. Our journey
continues along the path to
help foster an ever improving and peaceful society.”
Liberia and Liberians
have gone through much
since the country officially
declared its independence
on July 26, 1847. More
recently, 15 years of civil
unrest was followed by the
free and fair election in
2005 of Harvard-trained
economist Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf, the first democratically elected female African
leader. Under her leadership, Liberians have celebrated several socio-economic milestones including
the negotiation of billions
of dollars in debt-forgiveness by a host of international lenders, as well as
attaining the Completion
Point for Heavily Indebted
Poor Countries (HIPC)
due in part to the level of
international cooperation
garnered from multilateral
institutions.
Since the first significant
arrivals in Ottawa in the
mid-1980’s, the Liberian
community in Canada’s
capital has grown and
flourished with a vibrant
and engaged youth population.
“Like the United Nations,
we believe in the power of
sport to help foster peace
and unity,” explained
Henry Soriba, leader of
the Liberian Association
youth. “I am pleased that
our future leaders are
embracing this good opportunity to help make a difference. Through this and
other efforts, we will continue striving for increased
visibility and the promotion of youth programs and
involvement.”
In comparison to similar
community organizations,
the Liberian Association
has experienced
measurable
success,
promoting and maintaining constructive relations
amongst Liberians and the
general public. As the
community has grown, so
has the range of services
the association has sought
to deliver including a settlement program to assist
in the integration of newcomers; a fibroid awareness campaign (FAC; and
development support strategies for post-war Liberia
including the collection
Photo by Photo Features
Keith Charles, Tom James, Richard Minard, Eric Shultz out for a game of golf in a fundraising tournament for the Black Canadian Scholarship Fund. Mr. Charles, the organiser, has
been organising these tournaments for the past 20 years. Fifty-three players turned out at
this year’s tournament.
and distribution of educational materials; and a sustainable agriculture project.
While the agriculture
project is still in planning
stage, the FAC is ready
to be implemented when
final funding is secured.
This project will help promote information and generate awareness about the
impact of uterine fibroids
which recent statistics suggest affect some 1.6 million
women of child-bearing
age in Canada.
For more information or
to make a donation to support one or more of the
programs and/or operation
of the Liberian Association
of Ottawa, send an e-mail
to [email protected].
New Book, “Jamaican by
Birth American by Choice”
explores cultural differences
A
new book, Jamaican
by Birth American
by Choice, examines
the impact of deliberate personal choices as
it explores interpersonal,
institutional, and cultural
relationships in Jamaica,
the Caribbean, North
America and East and
Southern Africa from a
unique perspective that
directly influences the
writer’s view of race in
post Obama America.
The book by JamaicanAmerican Owen James
was released August 1,
is available on amazon.
com, and is expected
to be launched here in
Ottawa before year-end.
A poor boy from the hills
of rural Jamaica, James
found himself at a place
in corporate America
where the Chairman and
CEO of a Fortune 500
multi-national corporation sought his advice
and guidance on vexing
issues regarding bias in
his company. Here’s the
question: What allows
such a person to succeed
in a corporate environ-
ment that is too often
indifferent to the hopes
and best competitive
efforts of its minority
employees?
Legally sanctioned racial
bias no longer exists in
America. Nevertheless,
bias remains a deeply
divisive and debilitating scourge that ravages
social intercourse. The
inevitability of increasing diversity presents
a severe dilemma that
divides America — a
country that is exemplary
in so many other ways.
Confronting racial bias
is therefore as much a
critically
significant
interpersonal challenge as
it is an extremely prickly
opportunity. Spectacular,
relentless demographic
changes along with the
paranoia associated with
the resulting inescapable
browning, or diminution
in whiteness, of America,
merely complicate this
worrisome dilemma.
Especially to a Third
World
immigrant,
America is at once a
place of great opportu-
nity and much contradiction. To succeed, the
immigrant must embrace
the promise of bountiful opportunity even as
he confronts daunting
contradiction. Like Bob
Marley’s Buffalo Soldier,
he has to persevere.
Owen Everard James is
a graduate of the Mico
Teachers’ College (now
the Mico University)
in Jamaica and an honors graduate of Howard
University in the United
States. Mr. James also
holds a diploma in
Production Management
from the Institute for
Advanced
Technical
and Vocational Training
in Italy. He has been a
teacher, civil servant,
banker and restaurateur
and worked for nearly 30
years as a manufacturing
executive with a Fortune
500 American multinational corporation. He
has lived and worked in
the Caribbean, Canada,
the United States and
East and Southern Africa.
He is now retired and
resides in Florida.
New Jersey parents named kids after Nazi heroes…
P
Adolf Hitler taken
into custody
arents who have given their kids Nazi-inspired names — including naming one little boy Adolf Hitler — have lost custody of their three children.
Heath and Deborah Campbell’s children were taken out of their home in
Phillipsburg, N.J., in January after the family tried to get a birthday cake with
their son’s name on it at a local ShopRite.
The youngest child, a baby, is named Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie, named after
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler, a Nazi politician. A second daughter is named
JoyceLynn Aryan Nation — Aryan Nations is a white nationalist neo-Nazi
organization. All three are in foster care.
On Thursday, an appeals court said there was evidence of abuse in the home.
“We have a right to have our kids named. A name’s a name,” Heath
Campbell told Fox News. “Our kids are beautiful kids, they’re not going to
grow up to hate people, they’re not going to grow up to hurt people.”
Page 4 • The Spectrum • September, 2010
Editor: Ewart Walters M.J.
Managing Editor: Merle Walters
Phone: 226-2738 Fax: 226-6909
E-mail: [email protected]
The Spectrum is published by Boyd McRubie
Communications Inc.
Box 16130, Station F, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3S9
The politics of race in America
Minister Chiarelli
T
he promotion of Bob Chiarelli to the Ontario
Cabinet is great news, especially for all the
mild-mannered Clark Kents of this world. There
is quite a bit of irony in this.
A member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament many
years ago Mr. Chiarelli was eased out of his job as
Mayor of Ottawa by a putsch some suspect came
directly from the Office of the Prime Minister and
which saw Larry O’Brien take the Mayor’s Chain of
office. Undismayed, Mr. Chiarelli ran for the Ottawa
West provincial seat vacated by Liberal Jim Watson
earlier this year and won it. Now Premier McGuinty
has named him Minister of Infrastructure, a telephone
booth in Toronto from which he can accomplish much
more for the metropolis of Ottawa than he could as
Mayor.
So, Ottawa retains a Cabinet seat in Ontario and Mr.
Chiarelli gets a post that he can sink his teeth into.
Beyond that, and at a macro level, it would appear
that with Watson now the front-runner for the post of
Ottawa Mayor and Chiarelli in Cabinet, the political
chess-board seems to be swinging back in favour of the
Liberals who have checked the Conservative push for
Canada’s capital city.
At the community level, Bob Chiarelli has a record of
engagement and support that far surpasses that of any
other Mayor. And we see this going back as far as 1991
when a policeman’s bullet killed Vincent Gardner as he
sat holding a guitar in a house on Gould Street that they
decided to raid for drugs. For the only politician who
acted as though he was a representative of the people
was Bob Chiarelli who spoke out strongly in support of
the family and the community.
(Incidentally, the raid turned up nothing except .03
gram of marijuana in the pocket of one of the occupants).
We look for super stuff from this mild-mannered man
and offer him our warmest congratulations in his new
sphere of influence.
That Long Census
Form
Did a letter from “one White woman” really trigger
the Federal ministerial decision to abandon policy as
regards Employment Equity groups? Or was this just
one part of a carefully concocted scheme by the Harper
Conservative government to impose some of its base
beliefs on the system by which the Feds employ public
servants? We think it is the latter.
As we see it the scheme had three parts. A small
percentage of public service jobs is retained for three
Employment Equity Groups – Aboriginals, Persons
with Disabilities and Visible Minorities. The fourth
group, Women, has long been oversubscribed. The idea
is to attack discrimination by using the Labour Force
statistics to determine which departments have fewer
employees from these groups than they should and to
remedy those “gaps.” But this cannot be done without
proper statistics.
Enter the census. The Labour Force statistics are based
on the findings of the census. Now that the long form
is being banned there will be no reliable statistics on
which to conduct what the right-wingers call “social
engineering” but which is really a constructed attempt
to combat deeply entrenched racism and other discrimination.
Bingo! It seems to us that the two things are not at all
unrelated. The third would be that the census issue was
projected to mask the Employment Equity issue. Great
ploy!
The only remedy for this will be the elections, whenever they are called.
Claude Robinson
NEW YORK — The
election of Barack Obama
as president of the United
States was hailed by some
as a signal that America
was about to begin an era
of post-race politics. It
doesn’t look so now.
Indeed, as politicians and
pundits go through the
dog days of summer in
preparation for mid-term
elections in November, the
debate includes an ugly
racial tone even if it is
sometimes shrouded in
less offensive ideological
clothing.
A few illustrations:
Ethics charges against two
leading black members
of Congress have polarised communities along
racial lines; an emerging
effort to amend the US
Constitution to deny citizenship to children born
to undocumented migrants
has drawn the wrath of
Hispanic Americans; the
Tea Party movement continues its campaign to
delegitimise Mr Obama’s
presidency by questioning
his citizenship.
At the same time, the
administration has had to
face up to another negative
jobs report, the economic
recovery weakening and
a slew of new polling data
showing the president’s
approval rating in free fall.
The
CNN/Opinion
Research poll out August
12 showed the electoral
landscape mirroring that
of 1994 when Republicans
gained 54 seats in the
House and took back control of Congress for the
first time in more than 40
years. The latest numbers
gave Republicans a threepoint edge on the generic
ballot question, which is
just about the same advantage the party enjoyed
heading into the heart of
the 1994 campaign season.
The mood in America
these days feels less hopeful than it was at the dawn
of the Obama presidency
when a coalition of white
liberals, young voters,
Blacks, Hispanics, labour
and progressive elements
produced an improbable
victory that won applause
around the world.
The Republicans now
believe they will make
strong gains in November.
If that happens, Mr Obama
could be defeated in 2012
and the conservative forces could roll back health
care reforms and other
progressive achievements.
At least, that’s the narrative; but we are not there
yet.
A lot will depend on Mr
Obama’s ability to reignite
the flame of change he lit
in the long months leading
first of all to victory over
the formidable Hillary and
Bill Clinton combination
in the Democratic primary race, and second, over
John McCain and Sarah
Palin in the general elections in November 2008.
Mr Obama and his team
will have to rebuild the
progressive liberal coalition of two years ago and
show better results on the
economy, especially in the
area of job creation.
How they handle the race
question is an important
aspect of the process.
Here, the charges of ethics violations against
Congressman
Charles
Rangel of New York and
Congresswoman Maxine
Waters of California represent a crucial test.
Rangel has been under
investigation since 2008
for allegedly using his
House position for financial benefit, although he
claims he did not personally gain from actions
which he described as stupid rather than corrupt.
Waters is also under the
microscope of the House
ethics subcommittee for
allegedly using her congressional authority in a
meeting with then Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson
on behalf of One United
Bank, in which her husband owns US$250,000 in
stock. She has denied any
wrongdoing.
Influential opinion in the
Black community was surprised at the speed with
which Mr Obama appeared
to throw Rangel under the
bus in remarks suggesting
that the 80-year-old New
York lawmaker should
depart before enduring
further damage to his reputation.
By contrast, the National
Newspaper
Publishers
Association (NNPA), a
69-year old federation of
some 200 Black community newspapers, sees the
charges against Rangel
as rooted in racism — a
position also taken by this
newspaper in a recent editorial.
In a statement on its website, the NNPA said: “It is
important that our elected
officials, those to whom
we give our public trust,
be ethically sound, but in
this current spate of accusations, there is something
fishy in the proverbial
Denmark!
“The fact is that African
Americans
represent
only 10 per cent of the
Congress, and 19 per cent
(eight) are under investigation! This raises the
question as to whether
or not Black lawmakers
face more scrutiny over
allegations of wrongdoing
than their White counterparts. We conclude that
if it sounds like racism
and acts like racism, then
it probably is racism!
In America, we need to
presume innocence until
proven guilty, and we need
not be led to judgment.”
Similarly, The Christian
Science Monitor reported recently, “If they [the
Rangel, Waters charges] come to fruition, the
trial-like ethics hearings could also drive a
dispiriting wedge between
Democrats, including the
Obama White House, and
African-American supporters who, so far, have
been the only voting bloc
not to waver in their support for the first Black
president.”
Continued on pg. 12
Reagan insider: “GOP destroyed U.S. economy”
Commentary: How Gold. Tax cuts. Debts.
Wars. Fat Cats. Class
gap. No fiscal discipline
By Paul B. Farrell
M
arketWatch -- “How
my G.O.P. destroyed
the
U.S.
economy.”
Yes, that is exactly
what David Stockman,
President Ronald Reagan’s
director of the Office of
Management and Budget,
wrote in a recent New
York Times op-ed piece,
“Four Deformations of the
Apocalypse.”
Get it? Not “destroying.”
The GOP has already
“destroyed”
the
U.S.
economy, setting up an
“American Apocalypse.”
Jobs recovery could take
years In the wake of
Friday’s
disappointing
jobs report, Neal Lipschutz
and Phil Izzo discuss new
predictions that it could
be many years before the
nation’s
unemployment
rate reaches pre-recession
levels.
Yes, Stockman is equally
damning of the Democrats’
Keynesian policies.
But what this indictment
by a party insider -someone so close to
the development of the
Reaganomics
ideology
-- says about America,
helps all of us better
understand how America’s
toxic
partisan-politics
“holy war” is destroying
not just the economy and
capitalism, but the America
dream. And unless this war
stops soon, both parties will
succeed in their collective
death wish.
But why focus on
Stockman’s message? It’s
already lost in the 24/7
news cycle. Why? We need
some introspection. Ask
yourself: How did the great
nation of America lose its
moral compass and drift so
far off course, to where our
very survival is threatened?
We’ve arrived at a historic
turning point as a nation
that no longer needs outside
enemies to destroy us, we
are committing suicide.
Democracy. Capitalism.
The American dream. All
dying. Why? Because of
the economic decisions of
the GOP the past 40 years,
says this leading Reagan
Republican.
Please listen with an open
mind, no matter your party
affiliation: This makes for
a powerful history lesson,
because it exposes how
both parties are responsible
for destroying the U.S.
economy. Listen closely:
Reagan
Republican:
the GOP should file for
bankruptcy
Stockman
rushes into the ring
swinging like a boxer: “If
there were such a thing as
Chapter 11 for politicians,
the Republican push to
extend the unaffordable
Bush tax cuts would
amount to a bankruptcy
filing. The nation’s public
debt ... will soon reach $18
trillion.” It screams “out
for austerity and sacrifice.”
But instead, the GOP insists
“that the nation’s wealthiest
taxpayers be spared even a
three-percentage-point rate
increase.”
In the past 40 years
Republican
ideology
has gone from solid
principles to hype and
slogans. Stockman says:
“Republicans used to
believe that prosperity
depended upon the regular
balancing of accounts
-- in government, in
international trade, on the
ledgers of central banks
and in the financial affairs
of private households and
businesses too.”
No more. Today there’s
a “new catechism” that’s
“little more than money
printing and deficit finance,
vulgar Keynesianism robed
in the ideological vestments
of the prosperous classes”
making a mockery of
GOP ideals. Worse, it has
resulted in “serial financial
bubbles and Wall Street
depredations that have
crippled our economy.”
Yes, GOP ideals backfired,
crippling our economy.
Stockman’s
indictment
warns that the Republican
party’s
“new
policy
doctrines have caused
four great deformations
of the national economy,
and modern Republicans
have turned a blind eye to
each one:” Stage 1. Nixon
irresponsible, dumps gold,
U.S starts spending binge
Richard Nixon’s gold
policies get Stockman’s
first assault, for defaulting
“on American obligations
under the 1944 Bretton
Woods
agreement
to
balance our accounts with
the world.”
So for the past 40 years,
America’s been living
“beyond our means as
a nation” on “borrowed
prosperity on an epic scale
... an outcome that Milton
Friedman said could never
happen when, in 1971, he
persuaded President Nixon
to unleash on the world
paper dollars no longer
redeemable in gold or other
fixed monetary reserves.”
Remember
Friedman:
“Just let the free market set
currency exchange rates, he
said, and trade deficits will
self-correct.”
Friedman
was wrong by trillions.
And unfortunately “once
relieved of the discipline of
defending a fixed value for
their currencies, politicians
the world over were free to
cheapen their money and
disregard their neighbors.”
And without discipline
America
was
also
encouraging
“global
monetary
chaos
as
foreign central banks run
their own printing presses
at ever faster speeds to
sop up the tidal wave of
dollars coming from the
Federal Reserve.” Yes,
the road to the coming
apocalypse began with
a Republican president
listening to a misguided
Nobel
economist’s
advice.
September, 2010 • The Spectrum • Page 5
Honours for Ewart Walters
F
our decades of voluntary service in the
Ottawa community
have been recognised by
the Government of Jamaica
with National honours for
Spectrum Editor Ewart
Walters.
Mr. Walters has been
named Commander of the
Order of Distinction (CD)
“for the promotion and
defence of the rights of
Jamaicans and other ethnic minorities in Canada.”
The honour took effect
on August 6, Jamaica’s
Independence Day.
From arranging with the
CBC to have West Indian
students send radio greetings back to their island
homes on Boxing Day, and
struggling to overcome racist attitudes that were barring the Coral Reef Cricket
Club from gaining admittance to the Ottawa Valley
Cricket Club, both in the
fall-winter of 1964, Mr.
Walters went on carve a
niche for himself and the
new Caribbean community
in the nation’s capital. He
is currently the President
of the National Institute
of Jamaican Canadians,
a charitable organisation
based in Ottawa.
Mr. Walters’ efforts have
been directed at the high
and the low.
The year 1965 saw him
creating a radio program
to mark Jamaica’s independence which was broadcast
on radio station CKOY,
with himself and Bill Lee
as presenters. It also saw
him take over the Carleton
University student newspaper, The Carleton, as
Editor-in-Chief. Between
1965 and 1968 he broadcast radio editorials on
Radio Carleton, the forerunner of CKCU-FM.
Many years later he was
member of a committee
advising the President of
Carleton University on
possible new directions for
that institution.
Over the years he was
instrumental in the founding of several organisations and institutions
including The West Indian
Association of Ottawa;
Black History Ottawa;
the National Council of
Jamaicans and Supportive
Organisations in Canada;
the National Institute of
Jamaican Canadians; the
National Council of Visible
Minorities in the Federal
Public Service; Harambee
Centres Canada; the Bel Air
Cricket Club; the Garvey
Masekela Foundation and
The Spectrum.
He has appeared on many
radio and television pro-
grammes and wrote articles, editorials and letters
to newspapers in defence
of various community
members in Ottawa and
Toronto who had come
under unwarranted attack
or were in some cases
killed by Canadian police.
Best exemplified under
this category were his
efforts over five years in
the case of the police shootings of Vincent Gardner,
Earl Edwards and Francis
Nicholls in Ottawa; the
unwarranted arrest of Ralph
Kirkland against whom the
Ottawa Police Association
also filed a $750,000 libel
suit; his stout defence of
Federal Court Chief Justice
Julius Isaac, who, as the
first Black Chief Justice in
Canada came under severe
pressure from print media
and some of his own judges, one of whom took the
unprecedented step of issuing a press release about
him.
Mr. Walters’ efforts also
brought swift satisfactory
closure to a long-running
case between a Visible
Minority public servant and
his department which had
been discriminating against
him and fighting him in the
courts for 12 years.
In more recent times Mr.
Walters assisted a number
of Black Personal Support
Workers against wrongful
dismissal. And he wrote
letters to the media and to
Members of the Provincial
Parliament
when
it
appeared the Ontario
Government was trying
to dump its Provincial
Ombudsman Andre Marin
who he regards as a shining
example of what a public
servant should be.
Several honours and
recognitions have been
bestowed on him over the
years from groups as varied as the City of Nepean,
the Canadian International
Development Agency, the
Treasury Board of Canada,
the Federal Government
of Canada, the Jamaica
Ottawa
Community
Association, the Ottawa
Carleton Police, the Ottawa
Community through CATs,
and the Jamaica ConsulateGeneral in Toronto.
Commenting on the award
Mr. Walters expressed his
deep thanks to the Selection
Committee in Kingston and
to all those who have called
or sent letters of congratulation. “It has brought pleasure to a lot of people, and
I’m glad for that,” he said.
Mr. Walters will go to
Kingston in mid-October to
be invested with the insignia of CD.
colonial ties with Britain.
That’s when it merged with
the neighbouring island of
Zanzibar.
While it is a functioning
democracy with regular
elections, Tanzania is effectively a one-party country,
with the ruling Chama Cha
Mapinduzi holding well
over 90 per cent of the seats
in the National Assembly.
That is not, though, the
result of political repression. Interestingly, the
constitution requires political parties to have women
comprising at least 20 per
cent of their representatives. And Zanzibar has its
own assembly responsible
for matters peculiar to the
island.
On the other side of the
continent, Ghana started out
with considerable promise but quickly descended
into economic chaos and
political morass. Kwame
Nkrumah, first prime minister and then president
of the new republic, had
been influenced by agitators like Marcus Garvey,
CLR James and WEB Du
Bois. He never achieved his
dream of uniting Africa but
played a significant role in
founding the Organisation
of African Unity, which
became the African Union
eight years ago.
Nkrumah fell into the
common trap of the personality cult, calling himself
Osagyefo (The Redeemer)
and engaged in a number of ambitious projects
which, unfortunately, came
to naught. The Americans,
feeling that he had become
a liability, engineered a military coup in 1966, the first
of several ending with the
seizure of power by FlightLieutenant Jerry Rawlings
in 1981. Rawlings later ran
for office and won the presidency, re-winning it until
he was prohibited by the
constitution. Since then the
country has had peaceful
changes of government and
appears to have settled into
a state of stability.
Then there’s South Africa,
where a handful of descendants of Dutch and British
settlers ruled the roost for
a considerable part of the
20th century in a quasidemocracy only for their
benefit. The black people,
along with the “coloureds”
and a relatively small number of immigrants from
the Indian sub-continent,
made up the overwhelming majority of the population but had essentially no
voice. The Boers, as the
Dutch settlers were known,
played the Cold War game
to the full, accusing anyone
who opposed their diabolical schemes as “communist” and throwing them in
jail.
At one point almost the
entire senior leadership
of the African National
Congress was in prison, but
through a steadfast belief
in the rightness of their
cause and stern discipline,
they held their heads high
until the system ultimately
collapsed under its own
weight and from tremendous domestic and international pressure. Nelson
Mandela, a man of supreme
sagacity, moral courage and
tremendous grace, emerged
unbowed after more than
a quarter-century of hard
prison time to lead his country into the fold of truly
democratic entities. South
Africa still has many problems - widespread unemployment, lack of prospects
for hordes of young people,
high urban crime and substandard housing in many
places. But after observing,
since 1994, the way South
Africans have embraced
the vote and all that goes
with it, there’s hardly any
doubt that democracy has
taken root. Mandela’s
example and leadership
have inspired and encouraged people all over the
continent.
Rwanda is another case
where we can see more
than glimmers of hope.
Sixteen years ago, tribal
hostilities boiled over at a
cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. Members of
the Hutu tribe, who had
long harboured resentment
against the smaller Tutsi
ethnic group, lashed out
and slaughtered Tutsis and
Hutus who objected. There
had been previous cases of
internecine brutality, albeit
on a much smaller scale,
in neighbouring Burundi,
which shared the same
ethnic makeup as well as
German and Belgian colonial rule. The slaughter
went on for 100 days until
the exhausted nation collapsed from sheer fatigue.
The outside world looked
on and did nothing.
Rwanda has slowly and
painfully clawed its way
back to some semblance
of normality and last week
held its second presidential
election since the massacre. The man who led the
rebuilding, Paul Kagame,
was elected to a second seven-year term. His
years have been marked
by high growth and a significant increase in foreign
investment, the building
of infrastructure and tourism. But all is not roses; he
ran almost unopposed and
has come under criticism
from opposition figures
and human-rights groups
for suppressing dissent. We
will have to wait to see how
this one will turn out; critics
say Kagame is a mixture of
nation builder and autocrat.
There are other cases of
stability and reasonably
good governance, but the
overall picture remains
dire.
Perhaps the most egre-
Ewart Walters C.D.
Africa’s half-century of Independence
Keeble Mcfarlane
O
NE fascinating and
encouraging aspect
of human affairs is that
nothing and no one is ever
entirely good or evil. Case
in point: my discussion
last week of the past halfcentury of Africa’s political
history undoubtedly left a
totally bleak impression.
A senior academic at the
University of the West
Indies took issue with
the case I tried to make.
Professor Rupert Lewis
of the Department of
Government noted that
I failed to talk about the
evolution of democracy in
several African nations. I
take his point, and while I
still believe there is very
little to celebrate, the picture in the mother continent
is by no means one of total
gloom and despair. There
are, indeed, several encouraging examples.
Tanzania, which has suffered significant economic
setbacks because of misguided, failed experiments,
has never strayed from the
path of political stability,
unlike several of its eight
neighbouring countries.
The spearhead of its independence, Julius Nyerere,
left office voluntarily and
his successors have all
been chosen democratically. The country was known
as Tanganyika until 1964,
three years after it severed
gious example is this one:
on June 30, 1960, the
Republic of the Congo
came into being as an independent country, ending 52
years of subservience to
King Léopold of Belgium.
(I said last week that the
new Prime Minister Patrice
Lumumba was leader of
the French, rather than the
Belgian Congo; several rereads failed to catch the
error). It was a stormy
passage and the beginning
of decades of even more
stormy times. Two mineral-rich provinces, Katanga
and South Kasai, decided
to secede.
The place was overrun by
armed men in uniform Congolese army and resisContinued on pg. 12
Page 6 • The Spectrum • September, 2010
These ladies resplendent with colour.
Leroy Harrison steps out.
Ewart Walters presents a copy of his book Sugar Boy to Jamaica Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Christopher Tufton at Jam Day.
Oakley Williams and Renford Thomas take a moment for the camera.
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September, 2010 • The Spectrum • Page 7
A section of the Jam
Day crowd at the
opening ceremonies.
Wally B at Jam Day.
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Page 8 • The Spectrum • September, 2010
THE GOOD WORD
by Pastor Jacob Afolabi
Joseph – A Man of Destiny
“Now Israel loved Joseph
more than all his children, because he was
the son of his old age.
Also he made him a tunic
of many colors.” (Genesis
37:3).
G
od may build a thousand planets, and fill
them with treasures; God
may crush mountains into
dust, and cause all the seas
to evaporate, and destroy
the stars, but He cannot
do one evil thing toward
His elect. Rest assured,
Christian, a wicked act, or
an unloving action from
God toward you is quite
impossible. He is just as
kind to you when he leads
you into prison as when
he takes you into a palace.
He is as good to you when
He sends famine into your
house as when He fills your
cupboards and your wardrobes with plenty.
The only question is, “Are
you His child?” If so, He
has rebuked you in affec-
tion, and there is love in
His discipline. “For whom
the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every
son whom He receives.”
(Hebrews 12:6).
Joseph was the elder son
of Jacob’s favorite wife
Rachel. He seems to have
been Jacob’s favorite son
too. He was one of the
great heroes of the Old
Testament. Despite the
jealousy of his brothers and
some acts of foolishness
on his own part, Joseph
triumphed. He had a high
opinion of himself and did
not know when to keep his
mouth shut, but he also had
superlative administrative
skills, quick intelligence
and the ability to impress
the right people. In other
words, a man who was
bound to succeed – a man
of destiny.
From an early age he
showed great promise.
But he was also spoiled
and pampered, so that his
brothers became furiously
jealous of the favor he was
shown.
One example of this
pampering was the longsleeved coat his father gave
Joseph, a coat designed so
that the wearer could not
do any heavy work. This
meant his brothers had to
carry Joseph’s share of the
work as well as their own,
and they could not have
been happy about this. He
also told tales about them
to their father, and got them
into trouble. “This is the
history of Jacob. Joseph,
being seventeen years old,
was feeding the flock with
his brothers. And the lad
was with the sons of Bilhah
and the sons of Zilpah, his
father’s wives; and Joseph
brought a bad report of them
to his father.” (Gen.37:2)
Then come the dreams
of Joseph. The future was
laid bare for him by God.
His family’s prosperity and
survival would depend on
him. God had laid on him
the future direction of the
house of Jacob (Israel), and
since the Land of Promise
was not to be possessed
until a future date, the
family had to grow and
increase in a foreign landEgypt.
God was telling Joseph
that he was to be prom-
inent in his entire family
and his prominence was to
be the way of God drawing them into their destiny. Unfortunately he did
not keep quiet about these
dreams, but shared them
with his brothers, who
became increasingly irritated by what they saw as
his conceit and arrogance.
(Gen.37: 5 – 11)
Some of our dreams are
significant. Our dreams
of promotion, elevation,
or prosperity, are for our
own encouragement. It is
unwise to tell it around to
others. Our scary dreams
are telling us of past experiences or of future dangers
– these need much prayer.
Even though the dreams
came from the Lord, it was
foolish, and even arrogant
of Joseph to tell it around.
Dreams are from the heart
(soul). “Keep your heart
with all diligence, For out
of it spring the issues of
life.” (Prov.4:23). Dreams
are part of the issues of life,
and they tell us of the past,
the present, and the future.
[email protected]
Speaker snubs Church to appoint first
Black Vicar of Westminster
B
Rev. Hudson-Wilkin
ritish House of
Commons Speaker
John Bercow has refused
to give the job of Vicar of
Westminster to the candidate picked by the Dean
of Westminster Abbey, the
Very Rev. Dr John Hall,
who answers to the Queen.
He has chosen instead the
Rev. Rose Hudson-Wilkin,
a Jamaican-born vicar in
one of the poorest parts
of East London. Sources
say he objected to appointing “another predictable
The church in the heart of the city with the people of the city in its heart!
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middle-aged white man.”
Mr. Bercow was so determined to win the power
struggle that he cut the
ties between Parliament
and the Abbey, where state
funerals, weddings and
coronations take place effectively splitting the
Chaplain’s historic role in
two.
The Abbey authorities
responded by refusing to
give Mrs Hudson-Wilkin
the palatial grace-andfavour apartment in the
Abbey cloisters where
the current Commons
Chaplain lives.
The man snubbed by
Mr Bercow, 46-year-old
Andrew Tremlett, currently a Canon at Bristol
Cathedral, is to be made
a Canon at Westminster
Abbey as a “consolation
prize” by the Queen. But
he will have to make do
with half the salary of the
Commons Chaplain.
Outspoken Mrs. HudsonWilkin, 49 - who is married with three children has already been tipped
to be the first woman
bishop. She led calls for
the Church of England to
apologise for its role in
slavery and has lambasted racism in the clergy.
Mrs
Hudson-Wilkin
will receive the £25,000
Commons Chaplain’s sal-
ary, but not the £20,000
wage that goes with the
Abbey post. That will go
to Mr Tremlett, who will
also be given the graceand-favour home in the
Abbey.
One of the key tasks
at Westminster for Mrs
Hudson-Wilkin,
who
intends to retain her parish
in Hackney, East London,
is to read the prayers at the
start of each day’s sitting.
In stark contrast to Canon
Tremlett, the Rev Rose
Hudson-Wilkin routinely
confronts knife crime and
gang culture in one of East
London’s poorest parishes.
Mrs Hudson-Wilkin said
at the time of her appointment as vicar in Hackney
in 1998: ‘Some members
struggled with me. They
had been told that no priest
worth anything would
want to come here. On top
of that I’m a woman and
Black.’
A good friend of the
first Black archbishop, Dr
John Sentamu, she is a
rising star in the Church.
She was brought up in
Montego Bay and travelled to England to join
the Church Army aged 18.
She is now regularly tipped
to become the Church’s
first woman bishop if, as
many expect, the current
ban is lifted.
Ask Lesline
by Lesline McEwan, B.A.
Psych., M.A. Counselling
Parental involvement at school
Dear Lesline: I am new to Ottawa and I’m
experiencing some difficulties. My children are
enrolled in a Catholic School and I have been
having constant complaints from their school concerning my son. My son is very VERY active and
is suspected by the school authorities of having a
form of mental disorder. He is on a wait list to
see a child psychologist but in the meantime the
constant complaints from the teachers are really
frustrating me. If he cannot sit still in a class there
are complaints, I have been called into the school
on numerous occasions because the teachers are
not able to extend appropriate punishments within
their capacity. The final straw that led me to compose this letter to you is a phone call I received
from the principal late in the day on Friday
informing me that my son will not be accepted into
the school on Monday Morning, he is suspended
for one day. According to her he had a crying fit
and it took the teacher 15 minutes to calm him
and he was not listening and following instructions
as he should. PLASE help, all the complaints are
draining my energy. I feel like I am always being
punished and my parenting skills are under scrutiny. By the way my son just turned 8 years old. I
welcome any suggestions. Frustrated Parent
Dear Frustrated Parent: You have covered many
important points in your email, including the fact
that you are new to Ottawa. However, there are lots
of unanswered questions for me. In order for me to
be able to make more targeted suggestions I would
need a lot more information. I will give a few general
pointers to dealing with this problem.
First of all you have to be your child’s advocate.
Schools are busy places. It is easy for children who
are experiencing difficulties to be overlooked or
labeled. You know your child best. Speaking up for
your child in a helpful and friendly manner increases
the chances of your child having a successful time at
school.
School challenges your child as a whole person;
therefore, he needs many different skills to function
in school. These are the same types of skills that your
child will rely on to run his life when he is on his own.
The teacher observes your child dealing with a lot of
demands and is in the rare position to observe your
child’s academic, emotional and social development.
Schedule a time to meet the teacher or observe the
class. There is a good chance that, working together,
you and the teacher can solve whatever problems are
discussed. If you still do not understand why your
child is having problems you may want to locate a
child psychologist through your pediatrician and
have your own evaluation conducted.
It is very important that you monitor your child’s
progress. A child’s self-esteem is crucial to the
growth of a child’s personality. Self-esteem is what a
child thinks of himself. Earning good grades, being
desired as a friend and being loved by parents are
basic to having good self-esteem. Monitor your child
to make sure he is not falling behind academically,
feeling rejected by peers or feeling uncertain as to
how much he is loved at home. Children with good
self-esteem cooperate more with parents, achieve
more in school and make good friends.
In conclusion here are a few questions for you: You
stated that you are new in Ottawa. How long have you
been in Ottawa, are you new to the country and how
well have your children adjusted? Have you taken any
action in response to the complaints from the school,
and if so have you followed through? Are the behaviours described by the school present in the home?
How is the behaviour of your other children? What
kind of support do you have caring for the children?
If you feel you need help with your parenting skills
you can turn to more experienced parents around
you or pursue a parenting course. I must also point
out that teachers are there to teach your child not to
punish him. Discipline is the parent’s responsibility.
Keep an open mind to what your child’s teacher
is telling you. The teacher may be wrong, but then
again she may be doing you a favor by bringing an
important issue to your attention. Stay in touch and
stay involved.
These responses are intended to provide general educational information to the readership of this column
and not to be understood as specific advice intended
for any particular individual. Where personal information is included with the question, this information will
not be published with the response. Copyright © 2008.
All rights reserved - Lesline McEwan leslinemcewan@
yahoo.com
Lesline McEwan
P.O. Box 41084, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 5K9
Email: [email protected]
www.lcmconsulting.ca
September, 2010 • The Spectrum • Page 9
Towards Financial
Independence
by Ivan Acorn
So... this is Africa
Sir John Templton Time
B
uy when everyone is afraid to buy and sell
when everyone is clamouring for more: that
was the unwavering advice of Sir John. Right
now is certainly a Templeton buy time. The
economy has been punished and the markets
are weak. There is fear of double-dip recession; unemployment is high; new house sales
are low; many homeowners can no longer
service their mortgages because they have lost
their jobs; they owe more than their houses are
worth. A very uncomfortable time.
Despite all of this bad news, the stock indices are slightly positive. The TSX Composite
is down 1.6% YTD but up 7.1% YOY. The
Dow indices are also YTD negative and YOY
slightly positive. Ditto Standard and Poor’s
500 Composite. Of course, yet to come is the
month of October which, historically, has been
difficult. So, it would appear to be a Templeton
buy-time, but don’t hurry.
People are indeed buying, but they are buying debt instruments and not equities. True,
corporate debt is in high demand, but all debt
instruments are vulnerable as interest rates
rise, which they eventually must do. One year
Canadian T-Bills are yielding 0.96%; 5 year
bonds, 2.05%.
The football stadium in Durban.
Many expect current conditions to remain for
some time. Change is not expected until US
consumers start buying again. Various “stimulus” measures do not seem to have been effective.
One thought that should give comfort is that
the market is usually about 6 months ahead
of the economy. So if the equity market can
put on some growth, the economy should also
strengthen.
Gold, the basic world currency has surged as the
USD has faded. In 1999, gold was at $252.80
US; its recent high was $1259.50. Gold lives a
double life, one as a commodity and the other
as the currency of the last resort. It is, therefore,
extremely volatile. It would be wise not to have
too much of it in an investment portfolio.
Canada’s Big Railroads
We all love the railroads, from the days of our
youth when trains and travel were so tightly
linked. Indeed, the transcontinental railroad was
the catalyst that brought our provinces together.
British Columbia insisted on a transcontinental
railroad before it would join Confederation.
Thus was born the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Later came the Canadian National Railway,
but it came out of misery as the Federal
Government took over a number of bankrupt
Eastern railroads which it operated as the
Canadian National Railway, for many years.
The Government privatised CN recently and
now it is the bigger of the two. Originally the
two railroads were about passenger traffic but
now they are about freight, principally commodities including wheat. Many mutual funds
include both CN and CP in their portfolios.
Ivan Acorn is in Mutual Funds, with Professional Investments, Ottawa. He and his associates may invest in
funds discussed in these articles. Nothing in this article
constitutes an invitation or solicitation to buy any Mutual Fund. Fund returns are not guaranteed and past
performance may not be repeated.
by Gianne Kedroe
T
his past July, I
embarked on a journey to the continent
of Africa. I went to South
Africa for the 2010 World
Cup, and Angola to visit
friends. Both experiences
were eye-opening and
rewarding.
When I first told people I
was going to the 2010 World
Cup, they were excited for
me. I was excited too, but
not because I was a soccer
fan. Up to that moment, I
had watched about three
professional games in total
and played in one summer league. So why was I
going? Because I could see
Africa, travel with friends,
experience an international
event and meet new and
exciting people.
I also received many
warnings. Be very careful, Africa is a dangerous
place. Don’t go anywhere
alone. Come back alive.
I started to get nervous. I
had three days by myself
in the second largest city in
South Africa, Cape Town.
I was told that local South
Africans were leaving the
city for the 2010 World
Cup to be safe.
I called my lawyer and
started preparing my will.
A co-worker who was
busy printing off the game
schedule finally said, don’t
worry, just don’t be stupid.
That was the best advice I
received.
In a few weeks, three
other Canadians and I flew
18 hours from Ottawa to
Johannesburg and - for me
alone - Johannesburg to
Cape Town. I exited the airport found a taxi with ease
and asked that I be taken
to my Hotel. Throughout
the ride the driver became
a tour guide. He pointed
out all the mountains and
gave a quick history lesson.
He identified tourist sites
such as Table Mountain
and the Harbour Front, he
pointed out Groote Schuur
Hospital, the locale of the
world’s first heart transplant in 1967. He described
a city with a variety of supporting industries - mining and energy, real estate
and construction due to the
2010 World Cup, tourism
and government.
The roads were wide and
accommodated traffic well.
He said they were recently
expanded in preparation
for the World Cup. There
were hotels everywhere I
looked and he said that was
also a World Cup initiative.
I asked him if residents
were concerned that there
would be more infrastructure in place than required
after the World Cup and if
people were worried about
being unemployed. He said
that he had hope for his
country, that the World Cup
would open the eyes to the
world and increase tourism and investment in the
Cape. He had faith that the
hotels and his taxi would
be full. As I got out, I
looked around the outside
of my hotel and wondered
why was it that I was afraid
to make this journey on my
own?
I put down my bags and
got onto a tour bus to
explore the city. I learned
the history and identified
places that I would like
to visit again. I learned
about Apartheid, a policy
that separated the races
into four groups, Black,
White, Coloured (mixed
race) and Indian, and segregated them into their own
sections of the city. This
policy limited the rights of
the non-White majority and
expanded the rights of the
White minority in the years
1948 to 1991.
Cape Town reminded me
of Ottawa; there was order,
everything was clean, the
people were polite and
helpful, alcohol consumption was regulated to the
point that beer and liquor
were sold in a store similar
to the LCBO. On game
days the police presence
was astounding. And during non-game days there
was an air of safety and
a feeling of excitement
by tourists and pride by
locals. I did not have
one moment where I felt
unsafe. Although I didn’t
party the night away in the
club district on my own I
used logic and it kept me
safe.
My friends soon joined
me in time for the game
between Portugal and
Spain. This would be my
first World Cup game. I
could feel the excitement
and build-up in the city.
Everywhere I turned there
were team affiliations,
was a country that lacked
infrastructure. The runway could be described as
dusty. Around the airport
there were locals carrying
supplies on their heads in
baskets, and street vendors selling anything you
can imagine; currency
exchange, car-chargers,
shoes and chips on the side
of the road. Traffic was
a problem and there were
traffic lights that no one
Gianne (second left) with (from left), Edilson,
Marj and Arun before the game in Cape Town,
South Africa.
people wearing flags and
hats and jackets and whatever they could to identify
themselves with a country’s
team. I bought a Vuvuzela
and headed to the game.
There were no soccer riots,
just intense fans. People did
the wave and chanted and
sang just like we were at an
Ottawa Senators game. The
Vuvuzelas were a positive
addition to the gamescape.
The sound did not carry the
annoying bumblebee buzz
that it carried over television. Instead it brought
delight and camaraderie
among fans similar to the
way that noise-makers
incite challenge amongst
children. When the game
was over and Spain had
won 2-1 everyone peacefully or joyously packed up
and headed off to celebrate
or drown their sorrows.
The following day, my
friends and I travelled to
outside of South Africa to
Angola’s capital, Luanda.
Angola is a country on the
south-west coast of Africa.
It was colonized by the
Portuguese in the 1600’s
and gained independence
in 1975 only to be devastated by a civil war which
calmed with a ceasefire in
2002.
From the plane, this
obeyed. There were beggars whose limbs had been
ravaged by disease or war
trying to get money to live.
Despite the lack of infrastructure people seemed
happy. There was the sound
of children laughing as
they played soccer barefoot. People were smiling
everywhere you went. The
coast and the beach looked
serene and the sunrise had
a unique beauty about it.
The picture I have painted
is one of a country devastated by war and poverty.
This is true. However, the
rich and the poor literally
live right beside each other.
The poor live on $2.00
a day begging or selling
items on the street, while
there is another part of the
population who are living
in what has been described
by Mercer’s 2010 report
as the city with the highest
cost of living, higher than
Tokyo and Moscow. A simple lunch buffet was priced
at US$40.00 a person, but
you could buy a beer in
the street for US$1.00.
New infrastructure is being
erected wherever possible.
This is a county in transition.
Continued next issue
Page 10 • The Spectrum • September, 2010
Jamaica looks to sugar cane revival - Tufton
Jamaica High Commissioner Sheila SealyMonteith with her Agriculture and Fisheries
Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton at Jam Day.
by Ewart Walters
J
amaica is about to
enter an era not seen
since the 1960s,
Agriculture and Fisheries
Minister
Christopher
Tufton says. Dr. Tufton who
was on a visit to Canada in
July and August took some
time for an interview with
The Spectrum in which he
held out great hope for the
sugar cane industry.
In a wide-ranging discussion the minister demonstrated a thorough grasp of
his portfolio and its possibilities. He also responded to questions about
the Jamaica Agricultural
Society (JAS), cassava and
ganja.
Chinese interests have
bought out several of the
previously Governmentowned sugar estates which
have been up for sale for
some time. And now Dr.
Tufton is looking forward
to an explosion in benefits
from what he describes as
“one of the most significant
agreements that has been
struck.
“If the Chinese agreement
is played out,” he said,
“there will be:
•A doubling of production
•Better processing
•A sugar refinery
•Ethanol production; and
•Co-generation of electricity using bagasse – a
US$300 million to US$350
million investment that
would generate four or five
income streams.
“It will be a revival of
sugar cane and an arrival
of a range of additional
products,” he said.
Dr. Tufton acknowledged,
however, that Jamaica
although Jamaica refines
70,000 tons of sugar each
year, it will still have to
import some sugar this year.
Jamaica consumes 60,000
tons, sells brown sugar at
a higher price in the international market and buys
brown sugar cheaper for
local consumption, he said.
Asked whether the JAS
was a hindrance or a help,
Dr. Tufton spoke reflectively. “There is an important space for them,” he
added, noting that they are
an affiliate of the Ministry.
“The JAS is 115 years
old; they must have served
some useful purpose, but
they require adjustment.
Some things they could do
much better. Some things
they are not doing enough
of. Their core mandate
is to lobby and represent
their farmer members. This
should be the basis of their
existence. Could they help
farmers with their marketing? Is this a useful possible role?”
On the question of agricultural education, Dr.
Tufton said he placed special importance on its role.
He observed that the UWI
faculty of agriculture in
Trinidad and Tobago “does
not serve Jamaica” and
hinted at likely development of agricultural technical skills training institutions to complement the
four agricultural schools
currently in operation.
Smiling as he spoke about
cassava, Dr. Tufton said it
was an important source
of carbohydrates and his
intervention was really a
call on the people to reconnect with their identity,
their base. There was “an
overdependence on others to provide our food but
now we have seen food
production improving, and
value-added in now being
seen. We now have cassava
chips in two flavours and it
is one of the biggest sellers.
The price went up from
$7.00 per lb to $20 per lb.”
In addition, Dr. Tufton
said cassava had a greater extraction rate for
ethanol than sugar cane.
Furthermore both cassava
“A Church Where Everybody is Somebody”
St. Paul’s Eastern United Church Ottawa
473 Cumberland Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7K1
Evangelist Gloria Anderson
South Carolina
Bishop John H Terry
New York
Bishop Vernal M. Jones
Barbados
Rev. Hunter
Jamaica
Bishop Olunda
Nigeria
Route A Dead Giveaway…
Dog Sniffs At Marijuana Tombstone
C
ustoms officials in Cincinnati, Ohio, became sniffy
when they saw a tombstone being shipped from
Jamaica to England through the US City so they called
in the four-legged expert. They now say they seized more
than 50 pounds of ganja from inside the tombstone. They
estimated its street value at about US$52,000.
Officers wondered why someone would ship a tombstone
from Kingston to London. No one was arrested in connection with the discovery.
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Canadian goat farm model
could be applied in Jamaica
with the aim of reducing
dependence on imported
goat meat.
Hen said what he saw at
one of the farms was a
clear demonstration of how
farmers can work together
and form co-operatives,
engaging in best-practice
technology.
“We would like to replicate something like this in
Jamaica, but on the scale
that suits our market. We
have also seen a privatepublic match to strategically sustain the dairy sector,
and see why there is a need
for strong professional producer organizations,” he
added.
Canada’s Opposition Leader Michael Ignatiev speaks with revelers at
Caribana.
NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH
ASSEMBLY WORLDWIDE
1st Annual Foreign Mission Conference
trash and cane trash could
be used to fuel the extraction process.
On ganja and its use in
agricultural tourism based
on its medicinal properties,
the Minister said Jamaica
was cautious. The science
was important, he said,
adding that “if it is viewed
that way and it is being
legitimised in the developed world there was value
in making more discourse.”
He acknowledged however
that ganja was important
and would bear study.
The minister, who attended Jam Day Independence
celebrations in Ottawa,
also visited several farms
in the Ottawa region. He
was particularly interested in seeing whether a
Special Guests
The Hon. Clinton Young jr., Mayor
of Mount Vernon, New York
Mr. Linden B. Williams, Legislator
for Westchester County;
Representative for Mount Vernon, New
York
Jacques Savoie
French+Conference Coordinator
(514) 576-4025
For Information
Canada (613)
787-9831
USA - New York (843) 296-6463
South Carolina (843) 909-2904
September, 2010 • The Spectrum • Page 11
How Adebayo Ogunlesi Acquired Gatwick
Airport For £1.455 Billion
A
debayo Ogunlesi is a
leading executive at
Credit Suisse First Boston
Corporation (CSFB), an
arm of the Zurich-based
global investment bank
with offices on six continents. In February of 2002
he was named head of
CSFB’s investment banking group. The rise of this
Harvard-educated lawyer
prompted Time magazine
to name him to its “People
to Watch in International
Business” list a few weeks
later, and Ogunlesi was
also ranked by Fortune
magazine as the seventh
most powerful black executive in the United States.
In a New York magazine
feature titled “The New
Color of Money,” Landon
Thomas Jr. discussed the
new, more multicultural
atmosphere in the world
of international finance at
the start of the twenty-first
century.
Thomas wrote, “Call
it the new face of Wall
Street. More than ever
now, a wave of Indians,
Lebanese, Africans, and
others from the farthest
reaches of the globe are
stepping into positions
of the highest power at
firms all across the Street.
For years, these immigrant bankers have been
the stars of their trading
desks, raking in millions
for themselves and their
firms. For the first time,
they are running the most
profitable divisions of the
Wall Street banks.”
Ogunlesi’s latest deal
is the much talked about
acquisition of the London
Gatwick Airport. The
Gatwick deal is a £1.455
billion agreement with
BAA Airports Limited.
GIP will be investing through Ivy Bidco
Limited, a limited liability company registered
in England, established
for the purpose of making the acquisition. Bidco
will pay cash consideration of £1,455 million for
the entire share capital of
Gatwick Airport Limited
on a cash-free, debt-free
basis.
Ogunlesi says the acqui-
sition of Gatwick is a
landmark deal for GIP
and adds another quality
asset to his firm’s rapidly
expanding portfolio.
“We see significant scope
to apply both our strong
operational focus and our
knowledge of the airports
sector to make Gatwick an
airport of choice,” he said.
He began stacking up his
big deals profile when he
joined the top-shelf New
York law firm, Cravath,
Swain & Moore. It was at
the law firm that he jumped
at the chance to advise
First Boston (which later
acquired Credit Suisse in
1997 to form Credit Suisse
First Boston or CSFB) on a
hugely lucrative Nigerian
gas project.
The success of that deal
landed him his first big
pay move to First Boston
where he worked on
project finance, brokering deals in which lenders finance assets like
oil refineries and mines
and are repaid with revenues generated by those
enterprises. Based in New
York City and travelling to
emerging markets, he built
CSFB’s project-finance
business into the world’s
best, in part by encouraging corporations and
governments to tap public
debt markets in addition to
commercial lenders. Six Months After the Quake
The Political Roadblocks to Haiti’s Reconstruction
By Yves Engler
S
ix months ago a devastating earthquake
killed more than 230,000
Haitians. About 100,000
homes were completely
destroyed, alongside a thousand schools and many
other buildings. The scenes
of devastation filled TV
screens around the world.
Half a year later the picture
is eerily familiar. Destroyed
during the earthquake the
presidential palace remains
rubble and a symbol of
the vast destruction. Portau-Prince is still covered
in debris. About 1.3 million people live in 1,200
makeshift tent camps in and
around the capital.
According to one estimate, less than 5% of the
earthquake debris has been
removed. Of course, with
20 million cubic meters of
rubble in Port-Au-Prince
alone, removing the debris
is a massive challenge. If a
thousand trucks were working daily it would take three
to five years to remove all
this material.
Yet, there are fewer than
300 trucks hauling debris.
The technical obstacles to
reconstruction are immense.
But the political roadblocks
are larger.
Immediately after the
quake $10 billion in international aid was pledged. As of
June 30 only 10 percent of
the $2.5 promised for 2010
had been delivered. A lot of
it has been held up in political wrangling. The international community – led by
the US, France and Canada
– demanded the Haitian parliament pass an 18-month
long state of emergency
law that effectively gave up
government control over the
reconstruction. Holding up
the money was a pressure
tactic designed to ensure
international control of the
Interim Commission for
the Reconstruction of Haiti,
authorized to spend billions.
These maneuvers were met
by protest and widespread
hostility in Haiti, which
forced the international
community to back off a
little. Initially, a majority
of seats on the Commission
were to represent foreign
governments and international financial institutions.
That’s been reduced to half
of the 26-member commit-
tee, but the money is still to
be managed by the World
Bank and other international institutions. Former
US President Bill Clinton
and Haitian Prime Minister
Jean-Max Bellerive co-chair
the reconstruction commission, which met for the first
time on June 17.
The strong-arm tactics
by the Western powers to
determine the make-up of
the Commission signify a
continuation of longstanding policy to undermine
the Haitian state’s credibility and capacity. For two
decades Washington and
its allies have deliberately
weakened Haiti’s government.
Citing neo-liberal theories
they demanded the privatization of a number of
state-owned companies and
the reduction of tariffs on
agricultural products. This
devastated domestic food
production and spurred an
exodus from the countryside
to the cities, which exacerbated the destruction and
death toll of the earthquake.
Washington also destabilized governments that put
the interests of the poor
over foreign corporations.
On February 29, 2004, the
elected government of JeanBertrand Aristide was overthrown by the US, France
and Canada. This ushered in
a terrible wave of political
repression and the ongoing
UN occupation.
Since that time Aristide
has been in forced exile in
South Africa and his Fanmi
Lavalas party has been
barred from participating in
elections. (They are again
being blocked from the
November 28 elections).
All this has led to a situation in which there is no
institution in Haiti with the
credibility or capacity to
undertake reconstruction.
President Rene Preval’s
government has lost the
support of the country’s
poor majority because of its
subservience to Washington
and the local elite. Preval
recently defended the move
to ban Fanmi Lavalas, still
the most popular party in
the country.
The 10,000-member UN
“peacekeeping” force is
widely disliked. In the two
years after the 2004 coup,
UN troops regularly provided support for the Haitian
police’s violent assaults
on poor communities and
peaceful demonstrations
demanding the return of
the elected government.
UN forces also participated
directly in a violent political pacification campaign,
launching repeated anti
“gang” assaults on poor
neighborhoods in Port-auPrince.
The two most horrific raids
took place on January 6,
2005 and December 22,
2006, which together left
some 35 innocent civilians
dead and dozens wounded in the densely populated slum of Cité Soleil
(a bastion of support for
Aristide). In April 2008 UN
troops once again demonstrated that their primary
purpose in the country was
to defend the massive economic divide in the country.
During riots over the rising
cost of food they put down
protests by killing a handful
of demonstrators.
Foreign-funded
Non-Governmental
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Organizations (NGOs) are
widely discredited for contributing to a two-decade
long process that has undermined Haitian governmental capacity. Sometimes
dubbed the “republic of
NGOs”, in Haiti these organizations have a great deal
of influence and are promoted as agents of relief.
In some circumstances, they
are. But, how would we
like it if all our schools and
social services were run by
private foreign charities?
In Port au Prince graffiti
criticizing NGOs states:
“Down with NGOs”. Two
weeks ago Haitian journalist
Wadner Pierre complained
that “NGOs continue to
humiliate and discriminate [against] the poor and
respected Haitian citizens
by assuming they are all
dangerous, violent, or savage people, and they do not
know anything, even how to
put a tent up while ignoring
the strength and courage of
these people.”
Over the past three months
there has been a series of
major demonstrations in
Port-au-Prince and elsewhere calling for Aristide’s
return to Haiti and an end
to the exclusion of his
Fanmi Lavalas party. Of
course protesters are also
angry about the slow pace
of reconstruction and the
6-year old foreign occupation.
What should be the
response of people who
want to help?
First, any serious reconstruction must build the
Haitian
government’s
capacity to provide housing, education, healthcare
and other social services.
Aid must be directed away
from neoliberal adjustment,
sweatshop exploitation and
non-governmental charity, and towards investment
in Haiti’s government and
public institutions.
Second, massive investment must be made in
Haiti’s countryside, where
farming has been effectively
destroyed. Haitians are poverty-stricken partly because
foreign aid policies favour
sweatshop labour over agriculture. For example, the
U.S. dumps rice on the
Haitian market. Thirty years
ago, Haiti produced 90 percent of its own rice; today
it’s less than 10 per cent.
Third, Fanmi Lavalas
should be allowed to participate in elections and
Aristide to return from exile.
Only when Haitians are
allowed to run their own
affairs will real reconstruction begin.
Yves Engler is the coauthor of Canada in Haiti:
Waging War on the Poor
Majority. His most recent
book is Canada and Israel:
Building Apartheid. For more
information, go to his website, yvesengler.com
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Page 12 • The Spectrum • September, 2010
The politics of race
in America - pg. 4
It appears that Mr
Obama’s apparent retreat
from Rangel fits a pattern
of not wanting to appear
as the ‘Black president’
but simply as the president
of the United States of
America.
That attitude explained
the speed with which
the White House forced
Shirley Sherrod out of her
job at the Department of
Agriculture after a rightwing group published an
edited video which misleadingly suggested she
discriminated
against
a white farmer. It was a
deliberate lie.
Clearly, President Obama
is not the head of the civil
rights movement and cannot act as such, even if that
is what part of the base
wants. But he is placed at
a unique juncture in history to help America — and,
by extension, the world
— come face to face with
racism so that it does not
blight human progress in
the 21st century as it did
in the 19th and 20th.
Before the polarisation
becomes too wide, the
president may have to
reach back to the themes
of that famous speech
on race in Philadelphia
in 2008 when his campaign was on the ropes,
reeling from right-wing
blows linking him to some
perceived anti-American
rhetoric by his former pastor, Rev Jeremiah Wright.
Then, Mr Obama was able
to deflect the onslaught
by asking America to look
in the mirror of history,
reflect on the past and
envision a better future.
Such a time has come
again. For much of his
presidency, Mr Obama has
made concessions to the
right in an effort to win
bipartisan support: Health
care reform was scaled
back to win support which
was not forthcoming; the
stimulus package was not
big enough and did not
focus on jobs. The effort
only alienated the base and
emboldened the right.
Now, with the bleak
prospects for the mid-term
election, the president
has to shore up the base
-- not by being indifferent to serious allegations
of wrongdoing but by
upholding the principle of
natural justice. He also has
to isolate the anti-immigrant sentiment as a racial
smokescreen.
He knows he’s not going
to be able to win over most
of those who fundamentally oppose him as a human
being and as president.
As Mr Obama told Matt
Lauer on NBC’s Today
show in March, “There
are some folks who just
weren’t sure whether I was
born in the United States,
whether I was a socialist,
right?”
He added: “There is a
broader circle around that
core group of people who
are legitimately concerned
about the deficit, who are
legitimately concerned
that the federal government may be taking on too
much.”
Mr Obama said he hopes
to allay these fears as time
moves on.
And those core Tea
Partiers? “That group
we’re probably not going
to convince,” he said in
that interview.
By the end of summer
it should become clearer
whether Mr Obama’s victory was an aberration or
a signal of change in the
US and in the global community, where America’s
leadership had been
severely undermined by
an unnecessary war and
a retreat from multilateral
co-operation on a range
of issues, including Third
World development, climate change, arms and
drug trafficking.
[email protected]
- Jamaica Observer
Historian, columnist and talk-radio host
Betty Ann Blaine has launched a new political
party in Jamaica, the New Nation Coalition.
Ms. Blaine is a former member of the New
Democratic Movement.
Believe in your country
Portia Simpson Miller with Toronto’s Dudley Laws.
J
amaica’s Opposition leader Portia Simpson-Miller has
challenged nationals in Canada to invest in the land of
their birth.
In calling them to be owners rather than shareholders, the
former prime minister said they owe it to the ancestors,
themselves and future generations to contribute to the
country’s development and be counted among the nation’s
builders.
Nearly 500,000 Jamaican nationals live in Canada, the
majority - about 300,000 - in the Greater Toronto Area.
“Ensure that you have a financial stake in the place where
you took your first drink of water and where your navel
string is buried,” she said in her keynote address at the
Jamaican Canadian Association’s (JCA) 48th anniversary
event and Jamaica’s independence gala. “This little piece of
rock called Jamaica is ours and unless we own it and control
the purse strings, we cannot control its destiny.”
The JCA was founded a month after Jamaica achieved
independence on August 6, 1962.
Mrs. Simpson-Miller, who in 2006 became the country’s
seventh prime minister and the first female to hold the
office, said Jamaicans must be unequivocal in their resolve
for peace, justice, equity and integrity and they must stand
up and speak out for transparency and accountability.
“It will take the best of who we are and our determination
as a proud and principled people, but we will win,” she
said. “It will take all of what Jamaica is to win, but as a
country and as a people, we will win. This is the basis of my
continued belief in Jamaica.”
Simpson-Miller said the gala’s theme, “I Believe in
Jamaica”, resonated with her.
“I believe in Jamaica when I see our sportsmen and women
so frequently outperform the best in the developed countries
of the world,” said the former Minister of Sport. “I believe
in Jamaica when I hear of the many Jamaicans overseas who
have transcended the challenges of great socio-economic
circumstances and have not only pursued their dreams but
have become trailblazers. I believe in Jamaica when I think
of the courage, determination and sacrifices of the Fathers
of the Nation that still inspire us today.
“The name Jamaica evokes pride because we are a people
of achievement. We are number one. Let us remember the
late Arthur Wint and Herb McKenley who blazed the trail
in international track and field and left clear footprints
for Merlene Ottey, Donald Quarrie and now Usain Bolt,
Asafa Powell, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Shelly Fraser
and many others and others to come. Let us honour the late
Bob Marley and the great Jimmy Cliff who set the tone for
excellence in music that could transcend racial and social
barriers.”
Former JCA president Herman Stewart made a special
presentation to Simpson-Miller on behalf of the Jamaican
community in Canada.
The JCA made several presentations, including a 40-year
pin to longtime member Neville Walters who was unable
to attend the event because of illness, special recognition
awards to photographer Eddie Grant and CHRY Radio, the
President’s award to Dwight Gordon and the Outstanding
Volunteer honour to Sheila Raymond.
Lifetime Achievement awards were bestowed on Madge
Cameron, Alton Telfer and Erma Collins who has been with
the organization for the past 40 years.
“I have enjoyed every minute that I have been a volunteer,”
said Collins, the 76-year-old retired George Brown College
lecturer who has served in every board position except
the presidency. “I came to Toronto in 1965 and when my
marriage failed four years later, I started to look for an
organization that I could work with. That’s how I ran into
the JCA.”
The youngest of four sisters, Collins came to Canada
in 1960 to attend the University of Manitoba where she
received her English degree in 1963. She immigrated
permanently two years later and earned a Masters degree
from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
Collins actively promoted the Saturday Morning Tutoring
program for students that needed extra help and the purchase
of the JCA Centre, and she spearheaded the creation of
the organization’s annual fundraising golf tournament.
In addition, she awards scholarships annually to students
pursuing post-secondary education.
Outgoing York Regional Police Chief Armand LaBarge
was the recipient of the Community Service award. He
chairs the Adopt-A-Mission Jamaica Committee and has
traveled to Jamaica with some of his officers on several
occasions to do volunteer work in inner city communities.
He also supports the JCA fund-raising events and awards
scholarships to students of Jamaican heritage.
JCA president Audrey Campbell congratulated the award
winners and recognized two of the organization’s founding
members - retired health care worker Amy Nelson and the
first president Roy Williams, who attended the gala.
Africa’s half-century
of Independence - pg. 5
tance groups, Belgians as
well as blue helmets from
a UN emergency force
mustered to try to maintain
some order. The fabled
UN Secretary-General
Dag Hammarskjold made
four trips to the Congo to
try to procure peace and
it was that quest that led
to his death. In September
1961, his plane crashed
in neighbouring Northern
Rhodesia, which became
Zambia upon gaining independence from
Britain. Three inquiries
failed to determine whether the crash was the result
of an accident or hostile
action.
Belgium, the United
States and other Western
countries connived to
get rid of Prime Minister
Lumumba and President
Joseph Kasavubu. The
eventual victor was
Joseph-Désiré Mobutu,
head of the secessionist
movement in Katanga.
The first two had set their
country on a socialist
path while Mobutu was
deemed friendly to the
west. He turned out to be
a monster of enormous
proportions - establishing one-party rule, a personality cult, widespread
infringements of human
rights and a kleptocracy
of unprecedented proportions. He was eventually
overthrown in 1997, but
the wars continued, with
forces from neighbouring
countries coming across
its borders to settle scores
with their own refugees.
All these wars have cost
the lives of almost five
and a half million people,
a toll dwarfed only by
the Second World War.
Truces and peace treaties
have not stopped the brutality.
Clearly, while there are
positive developments to
applaud, the tasks facing
Africa’s leaders are truly
monumental.
keeble.mack@smpatico.
ca