Archive for the ‘Prime Minister’ Tag
Portia – Jamaica’s first female Prime Minister, again.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2011, inauguration, jamaica, leader, miller, portia, Prime Minister, simpson
Comments (1) Portia Simpson Miller of the Peoples National Party takes her oath of office today, so I thought I’d write a few thoughts about her. She became Jamaica’s first female PM, officially in 2006 when she took over from PJ Patterson but this is the first time she has been elected into the job through popular mandate. She beat the Jamaica Labour Party’s Andrew Holness, the result winning 42 out of 63 seats on Dec 29th.
It’s not surprising she won after the debacle of the one term Bruce Golding JLP government.
The PNP have traditionally been a party representing the poor, she promises trust in the government – something that is needed more than anything. She hasn’t convinced me yet to be honest as she seemed distinctly quiet over the whole Dudus-Golding affair and she has been accused of not being smart enough to lead the country – I don’t think that matters really – Reagan and Bush ran the US remember! Here’s a profile of her which was broadcast in 2007 CLICK HERE.
The point is, she really needs to clean up politics by cutting off the links with the criminals, maybe it’s good to move away from the rich elite of Jamaica and the JLP, let’s hope she works to lift Jamaicans out of their poverty.
Jamaican crime policy
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bruce, Bruce Golding, Golding, jamaica, Prime Minister
Leave a Comment Are the JLP’s anti crime policies any different to the PNP’s? The crime rate has jumped up since they took over power (by some 22 per cent) so have there actually been any policy changes to account for this? I listened to a recent interview of Bruce Golding on the BBC (May 2008 on The World Today BBC World Service). He says that the crime has been carried over from the PNP, typical politician, blaming the previous adminstration – he outlines to get a working police force which has integrity, secondly he says they are employing a strategic approach to deal with the root causes of cirme – ie. poverty and getting young people into jobs to give them options away from crime.
Bruce Golding says they have set up an anti corruption arm of the police force and he says they have made 30 arrests so far and that this shows they are moving aggressivley on this. Anyone who spends more than five minutes in Jamaica quickly understands the corrupt police and the woefully inadequate measures to stamp it out. There may be planty of enquiries and supposed investigations but there are rarely any real outcomes.
In all this bad news, he tries to talk up the economy and says tourism is doing well and he talks up giving free access to schools and removing hospital charges.
