Roleli Speaks

I have noticed with concern an increase in the number of incidents of disabled or broken down Jamaica Urban Transportation Company(JUTC) buses on the roads of Kingston & St. Andrew. It now seems like everyday I am likely to encounter one if not two cases. This must be taken in the context that I don't spend much time on the road. I mostly drive to work in the mornings and back home in the afternoons. Is the maintenance program at the JUTC not going to plan? Or is this part of the short-sighted 'cost saving' measures to delay the time between maintenance? Someone should investigate and find out what is going on at the JUTC as it relates to maintenance. I surely would not want to be a commuter on one of those buses when they break down. The JUTC is already facing stiff competition from the taxis, illegal and legal ,and an unreliable service certainly will not help their cause.

It is no surprise and it was expected, the cigar smoking cowboy lawyer has thrown in the towel. Given the cowboy taunts that were thrown the way of 'Sister P', it was coming. I was always thinking how was this well-spoken educated lawyer going to present his reports at a cabinet meeting. Imagine 'Sista P' stating something like can you give a report on your ministry but oh I need a written one. I am not sure he could take kindly to that. He would have found himself constantly trying to refrain from uttering a few 'choice jamaican words'. The Minister of Misinformation has also indicated that he too will be leaving. As the crowning of Sister P draws near, interesting days are ahead. We now wait to see who will step aside voluntarily and who will be pushed. Related Knight Leaving the Round Table

The police must be congratulated in working to change the missing person policy. Before the change it required that a person must be missing for more that 24 hours before a report could be made and the police could take action. The family of Jamie-lue Chin had who was killed in December knew something was wrong but they were told the police had to wait 24 hours. Now once the person is missing from a place(s) of frequency for more that an usual time and no contact has been made, the matter can be reported to the police who will now act. This is a definite step in the right direction. The police are asking that once persons show up though that the complainants t inform them of this so that those persons can be removed from the list. There were over 1500 missing persons in Jamaica in 2005. Related Missing policy change

It is good news as the director of Public Production in Jamaica has directed that a policeman is to be charged in connection to the death Corporal Grantly Waite. In November of 2005, Corporal Grantly Waite was badly beaten at a Police Station in Mount Salem, St James and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital. Happily this has not gone the way of the Micheal Gayle case. Someone will now have to answer for this gruesome crime. Related Cop Beaten Dies Cops Batter Cop

The operators of Highway 2000 have requested a toll increase of 12 1/2% on average for the different categories of motor vehicles. As part of the contract or terms of agreement they are allow do so. The increase is interestingly based on the U.S. inflation rate and changes in the value of the Jamaican dollar the United States dollar. Use of the toll road. On the week-ends, with my journeys to the north coast of Jamaica I have often opted to use the Mandela to Spanish Town leg of Highway 2000. What I noticed was that but for a few other motorists I was generally on my own. So one week-end on my way out of Kingston I decided to try the old route which is Mandela Highway (Ferry) through Central Village unto the Spanish Town Bypass then unto the Bog Walk Gorge. Interestingly I found that the old route indeed seems shorter and I will be checking the distance next time. Also the time I took was about the same if not less. Since then, I have not used the Highway to leave Kingston but I stil...

If you think statistics lie then I am convinced that some polls create lies. There is a country with a population of about 2,700,000 where 1670 people were murdered in 2005. In this same country well over 1500 persons were listed as missing in 2005 and many others violently injured with many coming close to death's door. In this country a pollster has returned results suggesting that most residents feel safe. 83% of Jamaicans to be exact feel safe reports a Jamaica Gleaner headline of March 15, 2006. It is either that the persons questioned just did not understand what feeling safe meant or I don't understand. The first thing about the headline is that it says most Jamaicans feel safe. This might be seen as misleading as when you read the article you recognize that it actually says most Jamaicans feel safe in their community. The second thing is that this number drops by roughly 20% to only 66%, feeling safe, when they have had to leave their communities to run errands, go to w...

There are times we feel the quality of customer service meted out especially to Jamaicans in Jamaica is oh so disappointing. This is not always the case as there are so many cases that highlight the opposite and make us proud but they are often not mentioned. At times they are buried in the inner pages of the newspapers and they don't make the home pages of websites. Here are two wonderful cases I would like to share with you. Excellent service in the Hospital The first case was to be found in the Gleaner's Hospitality Jamaica edition of February 22, 2006 in an article written by Janet Silvera. In the article she talked about the excellent customer service she had received not at a hotel, not at a restaurant, not at a big bank but at a hospital. So impressed was Ms. Silvera that she even referred to the hospital as a hotel and recommended hotel practitioners to take a lesson or two from this institution. She spared no effort in praising the doctors and the nurses for their fiv...