Roleli Speaks

September 3, 2007 is the new date for General Elections in Jamaica originally set for August 27, 2007, a radiojamaica.com news item reports. Finally the wait is over and now it makes me even more upset as now I can't see the why the date could not been announced already. Why the delay can someone tell me? It looks like someone was backed into a corner. With hints of resignations coming from the Electoral Office and the Electoral Commission, somehow I get the feeling that the Prime Minister is not very happy with the new date but had little choice. Feelings and what is the truth is often two different things .

These are my experiences: Mobile CWJ Bmobile won hands down. Digicel's network might have been up but either was not working or could not handle the traffic. Digicel greeted you with busy signals, dropped calls, poor connections. I found the ' press release' from Digicel in the Gleaner nothing more than hilarious. This conversation on Power 106 FM's Both Sides of the story summed up Digicel's problem. Cuffe: We have Harry Smith from Digicel on the Line. Cuffe: Hello Hello mmh Hello Hello silence Cuffe: Well we had him but it seems like we lost him... That pretty much summed up the experience on Digicel Network. Bmobile on the other had few incidents of 'check system status or something like that' but on those few occasion on a second try , calls went through and there was no dropped calls, no poor connection and no busy signals. Interestingly I found it easier to call a Digicel phone from CWJ phone than from a Digicel phone. Internet On the internet s...

Madam Prime Minister or The Governor General of Jamaica or whoever is responsible please name the date. So far we heard that there is a recommendation that the Jamaica elections be postponed. I am not even sure that there has been an official announcement that the elections have been postponed. Until this point we have not heard when the new date is. We have seen downright irresponsible journalism in my opinion from the Jamaica Observer by their stating that the new election date will be September 3, 2007. That date has not been backed up by any official announcement and the Prime Minister made no mention in address to the nation last night of the new date. I have had enough of the political campaigning and politicians paying political football with peoples lives and schedule. The fact is all that is going on here is political games. Those who are supporting the Jamaica Labour Party(JLP) and want to capitalise on the momentum and swing to the JLP would probably want the elections now...

Either Prophet Phinn is a fraud or those being advised are not listening or maybe it is a a plan My wife keeps reminding me that when I heard that Portia had announced that August 27, 2007 was the election day I had commented, what a time to call a election and what a mess if Jamaica was affected by a hurricane in August. Now I am no prophet, but every idiot knows that the end of August into mid-September is the peak of the hurricane season. This has been historically so and has been especially so in the last 4-5 years. Hurricane Ivan, Hurricane Katherine and now Hurricane Dean. Two do the most destructive hurricanes of the twentieth century were hurricanes Andrew(1992) and Gilbert(1988) also came during this period. Now I have a question for Prophet Phinn, did he not see Hurricane Dean in his visions? Maybe he did and this was what he saw would ensure that Portia got her mandate.

The rains came and the winds blew, the damage was plenty in some areas and minimal in others. In spite of every thing, we thankful that Hurricane Dean was traveling so fast and secondly that the eye did not come on-shore. If it had, I tell you the damage would be three times what it was. Once again Jamaica survived, as Dr. Jeff Masters of Weatherunderground said in 2004, it was clear the locals prayed Hurricane Ivan away. Once again, Jamaican prayed to be spared from Hurricane Dean and the result was it changing course. I have not posted since August 17, 2007 as my schedule has been very tight. What with Hurricane Dean imposing itself on my schedule and elections still to come having been postponed, I have been very busy. At work all sort of requests are now flying. Today I hope to look at them and arrange them in order of priority and see how I am going to deal with them. At home, the demands are equally challenging. As a result I am pretty much left greatly stressed. I love my wi...

This issue or non-issue has brought out comments from the Director of Election. The Gleaner reports Mr. Walker comments in this quote: However, Mr. Walker cautioned the media and the public "not to fall prey and be misled by election or political 'gimmickry' in this sensitive period leading up to the general election". - August 17, All 146 candidates legitimate - Walker. On the other side, The gleaner reports the following: "In a Gleaner interview yesterday, Mr. Pickersgill said his party has gathered credible information about JLP candidates who have sworn allegiance to a foreign power, but added that it was seeking to obtain irrefutable evidence, before proceeding to court. " - August 23, 2007, People's National Party (PNP) probes allegiance - Seeks irrefutable evidence to disqualify Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidates. With Hurricane Dean gone, the Dual-Citizenship storm is strengthen to become a Hurricane. Please listen for futher bulletins and ...

I seem to have got it all wrong and Dean looks like it could be in the Jamaican Waters in 2-3 days. I am very concerned for the people of the Lesser Antilles as Dean has just about reached those islands. I will be listening for reports later today. In the meanwhile we will pray for their safety. Hurricane Dean has just kept on going West at 23-24 mph(39 km/h) with Maximum winds of 100 mph(160 km/h). The system is not slowing down which is not a bad thing but at this rate Jamaica will have to be on the looking on Sunday. Effectively we will have to finish preparing tomorrow afternoon the latest. I notice our Meteorology Office is only sending out measurements in the name of metricfication and because of that I added the speeds and distances in km/h. My friends get your stocks and keep safe. It looks like we have a problem here. At 5:00 Hurricane Dean was 14.3. N and 60.9 W. Go Jamaica Weather

The rumors have been swirling but now the written complaints are now lodged that several Jamaica Labour Party(JLP) candidates are U.S. Citizens. The Jamaican constitution forbids a citizen that has sworn the oath of allegiance to another country to run in the elections or hold political office. In effect they could be prevented from contesting the General Elections on August 27, 2007. "Rumors dem spreading?" The the rumors and allegations are Daryl Vaz, James Robertson, Shahine Robinson , her brother Peter Fakhourie , Devon McDaniel and Everald Warmington are US citizens. Devon McDaniel has come out already and outrightly denied the allegations and has threaten to sue the People National Party. Mrs. Robinson has been evasive and there has been no word from the others. At least 4 candidates are in seats that although the voting results could be close could prove decisive if the JLP is to win their first General Elections since 1980(or 1983 if you count...

I awoke this morning to the news that tropical storm Dean has been upgraded to Hurricane Dean. The predictions are flying left, right and center, pretty much like the election predictions in Jamaica. The only difference there are no polls to rely on only historical data and computer models projecting a course based on the past data and prevailing conditions. At Accuweather , their 'experts' Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski and Senior Meteorologist Paul Walker have suggested that Dean will take a 'Gilbert-Like' path. Now that is interesting but certainly not funny. Over at National Hurricane center the thinking is pretty much the same but just a little south of Jamaica. At Weatherunderground , the story is much the same, even daring to predict that by Sunday or Monday will be in the area of Jamaica. I doubt that timeline though, but I am not an expert, as historical Hurricanes general slow down, to region of 12 MPH to 15 MPH, as they become larger. Gilbert(1988)...

I am back on hurricane watch. I am not paranoid as this storm in theory is 10-13 days but I am keeping a close watch on this system. Yesterday I would have told you to keep one eye on this system today I will tell you keep both eyes open. The system has developed into the fourth tropical storm of the 2007 season and has been given the name 'Dean'. The storm has continued to track west and the center of the storm at 11:00 p.m. was latitude 12.0 north and longitude 42.3 west. Today at least four computer models had Tropical Storm Dean entering the Caribbean basin in 3-5 days. Once in the Caribbean basin, We would be looking at another 5-7 days as the storms usually slow down by as they get bigger. This means that in 8-12 days we could be in for some bad weather if, and a big if, this storm decides to target Jamaica or areas in the vicinity of Jamaica. For those who read my blog and especially those who live in Jamaica keep your eyes open we could have two storms at the end of ...

August 27 is suppose to be election day in Jamaica but there might just be a little storm selecting Jamaica for day. I have been watching this little system on weatherunderground.com since Saturday night. Now it is early days but the system has been upgraded to Tropical Depression number four. The commentary by Dr. Jeff Masters of weatherground.com suggest that it might not enter the Caribbean basin and models from the National Hurricane center's website seem to support his thoughts. However, Josh Nagelberg on Accuweather seems to have other thoughts, suggesting that it could be a powerful hurricane by the end of the week and will more that likely enter the Caribbean basin Personally I don't think it be an issue(I am not a meteorologist) but we will need to keep our eyes on it. If come this Friday and the system is anywhere between 10-15N and 50-55W then we will have to open our eyes real wide. Until then, we simple keep one eye on the tropical system while the other on our...

The heat is on and in two weeks we will know the direction the Jamaica is going, changing course or not. The electoral debates were interesting and in my opinion based on what I seen so far the JLP won overall. This is my breakdown. Scores out of 10 Debate 1 Peter Phillips : Ken Baugh 8:7 Both debaters were good but Philips edged out Baugh with his better use of the time limits. Truthfully much of what he said was fluff but debaters do that from time to time leaving you to pick out the critical points. Phillip's explanation of the crime problem, linking it primarily if not entirely to the drug for guns trade, was lame and pretty much explains why we have continued to have this problem for the last eighteen(18) years. Baugh I think pointed to the issue of poor social conditions and joblessness which comes closer home to the problem. The problem with corruption is so deep in the country, to the point where two of the prime minister's bodyguards are seemingly involved in car stea...