Roleli Speaks

A message to be careful of deadly water is what greeted me this morning. I awoke and after my mediations turned to see what was in the news. Turning to the Gleaner, my number one source for Jamaican news, I found the message being sent out to be careful of the trucked water. Now Jamaica was called Xayamaca meaning land of wood and water. However parts of Jamaica has not been the land of water in recent times especially in the Kingston and St. Andrew area. The of lack of water in the piped system caused by a severe drought has seen an increase in 'trucked water'. The questions on my person's lips were where was this water coming from and what was the quality of the water. Not even bathing water standard? The Gleaner provided some answers to those questions by providing locations and testing the water quality. The results seem to point to high bacterial content at many of the sources. The bacteria content of potable water is suppose to be zero and bathable water, 100 MPN (mos...

Former prime minster of Jamaica, Edward Seaga is generally known to be a serious man. However this article in the Jamaica Gleaner today shed a little light on the other humorous side of the man. Here is a snippet It was Seaga, however, who, in theatrical terms, 'brought down both sides of the House' when in response to an announcement of a steep increase in import duties on motor vehicles in the early 1970s, he turned to the chair and asked: "Mr Speaker, is that what this government means when it says it is putting this country back on its feet?" For the younger readers, and those not Jamaican, to get some context as you read the rest of the article, Former Prime Minister of Jamaica Micheal Manley is Mike, and was the Prime Minister before and after Edward Seaga served in that office. Read the rest here... When Seaga Brought Down The House

Twitter has been down for at least 30 minutes. I was following updates on the situation in Haitiincluding an aftershock that struck Haiti at 6.03 a.m EST this morning. Before twitter went down users on Twitter.com were reporting a smaller tremor in Haiti Pingdom reports that twitter has been down for close to 40 minutes at the time of writing. Has a huge rush to see what happening in Haiti caused this or is there a bigger problem? At 7:20 a.m. Twitter remains down, uptime for today is now running at 86%, which is not good.

The tragic earthquake in Haiti has once again highlighted the usefulness of Twitter. In the minutes that followed the earthquake the first voice from Haiti was over the Twitter streams. It its not only Twitter that has stood out the ability to 'tweet', i.e. send messages, using the smartphones such as the IPhone, Blackberry, Nokia and others. What this has done is allowed not only text but images to be tweeted in seconds. The phone has become powerful too. Useful Twitter Users Going back to Haiti, there have have been a some twitter users whose updates have proven useful. These accounts I have found helpful in following events in Haiti http://twitter.com/firesideint http://twitter.com/Fonkoze http://twitter.com/Louisoxfam http://twitter.com/carelpedre http://twitter.com/troylivesay http://twitter.com/fredodupoux http://twitter.com/RAMhaiti A quick search of Haiti turned up users retweeting, i.e. repeating, updates provided by those users and in effect they quickly became the cr...

Since Sunday, since Jamaica's international reggae artiste Buju Banton's arrest by the DEA for involvement in a cocaine drug deal, speculation has been rife. Given his run in with the homosexual community, some wondered if it was a set up by members of the community. Other persons are simply in shocked that Banton could be mixed up with cocaine and not marijuana(weed). The interesting thing is, according to DEA someone tipped them off about the Buju's interest in purchasing the 'stuff'. According to the Gleaner they have the tape and another newspaper expounds on how Buju and his co-accused got caught. The interesting thing about this was a few years ago he did a song "Driva" that ironically seem to be about drug running and the Driver was told to deliver a package and not to stop at all. This time the 'Driva' got caught. For those who have read the affidavit related to another case in Jamaica there is a interesting similarity. In both case the...

Men 100M Gold and Bronze http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By1JQFxfLMM 200M Gold & 5th http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z3UEL2xCO8&feature=fvst 4x100 Gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znn7JfM7AKM Women 100M Gold Silver http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9fbKeu44pk&feature=related 4x100 Gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZuFNS9ydI4 400m hurdles Gold and 4th http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_VIuH0RWX4 400M Silver and 4th http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksOwY4CvCBQ 200M Silver 6th and 7th http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGaIhRjTP6U 4x400 Silver http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3RYKS1I1Q 100m hurdles Gold and Bronze http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dXsW7HjM_k

In last few weeks the Gleaner has been rolling out quite a number of blogs. One of the latest blogs was Science and Technology. The author's name give as 'parris' had an interesting topic last week, Old Media vs New Media. In he looked at how technology how technology , in this case twitter had change he coverage of events. He event comment that is despite his own views on blogs, here was he writing one. With Micheal Jackson's death, coverage again was an Issue. While the major TV stations BBC, CNN, Fox and news papers like NYTimes could not provide or confirm his death, a website TMZ. Com was on top of the situation from get go and never let up Referenced TV misses out as gossip website TMZ reports Michael Jackson's death first (LA TIMES) OldMedia vs New Media (Gleaner Blogs)

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all up hill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest if you must, but don't you quit. Life is queer with its twists and turns, As everyone of us sometimes learns, And many a failure turns about When he might have won had he stuck it out; Don't give up, though the pace seems slow - You might succeed with another blow. Often the goal is nearer than It seems to a faint and faltering man, Often the struggler has given up When he might have captured the victor's cup. And he learned too late, when the night slipped down, How close he was to the golden crown. Success is failure turned inside out - The silver tint of the clouds of doubt - And you never can tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems afar; So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit - It's when things seem worst that yo...

Cable and Wiresless have re-branded and they now have a new name, LIME. All I can say it has already left a sour taste in my mouth.  We will now have to wait and see what sugar and water can be added and how that the mixture will be just right. If LIME fails then it will be a sour one at that.

I am stunned! I just cant beleive it. As at October 1, 2008 the Houston Chroncile on their website is reporting that at least 333 persons still appear to be missing after Hurricane IKE. Hurricane Ike hit Texas, USA on the morning of September 13, 2008 and over 2 weeks later Galveston and some of the worst hit areas at just about receiving electricity. As bad as that might be to have over 3oo persons still missing is real real sad. My sympathies go out the families and friends who are missing their loved ones. The next time a hurricane threaten, remember to look out for your neighbour head the warnings and help save a life.

If the allegation is true then things are bad in Jamaica. The fact that the cop was raped and raped while on duty is bad that is  one thing but it is the apparent response, or lack thereof,  from the supervisors that is proving shocking although given the Jamaican reality  we should not be surprised. News of this Police rape hit the new-stands, claiming that the apparent victim could not get a listening ear from her superiors and therefore had turned to the press. The systems to deal with complaints have fallen apart. Every one who as a road to fixed , faced with ridiculous JPS bills and now a cop, victim of alleged rape, has to turning to press bawling out, "We want Justice!". The is a real sad story.

With the prelimnaries and quarterfinals of the 100M out of the way, we now have a fair assesment of how things will look tomorrow. By the time the 100m winner is known, the finalists would have run 4 races in roughly a 36-hour span, Thursday night to Saturday Morning, Jamaican time, therefore conservation of energy will be key. We will keep that in mind in our analysis This is where Bolt looks just as awesome as lightning. Running in the quarter-finals in heat 4, with respected 100M runners such as Olympic Silver medalist (2004) Frances Obikwelu (Por) and Darvis Patton (USA), Bolt got a good start and looking to the left and looking to right after about 50-60 metres simply strolled to victory in 9.92 seconds. Reviewing the action on the big screen after the race, he flashed a simle applauded his effort and off he went, the sign of a confident and relaxed man on a mission. Athletes to watch include Richard Thompson (T&T), and the Churandy Martina (Netherland Antilles) as both stopp...

When I heard that Douglas Chambers, former chairman of the JUTC, had been shot, I hoped beyond hope that he would survived. When I heard that he was dead I was deeply hurt. Working for a dollar($1) because he believed in his country and believed that soon or later people would see that what he was doing was for the best, Douglas Chambers was cut down by cold hearted criminals.  To honour the hard work that he was doing to correct the problems at the JUTC, I believe that everything that was in the agreement that was to be signed should go ahead. There must be no turning back and redundancies should proceed as outlined. I am heartened by the report in the Jamaica Gleaner, No Halt to JUTC redundancy plans,  the Minister in charge and the board has expressed there commitment in carrying the process forward. Here is a good letter which I pretty much full endorse. Here is a quote  The chairman of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), Dougie Chambers, was trying his best to clean up the s...

 This morning the Jamaica Gleaner's headline points to a story where over 3,000 persons turned up in response to a Job Recruitment Drive put on by the Corrections Services Depart( CSD ). The CSD is seeking 200 persons and are having of recruiting over a 2 day period. Today I drove past the recruitment location and minutes to 7 the crows was already gather for day 2. Amazing, this is supposedly Jamaica a country where unemployment is very low, the lowest it has been in how many years, yet every time the Jamaica Defense force ( JDF) , CSD and any other body has a recruitment drive they are overrun by applications. All the best to the successful applicants and I hope something turns up for the others that will be denied.

It has finally officially happened. Casinos will now be allowed in Jamaica, so says Prime Minister Bruce Golding. The Prime Minister has seen gold in Casinos and believes this is a golden opportunity to increase the offerings of the Tourism Industry. Now I am not for gambling one bit. I am not for betting on horse-racing, bingo, raffles, lottery, cash-pot, lucky-five, slot machines. My position is simple, gambling does not make sense. Here is why I feel that way. One million Jamaicans gather around the lottery pot. The all throw in $20/$30 dollars. They then sit down with some fanfare , a pretty woman draws some numbers. The person(s) with the lucky number grabs the lion share, grins and runs off and a few others, usually less than 1000 or so, get a little more than they put in depending on the numbers drawn. The promoter grabs his share, walks away and tells the other 999,000 to come back next week. One downside is its effect on family. Casinos in particular have the problem that org...

In his speech in the Budget Debate, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Christopher Tufton urged Jamaicans to eat more Cassava. This was the government's response to rising food prices or the "Food Crisis"  as mentioned by Omar Davis, former Finance Minister and Opposition Speaker on Finance.  The only cassava I currently eat is its derivative, Bammy.  I have a few questions for Dr. Christopher "Cassava" Tufton. What happen to the other ground provisions? Let me promote a list of things we need to grow more and eat more Irish Potatoes  Sweat Potatoes Breadfruit, Plant breadfruit trees every where. Banana Plantain Yam - Yellow, White  These can be cooked in a variety of ways such as baked, boiled, fried(least healthy). They can be diced and crushed and used to create delightful salads.  I might just start my own recipe site.

This has been a month.... Obama's Rum Cash Plus Drama West Indies Lose again Reggae boyz struggle

Here are some photos from the Lunar eclipse that occured on February 20, 2008. Photos by my Brother.

If you are in Jamaica and North America you will surely be able to see the total lunar eclipse tonight. The next one visible in our region is not scheduled to occur again until 2010. So gather you friends around with some snacks and drinks and enjoy the occasion. The partial eclipse starts at 8:43 p.m. EST. The full eclipse occurs at 10:01 and lasts for 50-51 minutes ending at 10:51 p.m. EST. The whole eclipse, i.e. partial,total,partial will end at 12:09 a.m. on on the morning of February 21, 2008. For more information visit: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/TLE2008Feb21.html http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/JLEX/JLEX-NA.html http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid183_gci838808,00.html http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=6613 http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2008Feb21T.GIF For photographers, here is some information on how to capture the lunar eclipse. http://www.mreclipse.com/LEphoto/LEphot...