Portia “flies the gate” at her big dance in Half Way Tree

August 27th is the day of reckoning! Who will win the next general election, only Rev. Phinn and God knows. This evening, Portia Simpson Miller presented her 60 candidates to the people of Jamaica as well as announced that August 7th is nomination day followed by the big day on August 27th, 2007.

Well first let me just “big up” Portia for behaving like a lady (not Saw).  To be frank I never knew she had it in her, but she really surprised me this evening. For the last few weeks, Bruce Golding and his desperate followers and lackeys have spliced up some PNP speeches and pieced them together so that it appeared that the PNP did not mean the country any good and if we voted them in we were doomed. Anyone with any level of intelligence would agree that it was a low blow. The problem is (or luckily for the JLP)…..the general level of intelligence in Jamaica is low, so I am sure that he got his message across to its intended audience. The PNP responded and asked what would happen if they did the same, how would the JLP look?

So back to the big dance in Half Way Tree…..Portia surprised me. She was up there mesmerising the sea of orange and yellow before her.

She began with her hands clasped in “pryer” after which she cited some lyrics from the song “By the rivers of Babylon”. Sista P was on stage in full force. You have to respect her though….instead of back biting and nyaming up herself and the labour party, she listed some of the party’s positive achievements over the last 18 years and since she has been PM over the last 16 months. For once throughout this whole campaigning nonsense, someone was addressing the REAL issues. She spoke of how her party has provided housing opportunities more than any other party. She spoke about their commitment to early childhood education. She spoke about the issue of health care for children under 18 years old as well as her plan to build a children’s hospital in the west. She spoke about the issue of crime and violence and how there will be new recruits for the JCF and the fact that we have to address the crime situation in Jamaica with a sense of urgency.

 I didn’t hear her speak about jobs and economic development and those are BURNING issue the youths of Jamaica would like to be addressed. I figure that in time she will address this on the campaign trail and I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. For the first time in my life I was willing to overlook her poor diction and speech and just try to mek out what Sista P really ah seh! The event was well choreographed as she had a song befitting every item! I even heard songs which were specifically made for her! I just hope she had the rights to these songs unlike when she won the party presidency she took Shaggy’s “Strength of a Woman” unto herself! But Sista P, you did us proud! You behaved yourself like a lady. You didn’t have to curse and carry on up there as if you belonged to the Jamaica Labour Party! You acted with dignity and brought your points across very well! I have to salute you for that!

 Here is the depressing part. After the grand announcement in Half Way Tree, we were taken to the JLP headquarters where Bruce Golding overreacted by saying that the date is too long ahead. He was hoping she would have said that nomination day was Friday of this week and I guess elections in 2-3 weeks. Now what a hard man to please! Constitutionally, the elections are not due until October and she could string you out until February 2008! The woman calls it in August and you are vexed? It is her choice and her prerogative and you are vexed? Is what so happening up in Jamaica House that you are running to get? To begin with, I have not heard your realistic plan for the country. You are living in the 1980s….or better yet 1960s with your “Industrialisation by Invitation” plan. You want to find investors and ask them to come here, so that you can build some factories and create some hum drum jobs! Sorry, no can do! Nobody is interested in any factories in the Caribbean…..they are closing down in the Dom Rep and Mexico and heading to China where they will find near-slave labour. Then I heard Audley Shaw saying that he was going to borrow money to fund all sorts of nonsense on HIS terms. I know my ears where not fooling me when I heard it, nor was I hallucinating! I have never heard of people borrowing on their own terms…or can he clarify that for us? This is a man who could not even run his own rural petrol station…and he is our potential Minister of Finance! As for Andrew Holness and the issue of education. Free education? From an administration who did not support this concept? If you are reading this and you are a Jamaican you must know that “Granny seh freeness nuh good”. Clearly these people are joking. Bruce needs to calm down and cool his foot. There is nothing he can do to change Portia’s election date. All you have to do Mr. Bruce is keep on campaigning until such time.

More anon….any views on the big dance? It was a show to remember! It’s a good thing the majority of Jamaicans are uneducated I tell you because it is only sensationalism that can hold them!