Close Call or Landslide?

I would like to hear views on the upcoming elections. Do you think it will be a close call for both or a landslide for one? Everywhere I go it seems that people are predicting both. Some say they dreamt Portia ended up with SEVEN seats! I don’t even know what to say at this point. Initially I was thinking that it was going to be an easy road for Sista P, but bwwwwwwwwooooooooyyyyyyyyy……………mi nuh know! I remember when the internal PNP elections was on, candidates spent good money on air time promoting why they would be the best choice to lead the party. Portia was “cool as a cucumber” (her words)…and she said calmly..”I am going to win”…and she did. I nearly dropped down that day when she was announced as the winner. I learnt that you could be spending big money with the media houses and still come out at the bottom. This is why I question the “hype” that the JLP has produced. They invented the election slogan “nah change no course” and now the PNP is capitalising on it.

 I just don’t know what to think…..I can no longer swear that X will win over Y because it is just too tricky. The closer we get to the big day is the more I wonder seriously. Portia says she is going to win and based on her last premonition, I wonder if she will be right again this time. What do you think? What are people around you saying (or hoping for?).

A new promise every day

Recently, Jamaica Gleaner columnist Dawn Ritch wrote an article with the same title. Come to think of it, she is right. Each day we count down to elections, their seems to be a new promise on a daily basis. The Jamaica Labour Party has now published their mighty Manifesto, filled with a map of goals. Now let me state, I won’t decry the Manifesto. I have not read it personally because to be honest, I don’t have the time. As Seaga has said, we are an oral society, so I was hoping the JLP would have cut a CD which I could play in my car while I drive around town. I would rather HEAR than READ. Why? Because I am no economist and would love someone to break down all the BIG talk into little talk for me. It takes a certain level of education to understand 3/4 of what is written in a manifesto anyway.

Some of the promises include:

 1. Free education for primary and secondary school children. Added recently was the fact that it would not only be free, but it would be FREE, QUALITY education, where a teacher will be delivering lessons via PowerPoint and a laser pointer, or something to this effect.

2. FREE, QUALITY health care for children and adults alike.

3. Amnesty for ILLEGAL taxi men.

4. Building Jamaica into a financial Mecca, rivaling that of Cayman, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos etc. (Note that ALL of these are BRITISH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES). This one was the most hilarious one to me! Certainly Mr. Golding is DREAMING!

5. Job creation through external investment.

….and the list goes on.

 We are still waiting to hear what the PNP Manifesto will be saying. I hope they take Jamaican Girl’s advice and provide an audio version! And even then I may not listen to it. But I do know I won’t be reading through wads and wads of paper, especially as it takes a degree and a dictionary to figure out what they are really saying.

For the JLP Manifesto:

http://jlpteam.com/manifesto/docs/JLP_Manifesto2007.pdf

Dawn Ritch’s article:

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070801/cleisure/cleisure2.html