{"id":2971,"date":"2016-06-06T00:52:47","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T00:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/?p=2971"},"modified":"2016-06-08T08:13:57","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T08:13:57","slug":"good-governance-is-to-be-beholden-to-its-populous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/?p=2971","title":{"rendered":"GOOD GOVERNANCE IS TO BE BEHOLDEN TO ITS POPULOUS"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE GOVERNMENT OF JAMAICA ON SECURITY AND GOVERNANCE TO THE DIASPORA<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"unnamed.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Joshua Polachwck, counselor for Public Affairs U.S. Embassy, Kingston, Ambassador\u00a0 to the UN Curtis Ward, Former Councilwomen Una Clarke, His Excellence Ambassador Ralph Thomas and Mr. Earl Jarrett, General Manager of JNBS<\/strong><\/p>\n

By: C. Harrison\/5\/23\/2016<\/p>\n

At a time when people need to be reassured about a lot of things politically and due to the recent election that took place in Jamaica, it was a\u00a0respected time to discuss Security and Good Governance.\u00a0Thus, an event\u00a0 held in Manhattan,\u00a0brought about topics regarding Good Governance<\/em> <\/strong>in\u00a0a very\u00a0public forum\u00a0called Dialogue Between Democracies<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The forum took place at the Mercury Ballroom at the New York Hilton\u00a0Midtown Hotel. The event was brought to us by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute and the United States Embassy, Kingston.<\/p>\n

First, at the very outset\u00a0we learned that The United States and Jamaica have a very\u00a0healthy relationship\u00a0regarding interactions to each other and sound security bonds.\u00a0\u00a0Perspectively though, we would have to get into the contents of Good Governance and its meaning before we can begin to discuss the issues in Jamaica. Here, we have to define what is Good Governance; Good Governance is accountability, transparency, following the law, be responsive, equitable, inclusiveness,\u00a0effectiveness, efficiency and participatory.\u00a0 “Good Governance is the process by which authority is exercised in the management of the economic and social resources, with a view to development and the capacity of governments to formulate polices and have them effectively implemented,” according to the world bank.<\/p>\n

Good Governance\u00a0should be use to sustain and bring about reform depending on the priority of that country’s society. In other word, Good Governance is about meeting the need of the masses not a selected group. And I stress select group<\/strong>…because half of the time it feels like certain select groups are who the governments caters to most and not the masses.<\/p>\n

At the forum we also learned that although the Jamaican Government do cater to its people in some ways it is lacking in others, such as transparency and the fact that the business of the government goes hand in hand with certain criminality;\u00a0 which, one panelist Mr. Earl Jarrett,\u00a0 alluded to have been going on for far too long in Jamaica,\u00a0even though it’s in the face of vast improvements.<\/p>\n

In addition, the panel’s explanation of violence were that the amount of violence in Jamaica is unrelated to crimes on the island. Violence they asserted was encouraged from school age. The two they countered are related only in a sense that 44% of Jamaican’s youths are unemployed and half of its population are under the age of 21. And surely poverty breath crimes.<\/p>\n

And while everyone was asking questions and getting answers, no one seemed to know how to combat the latter, which was the most important. The latter could also be the key, \u00a0as to why so many other areas of concerns in Jamaica have not improved over the years. Here, the reference is lack of leadership in certain areas or unwillingness to step in on the part of Government. Again, according to Mr. Jarrett, the Jamaican Government\u00a0and its businesses have always had a criminal aliment\u00a0in terms of how business have to comply, report, and do transactions…via the need for more aircrafts, more tourist interactions, job offers, and more security clerks at airports,” “we see a lot of scams,” he said.<\/p>\n

Not to down play the many projects going on in Jamaica, such as the big plan for a hub, a plan for trains to start running again and a massive roadway development which has already started and\u00a0people can now get documents a bit quicker via\u00a0a lot more places to bank and draw money from as well as the Islands’ modernizing of just about everything.\u00a0 So yes, the improvements are there but, it is coming along side by side with the criminal elements which no one needs.\u00a0 Really and truly this is the draw back.<\/p>\n

Accordingly,\u00a0 Security\u00a0 seemed to be the bigger issue on everyone’s mind. People complaint about not getting enough of all kinds of things; standing in their way, security and those in charge. The bigger concern\u00a0though was the wider topic of international security; especially, \u00a0with the Caribbean Hub<\/strong> <\/em>on goat island soon to come.\u00a0\u00a0Furthermore, one has to add terrorism to the list, while it has not happen thus far in Jamaica, it has to be considered\u00a0and put into perspective. These were topics that his Excellency Ralph Thomas, Jamaican Ambassador to the United States, was concerned about.\u00a0 He also made reference to the fact that Jamaica needed more money to sure-up or beef-up more security now.\u00a0 The concern is an issue\u00a0that all parties involve wants to see an overhaul on.<\/p>\n

In addition,\u00a0others\u00a0were calling for the Jamaican police force to be retrained and some inside\u00a0the force\u00a0to be oust, very specific demands. Is the Jamaican Government making the best decisions;\u00a0 policies wise\u00a0and implementations for its nation—the answer is probably not.<\/p>\n

The answers to these questions and the security concerns were\u00a0summed-up by Ambassador Thomas, who said,\u00a0 “The gap is huge in national, regional and international security even though Jamaica’s security is in excellence shape.\u00a0 My contention is that the\u00a0Caribbean\u00a0Basin Security initiatives: training and technical assistants, need more money to help guard off threats to the Caribbean islands; \u00a0while Jamaica has the largest security force in the Caribbean Basin, it’s only in maritime\u00a0\u00a0security.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0“Thus far, no resources have been put into Jamaica’s security in the drug interaction passing through the United States to Jamaica.”\u00a0 On other hand, 200 people were trained for the united terrorism taskforce in Jamaica.\u00a0 “Jamaica has failed in ways of getting funding for Jamaica’s security, gathering and sharing information. The role of intelligence must be including in\u00a0any security funding package.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Thomas also made it clear that growth is essential for any country to move forward and that Jamaicans have\u00a0to change the orientation of Jamaica’s leaders and make them see that they work for the people , not the other way around.\u00a0 Has for cyber crimes in Jamaica, the United States embassy is working on a program and there are firms\u00a0here in the States, that are monitoring cyber space and crimes in Jamaica.<\/p>\n

In rapping up the segment, Una S. T. Clarke, former NYC Councilwoman,\u00a0who stood in for her daughter, sitting NYC Councilmember, Yvette Clarke;\u00a0 noted that if Jamaicans come together and do what\u00a0needs to be done then more\u00a0of everything can be done.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is\u00a0that while a lot has been done in Jamaica, Jamaica\u00a0has\u00a0 a long way to go\u00a0and it\u00a0has a lot more implementation to do to please its populous. Most\u00a0believe that brand new Prime Minister, \u00a0Andrew Holiness, will not change much of anything.<\/p>\n

The welcome remarks was done by Dr. Damien King Executive Dir. of Caribbean Policy Research Institute. Greetings staged by Mr. Gary ‘Butch’ Hendrickson, CD Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Continental Baking Company Limited. Special Guess Mr. Derron McCreath, Deputy Consul General for Jamaica to New York.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelists consisted of: Mr. Joshua Polacheck, Counselor for Public Affairs, Embassy of the United States of America, Kingston.\u00a0\u00a0Former Councilwoman Una Clarke, who stepped in for\u00a0Congresswoman Yvette\u00a0\u00a0Clarke,\u00a0United States House of Representatives. His Excellency Ralph Thomas, Jamaican Ambassador to the United States of America. Ambassador Cutis Ward, Former Jamaican Ambassador to the United Nations (Security Council Affairs) and Mr. Earl Jarrett, CD, General Manager Jamaica National Building Society.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"unnamed\"<\/a>\u00a0 photo by: Donald Levy<\/p>\n

\u00a0His Excellence Ambassador Ralph Thomas, C. Harrison and Mr. Earl Jarrett<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE GOVERNMENT OF JAMAICA ON SECURITY AND GOVERNANCE TO THE DIASPORA Mr. Joshua Polachwck, counselor for Public Affairs U.S. Embassy, Kingston, Ambassador\u00a0 to the UN Curtis Ward, Former Councilwomen Una Clarke, His Excellence Ambassador Ralph Thomas and Mr. Earl Jarrett, General Manager of JNBS By: C. Harrison\/5\/23\/2016 At a time when people need to be … Continue reading GOOD GOVERNANCE IS TO BE BEHOLDEN TO ITS POPULOUS<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2971"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3038,"href":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971\/revisions\/3038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bundiblog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}