Why not follow Digicel and give back some nominal amount to the customer who in the process of trying to save our environment actually allows LIME to achieving significant savings in costs?

Why not reduce the charges for mobile and landline Internet access so that customers will be more willing to access their bills online?

As usual, the strategy for LIME is to try and `dupe’ the natives by using strategies that would not be accepted back in the UK.

No one thought however that these experienced Bankers, Fund Managers; Investment Advisors etc. would find themselves caught up in the same ’scheme’ only with a bigger player, i.e. the Jamaican Government. The Annual Percentage Rate may be well below that offered by OLINT, Worldwise or Cash Plus but the end results are the same. They invested their hard earned cash in high rate government bonds that the government is now saying that they are unable to pay the interest. The so called ‘Jamaica Debt Exchange Program’ put forward by the Bruce Golding led government is only an admission of government’s bankruptcy and its failure to honour legal and binding agreements entered into by the Jamaican government on behalf of the Jamaican people. The end result of this Debt Exchange Program is no different from what happened to investors in the alternative investment schemes, banks and other financial institutions and the investors that they represent will lose significant amount of interest ( J$40 Billion in the next fiscal year) if all goes as planned. You have been duped.

The real danger of this approach is the loss of credibility of the government. The fact that this Debt Exchange Program is aimed at domestic Investors makes no difference. All investors (foreign and local) will have to question whether the government can be trusted to abide by its commitments. Can you bank on the interest invested in government bonds? This `bright idea’ that the PSOJ and the JMA is endorsing leaves the government looking like a Ponsi scheme that is nearing its end.

Debt reorganization is nothing new; it is unusual however for government to beg investors to surrender their income. We will have to wait until mid February to see whether the first part of the plan works. The action taken by the government resembles the Chapter 11 reorganization under the Bankruptcy code used in the United States of America. ‘A Chapter 11 debtor usually proposes a plan of reorganization to keep its business alive and pay creditors over time.’ See WWW.UScourts.gov.

The government have been saying for some time now that they ‘have no choice’ in going to the IMP for assistance, ‘no choice’ in levying more taxes, ‘no choice’ in laying off hundreds of workers etc. etc. However the apparent U-turn on the recently announced tax package demonstrates that they do have other options available. The Information Minister (Vaz) has said that the Finance Minister (Shaw) has the full support of the Cabinet but from the people’s reaction to the tax package, I am not sure that he is getting any support from the public in general or even from those who voted ‘green’ in the last general election.

In other countries, politicians usually try avoid ‘U-turns’ as it suggests lack of foresight, in other words, plain short-sightedness. The revised package is more palatable to the people in general but the U-turn could have been avoided if the government had given serious thought to the policies that they were planning to implement. The U-turn does not show that they are ‘listening’ rather it shows that they are not smart. It should be noted that this is the second time in less than a year that they have made a U-turn on a major tax package. This is a government that would like us to believe that they have the ‘balls’ to take the tuff decisions that are necessary at this time in the country’s history.

I must remind the government that they cannot run a country by referendums of public opinion on every policy decision that they have to make. If you have to wait on the approval of the public before policies are implemented, we will not get anything done. We need the right ministers heading the right teams and the right teams do not necessarily mean only people who support the Jamaica Labour Party. You may recall that when Saddam Hussain was ousted from power in Iraq, the new Iraqi government had taken the decision with the blessings of the United States to implement a program of debathification. This term refers to the’ process of removing former members of the ruling Bath party of Iraq from the military and civil office’. It did not take them long to realize that the country was going nowhere as they were literally wasting the resources of persons who could have been making a significant contributions to the new Iraq. We are no strangers to ‘debathification’ in Jamaica for as soon as the government changes hands we expect ‘heads to roll’. The replacements are not necessarily more suited for the jobs and sometimes we end up in a more unfavorable position as lack of experience usually shows up in the form of bad decisions.

Finally, both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister have been using the recommendations of the Matalon review committee (2005) as the ‘taxation policy Bible for Jamaica’. I will hasten to point that contrary to their assertions, they are doing the very opposite of what the committee recommended. I am surprised that the press has not caught onto this or that members of the committee have not objected to the way their recommendations are being used. My quotation is taken from page one of the report and is as follows:

‘The reform package presented should not be considered simply as a “menu” of reform options from which preferred positions may be selected. Rather, the committee wishes to emphasise that in making its recommendations, the impacts in terms of economic effects, burden distribution, equity etc. have been measured based upon the outcome of the recommended package as a whole and given the interaction of all proposed measures. Any changes which government in its wisdom may deem appropriate should therefore be measured in the same light if the hoped-for internal consistency of the tax system is to be preserved. ‘

My opinion of this is that they were asking the government not to ‘cherry pick’ pieces of the report for implementation as it will not have the same impact as their recommendations were intended to be taken as a ‘whole’. In view of the above, the government should not blame the Matalon Committee for any hard tax pills that must swallowed now as the Matalon Committee made the recommendations but the government does not have to accept them. We should not forget also that the Matalon Committee completed its review in November 2004, then there were no plans to go back to the IMF and the current world crisis if it existed was only in its infancy. It may well be that we need to refresh the Matalon report in view of the current circumstances as the old report may have outlived its usefulness.

http://jis.gov.jm/pdf/pm-broadcast-dec232009.pdf

‘Google Books, the online phenomenon that has become something of a godsend to book addicts the world over is quickly gaining popularity among Jamaican readers.’

The quotation above was taken from an article published in the Sunday Gleaner November 1, 2009. I am challenging the writer to prove that Google Books is ‘quickly gaining popularity among Jamaican readers. What is the basis of such as statement? Does the writer have access to data, Web trends reports etc. to corroborate this statement? If this information is available, it should have been included in the article.

I am aware that there are Websites that can provide this type of data such as http://siteanalytics.compete.com upon the payment of a subscription but the article is void of any such reference.

Read the Gleaner article athttp://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20091101/arts/arts2.html 

There are a number of stakeholders that have been watching these developments keenly. The over- burdened PAYE taxpayers have been clamouring for a more equitable tax system for decades. Incidentally, a significant number of these taxpayers are from the government sector. They feel that they have been let down by successive governments as they have always been asked to shoulder a disproportionate part of the governments tax bill. Any attempts to reduce the government’s budget and their tax bill would be welcomed.

You also have the trade unions that in times like these are forced to go ‘beyond the party line’ and fight for the jobs of their members or face their own demise. They must be feeling the pinch as it is reported that nearly 30,000 people have lost their jobs since the start of the current crisis. As it is also being suggested that further job losses are inevitable, they must be looking at ways to protect their income. It is not surprising therefore that at every forum, catch phrases such as flexi- work, job rotation along with other popular phrases are being touted as alternatives to business owners laying off workers or closing ‘shop’ completely.

Is condemning 10 -15,000 more people to the category of the ‘unemployed’ the solution to our problem? Are more jobs being created by the private sector that can hopefully absorb the losses from the government? Is this just a ‘numbers’ game? Will balancing the budget solve all our problems?

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090625/business/business1.html

Below is a quotation from an article from the Jamaica Gleaner online about the issue of ‘imported frozen patties’ allegedly raised at the Annual General Meeting of the JMA on Wednesday.

‘The Government has dismissed concerns raised yesterday by the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association (JMA) about the importation of frozen patties, arguing there was nothing illegal about persons engaging in such trade…..’

Other excerpts from the Jamaica Gleaner article are as follows-

“What we can do is lament the fact that patties are brought in here on a competitive basis but we can’t prevent people from importing anything into Jamaica,” said Karl Samuda, minister of industry, investment and commerce. “We can’t stop it because we are an open market.”

“There is Juici Beef, there is Tastee Patties producing and Jamaicans are purchasing imported patties and I find this totally ridiculous,” said Omar Azan,

“We are having problems with foreign exchange to buy raw materials to produce and employ Jamaicans but yet still we are finding US dollars to purchase imported patties?”

If the allegations are true, the JMA has apparently forgotten the old Jamaican proverb which goes something like ‘The same knife weh stick goat stick sheep’

It was only recently that the government consulted them on the issue of whether the 15 per cent CET on imported Cement should be suspended for another year. Their response angered the Caribbean Cement Company as they suggested a ‘quota system’ rather than recommending the suspension of the waiver that allowed ‘cement importers’ to gain a significant share of the market. The same ‘problems with foreign exchange’ argument undoubtedly would have been one of the points used by the Caribbean Cement Company when they were trying to get the JMA to back their position as a monopoly producer of cement in Jamaica.

Additionally, it seems a little hypocritical for us to be trying to block the importation of ‘frozen patties’ while at the same time fighting to export our patties to Trinidad.

My personal belief is that our local patty producers are in no real danger from the ‘imported frozen patties’ as Jamaicans are also interested in quality. The overseas supplier may be able to beat local manufacturers on effectiveness and probably cost, but will most certainly loose on the ‘taste test’. The imported patties also face cultural barriers as Jamaican’s like their patties ‘fresh and hot’.

AP

Monday, June 15, 2009

LONDON, England (AP) – Officials say a person has died of swine flu at a hospital in Scotland in the first death from the illness reported in Britain.

It also is the first death from the H5N1 strain of influenza reported outside the Americas’ ……….

The information above was taken from a story reported in the Jamaica Observer today, Monday June 15, 2009. Someone got the name wrong as reference is made of the ‘H5N1′ which I believe is the ‘Bird Flu’ and not ‘Swine Flu’ as reported in the story. Making this type of mistake was inevitable as despite the fact that the ‘Swine Flu’ was officially renamed to H1N1, news organizations kept referring back to the ‘Swine Flu’ thus placing less emphasis on the new name.

See link: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20090614T190000-0500_153495_OBS_UK_REPORTS_FIRST_SWINE_FLU_DEATH_.asp

Adobe Flash Player is not supported for playback in a 64-bit browser. However, you can run Flash Player in a 32-bit browser running on a 64-bit operating system.

Reason

Adobe is working on Flash Player support for 64-bit platforms as part of our ongoing commitment to the cross-platform compatibility of Flash Player. We expect to provide native support for 64-bit platforms in an upcoming release of Flash Player following Flash Player 10.

The above is a quotation from Adobe\’s Website about Flash Player playback in a 64-bit browser. The impact of this is that Microsoft\’s fastest version of Internet Explorer still does not have Flash Player support. There is a work around but it is like we are being forced to work with the second best. This problem is not unique to Internet Explorer but that is the browser that I use and I am sorry that after such a long time Adobe has not rectified the situation. The so called \’Tech Journalists\’ have been relatively quiet on this subject and I wonder if the positions were reversed and we were waiting on Microsoft and not Adobe whether the reactions would be the same.

If it is true that the 64-bit platform is more secure then it behooves all software developers to make their products compatible to the 64-bit platform thus facilitating an easy transition to that platform.

Finally, there was a customer feedback form on the page for this \’Tech Note\’ but Adobe has removed it without explanation. Were the responses significant? Should we still expect Flash Player in 64-bit browsers?

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/000/6b3af6c9.html