Morris Cargill

Carl Wint

I WAS shocked by the death of my friend and colleague Carl Wint at a comparatively young age. I did not even know he was ailing. Carl was always a fount of information. Whenever I got stuck over the correct information concerning some political event, the first thing I did was to consult Carl. He always knew the answers. He was a fine journalist and a delightful man. Like everyone else in Journalism I shall miss him greatly.

Independence and all that

We have just completed a great outpouring of flowery hyperbole and self-foolery about our glorious and heroic independence. In fact, as far as I can remember we have been supporting our "independence" by begging Backra Massas for a raise. As we long ago ran out of local Backra Massas, we have been begging the Backra Massas across the waters. Not content with that, we stage a large number of prayer breakfasts and so on in order to beg Backra Massa in the sky.

We seem incapable of understanding that true independence cannot be based upon mendicancy. We have yet to learn that beautiful words, sentiments and aspirations are no substitute for intelligent action. We have yet to learn that true independence is the expression of a state of mind, and cannot be contrived by apeing the gross materialism of others who can, at least, afford it, without having to mortgage their lives to merchants and to banks and their souls to Massa Satan.

Coffee

The taxpayer continues to suffer. The government has decided to bail out the Coffee Industry Board to the tune of $3 billion.

The Coffee Industry Board was a bit of a disaster from its birth. But as time went on things got worse and worse. I can only describe the old Coffee Industry Board as a bunch of geniuses. If you can take an industry which manages the finest coffee in the world which is in short supply and commands the highest price and reduce that industry to insolvency you must be some sort of genius - a genius for incompetence. I suppose too that there must have been some rascality involved. It would have been very unJamaican were that not so.

But what now? The present Coffee Industry Board is to be subsidised by this $3 billion. Perhaps it will now behave creatively and intelligently; and of course honestly. But who is going to check it to ensure that it does not again run through all that money like a drunken sailor on shore leave.

I read some time ago that the coffee borer was to be biologically controlled by the introduction of some sort of wasp. I have heard nothing more about this for quite a while.

A limited success

The shorter-term US dollars bonds issued locally were subscribed, but the longer-term seven-year bonds flopped.

This operation sounds ingenious, but it is in fact simply taking us around in circles; a circular movement which takes us no further forward. What we are busy doing is to continue most recklessly burdening our descendants with debt. There is no way of course by which our descendants can sue us for negligence. If such a course of action did exist it would be pointless, for all the defendants would be long dead. Some cultures indulge in ancestor worship. There's no chance of that in ours!

There is one thing, however, in which I have to support the Minister of Finance. He has been criticised for blaming the collapse of the financial sector upon the executives of the period rather than the policies of the government. It is true that the government's policies were not conducive to development, but I am convinced that the main trouble arose from the hurry-come-up scamps who emerged upon the scene. It is one of the wonders of the world that most of them are not in jail.

An odd thing about Jamaica at present is that when bad things happen, nobody is ever found to take the blame. It is as if all our misfortunes are caused by evil-minded duppies. The good Mr. Blythe, the Water Minister, suddenly blossoms forth with an expensive custom-built vehicle and nobody knows why. At the time of writing nobody knows who rounded up and exported the unfortunates of Montego Bay. And so it goes on week after week, month after month. Money disappears from Ministries and public institutions and nobody knows how. We are a fantasy land beset by duppies.

One of these days some Minister or public person will stand up and declare "I am to blame". Upon which the rest of us will pass out from sheer astonishment.