Morris Cargill

IF I DIDN'T know for certain that the Police Commissioner Francis Forbes has never touched the stuff, I would have been tempted to conclude from his recent statements that he had been smoking a lot of spliffs. He seems to be hallucinating.

He has suggested that the recent calls for the legalisation of ganja may be a cynical attempt by 'big people' to create a platform from which to launch large ganja-based enterprises. I should, I suppose, be flattered to be called a 'big man' for I have been advocating the legalisation of ganja for nearly 40 years. If the Commissioner considers that this has been a cynical attempt on my part to make a lot of money, I'm forced to conclude that he's been guilty of a bit of damned impertinence.

The Commissioner's statement takes me back to the memories of our earlier colonial administrations, when our colonial Governors would tell us that the whole fabric of our society was being threatened by murder-crazed smokers with ganja in one hand and cutlasses in another. But he has engrafted upon this philosophy populist statements worthy of a more modern political regime. He seeks to bring tears of sympathy to our eyes for the poor little man selling his spliff or two on street corners who would be forced out of business by ganja giants such as, presumably, myself.

Commissioner Forbes obviously hasn't sufficient intelligence to understand that it is not ganja itself that creates evil, but the attempt led by the USA to suppress it by rigid prohibition. The dangerous gangsterism with which the Commissioner must now contend, with, I might add, a singular lack of success, has in fact been created by people with his cast of mind. The largest producer of ganja in the world is the USA, and it has been the prohibition in the USA of both alcohol and ganja that has created the large illegal fortunes of the ganja producers and smugglers: large and very rich organisations which have been brought into being by people like himself with minds too small to understand what those who seek to legalise ganja have been saying for years.

Commissioner Forbes has a big job on his hands in Jamaica at present, trying to bring murderers and thieves under control. As a good policeman therefore he should stick to that job and leave constructive and better thinking to those more capable of it than he is.

Telecom agreement

Just as many of us were beginning to think that Phillip Paulwell had sold his horse and therefore had become unable successfully to joust against Cable and Wireless, our worthy knight in shining armour seems to have pulled off a splendid agreement with Cable and Wireless. At the time of writing I do not know the full details of this agreement, but it is clear that in some respects the monopoly of Cable and Wireless has been broken and that wide areas concerning telecommunications have been liberalised with great benefits to Jamaica and no great harm to Cable and Wireless.

So let me offer my congratulations to Phillip Paulwell. It would be unfair to say that like St. George he's slain a dragon for I have never agreed with those who seemed to think that Cable and Wireless had dragon-like characteristics. But if indeed Cable and Wireless could be assigned to that role, it is nice to know that the maiden, in whose defence Phillip Paulwell was carrying his lance, is no long in danger of being raped.

More congratulations

While I am in a congratulatory mood (I think I must be sickening for something) let me commend the Government for having slapped a duty on foreign beef importation. Let me also commend the Public Health officials who arranged for a shipment of chicken parts which was spoiled to be dumped.

Some people seem to think that we are somehow in breach of free trade agreements if we impose a tariff against imported food. It should be realised, however, that in America and in Europe farmers of every kind are supported by huge government subsidies. These subsidies make it impossible for Jamaican farmers to compete. It is nonsense to tell us that our beef producers and other farmers should be competitive when the playing field is so obviously uneven.

Those who import cheap foreign food constantly tell us that they are doing us a favour by making it possible for poorer people to pay less. This is a worn-out old strategy which should be disregarded for the poorer people will get a great deal more impoverished if the importation of cheap subsidised food results in the destruction of local farming. It is time that Jamaica became reasonably self sufficient in products like beef, chicken, pork, goat meat and milk. But we shall never become so if every country which heavily subsidises its own agriculture is allowed to regard Jamaica as a happy dumping ground for its surplus production.

A matter of water

The admirable Minister of Water Dr. Karl Blythe seems, however, to be a rather odd chap. He has apparently driven the very efficient chief executive officer of the National Water Commission, Mr. Basil Sutherland, to distraction. He is also reported to have said that the NWC would be building the second largest dam in the world. To do this, the entrance to Kingston Harbour would have to be blocked and the entire rest of Jamaica turned into a lake.

It seems that the good Dr. Blythe is on his way to making himself the second largest dam fool in Jamaica.