Wanted: a Head of State, if Merrick Needham is right!

Desmond Allen

MERRICK NEEDHAM, easily among our foremost authorities on matters of protocol, has left me on the horns of a dilemma. In my rush to correct a reporter about the difference between a Head of State and a Head of Government, I declared our Governor-General, representative of The Queen, to be Jamaica's Head of State. Merrick has drawn a stern red pen through this declaration. But while he is correcting me, he has left me without a Head of State!

Sure, the Queen is Head of State. But I can't relate to someone so far away, so far removed from my everyday existence as my Head of State. I need to have someone, a Jamaican whom I can really regard as my Head of State. Merrick has robbed me of that. Is there anybody among my readers who is 'more foremost' than Merrick in protocol matters, and who can just please prove Merrick Needham wrong?

Here are Merrick's words: "Dear Des, the Governor-General is not Head of State. The Queen is Head of State. With the exception of San Marino (an independent country within eastern Italy) and Andorra (a country between Spain and Italy), no country has more than one Head of State."San Marino has two 'Capitani Reggenti' and Andorra has two 'co-princes'. In the former case, they're elected at half-yearly intervals (weird?) and in the latter, one is the French President (ex-officio) and a Spanish Bishop. In this case, both heads have local representatives, as in Jamaica and the other 15 Commonwealth countries which retain the British monarch as Head of State. For Governor-General, Canada uses the term 'the Vice Regal Representative'. Cheers.

Merrick Needham, 6

Kingsway, Kingston."

'Kip Rich'
disses PJ

Delano Franklyn, the Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister, asks in a terse but telling one-liner: "Dear Desmond, is this (see attached) not in breach of the ethics of journalism?" The attachment is a clipping from The Star newspaper, dated August 8 (page 12) and headlined "Kip Rich 'disses' PJ". I'm not about to repeat the very serious breach of journalism ethics and the rules of good taste, not to mention the gross disrespect of the Prime Minister by the artiste as reported by the newspaper. The Star would be best advised to censor itself a little more carefully. We can't be as careless as artistes who have no sense of taste or no worry about defamation/libel.

Feisty or facety?

Joy Lumsden gives the Spike a light slap on the wrist in this recent letter: "Dear Mr. Allen, would you look again at your comment on the spelling of 'facety' in your column in today's Gleaner. The Dictionary of Jamaican English (Cassidy and Le Page, 1980) gives: FACETY ­ impudent, bold, rude, overbearing; it seems also to suggest another possible spelling - 'fasty'; there is a parallel entry for FACEY with similar meanings. The NSO gives: feisty ­ aggressive, excitable, touchy; plucky, spirited and seems to suggest a derivation from 'feist' meaning a small dog, cur. All this being US/N American usage. "There may well be some connection between the two words, especially as there appears also to be a possible linkage of both to 'fist/feist' meaning a bad smell! Personally, 'facety' has always had for me the definite connotation of 'getting above oneself' and has seemed to be one of those useful Jamaican words, like 'cotch', which has no exact Standard English equivalent. Joy Lumsden

joyous@cwjamaica.com"

Zahra's math

Darien Henry, Snr. takes on TVJ's Zahra Burton for an August 13 news item. "Hello Spikey, I watched and listened with interest a news story which was being reported by Zahra Burton on TVJ's 7 o'clock news. Burton unfortunately referred to the Antonnette Haughton Cardenas-led United Political Party "as another third party"!!! Can there really be another third party, or is it a fourth party?

Darien G. Henry, Snr. darienhenry@hotmail.com

I missed that newscast, but if Darien is being accurate, I must give a brickbat to Zahra and TVJ. We have the PNP, JLP and NDM. Any other party which comes along now obviously cannot be a 'third party'. By the way, good luck to former talk show host, Antonnette on "putting her money where her mouth is". I wonder if Mutty Perkins would.. er.. well, perish the thought!

Fire brigades

Mary Chambers of Lucea, Hanover writes: "Dear Spike, I was always of the view that each 'parish' had a fire brigade. However, I must be wrong because on August 12, the Sunday Herald's column 'Vinnette's Whirl' mentioned an accident in Duncans and ended with 'Hopefully, the Govern-ment will work towards seeing that every 'parish' gets a fire brigade.' I'm assuming, too, that the survivors were taken to the 'Falmouth' and not 'Trelawny' hospital. Keep up the good work.

Mary Chambers

emcee_jm@yahoo.com

JPSCo's correction

JPSCO working round-the-clock: A spike bouquet for the people at JPSCo who decided to spend the money to correct that radio ad which said the company was "working around the clock". They are now using the correct phrase 'round-the-clock". Let us all wish the company well as they try to bring the power cuts to an end.

Send your spikeables to spike@jol.com.jm; desal@cwjamaica.com or fax to 926-0295. Desmond Allen has been a veteran of journalism for over 27 years.

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