Monday last was a grim day for the pursuit of transparency and accountability. Both the prime minister and the chief justice took the usual futile refuge of chastising the media and metaphorically shooting all other messengers, oblivious of the message from responsible quarters that they should give an account of …
Read More »Daly Bread: Sedition, transparency and accountability; why Act should be amended but not repealed
It is fundamental that citizens are entitled to understand and, if appropriate, criticise decisions made by the Government or public authorities; and also to be fully informed about the involvement and role played by the key decision-makers, whether Ministers or Cabinet appointees to Boards. This fundamental right is confirmed in …
Read More »Daly Bread: On the bright side: gleaning hope from the steelband movement
When our politicians fail us, rather than responding on the issues, they commonly pursue attacks on critics and angry dismissals of so-called negativity. They are however so blinded by their own rhetoric and the flattery of their satellites that they do not know where to look for—let alone properly to …
Read More »Daly Bread: The acclamation of words; why we don’t need foreign experts to fight crime
As violent crime continues to overwhelm us, I noted last week the prime minister’s apparent adoption of the concept of violence as ‘a public health issue’ and his intention (unnecessarily as we shall see) to seek the assistance of a foreign expert on the subject. The concept has been around …
Read More »The other ‘one percent’; Daly wants review of ‘comps’ for dignitaries after Carifesta calamity
On behalf of all the angry people that clamoured for this to be exposed, let me lay it out at the outset: The Ministry of Culture needs properly to account for the distribution of tickets for the main stage events of Carifesta, which was ill-considered, unfair and discriminatory. That each …
Read More »Daly Bread: Delusions, deceivers and duds; how ‘Marlene mess’ exposes long-standing state deficiencies
Events that rock us into further consternation about the state of our country and whether ‘we gone through’ are occurring with increasing frequency. Sadly, the responses of our rulers are superficial. The event that dominated the news cycle last week was the arrest of Marlene McDonald on significant fraud charges …
Read More »Daly Bread: From Bolsonaro to Griffith, are we tackling crime from the wrong end?
Approximately one year ago, shortly after his appointment, Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith likened the criminal elements to ‘cockroaches’ and added that those cockroaches should be ‘crushed’. The Commissioner has company. The following report appeared last week in the UK Guardian newspaper: “Brazil’s far-right President, Jair Bolsonaro, has said he …
Read More »Daly Bread: So much of nothing; a week of ‘Blame Game’ from Hinds/Ramdial to Rowley/Archie
“With so much of everything how do we leave with nothing?” This question is asked in a multi layered (adults only) song called the ‘Blame Game’, a collaboration between John Legend and Kanye West, released in 2010. I came across this last Sunday on one of those Sunday mornings when …
Read More »Daly Bread: Murder 24/7; cold comfort as Govt finally acknowledges dire situation
We are all acquainted with the expression 24/7 meaning continuous shifts or round-the-clock service. Sadly, our country is now a country of murder 24/7. Underlining that fact, we actually managed to have 24 murders within a seven day period, causing Guardian media to assert in a page one editorial on …
Read More »Daly Bread: Crooks, mooks and jooks; the choice between corruption and incompetence
I have emphasised in these columns that we cannot expect our country to come out of its steep, continuous and frequently murderous decline if we continue, as I recently put it, with ‘poor governance, pursuit of failed policy, inability to vary something that is not working and official petulance when …
Read More »Daly Bread: Police forays in upscale territory means crime iceberg beginning to surface
Last week I examined the promise of Minister of National Security, Stuart Young, that there will be charges and “big fish being taken down in the next set of operations before year’s end.” I expressed skepticism about this promise for two reasons, one of which was my concern that the …
Read More »Daly Bread: Blinkered view of crime; why Young’s ‘big fish’ talk fails to convince
Last week, in the course of the latest Parliamentary debate on crime, talk of ‘big fish’ came up again in the speech of the Minister of National Security, Stuart Young. First, let’s set out the context. The terms of the Opposition motion for debate asked the Senate: “to take note …
Read More »