Smelly Jamaican caught!

I doz really have tuh laugh oui..dis is about a Jamaican drug dealer who had evaded deportation by UK border agencies for the last 5 years!

Guess how he get caught? Because of his smell! Yeah smell. Allyuh doh believe meh.

Right - read it here in The Sun 2010-04-06, where Lucien McClearley, they say “He was arrested only when cops noticed him driving a car smelling of cannabis.”

Ah mean tuh say, eef yuh on dee run and yuh is a drug dealer, try not tuh do anything obvious nuh - like light up a mega-spliff and send orf major smoke signals for coppers to track dong yuh ass. Naahh… buh he like he figga i’s Jamdong.. whey yuh light up whey ever yuh feel - cool runinns etc etc. LMAO.

Well as a part-Jamaican mehself, ah know mos’ a dem eh so dohtish… look dee fella was jes a bit too high. ;)

There we are – ‘ yet another dumb criminal story’.

Ah wonder

Lin Yu Chun sounds exactly like Whitney Houston… in her heyday.

Lin Yu Chun is a male.

When yuh big

The church in Guanapo is back in the news… construction, formerly stopped by notice from the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation has resumed.

Sources at the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation told Newsday they were given specific instructions not to serve any notices on the church being built, and this led to work being resumed there.

Who gave those instructions?!!!

Yet another sad story

Janine* is 5 months pregnant with her first child. Like most mothers-to-be, she’s a bit worried about the delivery process and all of the responsibilities involved with being a mom. She’s also concerned about completing her secondary education. She is 14 years old and, because of her pregnancy, she was asked to leave the school without mention of the possibility of her returning.

’Some of the girls in school noticed I was vomiting every day and they told Miss (their form mistress). Miss took me aside and asked me if I was pregnant but at the time I didn’t know so I tell her no - it must be a virus or something. That was around the second month. I can’t remember missing my periods or anything like that and my boyfriend used to pull out before ’the thing’ finish so I wasn’t worried because he told me if he doesn’t c** (ejaculate) inside me, I can’t get pregnant Miss told the principal and the principal bought a pregnancy test for me to pee on and they checked it and said I was pregnant. They told me don’t come back to school unless I have my mother with me,’ Janine shared.

She agonised over the process of telling her mother. ’I was real scared! My mother dread! She strict and we is Christians so I was shame to tell her I making a child. And she didn’t know I had a boyfriend up to that point. I didn’t know how to tell her. And once I tell her, I know my father would have to find out and that would be more pressure.’

Before she worked up the courage to inform her mom, she decided to talk things through with her boyfriend, a 17-year-old student at another school in her area. ’I called him and told him I was pregnant and what to do and he told me is not his child. He never b***k inside me so he not taking that responsibility. He tell me I trying to trap him with somebody else child. He called me a ’ho’ and say his partners warn him about me and all kinda thing. He didn’t believe me when I tell him is only him I ever was with. I try to call him a few times since then but he never answer the phone,’ she said, shrugging her shoulders.

For two weeks after she learned of her pregnancy, Janine hid it from her parents. She said she would put on her school uniform as usual, ’I wasn’t showing much then,’ she said pointing to her now-obvious protruding centre. ’I would leave in the morning as if I was going to school and go to a mall, the savannah, the zoo - anywhere. Come back home evening time and take out my books and do work like is homework I was doing,’ she shared.

’I wanted an abortion but I didn’t know where to go to get that and I didn’t want to go by no bush doctor to throw ’way the child. I had a little money saved up and I would have paid for it but where to go? I considered suicide. I was thinking to just hang myself or drink poison or something but I just never went that far. I say is best I tell my family and see if they could help the situation.’

When she finally told her mother, the reaction was not what she expected. ’I thought she would have boof me or cuss me or something. She just start to cry and honestly, that was worse than if she had boof me. Them tears sting me like a jep. I was sorry for shaming her and my family. I’m still sorry but she told me I had to have the baby, it’s the Christian way. She came to school with me and the principal told her I was not to come back - it wouldn’t look good to have me with a big belly in their uniform. So, mom found out about Choices and they’ve been helping us out with sorting out my school stuff and other things.

’My father was disappointed too. He didn’t carry on either but I know he’s disappointed because he don’t look me in my eyes any more. Anytime he sees me, he looks away or he might go in another room. He barely talks to me and the whole situation at home with him just real uncomfortable,’ she added.

Financially, the family was struggling to make ends meet before Janine’s pregnancy. ’Money tight so I go clinic with my mom and she already told me she wants me to finish my exams and get a job. She say she will try and help me as best as she could until then but I have to work. I does still feel down because of everything, I wish I could go back and change things but I can’t so all I could do is push to get my education and take care of my child.’

From the Express

The Hydra’s poisoned bite

Finally!

After much public outcry, and clear evidence into a runaway and uncontrollable entity, the Government finally sacked the board of UDeCOTT. Those remaining members who haven’t yet absconded that is.

But… they still out to get Rowley!

…Manning had asked his former housing minister Dr Keith Rowley, ’Where the money gone?’. The Commission found no evidence of a missing $10 million. But, Jeremie noted, ’it was apparent from the Report...that in 2006 NHIC deliberately adjusted the contract sum for the project in its favour in the amount of $10 million. One may well conclude quite reasonably that if the Honourable Prime Minister had not alerted the national community to the discrepancies in the prices on this project and caused an enquiry to be held into this project, NHIC could easily have walked away with an extra $10 million upon completion of the project, to which it would not have been entitled.

Jeremie said, in response to questions on whether Diego Martin West MP Keith Rowley was vindicated, ’I don’t see how anyone who is connected in any way to Cleaver Heights can claim to be vindicated’.

Look at the highlighted words… there has already been 3 probes/investigations into the Cleaver Heights project. This will be a fourth. None found evidence linking Rowley to any mischief. There is no evidence that NHIC adjusting the price would lead to evidence that Rowley is to blame…

Still, a few ideas crop into my head. Is this zeal to get Rowley really that important to P**rick? He seems to be risking his entire political career to overthrow, or throw out, one man. Maybe Rowley is the only serious challenger to the throne, hence the need to cut him loose before elections.

On the other hand, this overzealousness is way in odds with UDeCOTT. While 3 investigations have cleared one man, and there’s further mischief afoot to get him, I can only conclude P**rick’s in some sort of personal revenge mode or something. UDeCOTT meanwhile, has evidence of corruption, cronyism and nepotism yet no investigation is done into the shenanigans of Hart or the other Board members. Sure, they’ve been fired. So has Rowley.

Noting that the Commission did not recommend any further enquiry into Cleaver Heights, Rowley said: ’I have absolutely no doubt that there is an agenda behind this...This trying to find what does not exist, is so that it can be used against me (as a candidate). Remember in the 2007 elections, when the Integrity Commission behaviour was directly against me, so that I would be an unviable candidate because I was supposed to have been on a trumped up charge, when the last screening took place. Now we are supposed to be going to the polls again and it is happening again. There are people in the PNM who have decided that they would determine what should and shouldn’t happen to me, regardless of what I do. So if I am not a thief they would make me a thief. If I am honest, they would make me dishonest’.

Yet while Rowley is still in the hot seat, the UDeCOTT Board seems to have escaped with millions in loot.

This Government's agenda appears to be one of paranoia and even of schizophrenia. That should not be surprising, considering who leads and directs the head of the Hydra.

I can’t wait to see how this one plays out…

Jack Warner – cream or crap?

When Jack Warner joined the UNC, his star rose… along with his already fat bank accounts. I don’t need to document the ways and means here, Andrew Jennings and YouTube already have a fat file on him.

Suffice to say, the ticket selling fiasco that came about for the World Cup comes to mind (as does some outrage) and also the concession sales for the cricket… in both cases his sons were given the ‘contracts’… a backhanded way to siphon millions of dollars.

Let us not forget that the money due to the Soca Warriors since 2006 is still outstanding and unpaid, even after being ordered to pay the team by a London arbitrator…

As the Sunday Herald reported on 30th November 2008 on Om Lalla, Warner’s lawyer:

Mr Lalla is a member of Ely Place Chambers in London, a director of Trinidad’s Professional Football League and sits next to Jack Warner hearing appeals at the T&TFF.

As if all this didn’t keep him busy, Mr Lalla is an Arbitrator at the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration in Sport.

His client [Jack Warner] doesn’t appear to have had any contact with truth during his entire 65 years.

Yet, due to his illegally obtained millions, Warner is now a current ‘star’ in the local political landscape and is viewed as some sort of saviour. I suppose my one consolation is that he will never be a party leader and hence Prime Minister. My fear is that the thievery will become even more rampant should the UNC win, and he is appointed to a ‘special’ position as befits a senior member and financier.

Yes, the people are disgusted about Manning and the PNM. They see no alternative but the rising hope in Kamla Persad-Bissessar, a woman who is likened to an abusive housewife and who stays the course despite the ‘licks’, and who proudly boasts of Bissessar’s ‘pipe’.

Yet she is saddled with both Warner and neemakharam extraordinaire, Basdeo Panday. If she does not rid herself of these men, her star may fizzle quicker than Manning’s.

The stink rising

There is a big, big stink rising in Trinidad and it has nothing to do with the Labasse.

Has anyone given thought to the fact that PM Manning had a private conversation with C Hart before the latter’s resignation? Or that his ‘office’ had another private conversation with Neelanda Rampaul before she resigned? Now, this seems to be a habit of this PM. Remember when he had a ‘private conversation’ with Satnarine Sharma and told him ‘resign or be fired’? Of course, Sharma was then Chief Justice and refused to be bullied.

For the latter, he was soundly ‘tapped up’ by the Privy Council, who thought him farse and out of place to threaten the CJ.

Yet here we have him, carrying on as if nothing has happened and repeating his mistakes. Yes sirree, the stink is rising.

The ACIB is mandated by the DPP (among others) to investigate C Hart and UDeCOTT. Reports are that it’s ‘stymied’ by people in high places. Obviously, the high profile persons interviewed (and I hesitate to use that word) was a show for the media and public. Never forget, the ACIB is manned by dunceys, directed by dunceys and so can only catch cascadoo in a bucket if someone more experienced shows them how.

Yes sirree, the stink is rising.

I noticed something peculiar though. Ministers, like  Tattoo, long vociferous have now gone silent. Have they been muzzled? I can’t say for sure, but persons like Tattoo don’t just run out of steam. Perhaps the shock of a possible election has rendered them speechless, but more likely Mr Big has ordered a blanket ban on dotishness.

In jest.. caption comment: 2010-04-05

 

 

Thought of the Day

Only the ignorant are truly happy…

The challenge (^_^)

THE EDITOR:

I have been reading magazines, looking at talk shows and talking with many friends and relatives and the general concensus [sic] for many countries and ours, seems to be that finding a real decent man is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Why is it so difficult these days to meet a man who is not gay, a liar, promiscuous, a drinker, a smoker, a loser, a deadbeat father, ex convict, a spranger, a village ram?

Imagine that I met someone recently who is in his thirties, doing well career wise, single and was never married, only to realise that on the second date, he is already expecting sex and we hardly know one another! He is as handsome as ever but good grief, on the second date!

Worse yet, in these times, a woman should not even make the mistake it seems to mention that she wants to wait until after marriage to have sex, men are not tolerant of that at all, not even some Christian males who should know better. Sampling now is mandatory since no one is buying “cat in bag”!

Is it something in our water supply or the beers that they drink? I don’t know but too many women from the age of 25 and above are complaining and lamenting that they are not seeing or finding many of the type of men that would make good descent Christian (or otherwise) fathers out there. Some men are not even willing to be a hunter any more but rather be hunted. Worse yet, many younger men are now looking for older women who could mind them. What are we teaching our men nowadays?

Apart from that, we have many men who appear to be good and descent but are secretly having many affairs or swinging their golf clubs all over the place! Maybe I better leave Trinidad and try another Caribbean country for better luck!

Y Sam

National Pride

I got this in an email some time ago and forgot to post it… so better late than never as the saying goes…

Kangkalang.. Captain is like ‘Marmite’

Dear oh dear..a new blog called Kangkalang has been born – tuh add tuh dee presshaahhh!!

Dee hardest part is that I’m co-blogger on it wid meh pardner from dong on dee Rock – and dee man refer to meh as ‘marmite’! Well dat didn’t seem tuh make sense at first.

So yuh know yuh pardner – a gorn on Google tuh check it out. And I discover dat traditionally Marmite is something you either ‘love or hate’ – no middle ground. This is actually one of the selling points in Marmite’s history.

So, well – errrh.. ah have tuh agree wid meh pardner who goes by the name of Major K. Laing. ..because really an’ truly, dee people who I interact wid, eidda love meh or hate meh.

Guess what? I’m a Marmite lover!! So when ah say ‘I like Marmite’, is two t’ings ah talkin’ about in one. Oh gord – ah go have tuh explain dis tuh Anglo Saxons. Look, dong on Dongkey Rock, if the people say ‘Yuh like..[such and such]’, it could mean in the Queen’s English that, ‘You’re likened to [such and such]’. And if they say you ‘like’ something.. it could also mean that you love it.

All dis Marmite talk get meh mouth watering for some Marmite on bread.. brain food, boy…so daize exactly what ah going get. LOL. Laterz.

Appeal fails.. jail for Dubai kissing couple!

We’ve had some really good debates out there at Jumbie’s Watch on the interface between law and culture. In particular I recall ‘A signal to battle?’ – where we explored the Burkha (burqa, or burka if you please) and related issues.

However today I report on the case of the couple who were locked up for kissing in public in Dubai. In essence they were seen ‘kissing’ by a 38 year old macovacious uhman, who reported the matter. This swiftly led to arrests, convictions and prisons sentences of one month. The couple were reportedly seen kissing on the lips. Their defence was that the woman who made the complaint to local authorities, actually did not see anything - that it was her 2 year old child who saw them kissing ‘on the cheek’ and misreported it to her mother. The 38-year-old Emirati woman who was at the same restaurant had originally told local police that she saw Adams and Najafi kissing, however her statement for the prosecution said only that her children had seen them kissing.

See BBC News 2010-04-04 – Dubai kissing couple loses appeal. Times 2010-04-04: Dubai kissing couple appeal rejected.

The trial and appeal were reportedly conducted in a foreign language. The pair were also fined £180 each after admitting to be drunk in public.

In that part of the world you can get locked up for sending sexy text messages, making rude gestures, or having a shag on the beach. Well the shagging in public places is also illegal in most countries.

The Dubai case is important not merely in relation to the process and integrity of justice in foreign lands, but about how cultural and religious principles of morality shape and apply the law. We in our ‘western worlds’ may see nothing wrong with (in public) kissing, drinking alcohol, or showing a bit o’ flesh – after all we have we ‘carnaval’!! Ah mean carnaval widout all dee latter (and ah mean all manner of debauched conduct, not jes kissing) is no carnaval – right!? Buh go dong tuh Dubai nah, and behave like you own dee place and yuh will get yuh ass lock up pronto pronto!! As I see more of the world, I’m leaning to the Dubai way, oui!

Visitors…

On Thursday, my sis and a friend arrived from Trinidad. As usual, leaving 35°C and landing in about 7°C was a major transition they could not get used to. They both arrived at my house in a light rain, wet and chilled ‘looking like 2 wet fowl’ as we say in Trini parlance. They simply showered, ate and headed for a bed, liberally covered in woollen blankets to keep warm…

On Friday, they both woke up late, ate, showered and went back to bed…

Today… shopping! Never underestimate a woman with a credit card and a glint in her eye. They arrived back here laden with parcels, so much so I felt obliged to point out that it was only their ‘first day’ here.

One can only look forward to what the future days will bring…

No comment needed

THE EDITOR:

Patrick Manning has to be the biggest asset to the UNC just as how Panday was to the PNM! This Government continues to squander and squander away the country's money and at the end of it all he has nothing to show for it.

And his latest promise of $300 billion for Laventille? Well, when I heard that I got so vex. What have these people done to deserve our hard earned tax dollars?

The people in Laventille like the life they live so leave them so! A PM with some sense would have used that $300 million to build a desal plant so everyone can get water, or fix some roads. Why must you continue to allow these people to be a drain on the society? Let them go to school and get a job like everyone else. I get damn vex when my tax dollars have to go and mind big hard back men and women who cannot see beyond a ten days and a a smart card."But I on the other hand have to suffer for water because Manning's 20/20 vision only includes buildings. As my grandmother used to say, "is best they did plant a fig tree." At least you would have gotten a bunch of fig.

So Mr Manning continue to squander away the country's money, come next election, and I can't wait to vote, you will join your partner Bas!

B HAWKINS

In pictures 2010-04-02 – in jest.

Libel unpacked.. recent landmark case.

While Dongkey Rockians have been in bed or awakening to scrape yampee from dey eye.. events in a landmark libel case have been unfolding here in Englan’. “Englan’? Wha’ dah ha’ tuh do wid me who ketchin meh ninnen tuh find food and water dis mornin’?” – a sleepy, weary and totally fed up voice barks from somewhey not too far behine (aka behind) gord back.

Well dis is dee case of the British Chiropractic Association v Simon Singh 2010. And for idiots brainwashed by too much of LA Law etc, it's mouthed as ‘The BCA and Simon Singh’ – NOT ‘The BCA versus Simon Singh’. Doh arks.. jes doh arks.. move on.

It is an important case because it affects freedom of expression in a positive way. You who might have ben fraid tuh express an opeenion… on some public figure or organisation... can sit a little more easily now. Why? Because dem English Law Lords and dem clarify dee legal situation, and dat mean dat Dongkey Rock lawyers and judges will be lorning from dis case. It means dat persons and organisations will be a little more restrained in how dey decide tuh send big lawyers tuh sue yuh backside, when yuh speak dee truth.  Ah t’ink yuh got dee message now i.e. freedom of expression is one of he cornerstones of modern democracy, and freeing it up a bit is no bad thing.

Right – in quick synopsis – from the BBC:

1. April 2008: Publishes blog on Guardian website criticising British Chiropractic Association. It sues for libel
2. May 2009: High Court rules article's wording implied BCA was being consciously dishonest
3. February 2010: Challenges ruling at the Court of Appeal, using defence of fair comment
4. April 2010: Wins appeal on technical point, that the statements can be regarded as comment

Dr Singh ‘..described the ruling as "brilliant", but added that the action had cost £200,000 "just to define the meaning of a few words’.

I ‘assault’ you with the case law below. A lot of people eh have time as per usual tuh read deez kinda t’ings.. yuh know dee attitude, ‘Eef it doh change dee price o’ corfee… me eh biz!’ – yuh see wha’ ah mean.. dee typical Dongkey Rock attitude. Sue meh man! Is fair comment. LOL. 

The value in reading case law – which is not the preserve of lawyers – is dat yuh lorn how tuh t’ink from people who actually know how tuh t’ink – namely dee English Law Lords. Okay.. okay.. yuh right.. t’inkin’ and Dongkey Rockians.. may not mix very well….yes ah see wha’ happen in dee las’ elecshan or what. So ah guess I appealing to dee mo’ intelligent circumspect types to read some ah dis stuff and spread dee word (also see Disclaimer at end of this post).

[Disclaimer: This article is not meant to suggest that you can ‘wash your mouth’ on people and get away with it. The author accepts no responsibility or liability for any lawsuit or damages in law you may suffer from acting on anything said or perceived in this publication. You must seek independent qualified legal advice before launching any criticism of a person or legal entity that reaches the public domain.]

A suspect Attorney General

You know, I’ve written about JJ (John Jeremie, the Attorney General –Mr Fixer) being a partisan political figure. Everyone ‘knows’ he was recalled from London to do P**rick’s bidding. Annisette-George was kicked out of the post because she was not as easy as JJ to bend over and take it willingly. In fact, she preferred to walk out rather than take it at all. Word has it she even walked out of the Government and went back into private practice, such was her disgust.

JJ’s actions have moved him to the secure position of being P**rick’s protector. I first noticed JJ’s actions when he was advising the Chief Magistrate during a case in which the said Magistrate was presiding over involving the Leader of the Opposition. The antagonistic nature of the political process alone made JJ’s involvement suspicious at best. That the defendant was the Leader of the Opposition made it doubly so. And the fact that the magistrate being so advised was the one sitting in judgment of this case was enough to put my radar on high alert.

In the case of UDeCOTT, JJ has been involved up to his eyebrows so to speak. What sort of advice has he been giving to the Prime Minister (or P**rick, or the ‘Father of the Nation’) for Hart to resign and leave the country with his family within 24 hours… and leaving behind a substantial amount of ‘assets’?

How come now he is suddenly ‘directing’ the investigation into Hart and UDeCOTT?

No one knows how to contact Hart not even the police, but despite the police investigating Hart, JJ can say with assurance he is not needed by the police?

The police have no need to question former UDeCOTT executive chairman Calder Hart at this point in time, Attorney General John Jeremie assured yesterday.

How the hell can JJ say that? Why is it all news of this investigation seem to come from JJ, and not the police?

…the Attorney General said he (Jeremie) had been told by Commissioner of Police James Philbert and the Senior Investigating Officer of the Anti-Corruption Investigating Bureau that Hart has not been requested to return to Trinidad and Tobago to speak with officers here.

Has the Police Commissioner (handpicked by P**rick) been muzzled? And suspicious too is the defence of Hart by JJ, on all front. His words are carefully chosen to create a public image of a man innocent and hounded.

Asked whether he knew where Hart was, Jeremie said: ’Yes, we do.’

He declined, however, to state where Hart, ’a private citizen’, was.

Asked if special treatment was being afforded to Hart, Jeremie said that as of now, Hart was just an ’ordinary citizen against whom there has been a great deal of speculation’.

’The police are at the present time conducting a probe which centres on the perjury allegation (arising out of the claim of a family link between his wife, Sherrine, and the directors of CH Development, a company awarded a $368 million contract by the Hart-chaired UDeCOTT board).’

Jeremie said there was a separate criminal probe into the Minister of Legal Affairs Towers and the project at Tarouba, both of which were ongoing.

’They have not yet reached a position of finality. So there can be no warrant to do anything with Mr Hart at this point in time. We can only go as quickly as the police can carry us. The Government cannot take action against a private citizen, restricting his travel. Those are the constitutional rights enjoyed by every citizen in advance of his being charged, or a request being made by the police to have him attend an investigation,’ Jeremie emphasised as he responded to suggestions that Hart was a flight risk.

Asked whether information on the authenticity of birth certificates of Hart’s wife and her sister, Soh Lee Wah, and the marriage certificate of Soh Lee Wah to CH director, Ng Ching Poh, has been obtained from Malaysian authorities, Jeremie said the Central Authority and Interpol have made seven requests of their counterpart agencies in Malaysia. As of yesterday, they had received information with respect to ’four limbs’ of the requests. ’Three limbs are outstanding and that is as much as I can say’, he said.

Was Government taking a lot more time to get information than the Congress of the People did in producing the documents, Jeremie was asked.

’That is a valid point. But you have to understand that the Central Authority works with its corresponding agencies in various parts of the world. Once evidence is attained under the Mutual Assistance process, it can then be adduced into court proceedings with minimum difficulty under our Evidence Act.

With regards to the words in red, that’s a load of hogwash. Courts restrict movement of people all the time, and can even order them tagged, kept within a certain area or even under house arrest (Occah Seepaul is a fine example of this, under a corruption probe as well over a dodgy boat sale).

What makes this situation all the more unpalatable to me is that the legal fraternity in Trinidad and Tobago knows JJ is talking out of his arse but no one wants to call him on it.

I don’t think I am merely seeing a conspiracy theory this time. There is more in the mortar than the pestle, and only time will prove me right as I am so often.

Only a fool will vote for Manning

THE EDITOR:

Trinidadians never cease to amaze me. After spending hundreds of billions of dollars, today if you get water once a week you’re lucky.

Yet these very people who have to full buckets to bathe and wash coming out to shake Manning’s hand?

How fitting their t-shirts are red and they hold a balisier in their hands. The PNM Government has turned Trinidad into a hell with no water and fire all around and the PM’s red t-shirted supporters dancing all around him.

They remind me of someone from the bible and it ain’t God I referring to! Because PNM has squandered away so much money and citizens have to suffer for water as a result, I won’t even let Manning shake my dog’s foot.

Only a fool will vote for Manning come next time around and put him there for a next five years.

But then again some people love to “ketch dey tail” once they get a hamper and a ten days!

S SANKAR

The nature of bias..inside and out.

I work regularly in an environment where we need to make decisions that affect peoples lives, health and the money they receive. No apologies for lack of details on this because the nature of my role is not for public disclosure. However, I can speak on the nature of things I observe so long as it points to no individual or organisation.

‘Bias’ is a phenomenon I’ve been looking at over the last 3 years. And I look at it from the perspective of someone with a lot of qualified knowledge of things psychological and legal. I’m kind of like the ‘fly on the wall’ – but in the ‘human mind’ – because most of the people around me don’t have a clue as to the extent of the abilities I might have, to see into them.  If they knew, it would be like discovering that someone could actually see under your clothes! That (by analogy only) is a matter of fact, and is so stated (nothing more, nothing less).

It’s true to say that we have a pretty difficult time seeing our own personal biases, which may be much more observable to others than we care to believe.

I’ve seen decisions made by others, and I’d say about 70% of the time I can – due to something said innocently before the decision – know which way they’re going to cast their vote, when the crunch comes. The core issues that lead to a swaying of decision-making process – not the decision itself – are usually related to:

1. The experience of some close and trusted friend or professional colleague.
2. The suffering of some relative of close friend with the similar situation being dealt with.
3. Expectations based on experience from other similar situations.

Interestingly the facts and evidence of the situations before us seam to bear less weight, whenever what is known of situations they recollect about their ‘trusted others’, comes into the equation (an that shouldn’t be the case).

Hold on – I’m not saying that the three points should not inform to some degree. What I’m saying is that it is often difficult for people to draw a line between what ‘informs’ and what ‘directs’ their decision-making processes – the two can be so closely interwoven.

The above also comes into the way we assess personal situations – I mean those related to family and friend. My family and ‘so-called friend’ doh like my head – ah go tell yuh now – for the simple reason dat I is totally blunt wid dem – when it come to assessing dee facts of a situation. Yuh see (notice my slipping out of Queen’s English for effect) – I doh cyare whedda you is famaly or fr’en’, I goin’ tell you as I think it is, based on an assessment of all known perspectives of a situation. What I say may not support dey point of view – leading to the usual name calling such, as ‘neemakharaam’ . Buh as many of allyuh know of me by now, I don’t give a flying banana (aka F*) – I speak my mind. LOL.

Why am I writing this? Today? I guess it’s been weighing on my mind for sometime. And every time it happens it builds up and up. So today my fingers just ‘exploded’ onto the keyboard. It’s hard trying to be fair and balanced. Why? Because you ain’t gonna be popular, and you can expect to be ostracised and marginalised. Remember – that the herd expects conformity, support, loyalty and allegiance. Herd instincts being very ancient survival constructs (notwithstanding their necessity), don’t rely on or mix well with the more recently acquired cognitive processes we’ve come to develop – the latter due to a new 6mm of neocortex not shared with lower forms of life (a fact). I’ve touched on this elsewhere in: Confused and primitive to the core. 

But notice how two of the three issues I numerated above, cut back to the ‘herd’ – their trusted others. Unconsciously something very powerful from the instinct, steers (imperceptibly to them) or orchestrates what ought to be a deductive and logical decision-making process. An affiliation to their ‘herd’ is spread into the wider ‘herd’ unknowingly treated as ‘their own’. Well I say unknowingly only to indicate the unconscious side of bias. Surely at a cognitive level they know that the people before us are not their immediate herd.

Those – like me - who dare to adhere more to rational cognitive processes, take a harder more lonely course – outside or on the periphery of the ‘herd’. Strange though – because that personal sacrifice is ultimately for the benefit of the ‘herd’. The herd and it’s ‘direction’ will remain long after I have withered away. But feelings of gratitude and acceptance are personal matters - I do it selflessly and stubbornly – the lowly shepherd’s dog is not often popular with the sheep who benefit in the end. 

• 01:43 Damn cold! Snow expected. #

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