On Tuesday, November 25th 2008, the Jamaican parliament will undertake a historic conscience vote as to whether to keep the current death penalty law or abolish it.

Although Jamaica currently has the death penalty for capital murder, no one has been executed since 1988. In 1993, the UK Privy Council (in the case of Ear Pratt and Ivan Morgan vs The Attorney General of jamaica) held that where the time period between the imposition of a sentence of death and execution exceeds five years, it shall be presumed
that execution would amount to inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment, contrary to the Jamaican Constitution.. With Jamaica’s current system it is almost impossible to conclude a death penalty case within that time period.

With the spiraling murder rate that has placed Jamaica consistently in the top 3 per capita in the world, the citizens of the country have become restive and are calling for the resumption of hanging. Prime minister Bruce Golding has called for a conscience vote where (for a change)  Members of Parliament should not vote on party lines, but as individual representatives of the people (as they should do at all times but don’t).

Now the nation waits with bated breath as the parliamentarians prepare for the vote. It is expected that the vote will pass, but it seems that we will not go back to the barbarous days of hanging when the judge would pass the sentence: “You will hang from the neck until you are dead.” The Lawmakers are proposing a US style Lethal Injection and or Electric Chair. They would also have to amend the law to deal with the 5 year custody problem.

Opponents of the death penalty say that it will not be a deterrent to murderers, but I beg to differ. One of the reasons there are so many murders is because there are little or no deterrents. The current system doesn’t work. We now have more than our fair share of serial murderers. If thoe guys knew they stood a chance of facing the executioner and one of their cronies was already executed, a lot of them would think twice.

On with the vote. I only hope it represents what the citizens want. This post will be updated after the vote on Tuesday.

AWSurveys is another one of those online survey sites offering payments for filling out online surveys.

Here’s how the AWSurveys program works:Membership is free and there is a $6 bonus just for joining. You start by simply giving a short evaluation of 2 websites at a time for which you receive a $4 payment. There is a referral program that pays $1.25 for each person you refer that joins free. In my first session, I netted $27. AWSurveys are supposed to send surveys every month, but the only thing I got was a monthly entry into a prize draw.

I wrote a blog post entitled “Making Money With Online Surveys at AWSurvey.com” in order  to promote it and earn commission for referrals. The post did well and I was ready to claim my commission. However, by the time I was ready to collect, I already knew what to expect as several articles started popping up about the AWSurveys scam.

I applied for them to send payments through Paypal and the first thing they did was to deduct $25 for processing charges. I was supposed to hear frrom them in  5 working days. After about 5 weeks of waiting,  I contacted them and received this ludicrous response:

Hello dejagib,

We have processed and Denied your payment. Your Account has been flagged for what appears to be fraudulent activities, for more information please read below.

This could be for any of the following reasons:

- Same IP Address (All of your referrals signed up from the same computer)

- Low or no Survey taking ratio (Your referrals took 0 surveys)

- Promoting A.W.Surveys in a way that violates our T.O.S.

- Other Fraudulent Activity detections we have in place

Please Open a Ticket with us if you believe your account has been flagged incorrectly. Do not reply to this E-Mail.

Thank you,
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I did not even bother to reply. The above “possible” violations are so general, they could tell it to anyone and they couldn’t prove otherwise. All I did to promote them was to get referrals from my blog post. This seems to be a criminal attempt at getting numerous email addresses to sell to mailing lists.

DO NOT waste your time with AWSurveys! Personally, I have given up on surveys and have decided to use my own talents through pay-per-click advertising. I have joined the outstanding ppc training program at PPC-Coach.com and am making money while learning how to promote affiliate offers from reputable CPA Networks like Neverblueads, COPEAC and Revenue Loop.

Going this route, I am sure I won’t get scammed!

Your Blog to The World is on its way to fulfilling the orignal aim of admin, that of creating a general, super blog with posts from several authors. The blog has grown and thankfully, there are now several subscribers willing to post to Blog To The World. This will give me sufficient content to continue getting good traffic while giving me time to continue pursuing my money making goals on the internet.

What I have to do though, is find another theme. I changed from Barthelme theme as I had outgrown the two-column theme. I have been trying Zeke 1.0, but it takes a long time to load, so I’m look for an attractive 3 column theme that loads quickly.

My first store, Right Price Camera, built using a portal called Datafeerdr, is open for business and is currently being promoted. It is a digital camera and accessories store. It is in a competitive niche, but my love for photography has spurred me on. Datafeedr allows me to have a blog alongside a store, using the blog to promote the products. You may subscribe to the RSS Feed of Right Price Camera or look at the right sidebar for blog content. Visit the store.

My second project, Find Your Web Host has also progressed steadily. It is also in a competitive field, but Datafeedr allows me create unlimited web sites, so I decided to start with the harder ones first. Find Your Web Host is a web hosting site that offers the best web hosting packages for sale. The blog will be full of quality posts that will assist anyone needing information to help in their purchasing decision. You may subscribe to the RSS Feed of Find your Web Host, look at the right sidebar for blog topics or better yet, visit the store.

There is a lot of money to be made on the internet and we hear the stories everyday. Many are lies, designed to trick the unaware person into buying worthless products which sometimes help the perpetrators to get rich. On the other hand, there are still increasing numbers of web entrepreneurs who make “crazy” money online. I want some of that money.

I have been studying various means of online commerce and realized that the easiest way for me was through affiliates. I wouldn’t have to do anything except promote their products and if successful, receive a commission. I wanted a site to promote these affiliates but couldn’t find the right way to do it. I thought about writing a WordPress blog reviewing and promoting each product but that would take too much time. Finally, I came across a line that said:  Building Affiliate Stores Was Never So Easy! It was Datafeedr, a new web application that allows you to make a site to sell products from different niches. What got me sold on the product is that it works with “good old” WordPress! This is perfect for me (and will be for other WordPress users), as apart from the heavy programming aspect of it, WordPress has almost become second nature to me. Beginners should not have much of a hassle either.

Datafeedr takes the feed from several affiliates (including the big ones: Click Bank, Commission Junction, ShareASale, NetShops and Link Share) and allows you to sell your chosen items for a commission. The site looks professional and only needs promotion. This is my first attempt at a Datafeedr/WordPress site, http://rightpricecamera.com. People who know me would of course know it would have to be something to do with photography. Anyway, installation was a breeze as Datafeedr.com comes with detailed text and video instructions. My new site needs fine tuning and I need to find the right template for it, but you’ll get the idea of what you can achieve. The time Datafeedr saves in inputting thousands of products makes it well worth a second look. I did everything for this site including the planning, setting up a new WordPress site and choosing the product categories, all in less than 2 hours on my first attempt. Now, to the fun, albeit more difficult stage of promoting it to get sales.

The best thing about Datafeedr is that you are not limited to one site. You can make unlimited numbers of sites, as long as you have the time and an idea for a niche. In this way, even if some of your sites don’t do well, cumulatively you stand a good chance of still making a profit by the sheer numbers of stores you can put up.

The worst thing is that the service is only available as a monthly subscription. A monthly fee starting at $27 is quite reasonable and should not be a deterrent.

The monthly subscription, plus the fact that this is a relatively new product, means that it is a golden opportunity to become an affiliate and promote this product. Promoting digital products online is like a pyramid scheme: the newer the product, the greater the chances of selling it. Datafeedr offers residual income from commissions. That means for every month that a member you referred stays an active member you get commission from the subscription.

Here is the commission structure. The default commission is 35%. Refer only one more new member and they immediately increase your commission with 5%. Refer another 5 and they increase your commission with another 5%. Refer 10 new members and your commission will be increased to 50% for all new members you refer after that. After a while,  you can keep collecting a fat check and never have to do any more promotion, unless you want to.

Datafeedr is a wonderful opportunity to make money from your online stores and also from being an affiliate. The high price is a bother, but the possibilities of eventually having 200 or so niche sites up and running, coupled with the attractive commision structure for promoting the product has me sold. Aren’t you? FIND OUT MORE!

Site Build It! may be a better choice, but the major difference is that Site Build It! lets you build one site, but build it really well. Datafeedr lets you build an unlimited number of sites, but you’ll have to do more work in promoting it. Datafeedr costs $97 per month. Site Build It! has a one time fee of $299 for each site. Site Build it! really concentrates on building a business and getting traffic by utilizing traffic pulling keywords on the pages. It is one of the most successful website building tools on the internet with many pleased users and may be used for all types of businesses. Check out the video here. See how Site Build It! can help in affiliate marketing.

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What an eventful last few days it has been! Sitting at home on Thursday, waiting for Tropical Storm Gustav to pass over Jamaica only to have it pass late in the night while I was sleeping. It caused little or no damage in my area so all went well but I was hoping for something eventful to photograph. Anyway, it is better not having a photo opportunity in this case.

photo credit: bobster1985

The world has been watching the United States election process with interest. All indications are that worldwide popularity seems heavily in favor of Barak Obama. America has a love-hate relationship with the rest of the world largely because of its foreign policy. The world loves American opportunities for economic advancement, music, culture and sports. On the other hand, America is seen as a self-serving bully who beats up on whomever they consider weak, tells them what to do (or else) then only chooses to help those countries from which it can economically or strategically benefit. A proud, pompous “world dictator” that refuses to dialogue with countries they consider their enemies. If you don’t talk to your enemies, there is only one way to resolve your differences: WAR. The world is tired of this approach.

In comes Barak Obama with talk of an entirely different approach designed to create less wars, dialogue with countries with which the US has disagreements and improve the international reputation of America. The world welcomes this approach with open arms. If the world was voting, would Obama’s opponent, Republican John McCain be able to get 30% of the votes? I don’t think so….but the world is not voting: America is, so Obama has his hands full with McCain.

photo credit: soggydan

Republicans reading this may say: “stay out of our politics!” I’m sorry Mr. Republican, but whatever your country does, it affects the entire world, especially a small developing country a few hundred miles from you called Jamaica. Whenever things go good or bad in your country, it affects us directly.

• When oil prices go up in America, the same happens here.
• When your people have less spending power, they cannot vacation here, so we lose valuable tourism dollars (tourism is our number two foreign exchange earner).
• When things get bad in America, Jamaicans living there remit much less money to Jamaica (remittances are our number one foreign exchange earner).
• When you go to war, we worry about friends and relatives too. I have 4 relatives in your armed forces.
• When your citizens lose their homes, they may be our family members (my father is one of those trying to hold on to his home).

I could go on and on, but the reality is, now more than ever, America and more so the world, is paying greater attention to this election.

Joe Biden

photo credit: World Economic Forum

I watched the Democratic National Convention with interest and the most striking thing about it was the emotional factor. Speaker after speaker appealed to the softer side of America and the cameramen were busy showing people wiping tears as they listened to touching stories. The highlight of the conference was the “closure” of the Hilary Clinton campaign by her unreserved endorsement of Obama and her appeal for her die-hard supporters to follow suit. It will be left to be seen if that will be the case. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton (highly revered by Democrats) also gave an excellent speech endorsing Obama. Joe Biden’s acceptance speech (attacking friend and rival John McCain) was preceded by a touching introduction by his son. I didn’t see Barak’s speech as Tropical Storm Gustav’s passing Thursday night meant no cable service since then.

John McCain has countered beautifully with the appointment of a woman, Sarah Palin (44), Governor of Alaska as his Vice Presidential running mate. The Democrats are in for a fight! Many Democrats are peeved that Obama did not select Hilary Clinton as his running mate and a recent Gallup poll suggests that 28% of Clinton backers aim to vote for McCain. Add this to the pro-women voters who want to see women at the top in American politics and you see why a female running mate for McCain was not surprising.

The no-nonsense Palin made her name in part by backing tough ethical standards for politicians. She describes herself as a fighter against corruption and a bipartisan reformer but Democrats will use her lack of foreign policy experience against her.

On paper, Joe Biden (Democrat) seems to be the better VP candidate, but this campaign has been so emotional, the woman may just have the edge if emotions triumph over reason. This election can go either way, considering that a recent CNN poll taken on 23rd to 24th August suggests a statistical dead heat between Obama and MCcain at 47% each.

This is shaping up to be an intriguing, tactical contest heading for sudden death overtime. The person who makes the least mistake in these last days will become President of The United States of America.

photo credit: rich115

What a day it was for Jamaican athletics, as the increased dominance of the world by the tiny 4,411 square miles island continued. The twelve year old 200 meter record seemed so impregnable, but Usain turned the doubters into believers today as he broke the 19.32 seconds record previously held by Michael Johnson in easily winning the event in 19.30 seconds ahead of Churandy Martina of the Netherland Antilles and Wallace Spearmon of the USA. Martin and Spearmon were both disqualified for running out of lane and the Americans Shane Crawford and Dix Walter were handed silver and bronze in 19.96 and 19.98 respectively.

This has been the single greatest sprinting achievement in the history of the sport as he became the first person to set World Records in the two events (having previously done 9.69 in the 100m) at the Olympic games and the first person since Karl Lewis in 1984 to win the double (100m and 200m). Not even the great Jesse Owens accomplished that double world record feat. after the race Bolt did his version of the popular Jamaican dance, “Gully Creeper”. After the 100 meters record, he did the dance called “No Linger”, which means “don’t waste any time”.

Melanie Walker

Fifteen minutes later, Melanie Walker continued in the footsteps of fellow countrywoman Deon Hemmings by taking the 400 meters hurdles in a National and Olympic Record of 52.64 seconds. Walker, unbeaten in the event this year, executed her race perfectly by accelerating in the last 100 meters to win by over a second over Tosta Sheena of the USA in 53.70 and Tasha Danvers of Great Britain in 53.84.

Melanie, is from Gordon Lane off Maxfield Avenue, located in a tough, violent, gang plagued area in East Central St. Andrew. Like 100 meters silver medallist Kerron Stewart, she went to  high school at St.Jago High where at various times in her school career she ran 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters and 110 meters hurdles. That made her a rounded athlete and her considerable sprinting speed helped her in the last 100 meters when she won moving away from the field.

Melanie’s victory was very special to Jamaicans as Usain was expected to win, but people were wondering if she would fold under the pressure. she did not disapoint and had the entire nation in a frenzy. Before the race she gave a small demo of the Jamaican dance called “Dutty Wine”, thereby underlying the importance of dancehall reggae to the athletes.

Coach Stephen Francis

Her winning performance underlined the success of Coach Stephen Francis and the MVP club located at the High Performance center in Kingston. Coach Francis needs to be given his credit as the greatest coach in the entire world today, having his athletes cop the following medals:

1. Shelly-Ann Fraser - 100 meters women: gold.
2. Sherone Simpson - 100 meters women: silver.
3. Sherika Williams - 400 meters women: silver.
4. Melanie Walker - 400m hurdles women: gold.
5. Jerome Mason (Great Britain) - High Jump men: silver.

He is also the coach of 100 meter 5th placed finalists Asafa Powell (former world record holder) and 6th place Michael Frater; Markino Buckley (7th place in 400 meters hurdles men final)  along with seven other top class athletes.

Melanie Walker

Coach Francis started the MVP track club after being tired of seeing Jamaica lose talent in the tough collegiate system in the USA. Many of our most talented athletes over the years gave up the sport due to various problems caused by the relocation. It is now reaping rich benefits as more and more of our athletes are staying or coming back home, thereby realizing their true potential.

The double victory sparked wild celebrations and a huge green, gold and black motorcade in Trelawny.

Jamaican Lips -celebrating Jamaica's Olympic victories in Falmouth ,Trelawny on Wednesday

Little Jamaica, the poor developing country of less than 2.7 million people is now leading the athletics medal table with strong medal contending performances expected to come in the women’s 200 meters in which we have 3 ladies who have the potential to win (Veronica Campbell, Kerone Stewart and Sherone Simpson) , men’s decathlon (Maurice Smith), men and women’s 4×100 meters relay and to a lesser extent, women’s 4×400 meters relay.

Scorpion disco will be playing in Sherwood Content tonight to celebrate Usain’s 22nd birthday after Jamaica plays Canada in World Cup Football qualifying against Canada in Canada. Photos of the motorcade and celebration in his hometown can be found here and the full set is available on my photo blog.

photo credit: Lim CK

When 21 year old Shelly-Ann Fraser won the Women’s 100 meter title at the Olympic Games in Beijing on Sunday morning (Jamaica time), it was a huge slap in the face of many Jamaicans who were advocating bumping her from the 100 meters to make space for (as they said) the more experienced Veronica Campbell-Brown, the reigning World Championship gold medalist in the event.

They conveniently chose to ignore the fact that Campbell-Brown was beaten into fourth place at the qualifying National Trials by Kerone Stewart (the winner), Sherone Simpson (second placed) and Shelly-Ann (third). They also chose to ignore the rules of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) that stated that the first three will qualify for the event and the fourth placed runner will be an alternate (in case one of the others cannot compete). Fourth placed will also be the 4th person to make the relay team.

There were debates all over the country and the sports talk shows were abuzz with the topic. It was a dreadful flashback to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when public pressure was brought to bear on the JAAA to replace Peter Gaye Dowdie with Merlene Ottey for the 100 meters event. Peter Gaye placed third at the National championship in Kingston and Merlene placed fourth, They bowed to the pressure and Ottey was brought in for the Olympics and this of course devastated Peter Gaye Dowdie. What was the result? Merlene placed 4th (now third with the subsequent disqualification of Marion Jones on the grounds of using performance enhancing drugs). Not long after, Merlene complained bitterly about her treatment by the JAAA and switched nationality to Slovenia.

We are a Third World country with aspirations of moving up to first world status in the next 2-3 decades.This is a fleeting dream and it is our mentality which will force us to remain in the Third World for a long time. There are some extremely selfish people among us who generally think wherever they go, someone must pull out all the stops to make way for them. This has gotten progressively worse over the last 20 years and works hand in hand with the increasing corruption. Jamaicans call it a “bligh” which literally means “give me a break even though I have a deficiency, fault or am not qualified.” All rules, systems and order are ignored to get this bligh and they have progressed to a level of severe indiscipline with the thinking that anywhere they go, anything they do, provision must be made to get a break, no matter at whose or what expense.  Jamaicans were asking the JAAA to give Veronica a “bligh” at the expense of Shelly Ann and even Sherone who placed second at the trials. These girls booked their places through discipline, hard work, dedication and performance when it mattered most; all pre-requsite traits of a champion.

Another problem which relates to this victory is our propensity to think with our hearts and not our brains. Many  of us tend make decisions based on what or who we like; rationale, performance and ability take a really distant back burner. We have gotten to love Veronica as she gave us a gold in the 200m and anchored the 4×100m team to victory at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She is the darling of women’s track & field in Jamaica. This should not form the basis of our judgment. The fact that we love her for what she did in 2004, does not give us reason to break all the rules and destroy another person’s career and dreams to include her.

There are several lessons to be learnt from this victory:

1. Respect rules and regulations and stop trying to find your way around them for your own selfish reasons.
2. No one person is bigger than the system that governs it.
3. Do not stifle our young talents.
4. Do not make decisions based on sentimental feelings, rather make decisions on reasoning and rationale.
5. With discipline and hard work, you can achieve anything.
6. No matter what the odds against us, never give up.
7. Don’t let the negatives that people say get you down, rather use it as motivation to attain higher goals.
8. It is more important if you have confidence in yourself than if someone has confidence in you.

“Big up” Shelly-Ann. Your victory to me is more than a gold medal. It is the lessons learnt from your hard work, tenacity, dedication, focus, dilligence and strength of character. You are only 21 and i only heard of you in April, but I have nothing but respect for you, having proved your detractors wrong and hopefully taught your nation a lesson.

It seems that the violent anti-gay lyrics of our dancehall artistes has created an avenue of exploitation and lies surrounding the treatment of gays in Jamaica. It has created a false impression that has distorted reality and opportunistic persons are now exploiting this mis-conception for their own advancement.

This was brought to light when a Jamaican girl was offered assylum by a court in California, as the court accepted the lie that she would be tortured for being a lesbian if she was returned to Jamaica! This is a joke! Lesbians have no problem in Jamaica. As a matter of fact, I would go as far as to say they are accepted. How else would you explain this obsession with threesomes (two girls and a guy) that these Jamaican men have. There are many, many bi-sexual women in Jamaica, most of them coerced into doing it by the men. In some male circles, some men feel like an under-achievers if they have not experienced it.

In my entire life of 45 years, I have never heard of a Lesbian being beaten or tortured in Jamaica, and I am an ardent listener to the news and street talk. Even at the popular dances where they chastise homosexuals, girls sometimes can be seen dancing with girls. No one even cares.

Over the past few years, several strip clubs have been offering a “Freaky Night” which features (onstage), men having sex with women and women having sex with women. This is when they get the most patrons and nobody complains. No one is torturing or beating anyone for being a lesbian.

Gay men on the other hand, have a problem; but it is not as bad as the gay organizations portray it. Firstly, someone has to correct me, I may have forgotten, but I don’t know of any man being killed solely for being gay. Jamaicans seem to have an appetite for violence, but of the over 900 murders gone since the start of the year, I can’t remember one reported as being attributed to killing someone for being gay, and there are many gay men here. I’ve heard of them beaten, but never killed. Gay men stand a greater chance of being beaten if they go into a strange area portraying a feminine disposition. Jamaicans wil “tolerate’ gay men they know…not strangers.

The fact is most killings of gays are from jealous lovers and not persecutors. There is in effect a lot more tolerance for gays than foreigners realize. There is another thing about Jamaicans, they like to take the law into their own hands (the homosexual act between men is a crime in the country)…..hence one of the highest murder rates in the world. If you are caught stealing a goat in certain places, you may be killed, if you rob someone and get caught by a mob, you may be killed. If you owe disrespect someone (which is not a crime), you may be killed. The reality is, the society needs “taming”, it is too aggressive and this aggression is not restricted to gays.

There is a primary reason Jamaicans hate gay men. Yes, there are biblical and other reasons they will quote, but this is the main problem they find with the act. They are called “Batty Men” here. “Batty” is the Jamaican word for anus. Jamaicans find it reprehensible to be messing (no pun intended) with what they consider the most unclean part of man’s anatomy. That is what is meant by NASTY in this exerpt from Buju Banton’s song:

Rude boy naw promote no NASTY man…….

The dancehall artistes are the main ones who have really created this misconception. They sing about violence towards gays so often, foreigners people start thinking Jamaicans are gay killing animals. The gay rights activists, realizing an opportunity to capitalise on this misunderstanding are pushing their agenda based on this falsehood hoping to pressure the governemnt to repeal the “Buggery Law” which makes the sexual act between two men a crime..

The real reason for singing about gays is that it is one of the easiest ways to get a good crowd response, as being such a homophobic society, almost every man in the audience is eager to show that they are not gay and the ultimate way to show it is to support the violent lyrics of the artiste which is usually:

Batty Man fi dead

which means in plain English: Gay Men Must Die. When they support that, it re-enforces the individual’s confidence in themselves and their heterosexuality. They don’t want to kill you if you’re gay, but on the other hand if you step on the wrong person’s foot, you may be in even more serious trouble than if you were gay.

Rare case of gays being beaten in Kingston and escorted to safety by the Police. Ironically, the perpetrators were mostly women!

It is true that homosexuals are not embraced in Jamaica, but bad media and this incessant verbal campaign by the dancehall artistes are casting Jamaica in a negative light. Lesbians especially, are rarely discriminated against let alone tortured. There is a silent acceptance of this group. Gay men are not beaten as often as purported, neither are they killed by heterosexuals solely for being gay.  Some desperate individuals (like that girl claiming she would be tortured if returned to Jamaica) are riding the ignorance of foreigners to meet their own agenda but it is at the reputation of the entire country.

What Jamaica is guilty of is a severe case of homophobia that goes to the core of the nation’s existence. Even the Prime Minister, speaking on the BBC tv in England has sworn he will not have a known homosexual in his cabinet. That statement made his popularity soar back home, even some of his die hard detractors now respect him just for that. It goes to show, it is a part of the culture and will not change overnight, at least not in my lifetime.

Rape has been on the rise in western Jamaica over the past few weeks, but has taken a sick, hideous, outrageous turn for the worst. You may wonder if rape can get any worse as it is the ultimate violation of a woman. Below are excepts from an article entitled: “Rapists Fuel Concern Out West” published in today’s Edition of the Daily Gleaner.

An eight-year-old St James girl is the latest victim to suffer at the hands of rapists who went on a rampage last weekend in the parish, assaulting five women in the process.

The youngster from an inner-city community was gang-raped by five men at the Charles Gordon Market, Fustic Road, in the second city, while the other women were abducted and taken to various sections of downtown Montego Bay where the acts were carried out between Friday and Saturday night.

St James is the second parish in the western side of the island rocked by rapists. Over in Bounty Hall, in neighbouring Trelawny, a 19-year-old was hospitalised after being raped last weekend.

Her attack came days after a 13-year-old, who was here on vacation, was carnally abused in the presence of her father, who was tied up and robbed.

Those victims bring to four such cases in Trelawny over the last two weeks. On Emancipation Day, the body of a 15-year-old girl was found in bushes, while items of clothing believed to belong to her attacker, were found at the scene. She was raped and stabbed several times.

These are official reports and news abounds of other atrocities being committed including 2 kidnappings of under-age girls. The entire district of Bounty Hall (only 6 miles away from here) is in fear, as the rapist seeks to carry out his sexual executions on his alleged “list” of young girls. It is said that the rapist is HIV positive, seeking to take revenge for having contracted the virus from a young girl. The alleged rapist’s cousin got raped last night 4 miles away in Green Park. in what seems to be a reprisal.

What is happening? Are we trying to compete as to who can do the more extreme crimes? Why is it that there are so many serial criminals here? Why can’t they be caught? Why do we have such scant disregard for human life? Most of all, how can 5 men rape an eight year old? How easy is it to get 5 people together who can all agree to rape a baby?

Finally, do you think it is fair for the lives of these men to be spared when they are caught? Should they spend the rest of their lives in prison for these unscrupulous acts?

In committing certain crimes, I think the criminal has given up his right to life.

Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes, two great African-American entertainers died within a day of each other last weekend.

Bernie Mac, the accomplished comedian and movie star who starred in over 50 films including his feature role in the 2004 hit, “Mr 3000″ died on August 9th of Pneumonia. He was 50 years old.  In honor of his memory, here is a clip from one of his stand-up comedy shows.

Isaac Hayes, the bald headed, baritone-voiced soul singer and actor who laid the groundwork for disco and whose “Theme From Shaft” won both Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon, August 10th after he collapsed in his home at the age of 65. I would like to remember him with his most famous song. “Theme From Shaft.”