Okay, so now I am certain Jamaica needs a new prime minister and, of course, a new finance minister, and definitely some better luck. Under this administration we have broken new ground for ... I don't even know what to call it; saltness, ineptitude, a combination of both?

Three or four budget presentations, a hijack or 'low jack' by a madman, since the plane was on the ground at the time, now a plane crash, economic crash, all kind of crashes, and of course, tax, tax and more tax.

This American airlines crash has exposed yet another way that we are all about the looks and less about the substance. Can you imagine being in a plane crash. You're hurt, scared, in a world of pain and then having to wait for what seems like forever to get help? And then when you finally do, you are taken to the Kingston Public Hospital? Lord have mercy; talk about leaving the frying pan and heading straight into the hellfire. Had I been in that situation, after realising where they were taking me I would just exclaim "Kill me now!"

Truth be told, had I been on that plane there would have been one casualty. Me. Because the second that plane crashed through the fences my heart would have stopped.

a wave of taxation

It almost stopped last week when the laughable Audley Shaw announced a wave of taxation that was just absurd. I mean was there anything that they didn't tax, other than counter flour and rice? Walking sticks, tampon's, adult diapers. I was just waiting to hear Shaw say they were going to tax the air that you breathe or that tax was going to be imposed at an annualised rate on the number of times we had sexual intercourse. Of course, some people who never get taxed in that regard because you can't tax what doesn't occur. Or, can you?

When I listen to these people talk about what they are going to tax I often wonder what thought, if any at all went into the package. There are people who sleep by garbage cans at nights that could have come up with a more logical package. Seriously, would it be so hard to speak to the banks, tell them the situation - its not like they don't already know - and work out a thing where their profits would attract a special tax for say, three to four years, after which the taxes would be rolled back, assuming that certain targets are met?

I mean, you can just pull stuff out of the air and it would make better sense. Taxing bully beef, do you know how many people out there see bully beef as a staple as much as they see rice and flour? Personally speaking, my favourite meals include bully beef and rice, bully beef and tightly kneaded cartwheels, and bully beef and hard-dough bread. Of course, my wife the big-time cook, doesn't necessarily see things the way I do, but I am a simple man. I like simple things.

history

The thing that gets me is that did they really think people were going to sit down and accept this? Clearly these guys don't learn anything from our history, not even recent history. 1999 was just 10 years ago, and it was a combination of Omar Davies' arrogance and the JLP's scheming that led to Jamaica being locked down for several days. That was a scary time boy.

The bottom line though is that Jamaica is in a world of trouble. Years of bad management on the part of both parties have led us to the edge of a precipice and that's scary enough. What scares me even more is that the people at the helm now don't seem to have a clue about how to get us back from the edge. Taxing poor people and taxing them some more doesn't get you results. What it eventually yields is wholesale anarchy and trust me; we really don't want to go there.

P.S. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year but I am not sure whether that makes sense because it's not going to happen. But, what the heck; Merry Christmas everyone and may 2010 bring us all unexpected fortune.

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