Dawn Ritch, Columnist Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Technology, and much else besides, keeps getting the prime ministers he serves into a whole lot of trouble.
First, he lost US$7 million. He couldn’t remember where, or quite how. But it emerged that this was on a number of foreign-owned businesses that were supposed to transform Jamaica and make us the international call centre of the world. My own view of things is that both he and Dr. Omar Davies, Minister of Finance, have been far too easily impressed by foreign white people.
A Canadian, whom the Zambian people were glad to see leave their country, became the governor of the Bank of Jamaica in the 1990s. It was he who initiated our descent into hell. Whether Hugh Small or Dr. Davies, I have no wish to see either in a future Cabinet position of any kind.
Paulwell was responsible for giving grants of local taxpayer money to foreign investors to set up telecommunications operations in Jamaica. Naturally, acres of computers were left unused, and they went bankrupt overnight. All Jamaica got for it was the bill.
The then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson excused it as “youthful exuberance”, just as the then United States Federal Reserve Chairman Allan Greenspan described the dotcom bubble as “irrational exuberance”. Neither of them did anything to stop it. The waste has been monumental.
Then came the Portia story, which Paulwell not only popularised, but sang very well in public. Anybody seeing him sing “She get the ting there, rah, rah, rah” could not remain angry with him for long.
The first time I saw him was at the Asylum nightclub, the night Mrs. Simpson Miller won the PNP internal party election. I instantly wrote off the US$7 million mentally. Anybody who could sing the Portia story like that was worth having around.
Business run amok
Even when he introduced Colin Campbell to the Trafigura people, I didn’t mind. To me it was a storm in a tea cup and a pity that the Simpson Miller-led PNP didn’t keep the money. Even now, the Jamaica Labour Party steadfastly refuses to say where they get their money from. What concern is it of theirs from whence comes the PNP’s?
Solutrea is another matter entirely. This is yet another telecoms business run amok. It demonstrates that Phillip Paulwell with some grey hair now, has still not learned from experience. This makes him an unquestioned liability, no matter how sweetly he sings.
Here is a case where Paulwell told us he’s got the money and registered the foreign company to operate in Jamaica. But it turned out tha the company had been registered, the money hadn’t come. This he admitted on public radio two Fridays ago. He said it was supposed to come that weekend.
Well, I don’t know what kind of money comes on weekends, but it must be nerve-racking to have to wait. Frankly, it can hardly be worth the effort because somebody must be dead of a heart attack by Monday morning. That’s no way to run a country.
Matters were not helped when a member of Solutrea’s board is a local legal luminary. She was paid J$28 million for 19 months’ worth of work in her private capacity as a professional by this company.
This is cheap and tawdry. It is not in keeping with the image of Prime Minister Mrs. Simpson Miller. Prior to Trafigura, not a whiff of scandal attached itself to her name. At worst, she was a warrior, and at best, she was a saint.
When I saw Paulwell sing the ‘Portia Story’ at Asylum, I’d decided then and there that he had paid for his keep. But as far as I’m concerned, Solutrea has made him go way over budget and out the door. He is a blot on the ‘Full speed ahead, Miss Portia, full speed ahead’.
This doesn’t mean I don’t like this man. I met Dr. Davies twice and found him quite pleasant too. But nothing can change the fact that by his cavalier and ministerial idiocy, Dr. Davies has set the country back 50 years.
I really never hoped to have the miserable duty of running a tab on Paulwell. If someone less disappointed could add up what he has brought to Jamaica, less what he has taken away, I’d be gloomily interested. But it would have to be someone dispassionate, and without spin.
The Prime Minister is dispassionate. But I’ve never seen a symbol she couldn’t use with the greatest appreciation, enjoyment, and passion.
Take the numerology debate. According to the Economist, hotels in Las Vegas are giving holidays on the concept. The package costs US$1,777.00, you stay on the seventh floor and one of the things you get to do is to tee off at seven in the morning on the golf course. According to the Sunday Times of the United Kingdom, more couples are getting married now all over the world than at any time previously in world history, because of the fascination with 777.
The portia train
Paulwell, I regret to say, is a genuine hominid. In the implementation of his ministerial duties, he has been abysmal. In his political duties, save for the Portia story, he has been derelict. This courtier should be banished as soon as the last vote is counted in the next general election. These are men of my generation, bumbling along, and creating problems with every single step.
I am, therefore, calling upon all good-looking 30-year-old men to get on board the Portia train. The only qualification is a smile and good manners. I congratulate Mrs. Simpson Miller wholeheartedly on this minimum standard. At least she has one.
When the driver of that train comes to a halt, I hope the departure lounge is full. I don’t care how quietly and uncontroversially it’s done, or with how much public ceremony, that departure lounge must be full.
Let the record show that a sitting Prime Minister recently concluding the 18-year legacy of P.J. Patterson and Michael Manley, has half of her candidates as first timers to politics. Most of them are young, good-looking and male. Mrs. Simpson Miller has done more for the male gender in this country than any of her predecessors.
Paulwell, Campbell and others will have to be replaced by newcomers, people like Kern Spencer. There are not enough ambassadorial posts in the world to satisfy their need for banishment, to live out the rest of their lives in comfortable penury. Not another charge should be placed upon the public purse to maintain them in future.
