The day I met ‘Motty’ Perkins
By HG HELPS Editor-at-Large [email protected]
Sunday, February 12, 2012

IT was during the early part of 1993 that a Jamaica Observer team decided to visit the St Elizabeth home of Wilmot “Motty” Perkins, with the objective of doing a feature on the outspoken, if not controversial, but colourful individual.
The team that included Sandra Champagnie, then Sunday Observer editor, and myself, went to Malvern with an open mind, not knowing what to expect from the tough-talking radio host who had racked up more political enemies than the number of new members of the Jamaica Labour Party and the People’s National Party recruited at the time.
PERKINS… politicians don’t like to hear the truth, so someone has to tell it for them
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“Come, come on in,” was the initial greeting from the man who gave his age as “somewhere around 60” after Neville, Perkins’ then gardener, had ushered us inside the swanky premises.
We felt the overwhelming presence of the man who resembled some biblical character with his long beard, and who looked like he might actually have the power to turn water into wine. After a while, though, in his jeans that were cut off at the knees, and his white T-shirt, Motty looked more like an American hippy than one whose voice and pen could have such tremor-like impact on the nation.
He was fairer in complexion than television and newspaper columns depicted him and his towering height presented him in an even more intimidating light.
“You want something to drink… or even eat? You travelling from very far, from what I hear,” he asked.
“Maybe just a drink for now,” Champagnie responded. “We really want to know as much about you as we can.”
Motty had expected company. The interview had been confirmed a week before. It was one that was slated to be done by Champagnie, but I had to get in on the action. After all, it was Motty Perkins, one of my heroes of journalism and broadcasting.
Neville, the latest in the line of faithful gardeners, was there as a handyman too, and would respond positively to any demand made by Perkins and his lovely wife Elaine, still one of the nicest women I have ever met.
Some say she was the direct opposite of her husband, but forget the man behind the microphone and the man wielding that ink-filled pen. Motty, too, in a social setting at any rate, was right up there as a true human being.
Even with Neville watching his back, he would take no chances. His .38 pistol, stuck in his jeans waist, said it all.
“You never know what will happen in these times, you know, sir. So you have to be prepared just in case you get someone here whom you did not invite for crackers and cheese,” he said in justification of the presence of his licensed pistol.
It was soon down to the business of interviewing him for the Sunday feature.
The venue, by his admission one of his favourite places, was his library, a entire room filled with must have been hundreds of books. Champagnie suggested on our way back to Kingston that Motty must have read and retained every word in those books.
“By the way, I am cooking roast beef, but I have asked my boss (Elaine) to oversee things for me. You are free to stay for dinner,” he told us, earning a zippy glare from vegetarian Champagnie, but a quick nod of approval from the other hungry visitor.
Along with journalism Perkins ventured into farming, and was well known for his cattle farm in St Mary.
“Why is it that you appear to hate politicians, particularly those in the PNP?” was one question put to him.
“Look, sir,” he responded, adjusting the pistol, though not in an act of intimidation. “Politicians don’t like to hear the truth, so someone has to tell it for them. I have nothing personal against them and I don’t have an axe to grind, but if we can rid this country of our politicians, we will be better off.”
Regarding his association with former Prime Minister Michael Manley and in reaction to suggestions that he despised Manley, Perkins admitted that while he was once a member of the youth arm of the PNP and had strong party sympathies, he felt that Manley’s economic and social policies of the 1970s, in particular, had damaged Jamaica.
“But if you say things that seem to be uncomplimentary about Manley, you hear all sorts of things,” he added.
“So it was not true that you hate Manley because he took away a girl from you?” was the next question put to him.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,” emerged the infectious laughter that was known to reverberate across the length and breadth of the nation.
“Me?Manley took away my woman? No, sir, no such luck for him. I was too sharp with the women for even Manley to knock one from me,” he said.
There were several other rumours about the former Titchfield High and Calabar High School student that he flatly put down to people bad-mouthing him.
Motty’s background as an amateur boxer in the middleweight division, starting from his days at Calabar, gave rise to stories about him as a street fighter, who would punch down a man if he dared to cross his path.
“I have heard so many stories about me you see, sir, that really amuse me.
“I hear that I punched down men at JBC (Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation) when I worked there, but I have never been involved in a fight at the JBC. Yet, they say all kinds of things about me.
“Maybe I should have gone professional in boxing, because they say so many things about me.”
The flow of the interview was disrupted several times by Elaine’s intervention.
“You sure you don’t want anything else?” she kept asking, almost after 10-minute intervals.
The smell of roast beef from his kitchen may have even forced Champagnie into thinking that maybe her decision to go the vegetarian route was premature.
Soon, Motty and Elaine had insisted that we halt the interview and partake of the offering.
It had been quite a while since roast beef had touched my tongue, but as good as it smelled, Champagnie kept her distance, instead choosing to consume carbohydrates exclusively.
“How did you get the nickname ‘Mutty’?, as I had felt was the correct spelling.
“Did someone mean to demean you by calling you a dog?
“No, no, no. That nickname was actually derived from Wilmott. I know some people want to call me dog. Indeed, I have been called worse, but it is actually spelt Motty.
“I don’t like the name Wilmot, sir, but I guess that my mother wanted me to bear some torture,” he said.
Perkins did many things differently. He, at the time, did not depend on the Jamaica Public Service Company for electricity, as he always had a standby generator at hand.
He also stored his own water in a huge tank on the property, thus reducing, if not totally eliminating, the dependence on the National Water Commission.
He had a particular love for his Nissan Pathfinder sports utility vehicle, not primarily for its endurance, but because “it has a nice stereo system”, as he veered off course to hum one of the tunes that he often hears.
He, too, sounded like someone who could sing, oftentime belting out lyric after lyric of some of his favourite songs in the middle of the interview.
“Are you a wicked man as they say?” Champagnie asked him.
“Me, ma’am? Me… a sweet, handsome bwoy like me… wicked? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, poor me, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.”
Always suggesting to his callers while he ran talk shows that “you need a lawyer” in solving pressing matters, Perkins was also asked why he kept doing so, in light of the fact that many Jamaicans did not have the financial means to retain the services of lawyers.
“Look, if you are not prepared to pay to defend your right, then I don’t know how you plan to live.
“People must defend themselves against injustice. There is too much of that going on in Jamaica,” he reacted.
Years later, we met to the funeral service for Colonel Ken Barnes at the Garrison Church, Up Park Camp. His vision had him under pressure, but his wit was still intact.
“Bwoy, a feel like a coulda run round the playfield over so,” referring to the cricket ground opposite the chapel.
“So what you no feel me coulda do that? You a laugh after me. Me can do it you know … ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.”

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(AP) LOS ANGELES — Whitney Houston’s last days were spent surrounded by family, catching up with old friends and doing a bit of what she was best known for: singing.

Her death Saturday afternoon in a Beverly Hills hotel room came hours before she was scheduled to appear at an annual pre-Grammy party that introduced her to the industry decades ago and was expected to honor the six-time Grammy winner.

The 48-year-old singer had been making the rounds in the days before the event, appearing at rehearsals and offering advice to singers Monica and Brandy. On Thursday, she appeared with fellow singer Kelly Price on stage at a Hollywood club, where she sang the hymn “Yes, Jesus Loves Me” to loud cheers.

With Houston’s daughter Bobbi in the audience, the women shared a long hug and talked about their lives and families throughout the night, Price recalled Saturday. Houston spent hours standing on the side of the stage at the event honoring R&B music then joined partygoers on the dance floor, she said. “Whitney on Thursday night was one of the girls.”

“She was happy,” Price said. “She was the Whitney I always knew.”

Soul singer Kenny Lattimore, who co-hosted the R&B event, said Houston seemed to be having a good time, making her sudden death “such a shock for me.” He said Houston didn’t appear to be having any issues.

Houston struggled for years with addiction to cocaine, marijuana and pills and the years of hard-living took a toll on her once-pristine voice. During rehearsal for a pre-Grammy event Thursday, Houston appeared disheveled, sweated profusely and her breath smelled of liquor and cigarettes, said a source who was present but not authorized to speak publicly.

Despite more than a decade of problems, including her divorce from Bobby Brown and numerous instances of erratic behavior, Houston was working toward a potential comeback. She had just completed work on a remake of the film “Sparkle,” a project she’d worked to develop for years.

Yet some speculated that she was under the influence after the Thursday club appearance, when paparazzi snapped photos of Houston leaving and looking disheveled. Price called the rumors “totally untrue.”

There was a family feel to the gathering, she said: “Our kids were there.”

Price said she and Houston were planning another reunion, and that she was set to appear at the pre-Grammy gala thrown by her longtime mentor, Clive Davis, on Saturday night. Davis had expected that Houston would sing at the party, which went on as planned, he explained, because the diva would have wanted it that way. It took place in another part of the hotel from where her body was being examined by coroner’s officials.

“I am personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me,” Davis said. “She was full of life, looking forward for tonight. She loved music and she loved this night that celebrated music.”

Officials have released few details about how Houston was found or what killed her. A member of her entourage found the singer and alerted hotel security and paramedics already on site for Davis’ gala. They failed to revive the singer.

In the hours after Houston’s death, fans chose to remember the singer in better times, when her soaring voice introduced a new generation to the Dolly Parton song “I Will Love You” and propelled the film “The Bodyguard” into blockbuster status.

Her songs and albums quickly became top-sellers on iTunes, and fans and celebrities alike shared remembrances and accounts of impromptu memorials on the social networking site Twitter. Her death on the eve of the Grammy awards has already prompted changes to the broadcast Sunday, with Jennifer Hudson scheduled to perform a tribute during the show.

Price said her friend would want to be remembered as God-fearing and a good mother, rather than simply a singer. She said she and Houston often discussed parenting and issues unrelated to their musical careers.

She recalled her last night with Houston, the words they shared before Houston delivered what would be her final performance.

“I never ever imagined I’d be talking about her because she’s not here,” Price said.

___

Associated Press reporters Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Mesfin Fekadu contributed to this report.

How To Mend A Broken Heart
By Henrietta Elegunde

Broken heart experience is a very painful experience. Even after some time has passed, pain can be triggered back by anything that reminds you of your. It could be something as simple as hearing a music on the radio, that reminds us about our pain. Even though pain can get better with time, what you do with the time is determines how long our healing process is. Time is not the best healer, what we do with that time is the best healer. I once met a woman who put her life on hold for 14 years after a painful divorce, and was still hurting, 14 years later.

If you ever going to heal your broken heart, and find the courage to love yourself and others again. You have to learn some coping skills. A coping skill is a behavioral tool for overcoming difficult situations, without correcting or eliminating the underlying cause. So you don’t need to analyze or worry about the reason your heart got broken, to learn how to feel good about yourself again. Coping skills will help you overcome emotions like anger, feeling rejected, bitterness and sadness, which usually follow a break up. If you don’t learn to control your emotions, they will control you. They will control your mood, decisions, actions, habits, behavior, mentality, mindset (your way of thinking) and wellbeing.

14 Helpful Tips For Mending Your Broken Heart :

1. Acknowledge that your heart is broken. You can’t mend or change what you can’t admit. Denial is being unwilling to face the truth on either a conscious or subconscious level. Denial doesn’t make your problem go away, and it can lead to irrational thinking, phobia and fear of facing the truth. It is important to have some grieving time. If you refuse to acknowledge your pain, it just stays at the back of your mind, it doesn’t really go away. In 1969, psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced what has become known as the five stages of grief. They are as follows:

Denial: “This can’t be happening to me.”

Anger: ” Why is this happening? Who is to blame?”

Bargaining: “Make this not happen, and in return I will ………….”

Depression: “I’m too sad to do anything.”

Acceptance: “I’m at peace with what is going to happen/has happened.”

2. Recovery starts when you allow yourself to reconnect with your interests. And learn to cultivate and connect with joy again. When you tell yourself that it is alright to feel good again. This starts through making efforts to focus your attention away from your pain, to living purposefully again. Recovery doesn’t necessarily mean the end of your pain, but it means that you’re taking charge of your pain. And that your pain is not controlling you anymore, because you’ve stopped reacting to it. You have started to use your pain to motivate yourself. After a previous break up, I lost three stones and got fit again. Talk about getting your life back! Exercise is good because, not only does it get you fit. It allows you to release your aggression. And it releases the brain chemical serotonin, which will give you a mood elevation and a happy buzz.

3. Your pain will eventually go away, after you’ve taken charge of it. Even though it may not be immediately. People become depressed when they don’t deal with their negative feelings. Confide in your loved one and God. Your loved ones will listen and comfort you, but God will heal you inside out, when you put your trust in him. Also pray for strength and healing (emotional, spiritual physical and mental): Psalm 147:3 – “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

4. Don’t look at your failed attempts as a reflection on you. The fact that your failed at something, doesn’t make you a failure in life. Learn from this experience to give you a better chance at succeeding next time. Were there any warning signs, with hindsight? Many things we do in life require a few attempts, before getting it right. Especially when we don’t ask for God’s guidance first, before doing it.

5. Use this time of as a time of self discovery self acceptance and self-awareness. Get to know yourself again, and find out what makes you tick. Use this time to find out what you really want out of life. If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t know when you get there. If you don’t know what you want, you won’t know what to pray for.

6. Try to find out what you really want in life. And don’t settle for less, but keep praying till you find it. You can also start and join a prayer group, that empowers you. If it doesn’t, it’s not the right one. If you can find the right one, start your own. And find other people who wants to mend broken heart, online or offline: James 5:16b – “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much

7. Develop a relationship with the Holy Spirit. When your spiritual eyes are open, you will not choose the wrong person or the wrong thing, to put your energy on. He can also direct and teach you how to choose the right partner, friends and career: John 14:26 – “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

8. Be a friend to yourself by developing a winning mindset (way of thinking). Watch you allow in your mind: Philippians 4:8 – “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things. ”

9. Be your own friend by always being kind to yourself. And you will attract people who will treat you nice and valuable. If you can’t treat yourself nicely, you can’t expect other people to do so.

10. Forgive yourself and whoever has hurt you They not worth you being bugged down by emotional baggage’s. Forgiveness is the doorway to any new beginning and emotional freedom. We can’t move on in life unless we forgive, however painful it may be. Lack of forgiveness is the doorway to continuous pain, bitterness, anger, and sadness.

11. Shift your focus from pain to something positive. Fill your time with good and productive activities. For example volunteering, this will help you feel better about yourself, because you’re helping others. Or joining an evening class, because you will make new friends. you will also have less time to fixate on your pain.

12. Write down a list of your strength, and post it on your wall. Look at it frequently, to remind and tell yourself that you’re lovable, and a good catch.

13. Re-invent yourself. Imagine and write down how you like to be, and become it. This is not the same as pretending. When you’re pretending, you act in a particular way but you’re thinking in another way. Pretending is doing something while telling yourself that this not who you are, you’re just acting. Re-inventing is doing something while telling yourself that this is the new you. Changing your thinking, attitude and belief to align with the new you. Imagine in your mind how someone who have these new qualities behaves, and behave in such a way. How do they walk, how do they talk. Set goals to increase your chances of sticking to these. Research shows that if you can pull off for 21 days, you will become this new person.

14. Make up and write down some positive affirmations. Read them repeatedly daily, to program yourself to feel empowered again. When we declare these affirmations with faith, it will become established: Job 22:28 – “You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you;” Some examples of affirmation are as follows.”

I am lovable
I love the real me
I’m a winner
I am wonderfully and fearfully made
I am in charge of my mind.
I am a positive and confident person

Henrietta Elegunde is an Author, Life Coach, ordained minister and Motivational Speaker.
She specializes in teaching how to cultivate spiritual, mental, physical and emotional growth, in order to achieve total wellbeing (being made whole) in your life. She is the author of the book “Hallowed Be Thy Name”.

redit: WFAA
by NEKEESA MUMBI MOODY
Associated Press
Posted on February 11, 2012 at 7:01 PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, has died. She was 48.
Publicist Kristen Foster said Saturday that the singer had died, but the cause and the location of her death were unclear.
At her peak in the 1980s and `90s, Houston the golden girl of the music industry and one of the world’s best-selling artists.
Among her hits were “How Will I Know,” “Saving All My Love for You” and “I Will Always Love You.” She won multiple Grammys including album and record of the year.
Her success carried her beyond music to movies like “The Bodyguard.”
But by the end of her career, drug use took its toll as her record sales plummeted and her voice became raspy and hoarse.

James 4:14
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

http://youtu.be/-7KSDNAd_UQ