GOOD POINT!
Electronic fence needed between gangsterism and politics
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Diigo/FurlPublished On:Friday, June 10, 2011
ANYONE who has followed the rise and fall of Jamaica’s drug kingpin, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, or read KC Samuels’ account of Coke’s meteoric rise and eventual fall into the arms of a waiting “Uncle Sam”, should be grateful that the Bahamas’ own drug kingpin, “Ninety” Knowles, was eventually extradited to the US before he had time to consolidate his own growing empire.
By the time Dudus, who was born into a life of crime, had run his course, he was becoming more powerful even than the Jamaican government. However, before his saga is done, what might be revealed during his trial in the US, could well bring down the JLP government of Bruce Golding.
Dudus’ father, Jim Brown, who died mysteriously in a fire in his prison cell in Jamaica, was Prime Minister Edward Seaga’s man. Brown was a don who could be relied on to deliver the votes from Tivoli Gardens for Seaga’s Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Brown headed the Shower Posse and violence and bloodshed entered Jamaican politics. The politicians and hoodlums were too close for comfort right up to last year when “the President” – Dudus himself – challenged the prime minister, who under pressure had agreed his extradition to the US.
The don of Tivoli, who by this time had taken his father’s criminal enterprise and built it into an international empire, was receiving all the Jamaican government’s construction contracts, as well as collecting from his international drug-dealing enterprises. Over time he had built himself such a strong outpost that by the time the US government targeted him, he had an armed force ready to challenge his arrest. The residents of Tivoli barricaded themselves in to protect their don and opened fire on the forces sent to arrest him. By the time the armed forces had quelled the uprising, 74 Jamaicans, including a police officer, were dead, but Dudus was still on the run.
For more than a month Dudus eluded the authorities. When he was eventually caught, disguised in a woman’s wig, he waived his rights and agreed to be extradited to the US to face drugs and weapons charges.
Tivoli Gardens was former prime minister Edward Seaga’s stronghold. Seaga took care of the residents. Dudus, taking on his father’s mantle as head of the Posse, pushed the prime minister’s care and protection of Tivoli residents to a new level.
Dudus had two faces. To the people of Tivoli and all those who paid him homage he was a good man, a generous man, a man without blemish. However, to others he was a gangster, a crook, a drug and gun peddler – a threat to society. The Americans described him as a dangerous narcotics kingpin.
Golding’s government fought the extradition request. Golding explained that the attorney general and justice minister had refrained from signing Dudus’ extradition because the evidence as outlined by the US was obtained illegally. Eventually an embarrassed Golding, with calls for his resignation echoing in his ears, apologised and signed.
Here in the Bahamas, employing every delaying tactic in the courts, “Ninety” Knowles from his jail cell in Fox Hill prison, held the Americans at bay for six years. President George Bush had personally labeled him an international narcotics kingpin under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpins Designation Act. He was described as the head of a multinational drug organization and in the US was found guilty of drug conspiracy and sentenced to 28 years in a Florida prison. The jury recommended that his US$19.5 million in assets be forfeited to the US government.
However, Knowles’ extradition created a furor in Nassau, and even drew out placard-carrying demonstrators when then foreign affairs minister Fred Mitchell signed a warrant of surrender before Knowles had exhausted his legal appeals. The Court of Appeal recorded its “serious concern” at the manner that Knowles had been removed from the Bahamas.
However, legally right or wrong, it was the best decision for the Bahamas. Already Knowles, like Dudus, was building his little empire of supporters. He was generous with his ill-gotten gains, which he distributed liberally among the poor.
According to Wikileaks, a US diplomat wrote in November 2006 that Knowles’ extradition would lead to the “withdrawal of an important source of election funding.” Yes, Knowles was a menace to society.
But as Samuels concluded in his book “Jamaica’s first President – Dudus, 1992-2010” — “What needs to be realised here even more than anything else, is the deadly end result of politics and corruption. Duduses are a dime a dozen, hundreds have been born since he was extradited. He was not the first and he won’t be the last to face such a fate, and therein again is the problem — because if Jamaica is to move forward as a nation, and his type of behaviour is to be confined to the pages of history, then the line between gangsterism and politics must become an electronic fence.”
GOODMORNING
Confession of Sin – Why Do It?
Many of us have trouble with the concept of sin. It is difficult to accept that even when we are trying to be good, there are areas of our life that remain sinful. We may still harbor lusts, or tell lies, or make hurtful comments to others.
Hard as it is to accept our failures, it may be even harder to confess them – even privately in prayer to God. Clearly, however, that is what God requires:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Confession of Sin – What Does it Accomplish?
Confession of sin alone is not all that God requires. He asks that we repent, that we turn away from our sinful activities and turn instead to follow Him. Repentance can be defined as: “A turning away from sin, disobedience, or rebellion and a turning back to God. In a more general sense, repentance means a change of mind or a feeling of remorse or regret for past conduct. True repentance is a ‘godly sorrow’ for sin, an act of turning around and going in the opposite direction. This type of repentance leads to a fundamental change in a person’s relationship to God.”1
The Apostle Paul notes this in Acts 3:19-20:
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus.”
Repentance doesn’t mean we become perfect. God understands that even at our best, we may backslide at times. However, every time we seek His forgiveness, we will receive it.
Confession of Sin – The Outcome
There is even better news for those who have learned to confess their sins, to repent and to turn to God.
The Bible says Jesus Himself will come to our aid.
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).
When sins are forgiven by God, the Bible says that God does not hold those sins against us. Psalm 103:11-12 says, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
Since God forgives us, we are called to forgive others. Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
BUJU SEEKS SHORTER TERM
Jamaican Grammy winner Buju Banton asks for shorter jail sentence in drug trafficking case
By The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – Fri, 10 Jun, 2011
TAMPA, Fla. – Jamaican reggae singer Buju Banton is asking for a shorter prison sentence.
The Grammy winner was convicted in February of conspiring to set up a cocaine deal in Florida in 2009. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison at his sentencing hearing June 23 in Tampa federal court.
In court documents filed Thursday, Banton’s attorney, David Markus, says a 15-year-sentence is “way more than necessary” in Banton’s case.
He contends that Banton’s limited participation in the drug buy, his charitable work in Jamaica and his otherwise clean record entitle the singer to a reduced sentence.
The documents include letters of support for Banton from actor Danny Glover, reggae singer Stephen Marley and Atlanta Hawks basketball player Etan Thomas.
Banton also seeks an acquittal and a new trial.
RUN BOASY SHELLY FI TYEICE TIGHTS?
MET COME YA DEM TWO GYAL YA TWO BAD TYIECE AND TRUDY A WEAR SED TIGHTS DEM BAD EEEH .
METS MI NAW LIE MI LIKE TRUDY AS NICE LIKKLE GYAL BUT SHI TOO DIBBY DIBBY LOOK HOW DI GAL RUN “BOASY SHELLY”
WEY DEE A GI HAR DI GOOD UP GOOD UP CLOTHES DEM FI TYIECE LIKKLE CHEAP TIGHTS AND TRUU SHI WA DEH PAN TYIECE POSTER DI COOK OUT WEY KEEP INNA WEY DEH MI A CHAT
NOSAH ALL DI ONE TAFEVIA MI WANDA OW SHI FIT INNA TRUDY CLOTHES TO PUPPA CLAWT DEM GUD DOH METS
MI NAW LIE DIS WRONG U CAW SAY U A HAWT GYAL N A WEAR U FRIEND TIGHTS N WELL TEK PICTURE A DI SAME PERSON PARTY FLOSSI LYHPE COOK OUT & HIM PARTY COUPLE DAYS AFTA DEM BROITEEEE UP WID IT DOH
DISS IS WRONG !!!!!
Where is LEXXUS from yardspot???
Everybody know seh yardspot boatride and party demm normally sell off every year. But mi hear a likkle suss seh di odda day seh Neil (one of the owna) and lexxus kick off and lexxus pack up him tings and leave???????? anybody can dash out more pan dis story.. which paat him awork now? Another person did seh him get dip but a doe sure? Mi just si di new flyer fi yardspot annual boat ride an i doe si him picha pan it.. Come queens ppl come talk up? Caz nat fi how lexxus use to gwan like him run tings dung a yardspot. Hi tasha an Neil an Lady slimz!!!!!!! Any new babies yet? (lexxus in blue cap)
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