Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Biography

Source:- Google.com.pk
It was a warm and pleasant mid-Tuesday morning last as I stepped inside a small shop to get bread, a few potatoes and some oranges. As I exchanged a few words of banter with the owner, an old man walked up.

I had seen him many times before and, as is typical in Jamaica when we encounter each other, we acknowledge each other with a smile and a greeting. This time, he stared me in the face, moved over close to me, and in less than a whisper asked: "Can I get a bulla and a bag juice, Sir."

The shop owner had no bullas, but we settled on spice bun and a soda. We began to talk. It deeply troubled me that a man at so advanced an age was so dispossessed. "May I ask how old you are?" I said.

"About 70 something, Sir," he said. There were lines on his face that were etched years after he reached in his 70s. Something wasn't adding up.

"When were you born?" I asked. He said it was in 1930. "You are 84, Sir. Congrats!" He appeared both surprised and satisfied that he was older that he thought he was. "You are still a fit and healthy man," I said to him.

A few weeks before, at the same spot, the same doorway, there was a young girl who I always saw going to school dressed in her uniform. Unfortunately, for her, she had sprouted too early in her physical development and, on weekends, someone older and wiser than her needed to be telling her that there was an option to dressing in the most deliberately revealing of outfits.

We had spoken before; the usual enquiry of her schoolwork and her immediate future. She wanted to be a nurse, but her situation was a conspiracy to rob her of any shot she had to attain that objective. The school was in the 'outer zone', where mis-education seemed to be what it did best. Plus, at about 16, she didn't seem to have any responsible adult supervising her.

In the doorway she began by saying that she would be unable to return to school. "Shoes and bag cost $3,500 and ah don't have it." She lived with her big sister.

"Suppose someone gave you the money, how would you explain it to your sister?" I asked.

"She nuh business wid dat. In fact, she would be glad." Recipe for a disaster in the making, I thought. I ask her for the sister's number. A few days later, I called, but it is not her sister. It's her.

"I thought you said this was your sister's number?"

"Dat nuh matter. Weh wi can meet so yuh can give mi di money, and mi an' you can talk bout tings?'

Recovered from the shock at the approach, I said: "Let me call you back." Since that time she has called and sent me numerous text messages. They remain unanswered because the trap is all too obvious.

And then there is Esmie. Her three young children are down with CHIKV and she is barely able to make it on the road as it has her in its painful early stages. "Missa Mark, mi waan lie dung, but mi can't. Mi pickney dem have it bad and mi mus come road fi look something fi dem." I gave her money for cup soup and a few other things. In fact, I am crediting from the shop owner who knows I will pay him the next day.

Three people of all age groups finding it most difficult to go much further. The old man trying to eat, the young teen trying to trade sex for a shot at her future. A mother caught up in the twin grip of poverty and multiple pregnancies.

By the next elections all three will be eligible to vote, but none of them are seeing how placing a vote for either the People's National Party (PNP) or the Jamaica Labur Party (JLP) will make a significant difference to their stunted lives.

The old man has seen so many seasons of winter, a few comforting moments of summer, and he may be the most prepared for his immediate future. But, as old as he is, I bet that he is never in the mood to invite death out for dinner. He may vote out of habit, but there is an equal chance that he will not bother to repeat his errors of the past.

To the young girl, voting is the very last thing on her mind. She may have been on the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Eduction (PATH) but, as far as she is concerned, a vote to her is not half as important as wrapping up with Candy Crush on her cheap smartphone.

In Esmie's case, voting is worse than the CHIKV her household is struggling with, but she says, "If dem pay mi fi vote mi wi vote fi anyone ah dem."

"What is the least amount you would accept?" I asked. She laughed. "Mi wi tek like $3,000."

Less voters better for the ruling PNP


In the days leading up to the most violent election in the history of this country -- the October 1980 General Election -- there were quite a number of factors which favoured the Opposition JLP being victorious.

The first was, in calling elections early in the year, then Prime Minister Michael Manley had all but ceded power to the Opposition. The social forces out in array against the PNP was awesome. The big private sector entities was openly hostile to the Government as commerce at home and cross-border trading were in states of chaos.

With violence in urban areas, and in our more open spaces, it was a soft sell for Edward Seaga and the JLP to convince the people at street level that Fidel Castro would land on our doorsteps the morning after another PNP win.

Whether contrived or not, the reality was that basic food and grocery items were in very short supply. It was normal for uptown housewives to fight in supermarkets over 'stuff like soap powder and bully beef'. Overall, the people from uptown suburbia to the heart of what was then and, in many instances still is, ghetto hell, saw the country going to pieces. But after a bloody bit they saw the common enemy as the party in power -- the PNP.

So, in record numbers, 87 per cent of the voters turned out and gave the JLP 59 per cent of the popular vote and 85 per cent of the seats.

By comparison, in late 2011, with nothing much on the table except cosmetic differences of charisma between the leaders, the inexperience of the newly appointed Opposition Leader Andrew Holness, a JLP damaged by its flirtation with and cuddling up to a known gangster from Tivoli and IMF matters pending, 53 per cent of those enumerated turned out to give the PNP 53 per cent of the popular vote and 67 per cent of the seats.

So, at the time, in 1980, when Jamaicans just wanted to get rid of a situation that had badly spun out of control socially and economically, and was seen to be unfixable by the ruling PNP, the people rose up and booted the PNP from office.

We have moved a long way from only having 13 per cent of those enumerated staying away from voting in 1980, as against 47 per cent who turned their backs on it in 2011.

I would not be surprised now if those not indicating an interest in voting is at about 60 per cent!

Whenever an administration goes stale, either through arrogance -- it believes it has the ability to win in all circumstances -- poor performance, leadership deficits, inability to handle pressing matters, or a combination of all, the extent to which potential voters hop off the wagon also hurts the 'democratic process' as one part's negatives do not directly prop up the other party's positives.

In other words, 10 per cent points from the PNP do not translate to 10 per cent points added to the JLP's stock. Much of the stock of voters discontented with the ruling PNP head for the safe column of the undecided, as they represent those whose impatience has turned to anger. That anger does not automatically translate to support for the JLP.

The JLP is 'safely' ahead in the polls now, quite possibly because of 'swaps' between those who have moved from PNP support to undecided, while significant numbers of those who did not vote in 2011 are now moved to offer more than notional support for the JLP, but not to the extent that the JLP's numbers are much more than the 43 per cent it had in 2011.

The JLP would do well not necessarily to accept this as fact, but to create a relevance that can be sustained for the next 700 days -- not an easy task by any means. Come 2016, a lot may change and organisation plus money may once again turn the tide in favour of the PNP.

JLP Conference must be a smash event


The first line in leading a political party to its relevance and its ability to convince more than 50 per cent of those registered to vote that it is the better bet is that not-so-nebulous thing called 'charisma' or magic from the political podium.

Social scientists know it when they encounter it, but it cannot be caught in bottles, separated by quality and then quantified. Michael Manley had it in huge doses and Portia Simpson Miller has it too, but many of us will quickly admit that, while Manley was seen as a 'thinker', Portia's brand of charisma is much more visceral.

The ability of a political party to mount a successful conference is key. And, at this time with the JLP is showing huge leads over a ruling PNP that has fallen into hard times, a fear that one could never fault the PNP for having is, if the JLP uses the November conference and the poll leads to bolster its confidence, get party workers believing in its possibilities, and in the next year overtake the PNP with its organisational efforts on the ground.

It is this effort from party delegates, groups, workers, volunteers that is needed to transmit that raw energy to the grass-roots supporters in the urban and especially the rural communities that will eventually filter down, or up to the often apathetic middle class.

Just as important as that is the type of leadership to come from the Opposition leader.

No one could ever accuse JLP leader Andrew Holness as having even a semblance of that thing known as charisma. An important consideration is the extent to which that quality still has the ability to woo the unwilling voter and get him over the tipping point.

For this reason Andrew Holness has to make the presentation of his life at the November annual conference of the JLP and hope that it will spur on the party faithful to move from the realm of possibilities and into the territory of likely victory come 2016. That will also be difficult as politics does not ever remain in its butterfly state for long.

It is more than a truism that the JLP cannot exist too long without it trying to split itself apart or the party headed for a nuclear fusion moment. I am certain that, over the next two years, the PNP will be hoping to see many of those moments.

In addition, the JLP leader Andrew Holness is basically a bore from the political platform. Even though Audley Shaw looms large as the most viable second-tier leader, Holness has no other choice but to remain relevant to the voting public now and next year, and the next. He will have to hope for more than magic because, at this time, he has none to offer.

Portia has to step up and take responsibility


I am no psychologist, but if the open petulance displayed by Portia Simpson Miller after the PNP narrow loss in 2007 must be used as an example of how she sees herself personally, and especially as a political leader, it is my belief that she will not take too kindly to these harshly negative poll numbers for the PNP and may want to blame something other than her own leadership failures.

In 2007 she should have conceded gracefully in public then go behind closed doors to cuss out her chief organisers. That's how it is done all over most of the democracies on the globe. Smile outside, then fume in the soundproof room.

She has to eat crow, accept that if it was her leadership that took the PNP to a victory in 2011, that surprised even the most diehard PNP, and it cannot be that the party's abysmal showing in the polls is someone else's fault.

It's the fault of the Cabinet. Who leads the PNP Cabinet? You, Prime Minister. It's the fault of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the PNP's inability to chart a significant growth path with stringent IMF conditions hanging over Jamaica's head. You, Prime Minister, in the days leading up to the 2011 election, campaigned very heavily that an agreement would be in two shakes of a duck's tail. Live with even though the duck's tail nearly fell off.

In one of the most impressive political documents ever drawn up -- The Progressive Agenda -- the PNP promised 'joined-up' government, that is, on policy matters that bore significantly to the country's growth and development, are areas of government, and all ministries would act as a cohesive whole to get the policies/projects off the ground and properly manage them.

The Progressive Agenda is probably now floating on a sea of debris at the Riverton City dump. The PNP Cabinet has so long been a body built of bits and pieces, but never quite joined up in the right places that it would surprise me if it even knows what 'joined-up' governance means.

But, as I have said, the prime minister struts around and seems not to recognize that the very arrogance she accused the Golding-led JLP Government of indulging in is the very same factor operating now in the PNP Administration. That, of course, is no surprise to me because it is a natural part of what affects all political administrations when the power grows and they feel that it is impossible for anything to dislodge them.

The main question is, does she have both the humility and strong leadership to face up to her own failings while transforming the Cabinet into a machinery whose little bits and pieces can operate off the same frequency. I believe this will not happen because it is not in her nature to see herself as the person to accept blame and take responsibility.

Who is there in the PNP with the cojones to request audience with the PM and tell her what she needs to hear? That is, apart from P J.

And, even if P J Patterson were to speak with her, isn't there more than the likelihood that he would know that it was Manley who made Portia and not him, P J?

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian

Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner Recipes In Urdu Kerala Style Easy Panlasang Pinoy Pakisani Healthy With PIctures Filipino Style For Kids Asian