Global Voices » Janine Mendes-Franco

Bermuda: House & Senate Accountability

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 20 May 2013 01:38:24 +0000

The Bermudian government has introduced a set of reform initiatives; Vexed Bermoothes puts forward one of his own – “mak[ing] MPs accountable for their vote.”

Jamaica: Blogging about Police Brutality

Janine Mendes-Franco — Sat, 18 May 2013 16:23:23 +0000

To mark the tragic anniversary of the Tivoli incursion and the lives that were lost there, Jamaican bloggers are uniting to draw attention to the scourge of extra-judicial killings in Jamaica and a police force seemingly out of control and beyond restraint.

Active Voice is gearing up to comment on police brutality for Blog Action Day next week.

‘Not Just About Writers': Talking with NGC Bocas Lit Fest Founder

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:42:25 +0000

It has been about two weeks since the 3rd annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest ended in Trinidad and Tobago and readers, writers and litbloggers alike only just seem to be coming down from the literary euphoria. Blogger and journalist Lisa Allen-Agostini, who was one of a handful regional writers shortlisted for a key prize, called the festival “a great gift to our country and our region”.

This, of course, only made Global Voices want to chat even more with the founder and director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, the indefatigable Marina Salandy-Brown, about how her germ of an idea has now evolved into the biggest literary festival in the Anglophone Caribbean.

NGC Bocas Lit Fest Founder, Marina Salandy-Brown, looks on as author Monique Roffey is presented with the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize; photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission

Global Voices (GV): Congrats on the third year of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest! What would you say were the highlights of this year's event?

Marina Salandy-Brown (MSB): Hosting the Caribbean leg of the Edinburgh World Writers Conference that brought our region into a global conversation about the role of literature. It showed that while the questions of 50 years ago remain relevant, the focus has changed. This is important for our writers spread across a diaspora but all looking to stay connected through literature.

Having a unique and rich blend of extraordinary writers such as Olive Senior, Irvine Welsh, Marina Warner, Pankaj Mishra, Robert Antoni, Ian McDonald, Teju Cole, Earl Lovelace, Hannah Lowe, Kerry Young, quite apart from all the ones long listed and shortlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize, sharing the same space and engaging with one another and their readers. No other regional or international festival would offer that particular gift assortment.

The inaugural Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for distinguished service to Caribbean Literature commemorates someone who played a distinct and valued role in the development of our literature. Too many people labour behind the scenes and do not get recognition. We are pleased to acknowledge Swanzy's role annually and are also delighted that John La Rose and Sarah White were the first recipients. The work New Beacon Books did from the 1960s to now in publishing, editing and promoting our literature and intellectual life is unrivalled.

The launch of Carib Lit to provide online resources for writers, publishers and readers in the region who have always lacked access to them and the news coming out of the work of this literary action group (established just a year as a joint Bocas, British Council and Commonwealth Writers initiative) that a new Caribbean imprint is a distinct reality.

It is important to reward excellence as much as it is to groom it. The OCM Bocas Prize for the best Caribbean book of the previous year, the Hollick Arvon Prize for emerging writers, and the announcement of a new prize for writers of young adult literature – the Burt Award, made all our hearts sing. Together, they cover a broad spectrum of writers. Prizes are confirmation for writers but the very judging process brings attention to the work of all the writers who enter, not only the ones who win.

Olive Senior, image by Maria Nunes, used with permission.

GV: Why is Bocas an important event for Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean region?

MSB: The festival is a great event but it also only one aspect, albeit an important one, of the Bocas project. It is the shop window for our work, which focuses on our literature reclaiming the place and position it has lost to the competing interests of music and Carnival. The festival is a T&T affair, done in our style and drawing on our resources, but it is inclusive of our region and wherever our people live. It is also not just about writers, it is about readers and those interested in what books have to say, not just how their authors say it.

GV: What makes Bocas different from other regional litfests like Calabash (the genre's regional originator), and those in St. Lucia, Cuba and Antigua?

MSB: The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is different in the range and variety of its programme. The month-long Children's Festival that culminates in a parallel 4-day festival on the same site is not replicated anywhere else. We have a strong enabling element to the festival, so that our workshops on all matters related to creative writing is also unique. We offer a full film programme, open mic, discussions, lectures. We showcase new talent, written and spoken [word] too. We involve everybody – booksellers, artists, performers, musicians. This is a festival of more than the written word.

A cross section of the crowd at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest 2013, photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.

GV: How has Bocas used new and social media – web presence, Facebook, Twitter, blogs – to promote and add value to the festival? What kind of impact has it had?

MSB: The Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference sessions were streamed live to dozens of foreign countries and the degree of participation was extremely high. Social media was integral to those sessions and it proved very effective in bringing Trinidad and Tobago to the attention of people around the world who share the same interests but did not know about us. They were actively able to add their voices to the debates.

We could not not have a blogger! We blog to get the news out, that is the new front page. We tweet too. Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting that has sold over 1 million copies (and the film of the same name is a watershed film – which he introduced [at Bocas]), has a huge Twitter following and he was tweeting for weeks before about coming to Port of Spain. That alone would have helped locate us on the map. We also follow writers on Twitter.

Using Facebook to promote events, especially ones of particular appeal to a younger audience such as the open mic and spoken word events, was essential. A large part of the population no longer gets news from traditional sources. The new technology allows us to track our patrons and informs us of the impact we are having. This is critical for futre planning.

Writer Earl Lovelace at the 2013 Bocas Lit Fest, photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.

GV: In what ways do you think Bocas is having an effect on writing and reading in the region?

MSB: We are trying to awaken and rekindle an interest in our literary output and to make it possible for the very many people who are writing, unsupported and unknown, to feel part of a community that is large and growing and to become part of an established literary world where they can hone their craft, get their books published and get their work out there to readers using all the means that are at our disposal.

We want to create excitement and optimism around the business of writing for oneself and others, of discovering and creating a “new” literature while drawing from the canon and the oral traditions. Creative writing is not just for pleasure. Publishing fiction, non-fiction and poetry are an industry and for our work to be taken seriously we must take ourselves seriously and benchmark ourselves against the best. The festival provides a forum for that talent and a marketplace for buyers, creators and consumers of this sort of produce.

Barbara Jenkins, winner of the inaugural Hollick Arvon Prize, photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.

GV: Where do you see the future of the festival going? What's on the cards for next year?

MSB: One of the important lines of discussion that has come up is how are we to become better readers? Writers need good readers but they too must be good readers. In fact, good readers make better writers. This is an area that Bocas sees as fertile for development and we are exploring ways of how to achieve this. We tried last year to start that part of the project but failed to get funding. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we have better luck this year.

Apart from this, we have no plans to change much but we are flexible and things have a way of emerging. We are keeping our ears wide open to hear what people say, our eyes are open too to espy developments and to play a part in helping those along. Working with others to achieve mutal objectives is part of our mission so we will be expanding our partnerships as we go forward.

The images used in this post are by Maria Nunes, used with permission.

Caribbean: Can CARIBCAN Happen?

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 10 May 2013 01:53:10 +0000

Blogger Kevin Edmonds examines the impending Canada-CARICOM Free Trade Agreement.

Haiti: The “White Savior Industrial Complex”

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:01:33 +0000

kiskeácity links to a letter which “echoes many of the issues Haitians face with the White Savior Industrial Complex…and its army of 3,000 NGOs, 12,000 UN troops, innumerable speakers for Haiti, appropriators of Haiti's ancestral religion, culture and music and other so-called ‘allies’ who silence Haitians for a profit while assuming their voice.”

Bahamas: Too Free on Facebook?

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 09 May 2013 23:48:12 +0000

Facebook is free for all, but it doesn’t mean that we are liberated to slander others with impunity – or to make vile threats…without consequences.

POLITICAL BAHAMAS BLOG discusses “potentially criminal Facebook behavior.”

A Push for Political Ethics in Trinidad & Tobago

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 08 May 2013 02:00:46 +0000

However you want to define it – principles, a moral code, character – ethics boils down to doing the right thing. With Trinidad and Tobago falling to the number 80 ranking in Transparency International‘s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index, a few local bloggers have been discussing the issue of integrity.

The Eternal Pantomime started the ball rolling by providing some legal context:

The Integrity in Public Life Act will turn 13 in November of this year. Most of us view the Act and the Integrity Commission as useless.

The opening sentences of the Act states that the Commission’s purpose is to provide “for public disclosure, to regulate the conduct of persons exercising public functions; to preserve and promote the integrity of public officials and institutions…” What many of us don’t know is that the Integrity Commission has real teeth. Their duties don’t just stop at publishing a list of miscreants and submitting a report to the Senate every year. Their power reaches far beyond financial disclosure.

The folks over at the Integrity Commission can scrutinise any person in public life or exercising public functions. This includes the Prime Minister, the AG, Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, members of state boards, and persons working in the Public Service, Judicial and Legal Service, Police Service, Teaching service, Statutory Authorities’ Service Commission, Diplomatic Service and Advisers to the Government.

If you re-read that list slowly and digest its importance you will realise that the Integrity Commission has oversight of the activities of so many sectors of our country that if the Commission was properly staffed and working efficiently it should, theoretically, be able to root out a lot of the corruption and inefficiency prevalent in our society.

She then honed in on the relevance of the Act to Jack Warner, the recently-resigned Minister of National Security and former Vice President of FIFA who has been plagued with allegations of misconduct in public life:

Mr Warner has been serving in public life since November 5th, 2007. His activities as a member of the Caribbean Football Union, Concacaf and FIFA are public knowledge. Since becoming a member of government in 2010 there have been allegations and speculations hovering over Warner. We have an Integrity Commission in Trinidad and Tobago that is at least a decade old. Why did it take a report from Concacaf to unearth information that Warner has been less than forthcoming about his business interests and financial transactions dating back from 2006?

Back in November 2012 there was a local newspaper report indicating Warner was the subject of a probe by the IC. When questioned about the nature of the probe, Martin Farrell, the Registrar of the IC, responded saying: ‘The Integrity Commission is not in a position to comment on your request. As you will appreciate, having regard to the nature of its mandate under the Integrity in Public Life Act, the Commission is required to treat with all matters with the utmost confidentiality.’

Fast forward now to April, 2013, in the aftermath of the report from Concacaf’s Integrity Committee and there is still a deafening silence from the various bodies and authorities here. The last we heard from the DPP on the matter of Warner, the police had been instructed to look into whether Warner had breached Customs and Excise laws. The probe by the AG into Warner seems to have stalled. And the Integrity Commission remains as enigmatic as ever. Saying little, but alluding to an ongoing probe that has thus far yielded little satisfaction to the public.

Plain Talk, tongue firmly in cheek, added:

The acceptable definition of ethics is – ‘moral principles that governs a person's behavior.’ The Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute…has made recommendation that Government should establish an ethical protocol for members of the Cabinet which includes an agreement that any Cabinet member facing serious allegations must step down, which was clearly a recommendation made without much understanding of the nature and culture of our local politics and politicians as they would have understood that a rule like this could ruin a government and empty the Cabinet overnight.

But The Eternal Pantomime wanted answers:

After reading the Concacaf Report you have to ask yourself what exactly is the problem with us here that we can have so many institutions and systems in place, and have them constantly fail us. Why is investigating Warner and making him answerable to the public so difficult? Why does an Integrity Commission, enacted with so much power on paper, often seem so weak? When exactly are these bodies responsible for public oversight actually going to start earning their keep? Or are we going to have to launch a probe not just into Warner, but into the integrity of our Commissions?

aka_lol couldn't provide answers, but referring to Jack Warner's bid to be re-elected as the candidate for the now vacant Chaguanas West seat (from which he voluntarily resigned), the blogger did take a shot at predicting more of the same:

The Prime Mister, unable to ignore credible evidence for a change, finally expressed shock and horror which angered or embarrassed Jack into resigning. Nobody knows. This report has probably worked in his favor as now no one can say they think Jack Warner was a dishonest man.

From the full page ads and reports reaching this blog, Mr. Warner, like the UNC [the United National Congress, the political party that comprises the majority of the ruling People's Partnership government] executives, will go down fighting. Jack has popularity among the poor and romantic as his weapon, and the UNC, it seems, has the ability to victimize anyone who is observed to be part of Jack’s motorcade and support. Both sides are wielding big sticks against each other with the end result favoring Jack over the pretentious but powerful. Jack’s secret weapon is well known and that is to go as an independent candidate thus leaving the seat open for the Opposition to grab. Let the games begin.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “Ethics and Morals: Timeless and Universal?” is by stephenccwu, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license. Visit stephenccwu's flickr photostream.

Trinidad & Tobago: Smoking Ad Loophole

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 08 May 2013 01:11:19 +0000

I don’t think this cigarette newspaper ad was necessary and it was in very poor taste.

aka_lol takes issue with a cigarette advertisement, which apparently found loopholes around the prohibitions applied to such advertising under the Tobacco Control Act.

Trinidad & Tobago: Gem of a Garden

Janine Mendes-Franco — Sat, 04 May 2013 02:17:11 +0000

My Chutney Garden is our guide through Trinidad's Royal Botanic Gardens.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Environmental Entrepreneur

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:22:48 +0000

In an era where youth…are seen as being dissolute it is truly heart warming to recognise the drive and talent of this young man.

Abeni salutes Kamara Jerome, a 20-year-old Vincentian entrepreneur, who won the Best Environmental Award in the Caribbean Innovation Challenge.

Trinidad & Tobago: Warner's Future History

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 03 May 2013 01:12:53 +0000

Like all urban legends, Jack will linger on minds of both the mindful and mindless.

Tongue firmly in cheek, aka_lol predicts Jack Warner's legacy.

Bermuda: Bag Tax or Bad Tax?

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:08:21 +0000

Local charities are lobbying the Bermudian Government to institute a bag tax to encourage people to shop with reusable bags and reduce waste – but Vexed Bermoothes insists that “it’s nice to think that you can tax people into living or acting better; it rarely works out that way.”

To Cut or Not To Cut College Subsidies in the Bahamas?

Janine Mendes-Franco — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 02:40:35 +0000

Education, democracy and societal priorities are being called into question as Bahamian bloggers address the government's recent decision to reduce the subsidy it provides to the College of The Bahamas. A week ago, Rick Lowe, writing at Weblog Bahamas, explained why he thought the cut was a good idea:

In case we're not looking, the country is now in debt to the tune of approximately $5 billion.

Assuming our total population is 350,000, that's $14,285 per person.

If we divide it among a working population of say 150,000. That's about $33,000 each.

These numbers are astounding and worsening with each passing year, so something has to be done.

Sure it sounds cold hearted, but either the government starts to find ways to cut back expenditures or we all might have a much higher price to pay. Cyprus comes to mind.

Still, he was a bit sceptical as to whether the government would actually follow through:

The question is, will government stick to its guns and cut back in other places or is this the typical political trial balloon?

Another thing the government should do is pass a Constitutional Amendment restricting deficits and borrowing and a balanced budget.

It seems just a short while ago that most people had to work to pay their way through college. Today we take it for granted our way should be subsidised.

Where did we go wrong?

The post caused an emotional reaction on the blog's Facebook page; Lowe defended his position in a follow-up post:

Subsidies must be paid for. Either by COB creating their own revenue stream through studies etc or by everyone paying more taxes. The Government borrowing money to subsidise at the expense of future generations is unsustainable.

The concentrated benefits (COB students in this case) and dispersed costs among all citizens, is simply unfair to the general public that is on the hook for the taxes.

What prevents like minded people (people that see the value in education, COB Alumni etc) starting a fund to donate to COB to help pay for the needy students? Seems to me that would be a better way?

A day later, Blogworld posted a link to a press statement by The College of The Bahamas Union of Students, making the point that “the press in general has focused on one small part of the document”, [the union's foiled protest on Parliament over the issue] but that the bigger picture is “the value we place on the young adults in our society who have chosen to educate themselves at home, and the value we place on their place in our so-called democracy.”

The blogger, Nicolette Bethel, highlighted some of the key points of the statements that particularly stood out for her; in another post, she quoted from an article which suggests that “the thing being made in a university is humanity…what universities, at least the public-supported ones, are mandated to make or to help to make is human beings in the fullest sense of those words — not just trained workers or knowledgeable citizens but responsible heirs and members of human culture.”

Finally, she wrote a post about her take on the issue, examining the situation from the perspective of the student body:

Over the past several weeks, the College of The Bahamas Union of Students has worked tirelessly to resist the college’s proposal to raise fees in response to proposed government cutbacks in subvention.

Their work has included attempts to meet or speak with senior administration, with the college council, with the minister of education, and with the minister of state for finance. Their most recent press release may be found here; I encourage those people who may be quick to dismiss the students for their passion to read it, as it will show you another side of them, and may encourage us to treat them with the respect that is due to adults who are legitimately questioning their rights to participate in our democracy and their place in our society.

Bethel continued:

I will be the first person to say that, given the fact that our society has decided that the only education offered freely to its citizens is that which stops at the secondary level, I am not opposed to the principle of raising tuition. Here are my reasons.

In the beginning, the government was the primary subsidizer of tertiary-level education. Fees were never non-existent, but until 1998, they were a mere $25 per credit hour. The result was the persistent underfunding of the institution.

In 1998, recognizing the move to university and the development of bachelor’s degree courses, the college raised tuition over the course of three years from the $25 per credit hour to the present $100 per credit hour for lower-level (100-200) courses, and $150 per credit hour for upper-level (300-400) courses.

No other increases in tuition have been applied since 2000. Students today still study for the same cost as students in 2000, but the purchasing power of the Bahamian dollar today is worth only 80¢ of the 2000 dollar. The tuition increase originally proposed by the college administration (from $100 to $120 per credit hour) can be seen as merely making up for that lost revenue. But that is not all. Not only does the 2013 Bahamian dollar buy 20% less than the 2000 dollar, what students get for that price is considerably more than what students got in 2000. Tuition for the college has not increased in that time, but what is provided to the students has consistently been expanded over the past 13 years.

She went on to explain:

I can see the rationale behind the increase. All things being equal, I would even support it, even though I am theoretically persuaded by arguments that tertiary level education is worth being fully subsidised by our government. My pragmatic perspective in this country at this point in time recognizes that our culture, so heavily influenced by the USA, tends to devalue those things that we do not pay for; on the contrary, the more we pay for something here in The Bahamas, the more we tend to respect it.

That said, however, I do not support the principle of raising incidental fees in an attempt to recover costs.

Why?

In the first place, student amenities at the college are sub-standard, even with all the improvements; in the same period of time, although the investment in tuition and the quality of education has improved, changes in student life have been mixed.

In the second place, the pervading attitude towards students on campus appears to be that they are a necessary evil—or, to use more gentle language, that they are simply overgrown, misbehaving high-schoolers who should be seen and not heard, and who should be deferential to their elders, accepting of whatever treatment is meted out to them, unquestioning of inefficiencies, and uncritical of mediocrity. Unlike the quality of the education provided at the College (which is, against all odds, high—and some of the best value for money in the hemisphere), the quality of student (and faculty) life is low. To ask students to pay additional fees without addressing these shortcomings is asking a bit much.

Blogworld added:

I said…that all things being equal, I would support an increase in tuition fees. For example, if that increase was linked to the College’s full and legal transition to university status, I would have no quarrel with the proposal. But it is not. It is a desperate move on the part of a college administration faced with drastic and untenable cuts to its subvention to find ways to maintain the services currently being offered.

So to me, the real question is whether or not The Bahamas as a whole, and its representative, the government, sees any real value in Bahamian tertiary-level education.

As many have said before me, there is something fundamentally visionless and absurd about the government’s proposed reduction of the COB subvention. While the government itself is faced with the need to reduce its own expenditure by the 25%-over-two-years that it is passing onto its agencies, it is not making those cuts across the board; certain agencies have been deemed to be exempt. That the College of The Bahamas, poised by promise on the verge of the university status that the government has yet to grant it, is not also exempt speaks volumes to the place of the intellect in Bahamian society, and to the real commitment of the government to Bahamian university education.

She finally came to this conclusion:

These facts, together with the relative lack of outrage about the government’s proposal to cut COB’s subvention, suggest that the Bahamian government, together with the society that supports it, does not in fact take the idea of Bahamian higher education seriously at all. What the College of The Bahamas is being asked to do, at the same time as it is being moved to university status, is to cut just under $6.25 million from its current budget over the next 2 years. This is to be done ‘without any reduction in quality and level of services to the public’.

Sleight of hand and double-speak aside, what the government has just demanded the college do is carry water in a sieve. Do I object to the raising of fees for tertiary education? In principle, no. But when this is the only way in which the services currently provided can hope to be maintained, I am left with grave and serious questions about the proposal indeed.

In an interesting twist, another blogger at Weblog Bahamas agreed:

The PLP Government is wrong to cut funding to the College of The Bahamas for several reasons (including…the fact that the Prime Minister said as recently as last month that they would do nothing to ‘compromise education'). I will focus on what I believe is the most important reason: the proven impact of public spending on education on a country's economic growth.

In The Bahamas, we are saddled with a host of challenges, not the least of which is our declining educational standards, steadily weakening workforce and loss of skills. This is not the time to take funding away from our only tertiary institution.

The thumbnail image used in this post is by Nick Bygon, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license. Visit Nick Bygon's flickr photostream.

Haiti: “Better Prisons, Fewer Prisoners”

Janine Mendes-Franco — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 02:49:14 +0000

Haiti does not need more prisons, it needs better prisons and fewer prisoners.

Haiti Chery provides some interesting statistics which support his view.

Public Trust Wiped Away; Jamaicans at Risk from Tainted Toilet Paper

Janine Mendes-Franco — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 01:26:32 +0000

The poop has been hitting the proverbial fan in Jamaica recently over the sale of substandard toilet paper that has allegedly caused a slew of rashes and vaginal infections.

Active Voice explained:

The truth is we don’t know much. The Bureau of Standards claims to have found four brands that may be ‘contaminated’ but refuses to name them. Instead they are laboriously naming dozens of other loo paper that have alledgedly passed their tests. It leaves Jamaicans in a quandary. Should people like my friend Heather who invested in a case of toilet paper dump the lot because its not on the BOS list of safe tissues? Is it even safe to take a dump?

Annie Paul, the blogger, went on to chronicle some of the most outstanding tweets about the issue, but she was surprised to learn that:

This tissue issue had reared its head as far back as February this year albeit in a slightly different context. As a Gleaner article dated Feb 3, 2013, Shoddy imported tissue raises stink, has it:

Scores of Jamaicans are purchasing substandard toilet tissues and putting themselves at risk of serious health problems.

Sources in the health and manufacturing sectors last week confirmed that a large quantity of substandard toilet tissues is being imported into the island, mainly from Asia.

Paul surmised:

Perhaps we should consider whether this whole folderol is just a tissue of lies concocted by local toilet paper manufacturers to protect themselves against ‘foreign’ (read Chinese) imports of the sanitary product.

In the meantime the Jamaican Bureau of Standards (BOS) is digging in its heels and refusing to divulge the names of the contaminated toilet tissue brands.

Twitter, meanwhile, under the hashtag #TissueIssue, was on a roll, with some users offering useful information, others posting photos and most commenting on the situation:

@deronearcher: #InJamaica everyone stop talk bout the IMF and talking about the #TissueIssue Lol

‏@kishnicks: The PNP is an absolutely genius organization. What better distraction to the state of affairs than make us focus on the #TissueIssue #BS

Cucumber Juice pulled no punches, saying:

I’ve known for some time that Jamaica was up shit’s creek but the past few days have been a revelation. What a day it is when you cannot be certain if the toilet paper you have in your home is safe…

So far, the Bureau of Standards Jamaica and the Jamaica Ministry of Health have refused to name three brands of toilet paper and one brand of paper towel that have “ high bacteria counts” (problem #1). Flat out refusal. Instead the Jamaica Bureau of Standards provided lists of paper products…wait no, I’m not sure if all paper products are now being tested (problem #2)…right so let me rephrase: the Bureau of Standards Jamaica has chosen to only provide lists of toilet paper and paper towels that have been tested and found to not have “high bacteria counts.” A simple “pass” is noted. So if your preferred brand ~~the brand that you can now afford~~ is not on the list does that mean it failed the test or it hasn’t been tested yet? (problem #3)
How do we know that the list isn’t being manipulated to push sales toward certain brands or why certain brands haven’t (yet) been tested? (problem #4)

The Bureau of Standards Jamaica claims that it cannot name the four dangerous brands because — brace yourselves — they’re afraid of lawsuits. And the fear of lawsuits comes because there was no acceptable bacterial level for toilet paper in the first place. The argument then is that because there was no standard, the four dangerous brands cannot now be named for not living up to a standard (problem #5). Regardless of the fact that there is a high bacterial count…so high that even in the absence of standards there is a clear problem. Regardless of the fact that a product that comes into contact with genitalia – one of the body’s most sensitive areas – when used as the product is expressly intended to be used has a high bacterial count and has already caused illness. Call me crazy but those brands of toilet paper are not fit for their express, particular purpose.

The blogger, Alice Clare, continued:

Instead of naming the four brands and giving clear, explicit, firm guidance about how the public should proceed, the Ministry of Health is doing a belated silent recall and seizure action. The lack of urgency and the silence when dealing with a public health emergency is dangerous; this is a time when clear information is needed, not half-assed updates peppered with fear and uncertainty. And that vacuum of information breeds panic among the public.

The argument that testing is preliminary or that there are no standards holds no water for me. People are already sick…that is how the GOJ found out that there was a problem. By now testing should perhaps be in its third round; now is the time to request foreign help if you cannot manage because there is a clear and present danger to the health of Jamaican residents and citizens.

She went on to make her case for a proper recall:

Even if there are no standards required by the government agency responsible for setting standards, that the product cannot be used safely and for its intended purpose seems sufficient to publicly announce its recall so that the Jamaican public can protect itself. If not a recall then a clear, explicit, detailed public advisory including the names of the brands instead of incomplete lists…? Because that’s the bottom line: the public needs to be aware so that it can protect itself. It’s not like this is a brand of paper plate or garden hose: IT IS TOILET PAPER. WE ALL USE IT.

To her, the government's refusal to offer adequate information about such a present health threat reflects deeper issues of transparency and good governance:

I forget that this is the Government of Jamaica and for whom transparency, accountability and safeguarding the public are not priorities if even considerations. Regardless of whatever P is in charge.

Alice Clare went on to pose a series of pressing questions:

With none of the dangerous brands being named, what should people do about rolls of toilet paper and paper towels that have already been bought?

How will the GOJ [Government of Jamaica] inform a vulnerable public that it should not be using at least four brands of toilet paper if you can’t — or won’t — name the brands?

How will the GOJ inform a vulnerable public that A, B, and C are symptoms of The Toilet Paper Infection and that those who show these symptoms should see a doctor immediately? Is there sufficient medication available on the island for treating The Toilet Paper Infection? If not, is that being addressed?

If the GOJ does not name the dangerous brands, how will it ensure that the compromised tissue is returned — by consumers, retailers, distributors, wholesalers, supermarkets, the corner shop, the street vendor — to a designated place and safely disposed of?

Are the infections known to be caused by the bacteria on these four brands chronic or acute? Is there a test for the infection? If the four brands are not named, how will people know that they may be at risk?

What’s the source of the contamination? How did the contamination happen? What’s being done to prevent further contamination?

Is there a pattern involving this kind of contamination, the four brands of toilet paper, the country or countries or origin? If re-exportation is done, who will notify the new destination countries that there’s a problem? The Jamaican public may not be the only public that needs to know this information.

Why doesn’t the Bureau of Standards Jamaica have any standards for the quality of toilet paper being supplied to the Jamaican public? What other standards has the Bureau of Standards Jamaica failed to establish and enforce?

The post concluded:

This is not the first incidence of a public health issue being dealt with in silence (Chinese restaurant illnesses, baby formula drama, 2012 dengue outbreak): why are the agencies meant to either establish standards or protect the public health lax in naming culprit products…or disseminating needed public health guidance? If the issue is Jamaica’s libel laws, when will they be amended to allow the GOJ to fulfill its public health role? The law cannot be a muzzle when the safety of a population is at risk.
And is it that, in effect, the Bureau of Standards Jamaica has indemnified companies that offer dangerous products on the market?

Where does the Jamaican public sign up to sue the Government of Jamaica for negligence?

Latest developments suggest this will likely never happen. As one Twitter user said just a couple of days ago:

‏@suebellaC: …And just like that the #TissueIssue came and went…

The thumbnail image used in this post is by SCA Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license. Visit SCA Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget's flickr photostream.