Digicel Must Keep Automatic Topup Bonuses

If your a grandchild or mingle regularly with the elderly you might be asked occasionally to put on credit, check balance and messages or other task that are unfamiliar with the  technology.

While clearing the messages from my grandmother's phone I came across one of the many service messages from Digicel, this one said on January 1 users would have to dial the *147# code to claim their monthly bonus for first time topups.

Like any other concerned customer I immediately went to twitter to verfiy the message with the service provider and give feedback.

Digicel decision would have been acceptable if the bonus was claimable throughout the month and not expire on the 7th of every month, meaning you'll only have a week to claim the usually automatic monthly bonus.

Decision Biases Senior Citizens 

I know for fact that many customers especially the senior citizens like my grandmother look forward to and depenend on that monthly $100 bonus to make their calls to friends and family.

This desicion to make the process manual will no doubt go unnoticed by the more technologically challenged senior citizens, the ones who will be most affected.With a manual process comes an entire demographic will be disenfranchised and its no fault of their own.

 It should be appreciated that many of these senior citizens are assisted with their top-ups and person doing the top-up may not be aware of the changes or forget.

If they do decide to keep the new policy, they should consider implementing reminders to claim the bonus every time their customers add credit to their phones.

I know we aren't entitled to these bonuses and benefits but policies are to treat customers equally and be transparent; thats  just good business sense.

Digicel has been a responsible corporate citizen and Jamaica benefits from its continued success as a business and their success depends mainly on customer satisfaction.

This decision will no doubt fail the customer satisfaction test.

The Jamaican Liberal Whistler: Haiti Elections 2015: Political Intervention & Reg...

The Jamaican Liberal Whistler: Haiti Elections 2015: Political Intervention & Reg...: It is no secret that elections underway in Haiti have been filled with allegations and reports of wide spread corruption... What the US is doing, What CARICOM isn't doing but should be doing.. #Blog #Jamaica #Caribbean

Haiti Elections 2015: Political Intervention, CARICOM Deficiencies & Missing Aid

Map of Haiti/Haitian Flag

It is no secret that elections underway in Haiti have been filled with allegations and reports of wide spread fraud, intimidation, violence, external interference and general corruption; all are components of past and recent Haitian democratic processes.

But with the Nation still recovering from a devastating earthquake that only served to weaken its public institutions, the United States' State Department has taken guidance over the current presidential vote, with CARICOM merely an observer to the proceedings.

Democracy Protests

Even as the State Department overlooks the process there are further reports of misconduct among the political actors only adding to growing unease of the common Haitian and placing democracy further away from them.This has led to on/off clashes between democracy protesters and Haitian security forces before, during and after the voting in August and October. Voting continues in December with still occurring clashes daily.

Haiti Special Coordinator Kenneth Merten 

In his teleconferenced remarks on November 16th about the Haiti elections, Haiti Special Coordinator Kenneth Merten acknowledged "the disagreements" among the political players then stated "the good news is that the elections are taking place" and response to a question asked by the moderator Dr.Theramene(Haitian Americans for Progress) to elaborate on whether or not there is political interference by his government, Merten explained "We will work with whoever or whatever president comes out of this process." Even if 900,000 party monitors received credentials to vote at multiple voting centers.

Haiti Military Coup

His statement falls inline with the subvert quarters of US foreign policy which is protect their interest though by inducing "stability" - the key word - in simple terms, the works of democracy are shelved for a government, any government so that business as usual may carry on.


The flip side to that shortcut approach is that the peoples dissatisfaction and the governments spoon fed power often end up clashing and this creates instability leading to what we saw in Haiti before in the military coup..

POTUS Obama & CARICOM PMs

The United States(US) is apart of a Core Group in Haiti and as stated by Merten, that includes Brazil, Canada, France, Spain, European Union and representatives of the OAS; the US has the major influence and is working accordingly.With the US committing $31 Million to support election activities its not too cynical to say they will expect value for their money.

With Several organizations representing the Haitian Diaspora in the United States have joining to find solutions to the election crisis in Haiti there will hopefully be group that is fighting the best interest of nation and its people.

Why CARICOM's Limited Role?

The group with least influence though and seemingly with the least interest in the Haiti's current critical democratic redevelopment is the 'regional' body: Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Caribbean people, with little to no Caribbean media coverage of the current events.


Not to unfair to the regional body and its people, CARICOM past actions of support for Haiti count as admirable between the banning of illegitimate Latortue government, Aid, observer missions to recent support against Dominicans Republic's policy making Haitian descendants stateless.

Although most of the electoral observer missions were joint operations with the Organization of American States(OAS). CARICOM  has once again limited itself to spectator seat of a overheated election.


The Caribbean media on the other hand seem to have descended past the usual local market driven news content when it comes to Haiti with almost a complete black with most content coming from extra regional sources.I will not question the news editor choices but only urge newsroom rooms regional to encourage regional interest of some sort.


But Haiti has long been wrongly classified as the stepchild of the Caribbean and continues to be seen as economically 'dispensable' and a "burden"  to CARICOM. Although Haiti's relationship with the organisation has not been steady since its admission in 1999 there is no question in my mind that this is a critical juncture for Haitians in their redevelopment.

CARICOM needs t be ready to gain and have greater influence for the strengthening of a regional integration with shared values,similar economies, common culture and geopolitical interest the reasons deepen Haiti-CARICOM relations out weigh disadvantages.


CARICOM's ability to intervene as the regional overseer is hampered not only by financial andresources restraints but by its own unwillingness to create powers to intervene beyond strong worded statements and the cold shoulder:

Hon. Dr.Kenneth Anthony

Hon.Dr.Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia noted in a speech delivered in 2001: "The organization [CARCOM] is not fully seized of the significance of its involvement."   

This calls for reform and restructuring of the regional organization to better suite the current regional integration unions and political-economic area blocs that supports wider influence locally, regionally and internationally.

C.Grant states in his 2007 paper for "Intervention, Border and Maritime Issues in CARICOM" entitled "CARICOM:Non-Intervention & Intervention" that

“While the current diplomatic modus operandi has served the Community reasonably well, there is the need for indicators for intervention to be developed and for a formal institutional mechanism to mediate political conflicts among stakeholders in the political process of the various Caribbean states to replace the reliance on ad hoc interventions such as those utilized in Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”

Humanitarian Fail: Where are the Missing Aid Funds ?

Haiti 2010 Earthquake Aftermath (NPR)

I end on an extremely sour humanitarian note that concerns Haiti's aid pledge; Its reported that of 15 000 homes promised to be built only 900 have been delivered, US $7.6 billion has been disbursed and little to show for it, lack of accountability leading to corruption surrounding aid, relief and rebuilding expenditure means the many of those suffering from the 2010 quake are still in tents, on the streets, children not attending school, living conditions and hygiene at inhumane levels.


By all means Haiti is still in the midst of a Earthquake and its allies lead by the US and CARICOM are not back to pre-2010 misconceptions, mistreatment and disregard of Haiti-Pearl of the Caribbean and the free Haitian people.

#AllLivesMatter from Paris to Raqqa

Firstly, any acts of violence perpetrated against any person or a people should be offensive to our humanity and the impact not to be diminished. 

We must condemn these horrendous attacks done in the name of religion and stand resolute with our French counterparts especially the youth.

In showing your support you might be one of the millions of people across the world showing solidarity with the people of Paris, after the recent terrorist attacks by using the French flag photo

filter on your social media accounts. The level of social awareness at an all time because of social media and it connectivity that reaches beyond boundaries and borders, allowing us to react, empathize and sympathize simultaneously as events occur in different parts of the world.

With many of us choosing western mainstream media outlets that are often for domestic markets like CNN – we end up not receiving the deeper coverage of stories that accompanies internationally focused media. This is inadequate for the formulation of balanced views and interpretation of world issues, it therefore leads me to submit that the current show of solidarity and outcry has been woefully disproportionate to the impact of terrorism and the so called ‘war on terrorism’ when comparing west and east.

Why I chose a Syrian Flag Filter?

Although the Refugee crisis gains considerable coverage, it still is being referred to as a “migrant crisis” – with the highlights being Europe’s response not the basis of the crisis that has led over 9 Million Syrians to leave their homes from the start of civil war in 2011.If you get pass the surface of mainstream reporting, there are facts and data that gives insight into the true devastation of terrorism and the war against it. 

The Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP), in its Global Terrorism Index 2015 states that, “terrorism remained highly concentrated in just five countries, with Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria accounting for 78% of terror-related deaths in 2014.” 

The town of Raqqa in Syria is the stronghold of Islamic State and has been completely destroyed by the ongoing civil war, IS and bombings by the US, Russia, France and other allied forces. Hospitals and schools are nonexistent at this point.

While the reasons for the filter is to make us feel better about our own inaction or inability to change the world but let’s not put a western cap on our solidarity. 

Constitutional Reform: A Must Before 2030

Truth: The failure of our political leaders to notice the decay of our democracy was no mere oversight; rather it was an omission of a selfish nature that comes with the territory of the Jamaican political leadership that puts self before constituents and nation. 

The idea that the system is for the powerful few and not the majority has sent the constitutional reform discussion into the void of ‘soft issues’ or ‘that cyaa eat’ grey area of the Jamaican consciousness.

The Internal power struggles of the past couple of weeks in the two major political parties cannot and should not be passed along as simple politicking, especially after an unfortunate fiery climax in MP.Raymond Pryce’s North-East St Elizabeth constituency.

Peoples National Party

Another unpleasant example included Dr Bloomfield losing his candidate selection race then being reinstated after a strong showing on an internal poll, the Peoples National Party’s General Secretary tried to explain that party delegates did understand the party constitution and its regulations – that the candidate selection was an “indicative” ballot due the constituency being “provisional”. The action of the party would have offended any laypersons grasp of democracy.

It must be seen for what it is; a complete disregard for democratic principles, corrupt processes and glaring mistrust in our political system and institutions.

Renewed Effort

With the shady inner workings of the political parties on full display and in the light, there must be tripled effort to improve our governance structure through constitutional reform.

The recent calls by private sector has only reinforced the need for the parliament of Jamaica both the governing administration and the opposition to embrace and concentrate on constitutional reform.  The modernization of Jamaica’s democratic principles and processes has not kept abreast with the rest of the developing world or those nations we aspire to be by 2030.

As the Partnership for Jamaica Agreement states that signed parties must “reaffirm and recommit to the principles of social dialogue and partnership, specifically to further the process of deepening democracy and participatory decision-making.”

As citizens, private sector, civil society, church and other internal forces, must bring pressure on all individual candidates for elected office and their affiliated political organization to commit to the execution of constitutional reform before 2030. 

It is ultimately the hands of parliament that must be moved to set controls upon themselves and repower the majority.