Like the rest of us you’re likely struggling with the current drought: bathing from water bottles and negotiating with water truck drivers. All at great cost and annoyance.

While we can’t blame the government for failing to deliver showers of blessings – that’d be El Niño – there’s no doubt that successive administrations have failed to implement proper water management.

We may continue to pray on the weekends but as this video from TuffChin.com observes, maybe we could spend the weeks actually doing something about it. Y’know, take action for ourselves, not just jump up and down in green and orange shirts?

Meantime water threatens to be just another resource we’ve allowed to run to waste while blaming outside influences only – in this case the weather – while refusing to do anything but talk, blame and defer responsibility.

Just so long as there’s always another party to go to…

Available from Stewart Motors, Jamaica’s official BMW importers:

The risk of armed violence – and in particular, attack with automatic weapons like the AK-47 – is a fact of everyday life for certain customers. In response to this threat, a new level of vehicle security is required. At the same time, more and more people want Sports Activity Vehicles, with all the versatility that they offer to go anywhere and do anything. BMW is the first manufacturer to respond to these two demands and offer a new degree of security. The result is the new BMW X5 Security Plus.

Integrity of joins protects the entire passenger compartment.

The unique security modifications fitted to the BMW X5 Security Plus rely on high-precision moulded parts made from a special high-strength steel and a security glass laminate approximately three centimetres thick to protect occupants against attack with automatic weapons such as the AK-47. The edges of the doors, the places where windows meet frames, and the joins between body panels are some of the most vulnerable areas of the vehicle to gunfire. But in the BMW X5 Security Plus, these areas are reinforced with steel armour, ensuring that neither bullets nor shrapnel can penetrate the passenger compartment.

Certification.

The vehicle is officially certified as a complete unit. The BMW X5 Security Plus is subjected to tests which involve hundreds of rounds being fired at the finished vehicle, to ensure protection against fire from automatic weapons like the AK-47. This official certification is only given where the complete vehicle – and not just the materials used in it – has successfully stood up to the necessary ballistic tests. The armoured underbody can protect against the simultaneous detonation of two DM51 hand grenades.

Armoured glass for extra protection.

The security glazing in the BMW X5 Security Plus is made of a security glass laminate approximately three centimetres thick, with a polycarbonate coating on the inside to prevent spalling. It offers protection not just against attacks with blunt instruments and handguns, but also against the world’s most widely used firearm, the AK-47.

Run-flat Tyres.

Keep performing even when the pressure drops: run-flat tyres keep you mobile even if all tyre pressure is lost. Instead of an unpleasant and unsafe roadside tyre change, you can reach home safely or drive to the next workshop for assistance.

Run-flat tyres are their own spares: thanks to specially reinforced side walls and additional lateral strengthening, they continue to perform their function even if all air pressure is lost. The heat-resistant rubber compound is able to withstand additional heat build-up.

With run-flat tyres fitted, you can continue driving for up to 150 km at a speed of up to 80 km/h without any significant loss in vehicle stability. You not only save time and stress, you are also free of the need to carry a spare tyre, saving stowage space.

All driver assistants remain fully functional when driving with a loss of tyre pressure. The optional Adaptive Drive system redistributes the load to the other tyres, reducing the burden on the low-pressure tyre as much as possible. The wheel rims of run-flat tyres have special design that ensures the tyre will not detach from the rim, even on tight bends.

Run-flat tyres provide greater safety, more peace of mind and additional cabin space. It’s not surprising that Germany’s ADAC, the largest automobile club in the world, has described run-flat tyres as the “first important revolution in tyre design since the invention of the pneumatic tyre.”

We spoke to Stewart Motors. The only drawback is that they’ll need to have this specially manufactured. Oh…and the 2011 model above will set you back in excess of J$20 million. But then if you’re that rich it’s worth paying an extra J$10 million or more so as not to not be confused with a regular deejay or maybe a regular rich person who could only afford the J$11 million 2003 security model.

With one of these vehicles you’ll surely be the envy of all other druggists.

For more information contact Stewart Motors: 1-876-906-4BMW (269) or www.bmwjamaica.com

Like many Jamaicans FIRST kind of gave up buying Lotto tickets after the US$240 million went ‘unclaimed’. And like Jamaicans are want to do, FIRST had ‘invested’ significant $ in this particular ponzi scheme only to come out like we all had in Cash Plus and Olint.

So today we do at least feel better to know that someone has indeed won, a ‘Mr S Clarke, a farmer from Manchester who very cooly waited one-and-a-half months before claiming his winnings.

His reaction to the win, as reported by the Observer? Gayle told his friends he was “going home to have a bath and go to bed.” And as for the long wait: “I decided to take the time to relax and sort myself out.”

We rate this guy. And for everyone else: just allow him to leave in peace. He plans to invest in real estate and farming.

“The title that I have given to this chapter of woe is a metaphorical one. I was not, like Columbus, exactly wrecked upon the coast of Jamaica. I was simply banished there by an Esculapian ukase, and forbidden, under penalty of death, to leave the island for six months. In this light, then, I was cast away, and – may Heaven be thanked for all its mercy! – I live to record the fact.”

Source: Harper’s Magazine

Well, it’s for charity still. Haiti 12:01:10, an exhibition of still and moving work by David Levene goes on show and sale at the Draw Walk Gallery at the Old Truman Brewery in London today.

Proceeds from the signed, limited edition prints of photographs taken in 2010 and in 2008 will going to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Haiti Earthquake Appeal. Meantime, the Guardian newspaper is running a slideshow of Levene’s images.

During World War II a remarkable generation of Jamaicans – think future prime minister Michael Manley, Olympian Arthur Wint and Pan-African activist Dudley Thompson – donned the uniforms of the Royal Air Force (RAF), served, and sometimes died, defending the British Empire. And little thanks they got.

It’s a history that only now is getting a deserved hearing. Cy Grant, a 90-year-old former Guyanese airman recently launched an online archive, www.caribbeanaircrew-ww2.com, to record the contribution of these brave men. Grant was set to be honoured for his work by the House of Lords but he has just died.

Volunteering as navigator for a Royal Air Force bomber, Grant spent two years in a German POW prison after he was shot down in the Netherlands; became ‘Britain’s best-known black person’ as a famous Calypsonian and then actor…and all before finishing up as a cultural activist.

“Of course, I was aware of the racism in British society – witness what happened to me, an ex-RAF officer and a prisoner of war. After qualifying as a barrister – no job opportunities,” he told the Islington Tribune. “I was forced to confront myself, to stand up and be counted, so to speak.”

Among the archive so far are 136 Jamaicans. See, not all Yardie drug dealers.

Englishman and trash can: ready to kill

Buju Banton after all his troubles faces guns and drugs charges. Now Ricardo Fuller, star of the national team and English Premier League Club Stoke City has been accused of a nightclub assault (fellow Reggae Boy Marlon King is already serving At Her Majesty’s Pleasure).

Bad as it allegedly is, at least Fuller didn’t do what some nice English gentlemen hooligans fan of his team did the day before. They beat a rival fan to death with a trash can…

Source: The Guardian

Okay, you’ve seen the comedy Cool Runnings, and you probably read about how the Jamaican bobsled team failed to qualify for this year’s Winter Olympics; news which gained a lot less attention here than abroad.

Lost in-between the tourist novelty and our antipathy with the comedic portrayal of Jamaicans in the movie, is that qualification for the Calgary Olympics in 1988 was a truly remarkable story of success, which typified our natural resourcefulness – and is deserving of real pride, despite the laughs.

Incidentally, each member of that team, outside of the sled, became a success in his own right – and not one was a reggae singer.

Dudley Stokes – whose brother Chris also competed, initially as a last-minute stand-in – still helps run the national bobsled record. And for the record: Jamaica had the seventh-fastest time in Calgary. Much more than a joke.

Read their stories: HERE

The CIA even hired them to help kill Castro.

This three-part documentary maybe in Spanish…but then you can tell us what it says…