It may seem, on the surface, a stretch to connect the deaths of Khajeel Mais (in 2011) and Nicholas Francis. Five years between them, different weapons used, different circumstances.
But there are two critical elements - apart from the fact that both were schoolboys - that binds these incidences together.
Firstly, the hugely unpopular Not Guilty verdict - instructed by the presiding judge, no less - coming after a mere wisp of a trial that appeared like a mirage at the end of a near-five year desert of postponements and other legal stalling, brings the Mais case painfully into the present. The "forced" exoneration of accused Patrick Powell, reputed to be a bigwig businessman and contributor to both political parties, has touched a very raw nerve amongst the public, in a manner similar to the brutal stabbing of Francis on board a public commuter bus in an apparent robbery attempt. In one case, everything was done to avoid or negate prosecution, in the other, nothing was done to forestall/prevent a needless loss of life.
Both incidents have huge implications fr the national character, and both represent a stern test for a still new administration under severe pressure to get a handle on violence that many view as out of all control or even the possibility of managing.
There is still work to be done in respect to the Francis murder, and with a name and photographs of the suspect being circulated via social media - the same social media that the Mais judge ordered the family of the victim to stop posting to - there is the hope that some part of the loop of pain will be closed for the grieving family.
But for Allana, Noel and Kimberly Mais (mother, father and sister respectively), no such closure is in the offing. The accused is gone free, thanks largely to a turnabout from the prosecution's only witness, the taxi driver in whose cab Khajeel was travelling on the fateful afternoon. Not only do they have to contend with the verdict, but with the near deafening crescendo of rumours surrounding pay-offs, the general travesty of justice, and the now oft-repeated story that Powell the elder was really acting as a proxy for the "real" killer: his hothead son.
Jahnai Powell, 21, is already being sought for the alleged beating of an old man (which crippled him), an incident which gees back to 2009, even further than the X6 shooting. He is apparently on bail in that matter.
And there we have the core of the problem. The rich and influential in this country have their cases repeatedly put off, have records conveniently go missing, or have key prosecution witnesses change their prior statements. the not-so-well-off, like the Mais and the Francis families, are forced to "just deal with it", to give interviews and speak out for "justice reform" and other platitudes that neither party has really shown the will nor the cojones for when in office.
There is simply the cascade of grief and outrage and then.......silence. The daily humdrum resumes - until the next "shocking" fatality. Word is that on Monday, interests at Francis' school Jamaica College, will stage a special "stand-in" outside the Old Hope Road gates of the school. Odd how none of the Fortis crew ever thought to march during the five-year "legal winter" that the Mais family shuddered through; worse, the not guilty verdict prompted no riots or marches or protest of any kind beyond words (just like this article, I must admit).
But if justice was really "sold" in the Mais case, as many seem to have accepted s the outcome, then that means we must prepare for more Kyle Maises. More road rage instances will occur, some by necessity involving well-heeled owners of high-end motor vehicles and also of firearms. Meanwhile, our inaction and cowardice as a populace means that more Nicholas Francises will lose their lives for the sake of their possessions (phone, watch, whatever) as many sit by and look or, at best, recoil in horror with out even attempting to intervene.
These events, the Mais-X6 verdict and the Francis slaying occurred just a week or two after the annual Heritage Week observances, and the commemoration of the life of reggae revolutionary Peter Tosh. Would any of our heroes - Tosh included - be anything but mortified at how spineless, venal and indifferent we have become?
God, how we need them now.
taxi
mother
family
X6
Patrick Powell
politics
lawyers
trust
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Music: Donnie and Bowie, a young jazzman's contribution to the pop legend's swan song
- from The Guardian
Nine months have passed since David Bowie’s death, but his last collaborator, Donny McCaslin, still has to pause when he talks about it. “There’s so much emotion,” McCaslin says, the words catching in his throat. “It’s devastating.”
McCaslin speaks about his experience with Bowie sitting in 55 Bar, the micro Greenwich Village jazz club where Bowie first heard the musician perform back in 2014. Shortly after seeing that show, Bowie chose McCaslin’s band to back him on his final album, the acclaimed, jazz-fusion leaning Blackstar.
McCaslin vividly remembers the night Bowie came to the club to check him out. “I was definitely nervous,” the saxophonist said. “I glanced up and saw where he was sitting. I just tried to keep myself grounded and not think about it. But the pressure was on.”
Even so, McCaslin says his band “were going for it. It wasn’t a watered-down version of what we do. Afterwards Bowie said: ‘Wow, that was really loud!’”
Clearly, he liked it that way, because a few days later, Bowie emailed the musician to ask if his band would work with him on what would be his last release, an album that turned out to be one of his most adventurous. The experience of creating music with Bowie proved so deep, and its aftermath so jarring, that McCaslin decided to turn his new album, Beyond Now, out 14 October, into a tribute. It includes several transformative covers of Bowie songs, including Warszawa from Low, and A Small Plot of Land from Outside, along with a song McCaslin wrote inspired by a piece Bowie left off Blackstar. (That track, plus two other cuts that didn’t make that release, will come out on 21 October on the cast album from the musical Bowie wrote in his last year, Lazarus).
McCaslin knew his Bowie salute had to be special. “I wanted the depth of my experience with him, and the impact on my life, to be reflected,” he said. “I was digging deep on every take to get the gravitas I felt it should have.”
For Blackstar, that meant giving McCaslin’s band nearly free rein. “He set the tone from the beginning,” the saxophonist said. “He told us: ‘Whatever you hear, I want you to go with it.’ He said ‘great’ to everything.”
At the same time, McCaslin couldn’t tell anyone outside of his immediate family about the project. Bowie had the band sign non-disclosure agreements, the better to keep the album a secret until he was ready to release it. At the same time, Bowie was aware he had cancer, which was an even more closely guarded secret. McCaslin politely demurs when asked if he knew the star was sick during the recording process. “He was so private,” he said. “I want to honor his wishes that we not talk about it.”
At the time, McCaslin wasn’t even sure the music he cut with Bowie would come out or, if it did, how much of his band’s efforts would make the ultimate cut. It wasn’t until late last fall, when a British journalist asked to interview the musician for a story about a new Bowie album, that he found out about its impending release and heard its final form.
On 8 January, Blackstar finally appeared. Two days later came news of Bowie’s death and, suddenly, everyone wanted to talk to McCaslin. “I wasn’t prepped,” he said. “I didn’t know what to say.”
He gave a few interviews, talking only about the music. Then, journalists started to get nosier about the details of Bowie’s illness and demise, and McCaslin shut down. He also began to fully experience his grief. “We had this amazing connection,” he said, “and then he was gone.”
Nine months have passed since David Bowie’s death, but his last collaborator, Donny McCaslin, still has to pause when he talks about it. “There’s so much emotion,” McCaslin says, the words catching in his throat. “It’s devastating.”
McCaslin speaks about his experience with Bowie sitting in 55 Bar, the micro Greenwich Village jazz club where Bowie first heard the musician perform back in 2014. Shortly after seeing that show, Bowie chose McCaslin’s band to back him on his final album, the acclaimed, jazz-fusion leaning Blackstar.
McCaslin vividly remembers the night Bowie came to the club to check him out. “I was definitely nervous,” the saxophonist said. “I glanced up and saw where he was sitting. I just tried to keep myself grounded and not think about it. But the pressure was on.”
Even so, McCaslin says his band “were going for it. It wasn’t a watered-down version of what we do. Afterwards Bowie said: ‘Wow, that was really loud!’”
Clearly, he liked it that way, because a few days later, Bowie emailed the musician to ask if his band would work with him on what would be his last release, an album that turned out to be one of his most adventurous. The experience of creating music with Bowie proved so deep, and its aftermath so jarring, that McCaslin decided to turn his new album, Beyond Now, out 14 October, into a tribute. It includes several transformative covers of Bowie songs, including Warszawa from Low, and A Small Plot of Land from Outside, along with a song McCaslin wrote inspired by a piece Bowie left off Blackstar. (That track, plus two other cuts that didn’t make that release, will come out on 21 October on the cast album from the musical Bowie wrote in his last year, Lazarus).
McCaslin knew his Bowie salute had to be special. “I wanted the depth of my experience with him, and the impact on my life, to be reflected,” he said. “I was digging deep on every take to get the gravitas I felt it should have.”
For Blackstar, that meant giving McCaslin’s band nearly free rein. “He set the tone from the beginning,” the saxophonist said. “He told us: ‘Whatever you hear, I want you to go with it.’ He said ‘great’ to everything.”
At the same time, McCaslin couldn’t tell anyone outside of his immediate family about the project. Bowie had the band sign non-disclosure agreements, the better to keep the album a secret until he was ready to release it. At the same time, Bowie was aware he had cancer, which was an even more closely guarded secret. McCaslin politely demurs when asked if he knew the star was sick during the recording process. “He was so private,” he said. “I want to honor his wishes that we not talk about it.”
At the time, McCaslin wasn’t even sure the music he cut with Bowie would come out or, if it did, how much of his band’s efforts would make the ultimate cut. It wasn’t until late last fall, when a British journalist asked to interview the musician for a story about a new Bowie album, that he found out about its impending release and heard its final form.
On 8 January, Blackstar finally appeared. Two days later came news of Bowie’s death and, suddenly, everyone wanted to talk to McCaslin. “I wasn’t prepped,” he said. “I didn’t know what to say.”
He gave a few interviews, talking only about the music. Then, journalists started to get nosier about the details of Bowie’s illness and demise, and McCaslin shut down. He also began to fully experience his grief. “We had this amazing connection,” he said, “and then he was gone.”
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
WheRe WordS WanDer #10: Saved by the Bell
There is a widespread notion that 'saved by the bell' originated as an expression that relates to people being buried alive. The idea was that, if someone were comatose and mistakenly pronounced dead and interred, they could, if they later revived, ring a bell that was attached to the coffin and be saved.
There's no evidence to show that anyone was ever saved by these coffins or even that they were ever put to use, and there's a similar lack of evidence of the phrase 'saved by the bell' ever being used in that sense prior to it having been used in other contexts.
In fact, the expression is boxing slang and it came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be 'saved' from defeat by the respite signalled by bell that marks the end of a round. The earliest reference to this that I can find is in the Massachusetts newspaper The Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, February 1893:
"Martin Flaherty defeated Bobby Burns in 32 rounds by a complete knockout. Half a dozen times Flaherty was saved by the bell in the earlier rounds."
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
The Word on Weed #1
No one has ever overdosed or died from smoking too much weed. In the history of mankind.
While prescription painkillers cause thousands of overdose deaths each year, no one has ever died from a marijuana overdose.
But is it even possible to overdose on weed? The answer is no, according to the National Cancer Institute. And here’s why:
“Because cannabinoid receptors, unlike opioid receptors, are not located in the brainstem areas controlling respiration, lethal overdoses from Cannabis and cannabinoids do not occur.”
n other words, marijuana and opioids affect different pathways of the body. Opioid pathways, also known as receptors, are present in areas of the brain that control breathing. As a result, taking too many painkillers can cause a person to stop breathing.
But marijuana acts on a completely different set of pathways. These pathways are called cannabinoid receptors and they do not affect respiration. Thus, marijuana cannot cause someone to stop breathing, no matter how much they ingest.
Another way of measuring a drug’s safety is by its therapeutic index. The therapeutic index is the ratio between a drug’s lethal dose and its therapeutic dose (amount that causes a therapeutic effect).
Studies show that marijuana has a therapeutic index of 40,000:1. This means someone would have to take 40,000 times the normal amount of marijuana in order to die.
Opioid-based painkillers have much lower therapeutic indexes. For example, the therapeutic index of morphine is only 70:1.
The Word on Weed #1
No one has ever overdosed or died from smoking too much weed. In the history of mankind.
While prescription painkillers cause thousands of overdose deaths each year, no one has ever died from a marijuana overdose.
But is it even possible to overdose on weed? The answer is no, according to the National Cancer Institute. And here’s why:
“Because cannabinoid receptors, unlike opioid receptors, are not located in the brainstem areas controlling respiration, lethal overdoses from Cannabis and cannabinoids do not occur.”
n other words, marijuana and opioids affect different pathways of the body. Opioid pathways, also known as receptors, are present in areas of the brain that control breathing. As a result, taking too many painkillers can cause a person to stop breathing.
But marijuana acts on a completely different set of pathways. These pathways are called cannabinoid receptors and they do not affect respiration. Thus, marijuana cannot cause someone to stop breathing, no matter how much they ingest.
Another way of measuring a drug’s safety is by its therapeutic index. The therapeutic index is the ratio between a drug’s lethal dose and its therapeutic dose (amount that causes a therapeutic effect).
Studies show that marijuana has a therapeutic index of 40,000:1. This means someone would have to take 40,000 times the normal amount of marijuana in order to die.
Opioid-based painkillers have much lower therapeutic indexes. For example, the therapeutic index of morphine is only 70:1.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Health: Carib leads world in abttling HIV/AIDS
The United Nations is reporting major progress by the Caribbean in battling HIV/AIDS, with the region recording the biggest drop in new infections compared to all regions in the world.
According to a report from the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), ‘How AIDS changed everything — MDG6: 15 years, 15 lessons of hope from the AIDS response’ which indicates that the world has met and exceeded the sixth millennium development goal of halting and reversing the AIDS epidemic, it is estimated that the number of people newly infected with HIV in the Caribbean in 2014 had been cut in half since 2000.
“The number of people living with HIV in the Caribbean fell sharply in the first half of the past decade, as new infections declined and substantial AIDS-related mortality persisted. As access to HIV treatment has expanded, the number of people living with HIV has stabilized and begun to increase, consistent with trends seen globally,” stated the report which was released yesterday on the sidelines of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development.
The decrease in new infections was most pronounced in the 2000 to 2004 period, when they fell by almost 32 per cent. In the 2005 to 2009 and 2010 to 2014 periods, more modest declines in new infections of about 10 per cent occurred.
Haiti accounted for roughly half of all new HIV infections in 2014 in the Caribbean, with the Dominican Republic contributing the second largest number of new infections.
AIDS-related deaths in the region have also fallen by 59 per cent since 2005.
“The Caribbean is the only region in which the estimated decline in tuberculosis-related deaths among people living with HIV has exceeded 50 per cent. From 2004 to 2013, TB-related deaths among people living with HIV in the Caribbean fell by 66 per cent,” the report stated.
Worldwide, new HIV infections have fallen by 35 per cent and AIDS-related deaths by 41 per cent, and UNAIDS said the world is on track to ends the AIDS epidemic by 2030
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Business and Finance: Diversify, and Plan well before you Die
This was among the unwelcome yet useful bits of info that emerged from a Scotia seminar on estate Planning held jointly by the investment and insurance arms of the financial giant at its Liguanea Branch
Noted Estate attorney and part-time Lecturer at the Norman Manley Law School, Denise Henry-James spoke of the process that ensues once a loved one has departed for the beyond, including the inevitable payment of transfer tax, stamp duty, and legal and other requisite fees, depending on the value of the estate (as determined by the Government)
Hugh Reid, head of Scotia Insurance, who outlined some of the trends affecting the industry, spoke of a respite from taxes, at least for the companies - in the form of the abolition of premium income tax and investment income tax that should at least leave a greater portion of the insured's funds undisturbed by the tax man.
Trendiness may not be what one goes for in picking stocks, according to VP Treasury and trading (and unabashed Warren Buffet devotee) Gregory Samuels
Branch manager Michael Lee overdaw the proceedings, while Senior VP Sales and Service Courtney Sylvester reminded the capacity audience of the bank's commitment to improving the financial well-being of its clients.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Testosterone Theatre: Kill The Irishman
Ahh, the old days.......
when the "good" bad guys lived honorably, distributed the spoils evenly and dispensed justice according to their own code; the "bad" bad guys got whatever shitstorm that was coming to them.
Of course, it never was as cut-and-dried as that and director/co-writer Johnathan Hensleigh makes sure that the (true) story unfolds in as organic a manner as possible, adapting the book, written by Ray Porrello, detailing the violent succession wars that eventually demolished(?) the Cleveland Mafia.
At the centre of that particular maelstrom is the charismatic Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson, from "The Punisher") who, along with his boyhood pal Joe, took plenty of his own hard knocks as a kid in Sicilian-controlled Cleveland. Time passes and the pair's paths diverge - Danny heads for the docks, Joe joins the cops - thus setting up a decidedly uneasy yet respectful "understanding" between them.
Through his combination of toughness, brains, a sense of fairness and a penchant for immediately following his instincts, Danny rises to assume control of the local Longshoremen's Union, and thus earns the attention of the mafia hierarchy. Race issues aside, its obvious that such a bright spark in possession of a mind of his own cannot be tolerated and thus comes the edict that forms the title of this film (It was also released as "Bulletproof Gangster").
Danny proves so resistant to guns and bombs that he becomes a figure of national attention. The New York families, who exercise control by proxy over Cleveland, step in and send in their mystery man from the West (confused?) to shadow Danny and rub him out.
The result is inevitable, but its Green's heroic stand - a noble gangster - and the befuddling and irritiating effect of his durability on his enemies that enlivens the film. There's significant help from the supporting cast, notably Val Kilmer as the adult Joe, Christopher Walken as a mentor-turned-enemy and Vincent D'Onofrio as one of the No. 2 mafiosi who is in fact sympathetic to Danny's cause.
Needless to say, the violence and profanity are rampant, and there are a few brief scenes of partial nudity. But Kill The Irishman is generally a great guy's movie. Load up on the snacks an beverages, kick back in your favourite chair and enjoy a good tale writ large.
Of course, it never was as cut-and-dried as that and director/co-writer Johnathan Hensleigh makes sure that the (true) story unfolds in as organic a manner as possible, adapting the book, written by Ray Porrello, detailing the violent succession wars that eventually demolished(?) the Cleveland Mafia.
At the centre of that particular maelstrom is the charismatic Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson, from "The Punisher") who, along with his boyhood pal Joe, took plenty of his own hard knocks as a kid in Sicilian-controlled Cleveland. Time passes and the pair's paths diverge - Danny heads for the docks, Joe joins the cops - thus setting up a decidedly uneasy yet respectful "understanding" between them.
Through his combination of toughness, brains, a sense of fairness and a penchant for immediately following his instincts, Danny rises to assume control of the local Longshoremen's Union, and thus earns the attention of the mafia hierarchy. Race issues aside, its obvious that such a bright spark in possession of a mind of his own cannot be tolerated and thus comes the edict that forms the title of this film (It was also released as "Bulletproof Gangster").
Danny proves so resistant to guns and bombs that he becomes a figure of national attention. The New York families, who exercise control by proxy over Cleveland, step in and send in their mystery man from the West (confused?) to shadow Danny and rub him out.
The result is inevitable, but its Green's heroic stand - a noble gangster - and the befuddling and irritiating effect of his durability on his enemies that enlivens the film. There's significant help from the supporting cast, notably Val Kilmer as the adult Joe, Christopher Walken as a mentor-turned-enemy and Vincent D'Onofrio as one of the No. 2 mafiosi who is in fact sympathetic to Danny's cause.
Needless to say, the violence and profanity are rampant, and there are a few brief scenes of partial nudity. But Kill The Irishman is generally a great guy's movie. Load up on the snacks an beverages, kick back in your favourite chair and enjoy a good tale writ large.
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