Two stories concerning Jamaican and Cayman Islands Bishop Howard Gregory

Bishop slams [Jamaican] government over lottery scam

From Jamaica Observer

Bishop Howard Gregory yesterday scolded the Jamaican Government’s response to the lottery scam, saying that it was slow to enact legislation and suggested that tough talk against the deadly practice emerged only at the same time that the United States Government started an official probe.

Gregory, who heads the Anglican communion in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, made the comments in his charge at the opening of the church’s 143rd Synod at St Ann’s Bay Parish Church.

“After seven years of public awareness of the lottery scam, our Government has only managed to table anti-scamming legislation and talk tough at the very moment when the United States Senate was holding a hearing on the scam in Jamaica,” Bishop Gregory said.

During the US Senate hearing held last month, lawmakers pushed for lottery scammers to be extradited to the US to stand trial for defrauding Americans of millions of dollars.

The legislators also chided Jamaica for not having acted sooner to address the problem as they heard testimony from relatives of elderly scam victims.

Last week, Jamaica’s House of Representatives made amendments to the Anti-Lottery Scam Bill, clearing the way for it to be signed by the governor general, gazetted, then become law.

The law makes specific provisions for a number of offences, including obtaining property or inducing any person to confer any benefit on any person by a false pretence; inviting or otherwise inducing a person to visit Jamaica for the purpose of committing an offence under the Act; knowingly permitting premises to be used for any purpose which constitutes an offence under the Act; and knowingly conducting a financial transaction with the proceeds of an offence.

The law also outlines stiff penalties for other offences committed under the Act.

During the US Senate hearing, the Jamaican Government and Opposition traded charges over which administration responded more swiftly to the scam

However, yesterday, Bishop Gregory slammed both parties, saying that their attacking each other concerning who did the most work in the shortest possible time does not help the country.

“The fact is that the work was not done with any sense of urgency and awareness of the moral problem which this scam poses and the damage to our reputation,” Bishop Gregory said.

“We know that political leaders can act with dispatch, because whatever the merits of the Act to allow the Government to extract funds from the National Housing Trust, we saw urgency in the passage of legislation in this country take on a new definition,” he added.

“The way we are presenting ourselves to the world in terms of our moral values as a nation calls for serious repentance on the part of citizens and political leaders as a whole,” he said, adding that a lot of work had to be done to repair the damage done to Jamaica’s reputation by the previous Government’s stand-off with the US over the extradition of former Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

He also levelled criticism at persons outside the political directorate who condone the lottery scam, saying that when business interests can suggest publicly that the scam should be left alone because it was good for business in western Jamaica; or when parents of adolescents can gladly accept lavish gifts of house and car from them and be happy with the situation, or when adults of varying social standing can dare to suggest that the lottery scam is a way to gain reparation, “then you know that we have some very skewed moral values”.

As such, he said that “repentance, manifested with serious consequential change, is demanded of this nation at this time if the vision we have for our nation and embodied in Vision 2030 is to be achieved, rather than our energies being dissipated in public relations activities to constantly improve our image in the global arena”.

Bishop Gregory was equally critical of the approval granted by the Government to allow the playing of legitimate lotto games on Sundays.

The fact that the approval took effect this week, which, he noted, constitutes the holiest period in the life of the Christian Church, has prompted him to ask “whether this is an expression of gross insensitivity or a statement concerning the way forward for the relationship between church and society”.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Bishop-slams-Gov-t-over-lottery-scam_13992950

Never Again! Clergyman urges Nation to turn back on populist politics

From Jamaican Gleaner

Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter

A SENIOR member of the Jamaican clergy has sent a powerful message to the nerve centre of the country’s leadership, proclaiming that “never again” must the nation be plunged into the predicament it now finds itself because of political expediency.

“The Jewish community throughout the world has had a rallying cry in relation to the experience of the Holocaust: ‘Never again!’ While our motivation may arise from a totally different starting point and experience, we must say to the leaders of our nation, ‘Never again’,” declared the Reverend Dr Howard Gregory, Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

In a sermon delivered last evening at the 143rd Synod of the Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, Gregory took aim at the political directorate.

“No appeal to populist policies or eyes set on the next general election must let this nation find itself again in the economic predicament which it now faces,” he asserted.

NO BUSINESS AS USUAL

Addressing the synod at the St Ann’s Bay Parish Church, the man of the cloth argued that it cannot be business as usual for the country.

He said the nation has been trying to cope with the harsh economic climate brought on by the country’s high level of indebtedness and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) conditionalities for an extended fund facility.

Gregory said he would not join with those who want to make out the IMF to be the villain, but instead placed the blame on “the failure of those charged with governance in taking appropriate decisions and carving out a path for growth while containing debt”.

The Anglican church leader also questioned whether the hardships now being faced by Jamaicans were being borne in an equitable fashion. The apparent rhetorical question was put to rest with Gregory pointing to the “widening gap” between the rich and poor in Jamaica, a situation which he noted was unparalleled in the Caribbean.

He added that those who had the economic advantage could use “the system” to evade their social responsibilities.

“Thankfully, it is no secret that the IMF has been insistent that the discretionary powers residing in the Ministry of Finance – and which has been used at times to provide unreasonable breaks for those with the right connections and for personal gain – must come to an end, even as it has shone the spotlight on those corporate institutions and corporate executives who have been able to use the system to avoid paying their fair share of taxes,” Gregory stated.

The church leader also described as “flippant” responses from the Government in relation to recent calls for it to make symbolic sacrifices to identify with the hardship being faced by the people.

He commended members of the clergy and workers of the diocese who took the decision to forgo any increase in their stipends this year without prompting from the church leadership. According to Gregory, this decision was made against the background of the serious economic challenges facing the church and, by extension, the nation.

Urging Jamaicans to become more involved in the governance process, the senior clergyman said there was the need for a shift from the “pervasive freeness mentality” which asserts that “Government should be responsible for us”.

He said this posture of dependence disposed persons to exploitation and manipulation by those in governance.

For more on this story go to:

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130403/lead/lead1.html