The Bruce Who Stole Christmas

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Usually on a Friday I like to post something on a light note, or even post a picture of some hot, sexy female scantily clad. And don't be fooled by the picture above, I am not even reviewing a movie! However this is not an ordinary Friday, it is the real Black Friday, not the one where you get to buy your desire at half the price, but one where you will want to hold on to your money for dear life! What is so bad about this Friday, and it's not Friday 13th?

Well, it's what was announced Thursday, that made this Friday so dark and gloomy. The Prime Minister and his henchman Audley Shaw announced yet another new set of taxes to the nation in Gordon House on Thursday afternoon! This is not just another ordinary tax package, but the mother of all tax packages that has been announced in the past, yes this one supersedes all the previous tax woes on the nation of Jamaica! Instead of being merry and enjoying the upcoming season, Jamaicans have been plunged into a solemn mood, by a picture painted with more hardship for the poor and the struggling working class of this island. But really, can one pronouncement be so bad?

Well remember a few months ago the government introduced new taxes on the poor Jamaican people who were already suffering from high prices and low pay. This is now compounded by this heavy and burdensome increase in existing taxes and the inclusion of basically all goods and services that was not previously taxed! It's as if the government unleashed the tax floodgates on the already burdened tax payers! Now let me depress you with the details:

• The standard rate for GCT will be going up from 16.5% to 17.5%
• Motorists will again be hit with an increase in the fuel tax which will increase to 15%.
• GCT will now be applied to electricity, residential customers using more than 200 kilowatt hour each month.
• Fresh fruit and vegetables, ground provisions, meat, poultry, fish, corned beef and pickled mackerel which were previously tax exempt will now attract GCT.
  
• Other basic food items such as canned sardines, mackerel, bread, buns and bullas are also included on the list of taxable items.
• Persons who require medical and surgical prostheses, orthopedics appliances will now have to pay GCT for these items.
• The Special Consumption Tax on cigarettes will be increased from $8,500 per 1,000 sticks to $10,500 per 1,000 sticks to raise $1.41 billion.
  
• TVJ Prime Time News has noted that even sanitary napkins will be taxed!

Yes my friends, it will now cost more money to even purchase the basic necessities. If the average Jamaican is now finding it hard to make ends meet, what are we going to do come January 2010? The government is hoping that these new overly burdensome taxes will correct the shortfall in the budget and impress the big bad IMF (International Monetary Fund), who they have been trying to woo for several months now. But this new tax measure will definitely put a serious dent into the personal budgets of the ordinary Jamaicans! I know this news has for a certain dampened the somewhat festive mood of this merry season. But you can still eat, drink and be merry this month, for as of January we shall starve!

Sources: http://go-jamaica.com/news/read_article.php?id=15347, http://go-jamaica.com/news/read_article.php?id=15346

Continue Reading | komentar

Everybody Going with the Flow?

Monday, September 28, 2009

The line at Flow's Pavilion Office in Half Way Tree

I received my LIME bill and realized that it had doubled since my last bill and I have not increases my usage nor have I added any new service! How could have my bill doubled just like that? Then I remembered that i no longer have the concession LIME staff normally enjoyed and as such I am now just a regular paying customer. With my unemployed status in mind and this sudden increase in my bill I have decided to go with the Flow in a bid to save money via their bundled service as well as their promotion that they are currently having. I called Flow and spoke to a nice agent who gave me the prices and was more than willing to sign me up. However, I wanted to go to the store to ensure there was no trick and to do my subscription there for their services. Big mistake!

So this afternoon I went to the Flow office located at the Pavilion mall. When I parked in the parking lot the security came to hand me the parking ticket, when she paused and asked me which store I was visiting in the mall. So I told her Flow. Without hesitation she said. "Mi nauh guh even badda give yuh nuh ticket cause in deh ram-up". Right then and there disappointment set in as I hate lines and hate waiting! I decided to go there just out of curiosity, maybe she was just exaggerating. I should have listened, as I totally wasted my time and energy walking up to the store. the line was so long that it was all the way outside the store!

I decided, well the New Kingston office should be better, and so I drove down to the New Kingston Office. this again was another waste of time and gas, even though the line was inside, it was like an overgrown anaconda stuffed in a little box! After taking a number as the security reassured me that I should take a number to speak to an agent as the line was for other transactions. i waited over half hour in the store as I watched the number slowly incremented closer to my number, but was still had a long way to go. It seems everybody has opted to switch to flow or had inadvertently become Flow customers!

I think I might create an account via their contact centre tonight and go in early tomorrow and pay for the subscription to their service. If I sign up to Flow, I will be cutting my LIME Internet, Netspeak and maybe the landline, as well as cutting my Logic One cable service to consolidate them to one bill. This would reduce my bill by JM$1000 to JM$2000, and coupled with their promotions I would be saving quite a few thousands for the next three months!

Continue Reading | komentar

Doomed - $5000, JPS Hike!!!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Our fate has been sealed today, September 24, 2009, the average Jamaican has been plunged into further hardship. The Office of Utility Regulations (OUR), for weeks has had our fate in the palm of their hands, as the deliberated in giving the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) the hike the deviously conceived and presented in earnest. Today was D-day, as the OUR was to say whether or not it would be granting the JPS the hike they have been eagerly awaiting and once again the customer's worse fear was realized!

The OUR has granted the JPS an increase on the non-fuel charge of the electricity bill, though the increase is not the ridiculous 23 percent average JPS was asking for, it is still a significant increase. The JPS received a 13 3 percent average increase in non-fuel charge of their monthly bills, which is still a huge increase in these harsh economic times. This 13 3 percent average increase in the non-fuel part of the electricity bill, is further compounded by the ever increasing fuel-part of the bill, which increased even up to this month! I dread the thought of what my next light bill will look like, because even with my attempts of conservation, I still see a bill coming up to several thousands. JPS is sticking true to their motto, "Changing lives with our energy", because they are certainly making our lives harder and making us poorer!

To coincide with this hike in the electricity bill, or maybe just coincidence, the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) has commenced the circulation of the new Jamaican Five Thousand Dollar note (JM$5000). This is just perfect timing with the OUR grant of an increase to JPS, as we certainly will be forking out much more money to pay our bills. No doubt this increase granted to JPS, will shortly start to trick down into other utility bills: telephone, cellphone, cable, water, etc and will even start to translate into other goods and services. At least when people go to pay their bills instead of forking out several Thousand Dollar bills (JM$1000), they will be forking out less paper with this new JM$5000 bill. Now we can cover more bills with less notes. that's they only good way of looking at it, if there is at all any good way to look at it!

This hike in electricity bill and the new JM$5000 note further highlights the plight of the average Jamaican people and gives a dim picture of the overall economic health... or ill-health of the country. Dark and gloomy days lay ahead, we can't stop it, we just have to learn how to survive as much as possible. With this in mind, and my current unemployed status, I now have to reevaluate my energy conservation and see where can further cut back on my energy consumption to stay afloat in this turbulent economic stormy waters.

Source: http://go-jamaica.com/news/read_article.php?id=12847, http://go-jamaica.com/news/read_article.php?id=12851

Continue Reading | komentar

JPS Again!

Friday, March 13, 2009

Yes my friends, I am back at Yard! I have been busy since I came back, not with work, but enjoying the local leg of my vacation. My flight down wasn't too bad at all, it actually left only a half hour late and I only experienced two incidents of turbulence during the entire flight. But I couldn't go to foreign and nuh bring back something fi mi friend dem who read my useless rambles about my life! I will let you know more about that in my next post, so stay tuned.

I just got a light bill a few days ago and my light bill went up, again! Now this is just crazy, considering the fact that I have been putting out even more effort to conserve. This evil utility company is seriously on a mission to rob people! I even just read an article in The Gleaner, saying that the Jamaica Public Service, JPS is now complaining that electricity theft is driving up the light bills! This could be true, but I'm just tired of hearing JPS complain and make excuses; if it's not oil prices it's the Jamaican Dollar, even hurricanes and now it's electricity theft. Yet I don't hear them trying to correct the over twenty percent loss they have in their inefficient and outdated transmission and generating systems. I think the picture above, that I found on The Gleaner's website sums up JPS' attitude. They are really changing lives with their energy... making us poorer!

Continue Reading | komentar

Beware of Supermarket Specials!!!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

On Saturday I decided to go to the Supermarket to pick up a few items that I had run out of. So off I went to a well known supermarket, which I will not name, on Red Hills road to restock on the few items. One of such item was butter... well margarine. So after picking up some of the items I went down to the isle to the section with the butter. But this time I decided to deviate from my normal choice of Blue Band Creamy, is search of a different taste and value for my money. Then as my eyes glanced across the shelves, a Special sign caught my eyes! This wasn't any ordinary special on any ordinary butter! It was a very good special on some really tasty, foreign, Country Crock butter! So immediately I was drawn to the brightly coloured yellow and red sign to investigate!


I stared in disbelief as the small tub of Country Crock, which is almost equivalent to the big tub of Blue Band and Flora, was only JM$84.10 (US$1.16) down from the regular price of JM$177.75 (US$2.46)! I couldn't believe it, this was my chance to indulge in butter that I only enjoy when I am in the US on vacation. This was too good to be true, so I immediately pawned up a tub to throw it in my shopping cart until...


Then I really wondered to myself, 'this is too good to be true, there must be a catch'! And right I was, as when I spun around the tub to look at the expiration date, to my disappointment it said August 05, 2008! What the hell, my dream of buying tasty foreign butter cheaper than the small tub of my ordinary butter was dashed! Well for someone with a family this wouldn't be bad, but for a health conscious, single male this is a problem. That tub of butter would serve me quite a while, and even longer as I will be away on vacation in a weeks time and won't be back till after that expiration date. So after inspecting all the tubs, which as expected had the same expiration date, I placed them back on the shelf and took up one of the ordinary priced tub of butters with acceptable expiration dates. Surprisingly, it was cheaper than the big tub of the margarine I normally buy.

Oh, yeah, I just remembered, the moral of the story: 'beware of supermarket specials, always check for the pros and cons'. It seems this is a good way for the supermarkets to get rid of stuff that will soon expire. Yes, lure unsuspecting shoppers with promises of great deals with their bright colourful signs!

Continue Reading | komentar