I forgot to post this 2 weeks ago. I went to annual Christmas Boat parade in Ft Lauderdale last week. I know I should not be surprised but there was a boat in the parade decorated in the Jamaican flag. We are everywhere.

Last week the government announced it would install Close Circuit Television (CCTV) to fight crime in May Pen. I beleive there are already CCTV in Kingston. While I think this is a good step and I hoping that the authories do not think it is a major tool to reduce crime. It should be viewed as one of the many tools in the “box”. Four years ago CCTV’s were installed in Kingston. It does not seem to me that crime dropped drastically. In fact these CCTV’s  became the target of vandalism. I recall there was discussion on computer “tool” used in New York called Real Time Crime Center (RTCC). They system would look at crime patterns and help the police to allocate resources to the area that it beleives could be the next “flare up” zone.  I think it was tested in Montego Bay a few years ago with some success. I have not heard anything about this tool in a while.

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I did not post it here but I told my friends that I did not see the Miami Dolphins going to the playoffs this year. Well they are. It is my team and I supported them through thick or thin like all my South Florida team. The best thing though is the satisfaction I get from us beating the New York Jets. It is just icing on the cake when we get to beat any New York team. I can still remember the Miami Heat vs the New York Knicks series of the 1990’s. New York had our “ticket” back then.

The Jamaican government donated between $50,000 to $100,000 to the  Clinton Foundation. I am  suprised that only one main stream Jamaican media source covered this; RJR. Will there be a backlash for the donation? My cousin, visiting from Jamaica this weekend, reacted this way “Even if it is $50,000 Jamaican dollars it is money we should be spending in Jamaica”.

I read an interesting article today on cars that run on compressed air. The information on this car is very interesting. There are some interesting concept out there….

Not sure how many of you saw Charles Barkley’s comments on race playing a factor in the hiring of the new football coach at Auburn. The new coach is white and has a losing record (5-19) as the head coach of Iowa State the last 2 season. Turner Gill, the black head coach of the University at Buffalo, was also interviews. His record the past 2 seasons is (13-12). This year his team went to the Mid-American Conference championship.  I agree with Charles on this one. Race played a factor. There is a rumor that it also played a factor 2 years ago when the Dolphins hired Cam Cameron over Mike Tomlin. The rumor is that Mike Tomlin, who is black, was ”hip-hop” for the franchise. Again this is just a rumor but if it is true we can say race played a factor.

Now here is where it gets sticky and I have some disagreement with some who says this is racism. In every situation where race plays a factor is it racism?

Here are some of my basic observations and “generalizations”. Most white people tend to have mainly white friends. Most Black people tend to have black friends. The same can be said about other races. If you go to a birthday party and your white friend hardly have any black people at the party is it due to racism.

Here is another situation. You are black.You are watching an Olympic race with 8 men from countries you have never heard of before. This means you have no country alliance. You do not know the background of each runner so there is no “touchy feely” story to sway you to a runner. You do notice that one of the runners are black. Who do you want to win? Chances are if you are black you are cheering for the black running. Is this racism.

I am not an expert in Sociology but I say “NO”. Because we there are differences in race people tend to gravitate to the familiar. It does not mean you hate the other race. It means you may have more in common with your “own”. So race, not racism, can play a factor in how you make a decision that may seem “racist”.