The Bruce Who Stole Christmas

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

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Everybody Going with the Flow?

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!

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Doomed - $5000, JPS Hike!!!

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

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JPS Again!

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!

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Beware of Supermarket Specials!!!

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!

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Busy and Dealing with Increases

Once again Stunner has been beset by a long spell of blogger's drought. I wish I was now explaining to you that my absence was due to immensely pleasurable and relaxing adventures. I wish I was reporting on my trips to the north coast or even that I just came back from a long weekend at Portland enjoying the Portland Jerk Festival (Even though I just heard it wasn't that good). But unfortunately this is not so, there was no basking in the sun, no frolicking in the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, no visiting of exotic places.

The truth is that I have been rather busy, busy chasing vanity and a striving after the wind. I have been working the day shift all of last week, which seems to me more hectic these days for some unknown reason. There is also this website that I am building, as my client requires a new website. So for the most part I have been busy chasing after the mighty dollar. Not to get filthy rich, but just to make ends meat and have some form of purchasing power. In the midst of this I have to be trying to chase my next seemingly unattainable dream of having a muscular, well tones, eye turning body... well I have downgraded that to just being able to take of my shirt and feel good on the beach. So by the time I am through with all of this I have no use to myself, the only thing I can think of is the comfort of my bed.

On another note, the Stunner has been battling with high light bills which seem to be getting higher every month. So prodded by these increases I have decided that my step to outfit my house with energy saver bulbs wasn't doing enough. So I embarked on more stringent measures such as limiting the number of lights on, as it is summer I have turned off my water heater indefinitely, and I have been using my electrical appliances less. however despite my endeavors an article in The Sunday Gleaner has dashed my hopes of paying less for my power bill. Yes my friends, JPS has once again decided to hike up their energy charges! It reported that "consumers are seeing increasing amounts - ranging between 100 and 250 per cent - on their light bills"! Now I am in fear of what my next light bill will look like! I can just picture myself walking over the the Credit Union to take out a loan just to pay my light bill! The though of investing in solar energy and integrating it in my power supply is seeming more and more a reality with these crippling power charges.

What did you say? If the OUR will intervene? On the contrary it seems the OUR is in partnership with the JPS to milk paying customers pockets dry! I think the comic below, from The Gleaner, sums up the OUR's view on the increases.

I am officially opening the Stunner's Energy Bill Fund, so feel free to make your donations to keep the light on my my tiny apartment.

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Before You Fill Up at the Pump...

With oil prices hitting US$100 per barrel and the tsunami effect it has been having on gas prices at the pump, I think this bit of info I got in my email might be helpful.



1. Fill up your car or truck in the morning when the temperature is
still cool. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks
buried below ground; and the colder the ground, the denser the gasoline.
When it gets warmer gasoline expands, so if you're filling up in the
afternoon or in the evening, what should be a gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and temperature of the fuel (gasoline, diesel, jet
fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products) are significant. Every
truckload that we load is temperature-compensated so that the indicated
gallonage is actually the amount pumped. A one-degree rise in
temperature is a big deal for businesses, but service stations don't
have temperature compensation at their pumps.

2. If a tanker truck is filling the station's tank at the time you want
to buy gas, do not fill up; most likely dirt and sludge in the tank is
being stirred up when gas is being delivered, and you might be
transferring that dirt from the bottom of their tank into your car's
tank.

3. Fill up when your gas tank is half-full (or half-empty), because the
more gas you have in your tank the less air there is and gasoline
evaporates rapidly, especially when it's warm. (Gasoline storage tanks
have an internal floating 'roof' membrane to act as a barrier between
the gas and the atmosphere, thereby minimizing evaporation.)

4. If you look at the trigger you'll see that it has three delivery
settings: slow, medium and high. When you're filling up do not squeeze
the trigger of the nozzle to the high setting. You should be pumping at
the slow setting, thereby minimizing vapors created while you are
pumping. Hoses at the pump are corrugated; the corrugations act as a
return path for vapor recovery from gas that already has been metered. If you are pumping at the high setting, the agitated gasoline contains more vapor, which is being
sucked back into the underground tank, so you're getting less gas for
your money. Hope this will help ease your 'pain at the pump'

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The Increases Never End!

Well life has just got harder her on the rock. It seems the price of everything has sky rocketed over the past few weeks. The increasing price of gas become a norm now, even with the whopping increase to US$88 per barrel. It seems going to th pumps on a Thursday mooring the average driver expects to see an increase of JM$1.00 on the per litre price for gas. So despite feeling the crunch in ones pocket, the average Jamaican seems to be getting accustomed to the ever increasing gas prices. But this is not the only tribulation that was in mid air, pouncing on the pockets of Jamaicans!

The news broke a few weeks ago, when the Jamaica Flour Mills announced that the cost for flour will be increased by thirty percent (30%)! This increase in one single item might not look so drastic at first thought, but when you consider the rippling effects that this increase will inevitably have on all baked products that uses flour then the ominous picture reveals itself. Now Jamaican will have to dig deeper into their pockets for the simple necessary baked products like bread, biscuits, crackers. This ripple effect is also compounded by the many greedy resellers of flour who see this as an opportunity to fatten their pockets by stuffing their shelves with excessive increases in the price of flour. It has been reported that some store owners have already begun to practice price gouging.

But this is not the only pocket crunching food woe, it has also been reported that the prices of ground provisions have also gone up! Another bite into the ever diminishing pocket. I share the same sentiments of a consumer who the the Jamaica Gleaner quoted as saying, "Every month when I go to the supermarket the prices go up. Now I just buy the basic items, certain things like fruits and cereal I cannot afford...", as I feel the same way when I see the prices of goods on the shelves every time I go to the supermarket.

The unfortunate thing is that while everything seem to be on a rapid increase except my salary! Instead it seems to be on a downward spiral with the ever devaluing Jamaican Dollar! I guess I just have to ban mi belly learn to live with less and try to think positive, because with all the increases in the price of gas, utilities and food, compounded by negligible salary increases I can still afford to gaze on things like these...

Click on the image to view it larger. See more at My World My Lens

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