Sunday Sips with HG Helps | Wheatley must do the right thing and Jamaica taking in the worst of America

Wheatley has a simple decision to make

He is an outstanding biochemist. But now, Dr Andrew Wheatley needs to rush into the laboratory of life and try to work on the experiment that will, again, clear him of another test, in the eyes of the public, that has placed his political career in serious doubt.

So, temporarily ditching his beakers and Bunsen burners to saddle up for the road ahead, must be Dr Wheatley’s most important option, as sadly for Jamaica, he has also come face-to-face with a chess table that requires moves that will save his neck from the chopping block.

I know Dr Wheatley very well. I admire him deeply for his general brightness, work that he has done and achieved in biochemistry, the energy that he has deposited into making life better for his mother, whom he named in an interview with me close to a decade ago, as the individual who played the most precious role in his upbringing; and the energy that he exudes while undertaking other projects.

The findings contained in a document from the Integrity Commission, and tabled in the House of Representatives last week, are not things to play with. Dr Wheatley should not for one moment believe that by reading a simple statement to his colleagues in the House, that that will put him firmly on the path of exoneration. It will be a much longer journey. Pain, emotionally, will run things, and there is no guarantee that that discomfort will ever go away.

It marks the second time that Dr Wheatley has been fingered as having been associated with something that was not ordained by the good book. Just a shade under eight years ago, in July 2018, he had to step down as Science, Energy and Technology minister when things turned out to be not so right at Jamaica’s sole oil refinery, Petrojam. Nepotism and general corruption issues were items on the agenda.

After much sweating on the sidelines, he got his job back as a Cabinet minister last September, which included regaining the Science and Technology responsibilities, and hugging up Special Projects in the makeup of Minister Without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister. 

This time, the Integrity Commission revealed what had been rumoured for over a year – that he would be recommended for charges to be thrown at him, and be forced to provide answers on four matters that investigators did not see as being right.

Dr Wheatley is up against it. And so, it is quite simple. Like in 2018, he must step aside as minister, perhaps even a member of the Jamaican Parliament, regardless of what his constituents think. It is his private time before the mirror of success, or further political failure.

Surely, he cannot remain a member of Cabinet and continue to function as if rules are unimportant to a nation. He will be aware that with two strikes against him, it might not be ideal for him to want to remain in politics. Maybe the time has come for him to focus more on biochemistry or construction and try to convince himself that he does not belong in political administration.

If Dr Wheatley does not want to resign from the Cabinet, he faces the risk of having to be dismissed by a man who really should have no authority to do so, based upon his transgressions too, with the Integrity Commission. That man is the prime minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness.

The delay tactics being pursued through the courts by Holness are not guaranteed to save him from dealing with issues that the Integrity Commission has raised against him. How can Holness justify dismissing his namesake when he finds himself in a related situation?

A strange country in which we live, indeed.     

The question of embracing deportees

Most of us remain in the dark about how the plan to relocate criminals convicted in the United States of all sorts of offences, and dispatching them to Jamaica, will work.

The man who made the announcement about the strangest deal ever, Dr Horace Chang, does not even seem to understand the package himself, and so, speculation remains rife that a circus of some kind has started.

As to who made the recommendation for Jamaica to house the convicts, is not much of an issue for now. It is all about why Jamaica has to be used as a human dumping ground by the United States, that really matters.

History will take us back months ago to a statement made by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he signed a similar agreement with El Salvador.

“We are working with other countries to say, we want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries; will you do that for us? The further away from America the better, so that they can’t come back across the border. I am not apologetic about it.”

According to Rubio, America needs to “get rid of perverts, paedophiles, and child rapists from our country.”

Why then should other countries have to take the garbage? Have we no shame as a country to have to go so low in agreeing to something like this?

Up to recently, 20 countries, including Jamaica, had agreed to accommodate criminals in what the US called safe third-party destinations, where offenders who do not want to travel directly to their countries of origin, can go.

Jamaica’s spokespersons, and many have joined the queue, have said that the offenders will travel here in batches of 25 every two weeks and will remain in transit for a period still to be clarified. But here is the clincher: while they will be housed by Jamaica, for a short time, officials have said, they will not be restricted in terms of their movements. That means, simply, that hardened criminals will be allowed to go all over the place and do as they please. 

For convicted men who go out and find women who grab their interest, what is to stop them from arranging marriages and applying for Jamaican citizenship, to be followed by some of the illegal and irregular acts that they committed while they were in the United States?

It sounds like a sorry and insensitive move by Jamaica to gobble up such a directive from the US. It shows that Jamaica’s leaders are not in charge of their domain, and any powerful country, henceforth, can do what the United States is doing.

I would have hoped that the US as a clincher would have said to the people of Jamaica: “I understand your stress and your suffering. Let us take a few of your members of the Jamaican Cabinet with us as part of the deal, so that you all can be better off.”

I am willing to speculate on what would be the end result if the option of swapping 10 members of the Cabinet for 25 third-party deportees, is placed on the table and agreed.

Weak local World Cup coverage

The host broadcasters of FIFA World Cup 2026 are making a mockery of the process of providing quality free-to-air coverage.

I do not know what the problem is this time around, but it is not the usual thorough supply of information on and off the field that Jamaican football lovers have become accustomed to, based on my own experience, and the comments that I have heard.

Remember now, World Cup football is not being played in Latvia, Australia or New Zealand. For those who came in late, it is being hosted by cities in the North American, Central American and Caribbean region. Simply, that’s in Jamaica’s neighbourhood.

Television Jamaica, brought back from the ruins by Kay Osborne when she became general manager in 2004, has embarked on countless projects that have achieved the success for which this nation can be proud.

Coverage of sport packages like the World Cup, the Olympic Games, the World Championship in Athletics, netball, cricket and others has been glittering. The current big-ticket item in football is anything but that.

As an organisation that acquired media rights and promises to do what is necessary in getting the content out to the masses, you just cannot fall short…like what has been happening over recent days.

There are too many delayed matches, and as someone who has spent years in the broadcasting area of media, ‘live’ is life; delayed leads to dismay and limited earnings.

If that is not bad enough, the studio discussions, to me at least, lack depth and knowledge. Essentially, there is no benefit from people sitting in a studio in Kingston and providing so-called ‘expert analysis’ of what is happening at the venues.

The choice of personnel is even worse – from one who cannot decide if he wants to become a comedian, or is expected to be taken seriously by his utterances, to another who believes that the entire world owes him a debt of gratitude for trying, on many occasions, to bring the game into disrepute.

Television Jamaica can do better. It must.

No flattering results so far

As for the World Cup itself, there is nothing to jump and shout about after its first week of action.

Interestingly, I have followed, among other things, what some people have called the shocking ‘upset’ that involved highly-ranked Spain, and Cabo (Cape) Verde in Group H on Monday, June 15.

The match ended 0-0, but for it to be determined an ‘upset’ result is not quite what I would agree with. If Cabo Verde had defeated Spain, then that would have been the ultimate, and bookmakers would be put out of business, for sure.

Cabo Verde’s goalie, 40-year-old Vozinha, impressed with his performance, but it was a committed approach by every player, along with the cheers from far and wide by the over 600,000 inhabitants of the 10-member (nine active) group of islands off the West Africa coastline that mattered even more.