And it came to pass ...

Egerton Chang, Contributor

In my column published February 21, 2010, I wrote of 'My cousin, Air Jamaica'. Most of us have cousins (nieces or nephews, etc.) who we love dearly but who always seem to be in financial need. We try to help them out from time to time, but sometimes the burden is too great and we don't have the cash.

That's the way of my cousin, Air Jamaica.

It continued:

In an article published in July 2009, Bruce Nobles, the president and chief executive officer of Air Jamaica, put the accumulated debt at more than $1.1 trillion. That's more than five FINSAC financial bailouts, even in today dollars, or 282,000 brand new National Housing Trust homes ($1.1 trillion/$7.8 billion times 2,000; see Wednesday Business, February 17, 2010), enough to build the entire Portmore area more than three times over.

It concluded:

Bruce Nobles, in that July 2009 article, was quoted as saying, "Sure, you can shut it down and it would not be a fatal blow to the tourism industry. There are adequate examples to support this. About a year and half ago, two large carriers pulled out of Hawaii, taking a tremendous amount of lift out of Hawaii with a significant short-term impact on tourism and its economy. But since that time, carriers have added service, built up capacity and, frankly, it is now business as usual. Can this also happen in Jamaica? I suspect so.

Nobles should know. He is a former head of Hawaiian Airlines.

I love Air Jamaica deeply but I, for one, am sick and tired of my cousin.

Now comes news, published May 27, 2011, titled 'CAL, Air Jamaica sign agreement'. Raphael John-Lall of the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian wrote:

The signing of the shareholders' agreement between Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) and Air Jamaica is the final step in the successful merger between the two airlines. This was agreed upon by all the parties yesterday at the signing ceremony of the shareholders agreement between T&T and Jamaica at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. It completed the deal signed in April 2010 for CAL to take over Air Jamaica.

My cousin, Air Jamaica, has thus come to pass without the 'hataclapse' many had predicted.

LED TRAFFIC LIGHTS

Again on December 20, 2009, I wrote:

Not every person or driver has 20/20 vision and, oftentimes, those traffic signals that are working are too dim, especially when the sun is directly behind, or shining on the said lights. There are newer lights which feature LEDs (light-emitting diodes), which are much brighter, longer-lasting (almost 100,000 hours vs under 1,000 hours), and much more energy-efficient. They do cost about three to four times more, but pay back this increased cost in three years in terms of lower operating/energy costs. This represents a rate of return on investment of more than 30 per cent per annum. If the Government received 30 per cent return every year on all their investments, we would be debt-free within 10 years.

Money spent on ensuring that these traffic lights operate properly would be multiplied many times over. Can something be done to correct all these traffic signals? Over to you, Mr Traffic Authority.

Well, within nine months of my article being published, on September 6, 2010, Ingrid Brown of the Observer wrote 'LED to the rescue - Gov't projects 87% cut in electricity bills from traffic lights'.

With some 40 per cent of the LED lamps already installed, a $14-million contract was signed last Friday for work to begin by month end to replace the remaining 1,990 lamps.

Two main advantages of LED traffic signals are the low-energy usage of 20-22-watt, compared to the 100-watt, incandescent lamps, and a longer lifespan of seven to 10 years, compared to three months.

"Unlike incandescent lamps with a single filament, LED lamps consist of a matrix of several dozen LEDs. The lamps will continue to function even if a few of the LEDs stop working," Minister Henry explained.

The installation of LED traffic signals has thus come to pass.

CUBA

Yet again, on July 18, 2010, I wrote 'Cuba to open to US tourists soon'.

American vacationers interested in legally visiting Cuba have been encouraged by a congressional committee's recent decision to send anti-embargo legislation forward. If approved by both House and Senate and signed by President Obama, the ban on American tourists visiting Cuba would end.

The announcement (July 7, 2010) by Cuba that it would release some political prisoners can be seen as a further impetus to end this five-decade-long embargo. Supporters of the controversial legislation include the influential United States Tour Operators' Association.

It concluded thus:

While Jamaica has a little time to get its tourism house in order, this time cannot be much more than three years.

Jamaica, be warned! Cuba will once again become the playground of America's elite.

Now comes word that 'New US rules promise legal Cuba travel for many' by Peter Orsi in an Associated Press release of May 21, 2011.

The forbidden fruit of American travel is once again within reach. New rules issued by the Obama administration will allow Americans wide access to communist-led Cuba, already a Mecca for tourists from other nations.

Within months or even weeks, thousands of people from Seattle to Sarasota could be shaking their hips in tropical nightclubs and sampling the famous stogies (cigars), without having to sneak in through a third country and risk the Treasury Department's wrath.

"This is travel to Cuba for literally any American," said Tom Popper, director of Insight Cuba, which took thousands of Americans to Cuba before such programmes were put into a deep freeze seven years ago.

Further, Douglas Stanglin of USA Today reported on June 9, 2011, 'Oakland joins list of US airports authorised for non-stop flights to Cuba'.

Oakland International Airport is the latest US airport authorised to offer non-stop charter flights to Havana as early as December, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. It joins a growing list of US airports - including Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami and New York - to offer the route.

The authorisation follows the Obama administration's relaxation in January, of restrictions on academic and religious travel to the island nation.

These developments have, therefore, come to pass less than a year after I issued my three-year warning and are a major step along the way to fulfilling it. Jamaica, take heed!

And it came to pass.

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