Girl With a Purpose (GWAP)

Rising Stars Elimination Show

Rising Stars is the Jamaican version of American Idol - minus the off-screen drama :) and is a production of Television Jamaica. (It's main sponsor is Digicel Jamaica).

As predicted, Suzanne Perkins was voted off of Rising Stars on Friday Night.

The youngest finalist ever, Suzanne went home with JMD $400,000  or USD $6,056.02.

Suzanne's sister had given gave her the transportation money to go to the Rising Stars Preliminary Bout in Negril – saying that if she didn’t get through to be one of the ten (10) finalists, she wasn’t to come back home :).

Well Suzanne is now certainly returning home and with a whole bag of cash!  Hopefully she will use the money, wisely, to further her education. (She likes to shop and wants to go to cosmetology school).

The two remaining finalists - Nickeisha Barnes and One Third, will perform three (3) songs on Sunday night - two(2) of which will be their favorites from the series.

Suzanne (dubbed the Queen of Jamaica's Hearts by judge, Clyde McKenzie) bowed out tonight with her rendition of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song".

We await the other performances on Sunday! :).

How to Encourage Honesty in Your Child

Honesty is not just about telling the truth. It's about living the truth.

You have to practice honesty. It makes no sense to encourage your child to be honest when you aren't.

When your child does something wrong and knows that he/she will be appropriately punished for doing same, it is very tempting for him/her to lie in order to get out of the punishment.

What parents should do is this: if your child willingly admits to doing wrong, surprise him/her by not meting out the appropriate punishment, just because he/she owned up to it - that is, told the truth.

This action will not only encourage honesty, but it will result in your child desisting from doing the wrong thing, if properly coached not to do it.

Tell your child why the action was wrong and what the consequences are for him/her, now and later on in his/her in life, if this action is continued.

Point to real-life examples of people who are suffering or who have suffered as a result of doing the same wrong that your child is doing. (These examples can be drawn from your family or community).

Let him/her know that telling a lie to cover up the wrong action, will not ease the suffering that he/she will go through as a result of doing wrong.


It will only complicate matters, e.g. like him/her losing credibility and trust from peers and other people as a result of being a known liar - a reputation that can lead to a very miserable life.

At the same time, teach what the right action is and use examples of people who have successfully carried out the right action and as a result, live successful lives (are self assured enough to tell the truth, even if doing so is unpopular).

Please remember, a child has to hear something for at least 3-7 times before he/she will act on it.

Alternatively,

A child has to only see you doing something wrong once, or twice, before he/she adopts it.

Yes parents, you have to walk the talk. If you want your child to be honest, you have to practice it too – by living the truth, so often, that your child won’t forget it.

This means that you should practice not to lie, including avoid telling the “white” lies; the half-truths that disguise themselves as being harmless and necessary to get out of a sticky situation.

You yourself have to be willing to admit when you lied, apologize for doing so and stop the trend by not telling another lie.

The more your child sees you doing this, the more he/she will follow suit.

Well that’s it folks…let me know what you think, ok?

Rising Stars Update

Rising Stars is the Jamaican version of American Idol - minus the off-screen drama :) and is a production of Television Jamaica. (It's main sponsor is Digicel Jamaica).

Well, well, well. We're down to the final three(3): One Third, Nickeisha Barnes and Suzanne Perkins.

Apparently the going consensus among the younger viewing public was that Brushy One String was too "old". They felt that he should give the young people "a chance". So they voted him off.

My opinion is that Brushy brought originality to this contest. I really enjoyed his original songs and all the theatrics around his performances...he always kept us guessing.

But I guess originality was not a key factor among the majority of the Jamaican voting public.

You could visibly see judge, Anthony Miller, smarting at the public's decision :).

So the final three(3) battled it out on Sunday.

One Third, I think could have done better with their cover of Air Supply's "Lonely is the Night", but all three judges, Anthony Miller, Nadine Sutherland and Clyde McKenzie thought their performance was stellar.

Nickeisha Barnes' rendition of Tanya Stephens' "These Streets", was just "off the roof". She also did great justice to Alicia Keys' "Karma" . I think her performance was the best for the night...she made a few slip-ups, but her overall performance was just great!

Suzanne Perkins tried, she really did with her cover of "Killing Me Softly With His Song", by Roberta Flack.

Unfortunately, I think the public will vote her off on Friday.

Well, we're all sitting at the edge of our seats waiting for Friday night (when we'll know which two finalists will go to the final round)  to come around...I tell you, more Jamaicans will be glued to their television sets than there are hairs on a water buffalo! :)

Portia's Dilemma

There was much talk yesterday, Wednesday, September 6,2006, on all the Talk Shows in Jamaica, concerning Jamaican Prime Minister (PM) Portia Simpson Miller's inability to properly respond to Bruce Golding's (Jamaica's Opposition Leader) questions re the Sandals Whitehouse Report in Parliament on Tuesday, Sept 5,2006.

The Sandals Whitehouse Project had a USD $41 million (JMD $2.7 billion) budget overrun which the developers (the Urban Development Corporation and Gorstew Limited) claimed was due to its original plan being modified to be in compliance with the standards set for all Sandals Hotels under the Breezes brand. (Sandals and Breezes Hotel Brands are owned by hotelier, Gordon "Butch" Stewart).

The Hotel Project was first projected to cost USD $70 million or JMD $4.6 billion.

The Report (requested by the Opposition to investigate the overruns) claimed that the hotel could have been built for USD $88 million (JMD $5.8 billion), based on what the surveyors saw "on the ground". Instead, the total cost was USD $111 million (JMD $7.3 billion).

The PM said that the tax-paying Jamaican public wouldn't have to worry about the overrun, since the revenues coming in during the summer months from Sandals Whitehouse, would more than offset the USD $41 million budget overrun.

When she was asked to quantify those revenues...she couldn't, and fumbled for about 10 seconds before she could give the Opposition Leader an answer. And to add insult to injury, when she was finally able to proffer a response, she told Mr. Golding that he should direct his questions to Dr. Omar Davies, the Finance Minister.

Mr. Golding then asked how comes she was telling the Jamaican public that the revenues would offset the USD $41million, when she had no idea of what these revenues were?

She then kept on re-iterating that she is in charge, but that she can't know everything, that's why she had Ministers in charge of different portfolios.

People are saying that the reason for the PM's guffaw, was that maybe she wasn't properly briefed about the situation..then we're hearing that she doesn't read her briefs.

Well, whatever the truth is of the situation, when the guffaw was aired on TV on Tuesday night,the Prime Minister looked incompetent, as, in addition to her fumbling, she was constantly being coached by Dr. Omar Davies re how to respond to Mr. Golding's questions.

Speaking of adding insult to injury...

What annoyed a lot of people is that the consultants took 10 months to come up with the Report and at the end of it all, slapped the Jamaican public with a USD $394,896,000 (JMD $26 million) bill for it. For all of 1000 pages.

As far as I can see, the Prime Minister is in a dilemma...

There has always been an issue raised about this lady's educational acumen, despite her scoring higher than Mr. Golding in the latest Stone Polls (Jamaican pollsters renown for their accuracy) re her knowledge (of what, the polls didn't make clear).

For the life of me, I can't figure out why our PM, should allow guffaws like this to happen when people within her own party and outside of it, are just waiting for her to fail.

She is the first female Jamaican PM, but being a woman will not be enough for her to excel in this position. I think she has to decide to work four times as hard, to excel as PM, knowing that the decks are stacked against her.

This phenomenon of a woman having to prove herself isn't new, as it's still a man's world, and for a woman to make it to the top, she has to be twice to four times as good as any man vying for the position.

What do I think PM Portia Simpson-Miller needs to do to demonstrate that she is really in charge of the government and country she leads?

1) She needs to run Jamaica like she's running a company, as Tony Laing (Jamaican Musicologist) would say... This means that she needs to be willing to make hard decisions...like requesting that her Ministers step down after repeated instances of failure and them overseeing projects in which there is misuse of public funds.

2) She needs to read biographies of successful PMs and Presidents and see how they addressed and overcame the challenges their nations faced.

3) She needs to read biographies of successful female presidents of companies, to see how they overcame the stigma of being a female boss and how they successfully led their companies to market leadership despite harsh economic conditions.

4) She needs to apply all the knowledge gained from her readings.

Doing the above will ensure that she is always aware of her responsibilities as a PM and that she's always two steps ahead of her possible detractors.

Please see the following links about this story, from articles from the Jamaica Gleaner (one of Jamaica's leading newspapers):

1. Sandals Whitehouse probe - 'Cost overruns due largely to change in scope of works', July 27, 2006
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060727/news/news1.html

2. Noel Hylton denies submitting Sandals Whitehouse Report, August 21,2006.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060821/lead/lead6.html

3. Editorial: That Whitehouse debacle, September 7,2006.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060907/cleisure/cleisure1.html

Rising Stars Update

Rising Stars is the Jamaican version of American Idol - minus the off-screen drama :) and is a production of Television Jamaica. It's main sponsor is Digicel Jamaica).

Judges Anthony Miller, Nadine Sutherland and Clyde McKenzie of course, make the final decision as to who stays for the next round, but it' s the public's votes that determine who automatically goes ahead, versus those who face the "sing off".

The "sing off" (also known as the Rising Stars Results Show) is where the two contestants with the least votes, sing the song they did on the previous Sunday night. The judges then decide who remains in the contest, based on their opinion of who performed best.

Tonight's Rising Stars lived up to the excitement that has been brewing all week!

Although Brushy One String’s (he plays on a guitar with one string) original was brushed off by judges, I thought his performance was pretty good!

The judges said that Kimanda Cunningham’s performance was raging, but I don’t think she did her best tonight. Her voice just wasn't right for the song, "That's the Way It Is", made popular by Celine Dion.

One Third was great too...

But guess who came out of her shell tonight? Nuh Suzanne Perkins! She really did justice to Diana King's, "Shy Guy".

Nickeisha Barnes continues to shine throughout this competition and did her usual best!:)

She won my approval the second I heard her rendition, two weeks ago, of, "To Sir With Love", by Lulu.

This girl can sing!

Well, we'll wait to see what the Jamaican public says about the performances tonight. I wonder if they'll get it right, this time?:)