Campbell's Commentary - CENSUS AND CXC 2020. OPPORTUNITY LOST AND OPPORTUNITY COST

By Aubrey Campbell

NEW YORK, NY. Thursday, October 1, 2020 -- Hello folks. The Fall season is here but please do not fall for the Fall. And that means taking all the necessary precautions and observing directives and protocols, even if they seem to change from day to day and state to state!

If POTUS gets his wish, the Census count will end this week, one month short of its projected timeline and a missed opportunity for millions of Americans who figured they could push and procrastinate to the very end.

Be that as it may. Some communities will be short-changed and without the ‘forensics’, we know where those communities are. It will be the same ones that bore the brunt of the panic during the pandemic, those communities where living and driving while black, is a crime!

Alas! Here we are with the means for change, in as short a time as 33 days!

And I’m not saying that because I’m a Democrat. I’m saying that, for the preservation of democracy and what it represents in the scheme of things, where you can earn and be comfortable, by your ability.

May I hasten to add that it is not a perfect system, by no means so, but it allows for accountability!

There is nothing ‘super’ about Tuesday, November 3, but for all intents and purposes, it is the date for the Father and Daughter of all elections, in this country since independence!

It will be a referendum to return decency to the democratic process of governance, the kind that has elevated these United States to a position of envy prior to 2016.

The consensus inside the ‘zoom room’ on Sunday was that every vote will count and so, the Caribbean Diaspora must get up, stand up, and get counted, first and foremost, and then get engaged in the process to choose the next POTUS, a real Commander in Chief and not one that cheats!

So, help me God!

It was a most refreshing ‘Caribbean Conversation’, just hearing the passion with which the guests spoke of the importance of getting out the votes, now thru’ election day.

Councilmember Delia Farquharson, City of Mount Vernon and Dr. Karren Dunkley, the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council Representative for the USA/NE, concurred that an engaged Diaspora, is an empowered Diaspora.

If resources and services are impacted negatively, the domino effect is huge! It is for that mater that this medium is supporting their spirited, good natured initiative, in ensuring that the Jamaican and Caribbean Diaspora, complete the USCensus2020 form and that households have the information on where to vote in this pandemic-curtailed environment!

The pandemic laid it bare for all to see! Deaths, loss of business, employment and all the disproportions factored in!

That is not fake news nor is it alternative facts!

Here is what is fact.

The Loch Ness monster has outgrown the swamp on the Hill. It is now time for the electorate to hold him accountable, if the justice system, oops! personal attorney William Barr, won’t!

Are you with me?

TBC!

The other matter of note that is ‘riding my chest’ like a poorly cooked meal, has to do with the noise being heard on secondary level school campuses around the Caribbean region, since the middle of last week.

As I get it, so I’m selling it! Oh, don’t I love my Jamaican speak!

Jamaica has called for an investigation into the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) handling of the results from the summer exams.

You will recall in the Spring that a number of countries were contemplating how to move forward with exam preparation and the actual sitting of the exams due to the serious disruption caused by the pandemic. Some countries even threatened court action.

A system was eventually worked out, allowing students to sit the exams, the results of which were posted last Tuesday. And that’s when the s..t hit the fan!

If you have COVID 19, you will see but not able to smell it.

LMAO

Here’s what I found out and why an investigation might be necessary. And thinking it thru’, it might be hard to blame the student for logging back into the CXC portal to check the results. If anything, blame it on youthful exuberance.

What the Barbados-based CXC HQ should have done, according to my source, is do a graduated release of the results, allowing the government, the school and then the student, in that order, to be able to access the results.

My source was vehement that that should have been the protocol!

But, hold up! How could subjects come back ‘ungraded’ and/or absent? My understanding is that the move online, rendered the pay structure for ‘exam markers’ unsatisfactory, leaving CXC to take whosoever they could get.

The quality of the marking took a hit right there and then. And that’s why I said on the radio, without malice, to hold the champagne on those ten and eleven distinctions!

The online sitting also meant that some subjects, some papers, were not offered in their entirety, leaving students disappointed and disgruntled.

Another factor that was noted in my ‘investigation’ is the exorbitant fees charged for subjects, in clear contrast to the service provided! As I got it. CXC just want dem money, that’s all dem care ‘bout!

The CXC, chaired by Sir Hilary McDonald Beckles, Vice Chancellor/UWI, is on record as saying that it welcomes any investigation into its operations at this time, relative to the exam results, so, we wait for that.

In the meantime, between time, let’s put the ones and twos on pause!

You have the floor!

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Editor’s note: Aubrey Campbell is a career Broadcast/Journalist and producer/host of Caribbean Conversation, a magazine program airing Sunday’s, 3 – 5 pm, on the Caribzone Media Network at; www.Facebook.com/caribzone.