Jusic International

Happy 2010, having to celebrate New Years Day and my birthday on Jan. 1 all my life I have become an expert at recovery time  for hangovers etc. so I kind of rebounded this morning and "somebody told me to deliver this message" said I should "pass it on to you" so like I said we are gonna hit the ground running. Now not too long ago it was with great pride I saw the entertainment industry get behind a campaign to"Make Poverty History" I thought "what a meaningful cause  now everyone is going to roll up their sleeves and pitch in however they can",suddenly we realize we are in dire economic straits globally not from going too far to make poverty history but from the Lahys, Madoffs and the obscene bonus culture of our time, having worked as a bank clerk I remember the days when a banks survival was dependent on it's management  being able to spot a winner to invest in, in the form of bank loans e.g. a guy in Jamaica decides to start making "Jerk Sauce", his bank sees the potential, invest in this guy, Jerk Sauce is a big hit,the bank is now like a partner to this guy supplying him with advice and funds to expand and the profit is then parlayed into a lady who is starting up a poultry farm, this sequence is repeated over and over soon the bank is able to open a few more branches where another guy shows up with an idea for a annual Reggae Festival decides to call it"Reggae Sunsplash" the bank is behind it and the rest is history, the point is banks survival was based on the success of it's customers,suddenly the movie "Wall St" arrives and Michael Douglas declares"greed is good" and suddenly grown men turn into "modern day highwaymen", there is a case in the UK where a chief executive gutted the finances of Royal Bank of Scotland where they had to be bailed out by the government and this guy was kicking and screaming  to hold on to his £750,000+ bonus even when asked to reconsider by the said government, is it just me or wouldn't £750,000 go a long way to "MakePoverty History", when these people were born was there a voice that came from the heavens saying "this is my beloved son he is entitled to a bonus" or are these bonuses birthright, as I had previously thought this was consistent with success but in this case success had nothing to do with it, so my take is  these bonuses are given to people who devise ingenious ways to rob us, picture this scenario a guy working for a credit card company comes up with the idea if a customer is late to make a payment, by sometime hours instead of denying them access to the card or some other card related penalty lets charge them a fine similar to the courts, we'll call it a fee but different from schoo fee we determine when and how often it's applied, then another Michael Douglas wannabe  comes up with the idea that with the right combination of fees(fines) and a sizable interest rate  we could collect additional fines on the "trifector" and call it over the limit charges all these when combined provides a buffer to prevent the customer from depreciating the original debt, with all these shenanigans in place this exercise over a period of years  are known to reap 100% profit, I have known instances where a  card  with a £2,500 credit limit meaning that's the maximum made available by the card company yet over years and deposits to the tune of £3,400 the card company is still owed agrand total of £3,100, that boys and girls is how bonuses are made, all those math classes I went to for nothing, I also feel for the  Al Capones of the world that used the be hounded for "loan sharking" when todays loan shark threaten to take you to court, it was real eye-opener when I discovered that Muslim Sharia banks dont charge interest meaning its not a necessity for financial survival cause none of their banks received bailout money so they seem to have weathered the financial storm o.k. So my suggestion is to freeze bonuses for the next five years  and money earmarked in big financial organizations for bonuses should go directly to the "Make Poverty History" fund, I am evidence they wont die as I have lived  bonus-free all my life till my birthday this morning and I am aware of single mothers juggling bonus-less also so they'll do o.k Finally whenever the subject of Reparations for Slavery  comes up it's constantly pushed to the side  but my great,great,great-grandparents farmed, cooked, cleaned, child-cared,blacksmith-ed,carpentered and bore children but all these occupation were put under the heading of slavery and we are yet to see the firstpaycheck for building the New World so I know a bonus is out of the question, so contrary to "Wall St" greed is evil.