Rob Ford’s crack usage has made international news. It is currently the top story on Google News, all late night comedians have made a joke of it and it was one of the top stories on U.S. broadcasts last night. Check out this compilation of Canadian papers here. In Jamaica, it is not really big news, although the Gleaner published a wire story with picture.

Perhaps the lack of reaction is because Jamaica has enough of its own challenges when it comes to officials behaving badly. Politicians in Jamaica tend to get themselves into trouble for issues such as corruption and influence peddling, or severe inaction on important files. In fact, Jamaica is ranked 83rd out of 176 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Index.

As for Rob Ford, he yesterday admitted to smoking crack cocaine and having a problem with alcohol, although he stopped short of declaring himself an addict. He will not get treatment, despite a series of embarrassing and damaging incidents, associating with known criminals, and a string of staff who have quit because of his behaviour. It is now just a sad spectacle, an unhealthy individual in what appears to be the advanced stage of a severe addiction to drugs and/or alcohol. If this is indeed the case, his judgment is compromised and he is unfit for office, especially for Canada’s largest city whose 2013 budget was almost $11 billion! However, Ford is vowing not to step down, and there seems to be nothing yet to technically force him to do so. (Check out the wikipedia entry here, it has already been updated to reflect yesterday’s admission.)

I watched the scrum of dozens of reporters yesterday, waiting for Ford’s press conference at City Hall. I remember those scrums fondly: the excitement and anticipation, the attempt to successfully insert a question to a media-savvy politician, and then the let-down when they say little of substance and retreat to the safety of their office. Rob Ford’s relationship with media has been particularly antagonistic, almost coming to physical confrontations sometimes. In addition, he has made public his distaste for reporters, calling them “maggots,” among other things. This does not help the situation at all, of course, and he long ago seemed to stop trying to win them over. I can’t imagine what his PR people must be going through right now. Apparently, he let them know 15 minutes before the press conference that he was going to admit to smoking crack.

In any case, it will be fascinating to see how this plays out over the next few weeks. Apparently some councilors are drafting resolutions that could force Ford from office. No doubt this will upset “Ford nation,” a group of ardent Ford supporters who seem to maintain loyalty no matter what.

And give the Globe and Mail’s editorial calling for Ford to resign a read.

Tessanne is pretty much the only thing everyone is talking about today. She is on the front page of the Gleaner after delivering a goosebump-inducing performance on The Voice last night. Cheers could be heard after she finished, then I assume most of Jamaica voted for her in the singing competition.

Check out her performance from last night

This is an interesting new initiative coming from the office of Canada’s Governor General. Called My Giving Moment, it is meant to encourage Canadians to donate of themselves, whether it is time, money or expertise. Many of Canada’s large corporations are on board, which is always a good sign, and a new group called the Rideau Hall Foundation has been set up.

A quick look at the web site reveals that it appears to tackle head on some of the reasons that people do not volunteer, despite their good intentions. Aside from just providing ‘feel-good’ stories about how and why people volunteer and the differences they have made, the web site provides many creative suggestions about how to contribute. There is also a mechanism that seems intended to create accountability: people can log in and create an account, after which they can select suggestions of different actions and indicate whether they intend to do it, have done it or will challenge a friend to do it. At my latest check, 1,480 people have had “giving moments.” This tackles another problem with volunteering: most people simply don’t know where to start and get overwhelmed. Let’s hope this initiative catches on. I will leave you with an excerpt from the Governor General’s message:

I believe that the key to a smarter, more caring Canada lies in helping more of us discover what we have to give.

That’s why I’m delighted to invite you to join My Giving Moment, a campaign that will celebrate and generate the kind of giving that, as Canadians, is in our DNA.

Opportunities to give are all around us, every day. We call them “Giving Moments”. They’re those special moments when we see someone who needs help, something that needs changing, or other people giving. They’re those moments when we suddenly realize that we can give, too.

My Giving Moment will help Canadians seize these moments, and then act upon them. It will help more of us give something, whether big or small, and whether it involves time, skills, or money.

Join me in spreading the word about My Giving Moment. Use the website to discover and share your own Giving Moments. Read and share stories from other Canadians about giving. Find out creative ways to increase your community participation or to make a charitable contribution to an organization you had never thought of.

Together, we will inspire one another to achieve great things through giving of all kinds, one moment at a time.

We will forge a stronger, more caring nation that innovates by embracing the talents and natural generosity of all its citizens.

We will do more than just envision a better world.

We will create one.”

According to the Ottawa Citizen, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development left $300 million unspent last fiscal year. Unspent budgets are normal for the federal government; a sum of $300 million is not. It represents 10 per cent of the former Canadian International Development Agency’s budget last year. In 2011, only $25 million was unspent and the previous year, a mere $2 million.

This money had been earmarked for aid and development programs abroad and is on top of a prior $377 million cut to the country’s aid budget.

When I was a reporter, I pored over the government’s spending estimates and public accounts, both of which spell out how much the government intended to spend and how much it actually spent. Unspent funds are relatively normal, just not to this extent.

Critics from development groups immediately jumped to the most cynical conclusion: the government is further cutting the foreign aid budget by stealth, hoping no one will notice. Perhaps the general public won’t notice, but foreign aid and development groups certainly will. Cuso International is still waiting on word to see if its funding cycle will continue (it ends in March 2014).

Giving the government the benefit of the doubt, perhaps this is an attempt to more strongly adhere to practices that ensure that millions of dollars are not going to waste. Indeed, this is an international trend, for more accountability and measurable results.

It is just unfortunate that some projects that had already been approved and vetted (by the Harper administration itself) will now not go ahead, at least in the short term.

Again, with this move, the Harper government continues to create confusion about what its “development” mandate is, beyond fiscal accountability. It has yet to respond to this article, which you can read here.

Once again, Jamaicans are in a moral uproar about the behaviour of some youths. This time, the furore is over a two-year-old video of some high school kids dancing and gyrating. Nothing to see here, really. This happens EVERY DAY in Jamaica at some party or another, or a concert or in someone’s yard, by people of all ages. I think the proliferation of social media just blows these things up, out of proportion, and people react like fish to a shiny lure and then move on the to the next thing.

Prior to this, the Jamaica Observer published a few sensational articles about kids behaving badly in the HalfWay Tree Transport Centre “fights, sex, robberies“. Apparently, they touch one another, scream and frolic and generally do the things that teenagers across the world do.

For some reason, however, the media treats this with (or perhaps reflects) an attitude of shocked horror, as if these children are engaged in new and scandalous activities.

As someone who was a youth who started to head off in the wrong direction, and as someone who works with Jamaican youth, a few thoughts:

1. This is not new behaviour. Why are the media and citizens exhibiting such shocked reactions? Could it be that it is easy to blame the youth without looking at the root causes of the behaviour, if it is indeed problematic behaviour?

2. If it is problematic behaviour, where are the parents, community leaders and educators in all this? Why are these children allowed to roam free after school? If the Observer article is accurate, some of the behaviour is indeed troubling:

Linval Thompson, the man charged with managing the transport centre on behalf of the State-owned JUTC, said that the unruly behaviour of the teenage students have JUTC staff and the police personnel assigned to keep order in the centre stretched to the limit.
“On a Friday it is just madness,” Thompson told the Jamaica Observer. “The children come here and they do not leave the park until late in the evening. They are involved in all kinds of activities.”
His claim was corroborated by Sergeant April McFarlane, who heads the team of cops assigned to police the centre.
“On a Friday it’s chaos. The students don’t want to leave. They come to the bus park and linger. The girls arrange to meet men they met on the Internet. We have caught children having sex in the bathroom. They fight every day, but on a Friday it gets worse. We have found every form of weapon that you could imagine,” Sergeant McFarlane said.

So where are the adults in all this?

3. Instead of complaining and being shocked, why don’t people talk to these youths or create after-school programs for them?

4. From a journalistic perspective, I would also cast doubt on the stories being written about this subject. They focus on a small percentage of Jamaican youth. What about the vast majority of youth who go about their business, go to school, go home and do homework?

5. I have walked through HWT many times on a Friday afternoon and have never noticed this behaviour. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but I have never felt threatened, at least by the high school students.

6. These students are modelling the behaviour they see around them, both in media and by adults behaving badly.

My point overall is that if there is indeed a problem of epidemic proportions, then responsible adults must look at the symptom. Blaming students for normal behaviour (I am not saying violence, robberies and underage sex is normal or acceptable, but if it is indeed occurring with regularity, then it must be addressed holistically rather than attacking those partaking in it) is not helpful and puts a wedge between generations.

For another measured perspective, read this column by youth advocate Jaevion Nelson.