Oxy Moron, Contributor

In my effort to educate the nation's children, so that they don't become good-for-no-things, I devised a plan to help this cash-strapped school out of its financial doldrums. $25,000 per month per student, 'Pay or Leave', that's the school's new motto. Then, to my shock and disbelief, there he was, the man who called himself 'The Driver', calling me an extortionist, putting me in the ilk of Geekes and other dons and donettes.

He, who presides over the biggest extortionist network in the land, and he, who holds the mantle of leadership after suffering for years in the wilderness of politics, called me an extortionist. Here I am, performing all sorts of financial gymnastics, flipping and flopping on the balance beam, and he called me an extortionist; he, who is a baker. He wants to take the gilt off my gingerbread. What else can I do? And the painful thing is that, he was right. Just that I wasn't expecting it from the son of an educator.

What is even more painful, we have heard nothing from Her Majesty's Opposition leader, she who is the defender of the poor and pauperised. Talking about apology to Chavez, that Venezuelan tyrant. But what about us? I have always supported her party, and still do. But in her fight to hold on to the reins of power, she has forgotten us in our shame.

Then where is the rage from the students and the parents? Where are the roadblocks and placards with incorrectly spelt words and atrocious grammar? And I remember as a youngster, my parents suffered the disgrace of my being sent back home because they could not pay the $20 development fee. That was extortion. I too was extorted and nobody stood up for me in Parliament. Oh, what am I saying? I am not supporting him. He was wrong to suggest extortion. Couldn't he have suggested another word, like blackmail?

oxydmoron@gmail.com

Wordsmith

A forum for examining the language of speech and writing.

Politicians and anchors

Dr Philips' Campaign

During the recent leadership campaign in the PNP, broadcast journalists, from the green to the seasoned, referred to Dr 'Phillipsiz' challenge. When a word ends in the letter 's' pronounced as in 'sin', the possessive marker is what is referred to as a zero marker. The regular possessive marker, ie, the apostrophe followed by the letter 's' is reduced to just the apostrophe.

In speech therefore, you write Dr Phillips' campaign - and you say 'Dr Phillips campaign', not 'Dr Phillipsiz campaign'. Just think, if one cat has a ball, you would say 'the cat's ball'. If three cats have the one ball you would write and say - the cats'ball - surely not 'the catsiz ball'.

Machete

I don't know why a Jamaican news anchor would say that the man attempted to chop the police with a 'mashetty'. Please, we don't need these Americanisms in the newscast. The word is written 'machete', and pronounced 'ma-shet', with the emphasis on the second syllable, 'shet'.

For questions and comments, email: the speechcoach_ja @yahoo.com.