Tweet
Stop being 'poor people'
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Dear Editor,
I am certain that Jamaica's favourite catchphrase is "poor people". Often we hear : "We are poor people", "Help the poor people", "Portia love poor people".
"Poor people", you are right. Portia Simpson Miller, the president of the PNP, loves poor people so much that the PNP spent much of the last 18 years enacting policies to make the middle class poor people - more to love, apparently.
The trouble with the term "poor people" is that we use it as a crutch - an excuse not to take responsibility for ourselves. "Poor unfortunate me, I deserve to steal electricity and sit at home watching stolen cable and pity myself, I deserve to have 19 hungry children."
It's 2008, people, and although bad policies have been made, no one is holding us back more than ourselves. It's time to stop asking for handouts and begin earning our way. Make use of the educational opportunities available. There's free primary and secondary education and there are skills training and community programmes available, if you just look. There's the choice to look for legitimate employment. Of all the things we are deprived of, what affects us most is our lack of education and drive. I will never consider myself "poor people" as long as I have English, arithmetic, reason and determination.
We will find ourselves less easily manipulated if we work harder to become self-sufficient than we do to buy the newest Sean John knock-off.
G Forbes
PO Box 275
Kingston 9
g_tanya_forbes@hotmail.com
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Dear Editor,
I am certain that Jamaica's favourite catchphrase is "poor people". Often we hear : "We are poor people", "Help the poor people", "Portia love poor people".
"Poor people", you are right. Portia Simpson Miller, the president of the PNP, loves poor people so much that the PNP spent much of the last 18 years enacting policies to make the middle class poor people - more to love, apparently.
The trouble with the term "poor people" is that we use it as a crutch - an excuse not to take responsibility for ourselves. "Poor unfortunate me, I deserve to steal electricity and sit at home watching stolen cable and pity myself, I deserve to have 19 hungry children."
It's 2008, people, and although bad policies have been made, no one is holding us back more than ourselves. It's time to stop asking for handouts and begin earning our way. Make use of the educational opportunities available. There's free primary and secondary education and there are skills training and community programmes available, if you just look. There's the choice to look for legitimate employment. Of all the things we are deprived of, what affects us most is our lack of education and drive. I will never consider myself "poor people" as long as I have English, arithmetic, reason and determination.
We will find ourselves less easily manipulated if we work harder to become self-sufficient than we do to buy the newest Sean John knock-off.
G Forbes
PO Box 275
Kingston 9
g_tanya_forbes@hotmail.com
Comment