Gov’t burying head in the sand – Thwaites

[Lazie]

The Government is facing accusations that it is leaving the country in the dark on the likely impact of the world financial meltdown.

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }Member of Parliament for Central Kingston Ronnie Thwaites says the Government is either out of touch with reality or in denial regarding the fact that Jamaica will be negatively affected by the deepening crisis.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Minister of Finance Audley Shaw have declared that Jamaica has the ability to weather the negative effects of the turmoil that has resulted from the collapse of major United States financial entities, a worsening cash crunch and massive job losses.

However, Mr. Thwaites says the administration is burying its head in the sand and giving the false impression that all is well.

He said the Government should move urgently to tell the country to prepare for the worst.

"They don't want to acknowledge that for many reasons, several of which are beyond their control or fault, the condition of ordinary people is not as good as it was when they took office - which is not a easy thing to admit politically - and I think the binge on the global situation is causing much of this," he said.

People need to plan the way forward - Thwaites

According to Mr. Thwaites, all the responses from those in Government are rife with denial, which is not where the country needs to be at this time.

"People need to be told the truth so that they can prepare themselves for a different way of life," he said.

Mr. Thwaites added that there are already signs that severe hardship is on the horizon, especially for poor Jamaicans.

"In the constituency I represent, many people used to be able to eat twice a day - we don't have a middle class in Central Kingston - they can't do that anymore, they're eating once a day and the elderly and the young boys who have to fend for themselves are, many days, not eating at all ... this is fact, reality ... people have had to make choices between sending their child to school or paying the light bill," he said.

The Central Kingston Member of Parliament was speaking on RJR's current affairs daily discussion programme Beyond the Headlines on Monday.

http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/12209/26/

[Historian]

Re: Gov't burying head in the sand

The more things change, the more they remain the same!!

Why is government so silent?
HEART TO HEARTWith Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Dear Reader,
Let no one fool you. Jamaica's children have become an endangered species, and it must now be clear to every one of us that no child in this country is immune from danger.

But the truth is that with the exception of those directly affected and ordinary Jamaicans whose love and prayers go up every day for the children, you would never know that the country is facing a crisis involving children - a crisis of immense proportions, and one unprecedented in the history of our country.

The numbers are staggering. Over 50 children have been murdered since the beginning of the year; hundreds raped and carnally abused every year; scores missing month after month, and physical and mental abuse so rampant and so pervasive that the figures simply cannot be captured accurately in any set of statistics.

Within the past few months, the violence against children has escalated even further. Not only are our children going missing at an alarming rate, but they are being murdered in the most brutal fashion imaginable. The murders of 11-year-old Aamir Scott and 11-year-old Ananda Dean (though still awaiting DNA verification), demonstrate a level of savagery that is unthinkable and inexplicable.

While the country is now in an obvious state of shock and horror, those of us who have been tracking the state and status of our children are not surprised. Over the past few years there has been a steady trajectory of violence against children with little or no response from the relevant authorities. Six-year-old Shaneika Anderson was brutally raped and murdered after she was lured by a man who offered her something to eat. Ten-year-old Sasha Kay was burnt alive in the Maxfield Avenue-Rose Town area, as gunmen guarded the gate of her home to ensure her fiery death. She was incinerated begging for someone to help her. And what was the official response? Not one press conference, not one address to the nation, almost no follow-up information from the police about the killers. Like all the others, their stories died with them, and the country moved on.

It was a policeman who made the call to me early one day. He was crying and was barely audible. I became numbed as I listened to the story. "I was the first police officer to arrive on the scene where two small children had been burned to death as a result of their house being firebombed by gunmen. I had never experienced anything like that. The two babies died hugging each other. One look at their charred bodies, and I felt instantly sick, he said. I will never be able to forget what happened." But it was the questions he asked which were riveting. "Mrs. Blaine, why hasn't anybody said anything. How come no one, not government, not the main children's agency, no one has said a word. How come?" I had no answer. All I could feel was remorse and embarrassment.

The problem of missing children is not a recent phenomenon. Over the past five years, hundreds of children have gone missing, and while many of the cases are cleared up, there are a residual number that no one can account for.

It is no wonder that the United States State Department has branded Jamaica as a country engaging in the trafficking of children and has placed us on its tier system signalling the country's ineffectiveness in tackling the problem. The US government is well aware that Jamaican authorities have not even been able to stem the escalating problem of juveniles entering the growing sex trade.

As the problem of missing children escalates, so does the cynicism in certain quarters of the Jamaica Constabulary Force . I can't tell you how many times parents and family members have complained to me about the insensitive and unhelpful manner in which they are dealt with by police when they go in to report their missing children. It's worse when those missing are teenage girls. Countless reports have been made of police officers dismissing the reports on the basis that the teenager "must be gone away with her man". With that type of response, I imagine that the public is left to deduce that even when an official report is taken, the search for that child would be highly unlikely.

It could very well be concluded that the tone and attitude of some police officers have become more entrenched over time by the unspoken message from the country's political leaders: "We don't consider the matter to be urgent, so why should you?" In a country where violence against children has become commonplace, I am appalled at the non-response from both government and opposition. With the exception of a few nice-sounding and politically correct press releases, there has not been one single action taken to deal with the crisis of our children. The question I wish to ask is, what if little Ananda Dean had been Mr Golding's or Mrs Portia Simpson Miller's granddaughter? Would the response and the action have been the same? It is clear to me that until we can treat the children going missing and being savaged as if they were our own, we will never find the heart or the sense of purpose and urgency to deal effectively with the problem.

It is obvious that the children of Jamaica are not really on the minds of those who claim to be the chief servants of the people. If the opposite were true, the Ministry of Youth would have seized the opportunity during Saturday's grand gala at the National Stadium to ask the nation to observe a moment of silence for our fallen children, and to have also taken the opportunity to publicly commit our Olympic superstars to work as role models and encouragers for our youth.

With love,
bab2609@yahoo.com