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Killing the goose...
'Jamaica driving our investment away,' say returning residents
By Julian Richardson
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Because of crime, indiscipline and other factors relating to a lack of law and order in Jamaica, the island is being deprived of hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, savings, pensions and skills from returning residents, according to the Association for the Resettlement of Returning Residents (ARRR).
Last week, 55-year-old businessman Anthony Budal was fatally shot and his licensed firearm taken by unknown assailants at his farm in Rose Street district, Gayle, St Mary.
Many returning residents have been forced to re-migrate because they have become frustrated in Jamaica, says the Association for the Resettlement of Returning Residents.
Budal, a Jamaican who had migrated to England at age nine, had returned to his homeland just six months prior to his death. He became the latest of the over 300 returning residents who have been murdered since 2000, according to the ARRR.
ARRR president Percival LaTouche told Sunday Finance that Budal's death epitomises the crippling cost that crime, particularly those against returnees, has on Jamaican society. Budal was a livestock farmer who employed 12 persons. One of his primary reasons for coming back to Jamaica was to set up his farm, and according to LaTouche, he had planned to expand in a big way.
"Budal is just one of the hundreds that have been brutally murdered. We are killing the goose that's laying the golden egg," said LaTouche. "Returning residents come back as investors; they bring back cash and the discipline that is lacked in Jamaica."
According to LaTouche, the situation has caused many returnees to re-migrate and many prospective returnees to stay in their adopted countries. In fact, LaTouche said that the ARRR is currently caretaking 21 houses which belong to returning residents who have re-migrated.
"Some tell us to (not sell) their houses because things may change and they may come back home," he said. "But others tell us to sell because they say they prefer to live in the cold and die by heart attack than to be raped or killed in Jamaica."
LaTouche said that the skittishness of returning residents is reflected in the fact that only about a third of pensions of returnees are channelled back to Jamaica.
"They are just not sure about the country because they are having their brothers, their cousins, their sisters murdered here, and it is deterring them," said an incensed LaTouche. "If we could get 25 per cent of the Jamaicans coming here and bringing back their money here, we probably wouldn't need to be going back to the IMF."
The ARRR president also argued that many returnees are systematically cheated or scammed out of their money while trying to do business
in Jamaica.
One returning resident, who asked not to be identified, said she lost millions of dollars while trying to build a house in Jamaica. From her adopted country, she contracted a man to build a house, she said, but upon her arrival in Jamaica, the house was only half-completed and she was unable to recover the funds.
"It was living hell," she told Sunday Finance.
While the aforementioned's experience may seem, to many persons born and bred in Jamaica, like a case of gross irresponsibility on the part of the victim, according to LaTouche, it is very understandable.
"Remember that when many returnees left here in the early days the only grills that we saw were the ones at GP (General Penitentiary)," said LaTouche.
"They still believe that Jamaican people are innocent and honest.
"You have the contractors taking money from returning residents, the lawyers are taking monies from returning residents up front and banking it etc," continued the ARRR president. "Where is the law and order?"
Meanwhile, for some returning residents, the indiscipline which permeates across sections of Jamaican society, is a major problem when doing business on the island as well.
British-Jamaican Donna Bayliss of Bayliss Consulting Limited, a company which provides creative solutions, says that her four years back in Jamaica has been "extremely difficult" for her and her family, and she has considered returning to England many times.
"You have to slow your processes down to accept that this is how it's done here and not complain," said Bayliss. "It's not conducive to first world type of thinking...people don't turn up on time etc."
Bayliss' husband was born in Jamaica and left after high school. Upon returning to Jamaica, although it was easier for him than her to assimilate, she said it has been difficult for him to marry his professional skills with the business culture here.
"You 'haffi hustle' and let go some of your principles for the 'runnings'," said Baylis of Jamaica. "But I believe you must stand by your principles."
'Jamaica driving our investment away,' say returning residents
By Julian Richardson
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Because of crime, indiscipline and other factors relating to a lack of law and order in Jamaica, the island is being deprived of hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, savings, pensions and skills from returning residents, according to the Association for the Resettlement of Returning Residents (ARRR).
Last week, 55-year-old businessman Anthony Budal was fatally shot and his licensed firearm taken by unknown assailants at his farm in Rose Street district, Gayle, St Mary.
Many returning residents have been forced to re-migrate because they have become frustrated in Jamaica, says the Association for the Resettlement of Returning Residents. Budal, a Jamaican who had migrated to England at age nine, had returned to his homeland just six months prior to his death. He became the latest of the over 300 returning residents who have been murdered since 2000, according to the ARRR.
ARRR president Percival LaTouche told Sunday Finance that Budal's death epitomises the crippling cost that crime, particularly those against returnees, has on Jamaican society. Budal was a livestock farmer who employed 12 persons. One of his primary reasons for coming back to Jamaica was to set up his farm, and according to LaTouche, he had planned to expand in a big way.
"Budal is just one of the hundreds that have been brutally murdered. We are killing the goose that's laying the golden egg," said LaTouche. "Returning residents come back as investors; they bring back cash and the discipline that is lacked in Jamaica."
According to LaTouche, the situation has caused many returnees to re-migrate and many prospective returnees to stay in their adopted countries. In fact, LaTouche said that the ARRR is currently caretaking 21 houses which belong to returning residents who have re-migrated.
"Some tell us to (not sell) their houses because things may change and they may come back home," he said. "But others tell us to sell because they say they prefer to live in the cold and die by heart attack than to be raped or killed in Jamaica."
LaTouche said that the skittishness of returning residents is reflected in the fact that only about a third of pensions of returnees are channelled back to Jamaica.
"They are just not sure about the country because they are having their brothers, their cousins, their sisters murdered here, and it is deterring them," said an incensed LaTouche. "If we could get 25 per cent of the Jamaicans coming here and bringing back their money here, we probably wouldn't need to be going back to the IMF."
The ARRR president also argued that many returnees are systematically cheated or scammed out of their money while trying to do business
in Jamaica.
One returning resident, who asked not to be identified, said she lost millions of dollars while trying to build a house in Jamaica. From her adopted country, she contracted a man to build a house, she said, but upon her arrival in Jamaica, the house was only half-completed and she was unable to recover the funds.
"It was living hell," she told Sunday Finance.
While the aforementioned's experience may seem, to many persons born and bred in Jamaica, like a case of gross irresponsibility on the part of the victim, according to LaTouche, it is very understandable.
"Remember that when many returnees left here in the early days the only grills that we saw were the ones at GP (General Penitentiary)," said LaTouche.
"They still believe that Jamaican people are innocent and honest.
"You have the contractors taking money from returning residents, the lawyers are taking monies from returning residents up front and banking it etc," continued the ARRR president. "Where is the law and order?"
Meanwhile, for some returning residents, the indiscipline which permeates across sections of Jamaican society, is a major problem when doing business on the island as well.
British-Jamaican Donna Bayliss of Bayliss Consulting Limited, a company which provides creative solutions, says that her four years back in Jamaica has been "extremely difficult" for her and her family, and she has considered returning to England many times.
"You have to slow your processes down to accept that this is how it's done here and not complain," said Bayliss. "It's not conducive to first world type of thinking...people don't turn up on time etc."
Bayliss' husband was born in Jamaica and left after high school. Upon returning to Jamaica, although it was easier for him than her to assimilate, she said it has been difficult for him to marry his professional skills with the business culture here.
"You 'haffi hustle' and let go some of your principles for the 'runnings'," said Baylis of Jamaica. "But I believe you must stand by your principles."