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'A house is not a home'
JEAN LOWRIE-CHIN
Monday, April 26, 2010
WE were at Sovereign Centre selling raffle tickets for one of the Portmore houses, to raise funds for a charity. Near us was a display for new motor vehicles. "Will you buy a raffle ticket?" I asked a young lady. "Sure, I will," she said. "I would love to win the car." I brightly explained that with the raffle ticket she could win far more than a car: she could win a house. "No thank you," she said. "I am not interested in any house."
We can only hope that Prime Minister Golding's offer of discounted NHT mortgage loans and no down payment will be more enthusiastically received. Those whom we have elected to serve -- our members of parliament and parish councillors -- should be convening meetings throughout the length and breadth of Jamaica to educate Jamaicans on the importance of home ownership and to help them to apply for these mortgages.
Seniors over the age of 55 who have never owned a house will see interest rates slashed by two per cent.
They should also be telling them how they will make the neighbourhoods in which they invest, safer for themselves and their children.
Seniors over the age of 55 who have never owned a house will see interest rates slashed by two per cent. I remember a friend in this age range migrating to the US in the 90s, and being able to buy a house within a year. "Imagine," said the professional, "what couldn't happen in 30 years in Jamaica has happened in one year here."
The opportunity for homeownership has finally been given to some of our lowest income earners. However, they may not take it, if those among us who are better educated will not take the time to explain to them that yes, they CAN own a home. In his bestseller, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell wrote that many a bright young person went no further than high school, simply because their parents were intimidated by the protocol involved in approaching authority figures and the seemingly complex paperwork to apply for scholarships.
The National Housing Trust has facilitated the formation of Homeowners Associations and it would be a great move to invite aspiring homeowners to meetings of such organisations to help demystify the process of buying and maintaining payments on one's home.
Marguerite Orane has been sharing a video entitled "What do the poor/middle-class/wealthy buy on payday?"
Presenter Tim Sales explains "Why the wealthy keep getting wealthier, the poor keep getting poorer and the middle-class keep getting stressed out."
"On payday the poor buy stuff," he says, defining "stuff" as those cheap knick-knacks which cover every surface of furniture and walls, things bought because they were on sale, not because they were needed.
He said that what the middle-class buy on payday "keep them prisoners of the middle-class." He enumerated the costs that go with the acquisition of a new car, then the expensive vacation and jewellery that add to ever-increasing credit-card debt.
Then he described what the wealthy buy on payday: "The wealthy spend their money on what produces more money." He said such expenditure included real estate, stocks, bonds, businesses and an education. "If you think education is expensive, try stupidity," he quipped. An example of a business that produces money without using one's time was Warren Buffett's first business -- putting a pinball machine in a barber shop, then using the earnings to buy more. Buffett is now the third richest on the Forbes billionaire list. Allen advises that we should "be open to research and be educated enough that when an opportunity opens up you can recognise it".
There are many ways in which we can round out the education of our children so they can begin thinking like entrepreneurs from an early age. We have continued the family tradition of playing the most popular board game in the world: Monopoly. This game has you buying property, utilities, and railways for which you can earn rent (paid of course with Monopoly money). You also get dividends from stocks and mutual funds and on a wrong play, can be sent "directly to jail". You can build houses and malls to increase rentals. Get your child to start playing Monopoly from age seven and they become very good with figures and later in life savvy real-estate investors. Or you can buy those violent, addictive video games and then wonder why your child is becoming an unfocused menace.
We grant that Prime Minister Golding gave Jamaicans a measure of hope by announcing the NHT benefits as well as the special PATH benefits for the elderly and infirm, but he should know that Jamaicans are more nervous than I have ever seen them. Their lives are being circumscribed by the thievery and harassment that they are experiencing even in churchyards. The individuals to whom we should be looking to become future leaders of this country are quietly migrating. Jamaica has barely recovered from the brain drain of the 70s, so we need to do our utmost to keep our best and brightest.
Our young professionals may not jump at the opportunity to take advantage of these home-ownership opportunities if they fear that one day they may have to flee their homes, made valueless by the barefaced criminality of our gangs. Many are living one foot in, and one foot out of the country, while they scrape to meet their student loans.
Since neither of our two political parties can claim total innocence of this terrible situation, the decent thing they can do for this country is to look beyond their narrow, bickering partisan playbook and come together to secure the people they purport to love so dearly. If they sat down together to plan for this new and lasting peace, in the same manner that they collaborate at the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, what great things they could accomplish for our country!
One Jamaican now living in Canada says that she misses Jamaica, of course, but she is relieved that her children can safely walk home from school, that they can play in the park without fear, that there is so much cleanliness, discipline and order.
We demand from Government and Opposition that they put their hands and hearts together to create for their people a secure and loving home. For, as the song says, "A house is not a home".
lowriechin@aim.com
JEAN LOWRIE-CHIN
Monday, April 26, 2010
WE were at Sovereign Centre selling raffle tickets for one of the Portmore houses, to raise funds for a charity. Near us was a display for new motor vehicles. "Will you buy a raffle ticket?" I asked a young lady. "Sure, I will," she said. "I would love to win the car." I brightly explained that with the raffle ticket she could win far more than a car: she could win a house. "No thank you," she said. "I am not interested in any house."
We can only hope that Prime Minister Golding's offer of discounted NHT mortgage loans and no down payment will be more enthusiastically received. Those whom we have elected to serve -- our members of parliament and parish councillors -- should be convening meetings throughout the length and breadth of Jamaica to educate Jamaicans on the importance of home ownership and to help them to apply for these mortgages.
Seniors over the age of 55 who have never owned a house will see interest rates slashed by two per cent.
They should also be telling them how they will make the neighbourhoods in which they invest, safer for themselves and their children.
Seniors over the age of 55 who have never owned a house will see interest rates slashed by two per cent. I remember a friend in this age range migrating to the US in the 90s, and being able to buy a house within a year. "Imagine," said the professional, "what couldn't happen in 30 years in Jamaica has happened in one year here."
The opportunity for homeownership has finally been given to some of our lowest income earners. However, they may not take it, if those among us who are better educated will not take the time to explain to them that yes, they CAN own a home. In his bestseller, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell wrote that many a bright young person went no further than high school, simply because their parents were intimidated by the protocol involved in approaching authority figures and the seemingly complex paperwork to apply for scholarships.
The National Housing Trust has facilitated the formation of Homeowners Associations and it would be a great move to invite aspiring homeowners to meetings of such organisations to help demystify the process of buying and maintaining payments on one's home.
Marguerite Orane has been sharing a video entitled "What do the poor/middle-class/wealthy buy on payday?"
Presenter Tim Sales explains "Why the wealthy keep getting wealthier, the poor keep getting poorer and the middle-class keep getting stressed out."
"On payday the poor buy stuff," he says, defining "stuff" as those cheap knick-knacks which cover every surface of furniture and walls, things bought because they were on sale, not because they were needed.
He said that what the middle-class buy on payday "keep them prisoners of the middle-class." He enumerated the costs that go with the acquisition of a new car, then the expensive vacation and jewellery that add to ever-increasing credit-card debt.
Then he described what the wealthy buy on payday: "The wealthy spend their money on what produces more money." He said such expenditure included real estate, stocks, bonds, businesses and an education. "If you think education is expensive, try stupidity," he quipped. An example of a business that produces money without using one's time was Warren Buffett's first business -- putting a pinball machine in a barber shop, then using the earnings to buy more. Buffett is now the third richest on the Forbes billionaire list. Allen advises that we should "be open to research and be educated enough that when an opportunity opens up you can recognise it".
There are many ways in which we can round out the education of our children so they can begin thinking like entrepreneurs from an early age. We have continued the family tradition of playing the most popular board game in the world: Monopoly. This game has you buying property, utilities, and railways for which you can earn rent (paid of course with Monopoly money). You also get dividends from stocks and mutual funds and on a wrong play, can be sent "directly to jail". You can build houses and malls to increase rentals. Get your child to start playing Monopoly from age seven and they become very good with figures and later in life savvy real-estate investors. Or you can buy those violent, addictive video games and then wonder why your child is becoming an unfocused menace.
We grant that Prime Minister Golding gave Jamaicans a measure of hope by announcing the NHT benefits as well as the special PATH benefits for the elderly and infirm, but he should know that Jamaicans are more nervous than I have ever seen them. Their lives are being circumscribed by the thievery and harassment that they are experiencing even in churchyards. The individuals to whom we should be looking to become future leaders of this country are quietly migrating. Jamaica has barely recovered from the brain drain of the 70s, so we need to do our utmost to keep our best and brightest.
Our young professionals may not jump at the opportunity to take advantage of these home-ownership opportunities if they fear that one day they may have to flee their homes, made valueless by the barefaced criminality of our gangs. Many are living one foot in, and one foot out of the country, while they scrape to meet their student loans.
Since neither of our two political parties can claim total innocence of this terrible situation, the decent thing they can do for this country is to look beyond their narrow, bickering partisan playbook and come together to secure the people they purport to love so dearly. If they sat down together to plan for this new and lasting peace, in the same manner that they collaborate at the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, what great things they could accomplish for our country!
One Jamaican now living in Canada says that she misses Jamaica, of course, but she is relieved that her children can safely walk home from school, that they can play in the park without fear, that there is so much cleanliness, discipline and order.
We demand from Government and Opposition that they put their hands and hearts together to create for their people a secure and loving home. For, as the song says, "A house is not a home".
lowriechin@aim.com