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50 per cent of Jamaicans satisfied... Really?
WIGNALL’S WORLD
Mark Wignall
Sunday, November 14, 2010
I am no alarmist, but after reading the newspaper article which quoted a United Nations study as indicating that in an international survey 50 per cent of those sampled in Jamaica reported that they were satisfied with their standard of living, I was tempted to ring someone's bell, over and over again.
My first temptation was to question the methodology, but in the same finding the expected high satisfaction rates (high 80 per cent to low 90 per cent) were recorded for European countries such as Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark.
I was forced to ask myself why was I not seeing or sensing this rate of satisfaction in Jamaica where I live, while the UN study was saying it had identified what I could not see. Some observations came to mind.
In the European countries the population centres tend to have more social and economic homogeneity and wide swaths of those countries can be considered middle-class. In Caribbean countries, and especially in Jamaica, the same certainly does not exist.
In Jamaica, a small country with huge differences in standards of living between communities literally next door to each other, it is never easy to get a true reading of any research finding if these realities are not taken into consideration. Cherry Gardens is less than five minutes away from Cassava Piece, while Millsborough is two minutes away from Grant's Pen.
The difference there could well be a home in Cherry Gardens with five bedrooms and four bathrooms and household income of $500,000 per month, while a home in Cassava Piece has two cramped bedrooms on the edge of a gully bank, one bathroom and total household income of $25,000 per month.
The rural areas of Jamaica pose their own sets of problems, not the least being access to the interviewee who is considered the head of the household. I have seen many questionnaires developed in North America and Europe which were designed to be administered in Jamaica. Some of them are 'mini books' of 20 plus pages which would occupy an interviewing time close to an hour. Madness!
Even though I am sure that the researchers are quite versed in the various survey methodology models, I am still left with the sense that I am missing something. What is it that constitutes a satisfactory standard of living? Does the nebulous 'happiness' impinge on the final numbers, or is it that happiness is derived from the other socio-economic tangibles?
Recently another international study made us one of the happiest set of people in the world. All that while we were third in the running for murder capital of the world. Maybe there is more to the kiss of death than I realise.
With widespread ignorance and indiscipline in the society, with 50 per cent of our students ill-prepared for schooling, with 70 per cent plus of those aged 15 and over never passing an exam, it is utterly amazing that 50 per cent of our people say that they are satisfied with their standard of living. For sure there are many young men who beg me money weekly with smiles on their faces, but funny as that isn't, I still cannot identify exactly where that 50 per cent of our people are.
Did the study identify a money value earned per household or was it all relative? If the head of the household is meeting all of his household's monthly expenses, his children are performing well in school and his wife tends not to disappear 'with the girls' on weekends, I can well appreciate his satisfaction level, especially if he has funds left over to satisfy the necessary recreational expenses for himself, his wife and the children.
Is it at all possible that a single domestic helper getting regular work and living in a three room house in Grant's Pen with her two children and total monthly income of $30,000 could report that she is satisfied with her standard of living?
As improbable as that may seem, it cannot be ruled out. She could report that she is satisfied with her standard of living because in accepting that her life is hardly likely to get better any time soon, she has adopted the pragmatic approach of 'being satisfied with her lot'.
I live here and consider myself to be very observant of the things which most people tend to miss or take for granted. For this reason I am greatly puzzled that the UN researchers have reported a local experience which seems foreign to me.
Lastly, I am forced to ask if it is at all possible that people like me tend to want to disbelieve good news about ourselves simply because we have immersed ourselves for too long in the idea that this country is close to a failed experiment.
Well, I have asked, but the answer which keeps coming back to me is our undisciplined behaviour, the close to 40 per cent of our adult population who do not earn regular income (unemployment rate 12.5 per cent), the high visibility of the huge numbers of young men and women on our streets who are close to unemployable, the ramshackle nature of much of our infrastructure and our still too high rates of violent crime.
If in all of that, 50 per cent of our people can claim that they are satisfied with their standard of living, I am registering for kindergarten class.
Clean up Red Hills Road now
AT least twice per day I use Red Hills Road between the top of Perkins Boulevard and Whitehall Avenue.
At peak traffic hours, the route taxis which use the road are a law unto themselves. The lawlessness is rife at Chancery Street where ordinary drivers of motor vehicles are at the mercy of these taxicab drivers.
I am not insensitive to the plight of these men who are forced to compete for their share of the dollar. But, having written about this matter many years ago it seems that we are marching on the same spot.
Last Monday, at minutes to seven in the morning a taxicab driver overtook a long line of traffic and when he was forced to pull back in line (after forcing incoming vehicles to the sidewalk) he sideswiped a car driven by a lady friend of mine.
The lawlessness is one thing; the belligerence is quite another. As the woman demanded that he present his documents, he gave one the impression that he was about to perpetrate violence on her. As the passengers vacated his vehicle, I was forced to intervene in in an effort to restore some sanity to a situation that could easily have got totally out of hand -- as it is known that these men tend to enjoy a close familiarity with sharp cutlasses.
For close to one hour three people wasted time because of this lawlessness.
Where are the police? Some years ago, I wrote a story about the confusion caused by public transport at Chancery Street and in response a police presence developed there for a few days. As soon as the police left the free-for-all returned.
Is it never pleasant to be stuck in slow-moving traffic. I am prepared to do so for the common good. The route taxi drivers need to learn to play by the rules, even though we know that there is much utility value to breaking the law in Jamaica.
It needs no more than one policeman along the strip from PriceSmart to City College to send a warning to these lawbreakers.
My apologies to the education ministry
IN my column last Sunday I had stated that the education ministry has no curriculum for Early Childhood Education.
It was a rank piece of irresponsibility on my part. I had simply accepted what someone (supposedly in the know) had told me without checking it out. For this I must apologise.
Based on the Early Childhood Commission Acts of 2003 and 2005, a five-year National Strategic Plan (2008-2013) was developed in 2007. On the website www.ecc.gov.jm are some very important and impressive documents.
I am inviting parents with young children to visit the website and view the following documents:
* User Guide for Early Childhood Institutions - Start Them Right
* Complete Operation Standards Document for Early Childhood Institutions
* Early Childhood Curriculum Scope and Sequence - Birth to Three Years
* Early Childhood Curriculum Guide: Birth to Three Years
* Early Childhood Curriculum Guide: Four Years Old
* Early Childhood Curriculum Scope and Sequence - Four to Five Years Old
* Early Childhood Curriculum Guide: Four to Five Years Old Resource Book
Ms Marsha Grant of the ECC sent me the following:
"Now that you have found the documents we would really appreciate it if you could include where it can be found in your next article. We would love to make it available to every parent. As things currently are, financial constraints dictate that we can only make it available to practitioners and teachers. It is however, very important that every parent of a young child have access to it so that they can assist in the learning process which takes place in the Early Childhood institutions. That task cannot be left completely up to the practitioners and teachers.
"Additionally, the books serve as road maps to children's development and can be used to assist parents in their role. These books are essentially the support tools that parents need as they execute their most important role in life. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated."
Again, the website is www.ecc.gov.jm.
Will it be poor road building all over again?
The picture below of a badly damaged piece of road (damaged by Nicole) was taken by me a few days ago.
The really sick part of what is not a joke is that rains prior to Nicole had damaged the exact same section but not to the same degree. Before I could highlight it in a column the NWA (I assume) had it repaired, and the MP for the particular area, Mr Andrew Gallimore, had some happy constituents.
Well, we know that the three days of torrential rains associated with Nicole did enormous damage to Jamaica's road network but, are we about to use the same contractors with the same material to fix our roads in the same way until the next bout of heavy rains damage them in similar fashion?
There must be an end to this criminal sloppiness.
observemark@gmail.com
WIGNALL’S WORLD
Mark Wignall
Sunday, November 14, 2010 I am no alarmist, but after reading the newspaper article which quoted a United Nations study as indicating that in an international survey 50 per cent of those sampled in Jamaica reported that they were satisfied with their standard of living, I was tempted to ring someone's bell, over and over again.
My first temptation was to question the methodology, but in the same finding the expected high satisfaction rates (high 80 per cent to low 90 per cent) were recorded for European countries such as Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark.
I was forced to ask myself why was I not seeing or sensing this rate of satisfaction in Jamaica where I live, while the UN study was saying it had identified what I could not see. Some observations came to mind.
In the European countries the population centres tend to have more social and economic homogeneity and wide swaths of those countries can be considered middle-class. In Caribbean countries, and especially in Jamaica, the same certainly does not exist.
In Jamaica, a small country with huge differences in standards of living between communities literally next door to each other, it is never easy to get a true reading of any research finding if these realities are not taken into consideration. Cherry Gardens is less than five minutes away from Cassava Piece, while Millsborough is two minutes away from Grant's Pen.
The difference there could well be a home in Cherry Gardens with five bedrooms and four bathrooms and household income of $500,000 per month, while a home in Cassava Piece has two cramped bedrooms on the edge of a gully bank, one bathroom and total household income of $25,000 per month.
The rural areas of Jamaica pose their own sets of problems, not the least being access to the interviewee who is considered the head of the household. I have seen many questionnaires developed in North America and Europe which were designed to be administered in Jamaica. Some of them are 'mini books' of 20 plus pages which would occupy an interviewing time close to an hour. Madness!
Even though I am sure that the researchers are quite versed in the various survey methodology models, I am still left with the sense that I am missing something. What is it that constitutes a satisfactory standard of living? Does the nebulous 'happiness' impinge on the final numbers, or is it that happiness is derived from the other socio-economic tangibles?
Recently another international study made us one of the happiest set of people in the world. All that while we were third in the running for murder capital of the world. Maybe there is more to the kiss of death than I realise.
With widespread ignorance and indiscipline in the society, with 50 per cent of our students ill-prepared for schooling, with 70 per cent plus of those aged 15 and over never passing an exam, it is utterly amazing that 50 per cent of our people say that they are satisfied with their standard of living. For sure there are many young men who beg me money weekly with smiles on their faces, but funny as that isn't, I still cannot identify exactly where that 50 per cent of our people are.
Did the study identify a money value earned per household or was it all relative? If the head of the household is meeting all of his household's monthly expenses, his children are performing well in school and his wife tends not to disappear 'with the girls' on weekends, I can well appreciate his satisfaction level, especially if he has funds left over to satisfy the necessary recreational expenses for himself, his wife and the children.
Is it at all possible that a single domestic helper getting regular work and living in a three room house in Grant's Pen with her two children and total monthly income of $30,000 could report that she is satisfied with her standard of living?
As improbable as that may seem, it cannot be ruled out. She could report that she is satisfied with her standard of living because in accepting that her life is hardly likely to get better any time soon, she has adopted the pragmatic approach of 'being satisfied with her lot'.
I live here and consider myself to be very observant of the things which most people tend to miss or take for granted. For this reason I am greatly puzzled that the UN researchers have reported a local experience which seems foreign to me.
Lastly, I am forced to ask if it is at all possible that people like me tend to want to disbelieve good news about ourselves simply because we have immersed ourselves for too long in the idea that this country is close to a failed experiment.
Well, I have asked, but the answer which keeps coming back to me is our undisciplined behaviour, the close to 40 per cent of our adult population who do not earn regular income (unemployment rate 12.5 per cent), the high visibility of the huge numbers of young men and women on our streets who are close to unemployable, the ramshackle nature of much of our infrastructure and our still too high rates of violent crime.
If in all of that, 50 per cent of our people can claim that they are satisfied with their standard of living, I am registering for kindergarten class.
Clean up Red Hills Road now
AT least twice per day I use Red Hills Road between the top of Perkins Boulevard and Whitehall Avenue.
At peak traffic hours, the route taxis which use the road are a law unto themselves. The lawlessness is rife at Chancery Street where ordinary drivers of motor vehicles are at the mercy of these taxicab drivers.
I am not insensitive to the plight of these men who are forced to compete for their share of the dollar. But, having written about this matter many years ago it seems that we are marching on the same spot.
Last Monday, at minutes to seven in the morning a taxicab driver overtook a long line of traffic and when he was forced to pull back in line (after forcing incoming vehicles to the sidewalk) he sideswiped a car driven by a lady friend of mine.
The lawlessness is one thing; the belligerence is quite another. As the woman demanded that he present his documents, he gave one the impression that he was about to perpetrate violence on her. As the passengers vacated his vehicle, I was forced to intervene in in an effort to restore some sanity to a situation that could easily have got totally out of hand -- as it is known that these men tend to enjoy a close familiarity with sharp cutlasses.
For close to one hour three people wasted time because of this lawlessness.
Where are the police? Some years ago, I wrote a story about the confusion caused by public transport at Chancery Street and in response a police presence developed there for a few days. As soon as the police left the free-for-all returned.
Is it never pleasant to be stuck in slow-moving traffic. I am prepared to do so for the common good. The route taxi drivers need to learn to play by the rules, even though we know that there is much utility value to breaking the law in Jamaica.
It needs no more than one policeman along the strip from PriceSmart to City College to send a warning to these lawbreakers.
My apologies to the education ministry
IN my column last Sunday I had stated that the education ministry has no curriculum for Early Childhood Education.
It was a rank piece of irresponsibility on my part. I had simply accepted what someone (supposedly in the know) had told me without checking it out. For this I must apologise.
Based on the Early Childhood Commission Acts of 2003 and 2005, a five-year National Strategic Plan (2008-2013) was developed in 2007. On the website www.ecc.gov.jm are some very important and impressive documents.
I am inviting parents with young children to visit the website and view the following documents:
* User Guide for Early Childhood Institutions - Start Them Right
* Complete Operation Standards Document for Early Childhood Institutions
* Early Childhood Curriculum Scope and Sequence - Birth to Three Years
* Early Childhood Curriculum Guide: Birth to Three Years
* Early Childhood Curriculum Guide: Four Years Old
* Early Childhood Curriculum Scope and Sequence - Four to Five Years Old
* Early Childhood Curriculum Guide: Four to Five Years Old Resource Book
Ms Marsha Grant of the ECC sent me the following:
"Now that you have found the documents we would really appreciate it if you could include where it can be found in your next article. We would love to make it available to every parent. As things currently are, financial constraints dictate that we can only make it available to practitioners and teachers. It is however, very important that every parent of a young child have access to it so that they can assist in the learning process which takes place in the Early Childhood institutions. That task cannot be left completely up to the practitioners and teachers.
"Additionally, the books serve as road maps to children's development and can be used to assist parents in their role. These books are essentially the support tools that parents need as they execute their most important role in life. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated."
Again, the website is www.ecc.gov.jm.
Will it be poor road building all over again?
The picture below of a badly damaged piece of road (damaged by Nicole) was taken by me a few days ago.
The really sick part of what is not a joke is that rains prior to Nicole had damaged the exact same section but not to the same degree. Before I could highlight it in a column the NWA (I assume) had it repaired, and the MP for the particular area, Mr Andrew Gallimore, had some happy constituents.
Well, we know that the three days of torrential rains associated with Nicole did enormous damage to Jamaica's road network but, are we about to use the same contractors with the same material to fix our roads in the same way until the next bout of heavy rains damage them in similar fashion?
There must be an end to this criminal sloppiness.
observemark@gmail.com
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