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If they're poor, close the door
HEART TO HEART
With Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Dear Reader,
Let's put an end to the hypocrisy once and for all! Neither the current Jamaica Labour Party government nor the People's National Party have any genuine interest in the poor, and that is self-evident.
It is not only that over the past 49 years the country has seen negative growth; it is that the state of the country's poor, including children, continues to worsen day by day amidst the platitudes and the pontification.
My visit to Pleasant Heights, after the recent brutal murder of six year-old Teonia Henry, was a stark reminder of the abandonment of the poor. To have been shown and told that the spot where the child's body was discovered, was one of the areas in the community where people use as a toilet in the absence of running water and proper sanitary facilities, is not only disgraceful, it is an indictment on the system of political representation that we have.
It is shameful to think that in another few months, perhaps even weeks, the member of parliament will more than likely attempt to secure whatever votes are available from Pleasant Heights. I can only assume that his handlers will take him into the community blindfolded, because I refuse to believe that any leader could think of extracting votes from citizens living in that type of abject poverty. It is not only unconscionable, it is ungodly.
What is even worse is that the exclusion and exploitation of the poor involves almost every inner-city community, both urban and rural. Jamaica must be the only country in the world, short of the handful of completely failed states, where some of the poorest and most depressed communities are represented by prime ministers and other high-ranking Cabinet ministers.
A friend of mine shared a story with me which my elder sister would comically describe as "a serious joke". He related that in transporting his regional boss, who was visiting Jamaica on business from the company's head office, he decided to drive through the West Kingston beltway. When the visitor was shown Tivoli Gardens and told that the MP was the prime minister of Jamaica, the man covered his mouth and said, "I don't believe you."
The shock and dismay on the man's face intensified as they passed through the former prime minister and Opposition leader's constituency and those others representing the former finance and security ministers. The visitor remarked that he had never seen or heard of anything more incredible or appalling. "What's wrong with the Jamaican people?" he asked, "Why have they put up with this?"
But the script about the deepening poverty and exclusion of the poor couldn't be more apparent and serious than it is in the case of higher education and the thousands of young people who have graduated from high schools and colleges that are still at home with no opportunity to advance academically and with no room for upward mobility.
I looked into the promising but sad eyes of a young woman who found the courage to ask me for help after I had made a speech to a group of students. She had eight CXC subjects and wanted to do nursing, but like countless others she was without cash or connections. I racked my brain to try to come up with the name of someone whom I could approach for sponsorship of this ambitious young woman. I am still hoping that she will get the help she needs.
The higher educational door to the poor is now almost shut. My heart goes out to those hard-working mothers and fathers from the working class who sacrifice everything for their especially gifted children to make it through the best high schools, but who after graduation are closed out of the country's tertiary institutions due to their station and status in life.
And the Students' Loan option is only viable if a guarantor is available and employed within the formal sector. With more and more Jamaicans losing their jobs, the ability to find such guarantors gets increasingly harder, leaving some of the brightest youth with no hope of going on to college.
With the exception of the handful of Jamaican students who through their God-given athletic abilities and tremendous hard work are able to get overseas scholarships, the majority of high school graduates will not leave Jamaica by route of a student visa. The result is a growing population of young Jamaicans, in the prime of their lives with much to contribute to national development, and who are domiciled in those parts of the country where influential people are scarce and hope even scarcer.
The thing that vexes me most is that while the doors are closing on the poor, the political parties, which largely through incompetence and corruption, are responsible for decades of impoverishment of the citizens of Jamaica, refuse to take responsibility, and worse yet, are asking the Jamaican people to maintain or return them to power.
I suspect that one of the reasons for the arrogance and hypocrisy is the knowledge that if you close the door to higher education, you simultaneously close people's minds and their ability to choose rationally and intelligently.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1VBVC3LVR
Education cyaan nyam....Road mi seh
HEART TO HEART
With Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Dear Reader,
Let's put an end to the hypocrisy once and for all! Neither the current Jamaica Labour Party government nor the People's National Party have any genuine interest in the poor, and that is self-evident.
It is not only that over the past 49 years the country has seen negative growth; it is that the state of the country's poor, including children, continues to worsen day by day amidst the platitudes and the pontification.
My visit to Pleasant Heights, after the recent brutal murder of six year-old Teonia Henry, was a stark reminder of the abandonment of the poor. To have been shown and told that the spot where the child's body was discovered, was one of the areas in the community where people use as a toilet in the absence of running water and proper sanitary facilities, is not only disgraceful, it is an indictment on the system of political representation that we have.
It is shameful to think that in another few months, perhaps even weeks, the member of parliament will more than likely attempt to secure whatever votes are available from Pleasant Heights. I can only assume that his handlers will take him into the community blindfolded, because I refuse to believe that any leader could think of extracting votes from citizens living in that type of abject poverty. It is not only unconscionable, it is ungodly.
What is even worse is that the exclusion and exploitation of the poor involves almost every inner-city community, both urban and rural. Jamaica must be the only country in the world, short of the handful of completely failed states, where some of the poorest and most depressed communities are represented by prime ministers and other high-ranking Cabinet ministers.
A friend of mine shared a story with me which my elder sister would comically describe as "a serious joke". He related that in transporting his regional boss, who was visiting Jamaica on business from the company's head office, he decided to drive through the West Kingston beltway. When the visitor was shown Tivoli Gardens and told that the MP was the prime minister of Jamaica, the man covered his mouth and said, "I don't believe you."
The shock and dismay on the man's face intensified as they passed through the former prime minister and Opposition leader's constituency and those others representing the former finance and security ministers. The visitor remarked that he had never seen or heard of anything more incredible or appalling. "What's wrong with the Jamaican people?" he asked, "Why have they put up with this?"
But the script about the deepening poverty and exclusion of the poor couldn't be more apparent and serious than it is in the case of higher education and the thousands of young people who have graduated from high schools and colleges that are still at home with no opportunity to advance academically and with no room for upward mobility.
I looked into the promising but sad eyes of a young woman who found the courage to ask me for help after I had made a speech to a group of students. She had eight CXC subjects and wanted to do nursing, but like countless others she was without cash or connections. I racked my brain to try to come up with the name of someone whom I could approach for sponsorship of this ambitious young woman. I am still hoping that she will get the help she needs.
The higher educational door to the poor is now almost shut. My heart goes out to those hard-working mothers and fathers from the working class who sacrifice everything for their especially gifted children to make it through the best high schools, but who after graduation are closed out of the country's tertiary institutions due to their station and status in life.
And the Students' Loan option is only viable if a guarantor is available and employed within the formal sector. With more and more Jamaicans losing their jobs, the ability to find such guarantors gets increasingly harder, leaving some of the brightest youth with no hope of going on to college.
With the exception of the handful of Jamaican students who through their God-given athletic abilities and tremendous hard work are able to get overseas scholarships, the majority of high school graduates will not leave Jamaica by route of a student visa. The result is a growing population of young Jamaicans, in the prime of their lives with much to contribute to national development, and who are domiciled in those parts of the country where influential people are scarce and hope even scarcer.
The thing that vexes me most is that while the doors are closing on the poor, the political parties, which largely through incompetence and corruption, are responsible for decades of impoverishment of the citizens of Jamaica, refuse to take responsibility, and worse yet, are asking the Jamaican people to maintain or return them to power.
I suspect that one of the reasons for the arrogance and hypocrisy is the knowledge that if you close the door to higher education, you simultaneously close people's minds and their ability to choose rationally and intelligently.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1VBVC3LVR
Education cyaan nyam....Road mi seh
