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And while JEEP has been the subject of much ridicule, misunderstanding and baseless propaganda, its concept is highly defensible. How it would be funded and implemented are details the PNP must provide, but philosophically it is in the right direction. Where has this propaganda come from that it is a crash programme, a means of giving people handouts? That can only be attributed to our aversion to reading, and political mischief.
Creating wealth
The PNP president said clearly in her speech (the text is available): "At the core of JEEP is the plan to teach someone to fish, rather than giving them a fish. Through JEEP we will move the Jamaican people from welfare to well-being and from well-being to wealth-creation." Does that sound like a crash programme and wild redistributionism? It sounds like a strategy to deal with our failure to create jobs - a worldwide problem now (See especially the Economist front-page special, 'The Quest for Jobs: America, Europe and a Lost Generation', September 10-16 issue).
Mrs Simpson Miller went on to say, "A job can be one of the best forms of family planning. This is why we are proposing a comprehensive emergency employment programme ... ."
Interestingly enough, I have a copy of Hansard where Andrew Holness was debating the motion by Gregory Mair to have a family-life policy. Holness, who has always been very enlightened on the importance of a sound family structure, said: "The Jamaican State, Madam Speaker, does not have a comprehensive and broad social safety net ... . There is a large group in this society, Madam Speaker, those who have just left school not in a job, no prospects of a job, and will probably be that way for another 20 years, that are able-bodied, but they cannot earn any income and there is no social safety net for them. But yet that is your age, where you have the highest birth rate, between 16 and 24. But there is no support especially for males ... ."
So perhaps if Andrew and Portia can coalesce on that, we can start the climb to national consensus.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and ianboyne1@yahoo.com.
And while JEEP has been the subject of much ridicule, misunderstanding and baseless propaganda, its concept is highly defensible. How it would be funded and implemented are details the PNP must provide, but philosophically it is in the right direction. Where has this propaganda come from that it is a crash programme, a means of giving people handouts? That can only be attributed to our aversion to reading, and political mischief.
Creating wealth
The PNP president said clearly in her speech (the text is available): "At the core of JEEP is the plan to teach someone to fish, rather than giving them a fish. Through JEEP we will move the Jamaican people from welfare to well-being and from well-being to wealth-creation." Does that sound like a crash programme and wild redistributionism? It sounds like a strategy to deal with our failure to create jobs - a worldwide problem now (See especially the Economist front-page special, 'The Quest for Jobs: America, Europe and a Lost Generation', September 10-16 issue).
Mrs Simpson Miller went on to say, "A job can be one of the best forms of family planning. This is why we are proposing a comprehensive emergency employment programme ... ."
Interestingly enough, I have a copy of Hansard where Andrew Holness was debating the motion by Gregory Mair to have a family-life policy. Holness, who has always been very enlightened on the importance of a sound family structure, said: "The Jamaican State, Madam Speaker, does not have a comprehensive and broad social safety net ... . There is a large group in this society, Madam Speaker, those who have just left school not in a job, no prospects of a job, and will probably be that way for another 20 years, that are able-bodied, but they cannot earn any income and there is no social safety net for them. But yet that is your age, where you have the highest birth rate, between 16 and 24. But there is no support especially for males ... ."
So perhaps if Andrew and Portia can coalesce on that, we can start the climb to national consensus.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and ianboyne1@yahoo.com.
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