THE EDITOR, Sir:I recently watched a repeat episode of the American sitcom Will and Grace in which Karen - the wealthy one who just works to escape boredom -is haggling with a homeless woman over one of her expensive shoes that had been mistakenly given to charity.
In that particular scene, while both women were going through the barrel of used shoes, both grabbed a foot each of Karen's shoes.
The homeless woman told Karen she could get her foot for '10', Karen said no, '8', and they bartered until they reached an agreed sum of '5'.
However, when the rich woman turned away to count out five $100 bills from her purse, the homeless woman was beside her saying, inter alia, 'oh boy, five whole dollars! This is my lucky day'.
It was difficult for Karen to understand that the woman was haggling for $10 dollars originally. They're from two different worlds.
While this is fiction, the scene nevertheless depicts how many of us people from two different worlds view situations.
Reading a recent article by Amina Blackwood Meeks about the hardships faced by residents in some districts that have been neglected by the utility companies and the authorities, it has again brought home to me how hard some people 'have life'.
It has become a habit by many of us to haggle with higglers to get them to reduce the price of their tomatoes from $20 per pound to $15, but in the same breath, think nothing of spending thousands of dollars in one evening for dinner at an upscale restaurant.
I have stopped haggling with higglers, and where possible, I sometimes give them a bit more than they are asking for their products.
Amina sums up clearly the hardships some farmers go through when she writes; 'You need to see how the farmers toil to produce 28-pounds of string beans in the eight weeks from planting to reaping to take to the market for $28 per pound. Do the math - $560 for eight weeks of work.'
I am, etc.,
LIZ BENNETT
lizben@cwjamaica.com
