Delroy Chuck
FOR YEARS, nattering nabobs of negativity have warned that the society is on the wrong track. Nowadays, everyone, it seems, is highlighting the negatives, as myriad problems afflict the nation. Increasing crime, injustice, illiteracy, unemployment, hardships and hopelessness are symptoms and indications of a society heading in the wrong direction. At last business leaders and commentators are breaking their silence, and forthrightly
elucidating the overwhelming social problems, failures and crisis.
Dr. Kingsley Thomas, the man behind Highway 2000, Inner City Housing Developments, Harmony Cove, etc. laments Jamaica's predicament. When one listens to him, as he spoke recently at the Portmore function, and on Power 106 'Good Evening Jamaica', Monday, at about 6:15 p.m., Kingsley highlighted the lack of training, poor education qualification and unemployment that make it impossible for our young people to contribute meaningfully. He speaks feelingly and despondently of Jamaica as a failed state. But, Kingsley, for how long has Jamaica been heading down this highway?
Dr. Andre Gordon, president of the JEA, in a recent speech, expressed grave concern at the alarming rate of crime that stifles investment and businesses. Quite rightly, he charges that: "We must stop putting band-aid on the education system and stop the reversion to a system where you can only get a quality education and good health care if you are wealthy enough to afford it." But, Andre, this did not happen overnight. Children cannot attend school through violence and lack of funds. Our public hospitals are falling apart, without basic drugs, working equipment and proper maintenance. In truth, many schools and hospitals are on the verge of collapse. Dr. Gordon should keep talking, his association, in my opinion, is really in the best position to help Jamaica.
INTEREST RATES
Mrs. Doreen Frankson, president of the JMA, and no enemy of the government, is critical of the high interest rate that banks charge. My God, with bank interest rate just around 20 per cent, where was her voice, when the rate was twice as high, not so long ago? No doubt, in Mrs. Frankson's views, it is not the government's fault, even with treasury bills at 14 to16 per cent, it is the greed of the banks. Well, Mrs Frankson, it is this government that has made high interest rate the main tool of economic policy to protect the dollar, attract foreign exchange and to garner funds for budgetary support.
DISGRACEFUL INCIDENT
Rose Bennett and Gladstone Wilson, strong defenders of the government on their programme 'First Edition', were falling over themselves, on Monday's edition at around 8.25 a.m., as they discussed the disgraceful incident at Schools Championship over the past weekend at the National Stadium, where young men were seen with a knife and a gun in the bleachers. Openly, they admitted that the society is on the wrong track, that it has been derailed, and searched desperately for answers or reasons to explain the disgusting behaviour. Well, Rose and Gladstone, what happened at Champs occurs regularly at football competitions, dancehall outlets, in our transportation vehicles, in the inner cities daily, and even at uptown social functions.
The stabbing death of young Mesha-Gaye Tomlin, a sixth former at The Queen's School, symbolises, once again, a society in the throes of anarchy. She is the second schoolgirl to die in five days, in similar circumstances, as Yanice Hall, a 17-year-old student of Jose Marti High School, was stabbed fatally on March 10. In both cases, the killers sought to rob them of that symbol of solid achievement, their cellular phones. In her Monday column, Jean Lowrie-Chin, so perennially positive, could not contain her grief, as she pondered whether Mesha-Gaye's words 'that our leaders do not have the ability or willingness to deal with criminals on the streets' would move the society to respond.
When are we going to wake up to the reality that it is the government's punishing economic policies that are depriving the society of the basic social services and generating the social decay and collapse, the evidence of which can only escape the blind and dumb? When the priority of the government is to keep its creditors happy, the consequence is that the whole society is starved of needed capital, necessary funds and basic resources to function. As we teeter on the verge of an imminent social collapse, the government must decide whether to derail its harsh economic programme or face the growing social unrest and ultimate debacle.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member
of Parliament. He can be contacted by email at delchuck@hotmail.com.
