Ronald Thwaites | Unanswered questions

Is the one per cent tax on remittances from the US an act of friendship or hostility? When your ‘best friend’ does this to you, what does it say about the texture of the relationship – especially when our people contribute so much to their economy. Isn’t unmerited punishment inflicted on the weakest, just plain cruelty?

BE CAREFUL

Surely we all need lower electricity rates. But shouldn’t we be very careful in running our mouths against the JPSCo? Which government or private investor is going to buy out their distribution network? Truth is our heads are in that lion’s mouth.

How much of the electricity bill is comprised of ‘teefing’ and taxes? What’s the story on those issues? What if the billions being sterilised or spent on luxury construction were incentivised into more renewable energy production?

MIRAGE OF GROWTH

Why only 1.1 per cent GDP growth for the quarter? We can’t blame Beryl any longer. Or the IMF. Are we to be resigned to be the children of Ham, capable of only a sputtering and unequal economy forever? Why have the ‘5 in 4’ evangelists run away with their/our money while a healthy school lunch on North Street costs $700 for the high school daughter of a minimum wage earner? How and when will that change?

DIVERSIONS

Why are these serious quality of life issues not dominating the political campaign instead of feigned indignation over Warmy’s nasty, racist mouth? He won’t change because his company either is afraid of him or secretly agrees with him.

Serious question though. What are our aspiring leaders saying is the path to change this meagre lop-sided growth and really give people cause to choose Jamaica? Aren’t we ashamed that despite what is happening up north to people from “s—t hole” countries, hordes of us line up daily to face real danger there rather than “choose Jamaica”?

REAL SOLUTIONS

Last week Mr Wright of the High School Principals Association pointed out that efficient investment in education was a real answer to the nation’s national security terror. Who is taking him on? In a similar vein, Mr Jacobs of the National Parents Association asked for the rationale for secondary school placement and pleaded for investment in improving the outcomes of non-traditional schools. Both are crucial matters affecting national development. So far silence has been the loud response!

A MUDDLE

Isn’t it embarrassing to listen to the minister of information knot up herself in an implausible explanation of the FID appointment? We need to have complete confidence in what every official government says. There is a sense that public trust either begins or ends at the Cabinet press briefing.

And anyway, since the controversy over his appointment is sticking in the public craw like a bad duppy, why would a good person like Dennis Chung allow himself to become the victim of the patent confusion, mendacity and bad company of his employers?

THAT CENSUS

STATIN needs to be careful of its reputation too. Very few of the people I ask have ever seen a census taker. Tens of thousands agree. So how reliable and trustworthy can the results be? We are not likely to be mesmerised by any theories about statistical sampling. This is not an opinion poll. A census is a vital tabulation of the data of each citizen. How can effective planning and allocation of scarce resources be achieved absent reliance and confidence in a recent and fulsome national census? Even Caesar Augustus in Jesus’ time understood this.

Instead of all the sleazy party propaganda posing as public service achievements, why isn’t the Government correcting this default instead of parading their soiled petticoat of performance?

SUMMER SCHOOL

Every Jamaican of school age, including those at university if not employed, ought to be attending summer school. Why? One hundred and ninety days of instruction is not sufficient to produce optimal outcomes.

As it is, those who are already doing well are likely to be the ones engaged in various programmes of enrichment and remediation. Those from weak families and empty pockets will be left to experience learning regression, unrelieved social media addiction, idleness and mischief.

If we want to be able to reduce expenditure on official and personal security, the army, constabulary youth clubs, church groups and private sector all should be funding and hosting month-long summer programmes. Are our laziness and selfish antipathy to change not aggravating the very social maladies which are leeching our spiritual and material well-being?

CRISES AND REMEDIES

The 2025 PEP results of the students assigned to the high school with which we are engaged indicate that 10 per cent of the 1st formers (7th Grade) are “Proficient” in English and mathematics. The remainder are way behind. Unchanged, we are placing most of these on an escalator of failure.

As we are doing now, in a decade we will continue to rationalise the killing of many of them or piously giving them 30-year minimum sentences costing taxpayers about $2 million per annum and destroying their already violent and blighted lives in the process.

From our experience, an added annual investment of less than $100,000 each could save most of them, and us, from that fate. Why, as Principal Wright and Parent Jacobs ask poignantly, are we not acting in our own best interests not to mention God’s mandate to governors, school leaders and parents?

All this is perfectly possible in our time and within our resources. Last week I attended a primary school graduation where 97 per cent of the students achieved Pathway One status and almost all merited placement in their first choice of high school. Strong leadership, full support of the sponsoring church and majority participation of parents are the foundations of this performance.

Why not everywhere?

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com