Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

[tsophra]

Is it worse now than say 50..60 years ago? My relatives talk about all the things they had to do without and be satisfied when they were growing up. From their POV today's standard of living seems luxurious by comparison.

eta: thinking about contributing factors to moral decline, etc.

[STGC85]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

I've seen the changes. I left JA 18 years ago, gosh...the exchange rate was like 5-1 back then, now it's 65-1, somewhere close to that. I remember buying a patty for 10 cents and a good ole' D&G soft drink for about the same.

Those were the good old days for me looking back. It's a shame that the economy is going downhill and taking everything else with it.

What to do though [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[tsophra]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

but my relatives contend that growing up they didn't have money for extra things like store bought food..TVs..refrigerators were out of reach. Now these things are the basics for most Jamaican households.

[Hopyoneson]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

I want tell you seh Jamaicans now have a better standard of living than 50 years ago, but what taking us down is the wide spread culture of bhutuism and lack of social and civic pride. There are trades offs 50 years ago mi grandfada tell mi seh a man in his village could not even think about having kids without getting married to the girl, but the class and racial line was even more pronounced. Now you can accomplish what you set your mind to a yard but the civic pride and manners do not exist in some places, big difference in St. Ann yu tell people morning and yu get it back to Kingston, mi no even badda unless a older type people. People fi mi age look pon yu like yu crazy if yu a chat bout morning...mind sharp yu get in a fight fi stare dung "big man" in a him face. We need to embrace these old time manners again, cause when you experience it in person, nothing makes yu feel as proud to be a jamaican.

[jah_yout]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

[ QUOTE ]
Is it worse now than say 50..60 years ago? My relatives talk about all the things they had to do without and be satisfied when they were growing up. From their POV today's standard of living seems luxurious by comparison.

eta: thinking about contributing factors to moral decline, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]


j-a is more technologically and materially advanced now but quality of living is less...we've lost some of our culture and humanity to cable tv & internet & video games and foreign influence...in my youth we played ring games & stuckey & cricket & baseball...hide & seek...went to canepiece, went to river, run boat....nowadays fast-food & cable tek over yard...less peson-to person interaction & less love for your brother and sister; more concern with material gain & upward mobility in terms of fashion and such

[ZaraJah]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Is it worse now than say 50..60 years ago? My relatives talk about all the things they had to do without and be satisfied when they were growing up. From their POV today's standard of living seems luxurious by comparison.

eta: thinking about contributing factors to moral decline, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]


j-a is more technologically and materially advanced now but quality of living is less...we've lost some of our culture and humanity to cable tv & internet & video games and foreign influence...in my youth we played ring games & stuckey & cricket & baseball...hide & seek...went to canepiece, went to river, run boat....nowadays fast-food & cable tek over yard...less peson-to person interaction & less love for your brother and sister; more concern with material gain & upward mobility in terms of fashion and such

[/ QUOTE ]

If we compare apples for apples, the standard of living has improved TREMENDOUSLY in JA and for the average Jamaican. I witnessed my auntie yelling at her 12 yr old daughter because she did not take a taxi home from the school I used to walk to and fro and that was the morning shift (started at 7:00 and ended at noon). She did not want "people" to think that she was too cheap so her child MUST ride... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70392-silly.gif[/img] ...Did I say that was in the country? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Just about every child have a cellphone, TV in HIS/HER room [img]/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] and very few do without...even the unnecessary items.

People looked at me like I was losing it, because I insisted on eating the fruits from the trees in the yard, because "BOX DRINKS RULE".

There is supply because there is demand, and without money, regardless of the economy or current rate of the currency, there would be supplies.

I still believe that family members and frequently visiting tourists [aka friends of Jamaica[ns] from Canada, America, England and otherwise have driven their Jamaicans relatives/friends [in JA} to a level of greed and dependence that surpasses anything I've ever witnessed. That is the biggest issue that need to be tackled to help to save our dying breed...at the moment... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70361-embarassed.gif[/img]

[conscience]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

Why is Jamaica importing so much foreign goods, even goods from Trinidad and Barbados get play before the jamaican manufactured products. Them stop using them own people's produce and buy from people whey think sey them a di worst thing in the world?

50-60 yrs ago Jamaicans had more interest in develpoing family. They focused their resources on their children.
Today, money a flow but it a flow outside of the country from your hands into the man cross the water whey him Island no bigger than Clarendon, and him no particularly like you.

To get back to a better Jamaica, the economy must get better.

How do you do that if you don't manufacture/produce anything. All you do is buy outside goods, are you kidding me. Jamaica, caan mek cornflakes? Theor are a lot of products that can be manufactured in Jamaica by Jamaican labor and marketed to Jamaican consumers.

The consumers must return to natioanl loyalty (Jamaica brand) to at least recover. Close down your markets like everyone else. If I cannot flood your market then there is no reason why you should be able to flood mines (f the bribe on the side). [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70402-thinking.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70402-thinking.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70402-thinking.gif[/img]

[conscience]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

Fine if you manufacture and buy it from a Jamaican company.

Jamaican Consumerism needs a change of operation. The focus, for the sake of the future, must be maintaining Jamaican owned businesses.

They are trying to find oil in Jamaica, and you see how fast Trinidad is in there, trying to buy everything.

Run cement company (Jamaican Cement company) and refuse to put dates on the bags so the government have a difficult time in recalling bad cement.

Wake up jamaica.

[conscience]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

Fashion is not upward mobility, it might be a little reflection of the movement but in no way is it absolute that if you dress good you are moving upwardly.

Upward mobility is basically defined by status-education, income, employed, etc.

People get it wrong and think sey just because they have a few foreign good coming to them they are moving up the ladder, NO! Sorry.

Go to school, get your education, get a job or start your own business, make a honest living, have a family and you can consider yourself upwardly moving. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70409-waytogo.gif[/img]

[conscience]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

She is displaying FALSE PRIDE, knowing she could use that money for something else. Trying to be the Jones. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img]

[Suesumba]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

i'm even gonna pretend i know anything about jamaican economics. but i finally got around to getting that "life and debt" documentary. seems to me that the recurring themesfrom the people is how they could afford to send their children to school times past on the strength of banana alone. it can't be done now. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[j-kid]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

[ QUOTE ]
..TVs..refrigerators were out of reach. Now these things are the basics for most Jamaican households.

[/ QUOTE ]

TV? What TV?.. Mi use tuh stand up pan barbed wire fence ah road side an peep throuth mi neighbour's window fi get ah glippse ah wha ah gwaan pan dem TV. Radio, di cinema, books, and telling stories was fi mi entertainment growing up.

Wi was soh poo, some days, di mouse haffi ask if wi waa him fi drag food inna di house fi wi fi nyam? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img]

[Suesumba]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

[ QUOTE ]
TV? What TV?.. Mi use tuh stand up pan barbed wire fence ah road side an peep throuth mi neighbour's window fi get ah glippse ah wha ah gwaan pan dem TV. Radio, di cinema, books, and telling stories was fi mi entertainment growing up.

Wi was soh poo, some days, di mouse haffi ask if wi waa him fi drag food inna di house fi wi fi nyam? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

mi noh really define dat as poverty doah enoh. caz mi sure teh quality of your relationships ran deeper [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70409-waytogo.gif[/img]

[jah_yout]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

[ QUOTE ]
Fashion is not upward mobility, it might be a little reflection of the movement but in no way is it absolute that if you dress good you are moving upwardly.

Upward mobility is basically defined by status-education, income, employed, etc.

People get it wrong and think sey just because they have a few foreign good coming to them they are moving up the ladder, NO! Sorry.

Go to school, get your education, get a job or start your own business, make a honest living, have a family and you can consider yourself upwardly moving. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70409-waytogo.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]


the words 'upward mobility' only means 'moving up'...that can be applied to anything...try to tell the youth who only has two pairs of tear-up-bottom pants that getting three new pairs of sean johns is not 'upward mobility';
even so i agree with you...i was simply stating that the values have somewhat changed so that now 'modeling' is more important to many as opposed to concrete gains in standard of living. just go to yard right now and see how many people have cell phones, computers, sattelite tv, fly clothes and crisp rides with rims & tints…this creates the illusion of prosperity, but it's just that- an illusion; there is still way too much poverty & the government for whatever reason will not address the issues in an honest way

[Hopyoneson]

Re: Jamaican Standard of Living..then and now

In line with Jah youth latest post I thought this article was very relevant to our discusion.

Illusions of prosperity
published: Thursday | April 20, 2006


Melville Cooke

SOMEWHERE IN Jamaica there is a factory that is not listed on the stock exchange, which the Registrar of Companies knows nothing about, which has no known source of its share capital, which has no website, email address, telephone or fax number.

Its product is highly visible, though, rising high above the road, bearing its occupants high in the rarefied air of permanent air-conditioning.

You see, somewhere in Jamaica, land of people always searching for new ways to declare that they are 'smaddy', there is a factory which manufactures SUVs. (It makes BMWs and Benzes too, but only on Sundays). It is a flexible company, which does not discriminate among Suzukis, Toyotas, Mitsubishis and Hondas, tossing in the odd Range Rover and Lincoln Navigator for good measure.

I know this factory must exist, because there is no other way that a country with a per capita income that is way shy of a double burger (with cheese) per day could have so many SUVs just rolling along.

(And by the way, beside that SUV factory is an oil refinery. And beside the oil refinery is an oil well, because there is no other way that we could afford the fuel to run these gas guzzlers).

OTHER FACTORIES

They are not the only hidden factories in the country, which drive our conspicuous consumption when all economic indicators would suggest that we cannot afford much. There is the mysterious Motorola Razr factory, which makes the slim phones just so that people can walk around in the night with a glowing 'M' pressed to their ear. There is the block-and-steel-and-cement factory, which makes all the construction, especially of some 'rahtid' mansions, not only possible but downright easy; there is the accessories factory which turns out false fingernails and hair; then there is my favourite, the '****soo' factory, which produces fuzzy dogs to order to go with the SUVs and the fingernails.

We live with an illusion of prosperity in Jamaica which presents a false sense of what is possible to especially our young people. I am not in the 'know', but I know enough to realise that much of this illusion is created by the two 'ds' which almost rhyme, death and debt. I know enough about some of the construction, some of the hotels and supermarkets that appear where there was once bushy land, the houses which go up in three months, the apartments that replace single family dwellings in communities with large land spaces, to associate them with deaths from drugs.

I know of sufficient people living on the orange light of a near empty fuel tank and a payment away from homelessness, yet presenting a cheerful face to the world, to know that near unmanageable debt is a chronic illness in this country.

I often wonder just how much of this illusion results in the large number of 'owner migrating' adverts in the classifieds, as well as the tremendous brain drain which sees three-quarter of university graduates heading towards greener pastures on the other side of the visa line. Of course I know that things are tough in Jamaica, very tough, but it is much more manageable if the reality of it being tough for most is reflected in the daily theatre of our lives, instead of the 'blinging' without real substance or industry which occurs at all levels of our society.

The illusion of prosperity, especially the debt-driven one, is shattered as people get older, but we hardly see the people who cannot afford medical care for the wear and tear of their busier years. As for the death-driven illusions, those are shattered daily and are often summed up in a single, often repeated line: "The police have established no motive for the murder."