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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."
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great article [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70409-waytogo.gif[/img]
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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.
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i juss see dis post an i have to say dat lass nite i reached for the second book in the collection of Morris Cargill's editorials ..dis one covers 1986-1996 and believe me reading dem was like reading weh a gwane today a yaad...he wrote one on October 27 1987 titled the 'debt crisis' dat is juss like weh u a read as headline today...fi real
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Portia could not have even worked in a bank or a hotel let alone be PM in the "good old days".
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and funny enuff she still can't today, because at the level at which one of her abilities would like to work, dem still shut since banks and hotels r still foreign owned and staffed at the upper tiers....
so again, as Morris's columns show, nutten has changed in Jamaica, where it matters, since the 1950s to today, 2006
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and funny enuff she still can't today, because at the level at which one of her abilities would like to work, dem still shut since banks and hotels r still foreign owned and staffed at the upper tiers....
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i think that is a bit of a misrepresentation...
When its hot in the jungle of peace I go swimming in the ocean of love.....
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and funny enuff she still can't today, because at the level at which one of her abilities would like to work, dem still shut since banks and hotels r still foreign owned and staffed at the upper tiers....
so again, as Morris's columns show, nutten has changed in Jamaica, where it matters, since the 1950s to today, 2006
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[img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] wheel and come again with this
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and funny enuff she still can't today, because at the level at which one of her abilities would like to work, dem still shut since banks and hotels r still foreign owned and staffed at the upper tiers....
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i think that is a bit of a misrepresentation...
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not really....a bit still mean dat dere is validity to di claim...no troo...
bak dem, fair skin deh pon di tella line while expatriates a run di bank
nowadays, dark skin deh pon di teller line and how many other comparable 'teller lines' [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70402-thinking.gif[/img] while expats stilllllll a run di entity....double [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70402-thinking.gif[/img]
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Portia could not have even worked in a bank or a hotel let alone be PM in the "good old days".
[/ QUOTE ]
and funny enuff she still can't today, because at the level at which one of her abilities would like to work, dem still shut since banks and hotels r still foreign owned and staffed at the upper tiers....
so again, as Morris's columns show, nutten has changed in Jamaica, where it matters, since the 1950s to today, 2006
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no she can only be prime minister of the country...that's so much lower than a bank or hotel worker [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70400-talktohand.gif[/img]
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Portia could not have even worked in a bank or a hotel let alone be PM in the "good old days".
[/ QUOTE ]
and funny enuff she still can't today, because at the level at which one of her abilities would like to work, dem still shut since banks and hotels r still foreign owned and staffed at the upper tiers....
so again, as Morris's columns show, nutten has changed in Jamaica, where it matters, since the 1950s to today, 2006
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no she can only be prime minister of the country...that's so much lower than a bank or hotel worker [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70400-talktohand.gif[/img]
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a literal interpretation of the above-stated afford u ur conclusions...nutting no wrong wid dat star....peter principle and all ....in this day of not plain speaking we write wat we write and allow the reader to glean wat they can....even sarcasm is noted....don't
while expats stilllllll a run di entity....double [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70402-thinking.gif[/img]
[/ QUOTE ] dat a di part mi nuh agree wid..
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explain please....we hear that the country's income is based overwhelmingly on wat....so follow di dollas to dem final destination ....
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drugs?
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I think she means tourism, but remitances from jamaican over seas have surpassed both tourism and bauxite to the countrys coffers...so the money trail lead to ....Jamaicans. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]
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