Most Jamaicans are inarticulate.....

[Wahalla]

Twitter users rap Pickersgill

Thursday, November 27, 2014 73 Comments

Tweet

Environment Minister Robert Pickersgill
JAMAICANS on the social media network, Twitter, Tuesday night expressed outrage after People's National Party (PNP) chairman and Government Minister Robert Pickersgill dismissed users as an "articulate minority" and not ordinary Jamaicans.
Pickersgill made the statement immediately following an Opposition walk-out of Parliament Tuesday, after Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller failed to answer questions tabled by Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Andrew Holness on the ongoing Outameni controversy.
Pickersgill, when told in a TV interview that there has been an outcry about the issue on social media and in particular Twitter, questioned the relevance.
"No ordinary Jamaican not speaking about it...Twitter? Twitter is ordinary Jamaican? Ordinary Jamaicans know anything about Twitter?" Pickersgill said, adding that Jamaicans on Twitter are an "articulate minority" and the outcry was "politically motivated".
The impression was left that persons on Twitter who express their displeasure regarding the Outameni matter were irrelevant.
Disgruntled Jamaicans in a backlash criticised the minister for his comment, one arguing that he would "see how important Twitter is in the next general election".
"Mr Pickersgill, understand that tweets count! 140 characters worth of influence!" said another.
"Sometimes all Jamaicans need is an #ArticulateMinority to hold leaders accountable," said one user.
-- Kimone Francis

[Peasie]

I saw this on TVJ last week. My mother who knows nothing of Twitter, etc. said Pickersgill needs to "give it up now, it's time for him to go home, sit in a rocking chair and ponder life." She then added, "im ole like dirt."

[Reggae plus]

Most people...PERIOD...are inarticulate. Most meaning anywhere from 50.01% on up.

[Wahalla]

Most people...PERIOD...are inarticulate. Most meaning anywhere from 50.01% on up.

Good to see you... I need your in put on something to do with rural social development in Jamaica... Seriously...I need to bounce an idea off you and your experience in semi isolated communities in Jamaica could be useful...won't cost any thing... Just a contact email.....

[Reggae plus]

There isn't one in my profile? Hmmm. At any rate... I'm a reggaeplus at yahoo dot see eh. [if you know what I'm sayin' ]

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I can't even access my own profile. Odd???

[Xavier]

Most people...PERIOD...are inarticulate. Most meaning anywhere from 50.01% on up.

LOL...true...articulating on twitter is an oxymoron..lol

[Wahalla]

Here is a Stalwart being critical


Articulating three PNP ironies


Michael BURKE
Thursday, December 04, 2014 20 Comments

PICKERSGILL... spoke about the “articulate minority”
THIS past Monday, December 1, was the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Jamaican academic legend Monsignor Gladstone Orlando Stanislaus Wilson. December 1 was also the day of the by-election in Central Westmoreland which encompasses the parish capital, Savanna-la-Mar. Congratulations are due to Dwayne Vaz on his victory. In researching the life of the articulate Monsignor Wilson, I had to travel to Savanna-la-Mar to speak to the much younger sister of Monsignor Wilson, the now elderly Mrs Lily Anderson. The last time I checked, she was the organist for St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Savanna-la-Mar.
One of several definitions of the word 'articulate' is to "express oneself in clear and effective language". Articulation can be in any language or dialect, as long as it is clearly understood by listeners or readers. In his day, Monsignor Gladstone Wilson was at the forefront of the 'articulate minority'. This term has come into vogue in Jamaica since it was used sometime in November by the energy and climate change minister Robert Pickersgill.
It was the late Wilmot Perkins who said that in the days before the establishment of the University of the West Indies, all intellectual activity in Jamaica revolved around Drumblair, the residence of national hero Norman Manley. After the establishment of the People's National Party, Norman Manley made a non-verbal distinction between his political associates and his friends. And his friends were mostly articulate intellectuals, including Noel Nethersole, who was both friend and political associate.
Among the elder Manley's intellectual and articulate friends was Monsignor Gladstone Wilson. Born in Mavis Bank in the Blue Mountains of St Andrew, this Roman Catholic priest was recognised in his day as the seventh most learned man in the world. Monsignor Wilson was a man who could articulate his faith in God.
Norman Manley intended that the PNP would campaign for election by discussing political issues. But after the PNP debacle in 1944, when they were defeated so badly by the Jamaica Labour Party, led by Alexander Bustamante, where even Norman Manley lost his seat, the PNP revised its modus operandi. Norman Manley did not stand a chance against Bustamante's powerful charisma.
When Norman Manley wrote many years later about the reasons for Bustamante's victories, he was not being a sore loser as opined by Martin Henry two Sundays ago in the Gleaner. He was humbly accepting the fact that Bustamante had a strong point that he did not have. So the PNP shifted to winning ways by being organised. They ensure that their supporters are on the voters' list and get their supporters out to vote on election day.
And this is the first of three PNP ironies that I mention today. The PNP was initially supposed to win elections by articulate persuasion, not by physical activity. Today, the PNP is the best organised party in Jamaica, which explains its success in the polls, including the result of the Central Westmoreland by-election where PNP candidate Dwayne Vaz won comfortably.
Norman Manley spearheaded all moves to make education free in Jamaica. As chief minister of Jamaica, he presided over the initiation of the Common Entrance scholarship in 1957. It was his wish that every Jamaican would have a rounded education and be articulate. Robert Pickersgill is a senior minister of a PNP government, who has on occasions acted as prime minister. He is current chairman of the same PNP of which Norman Manley was its first president and who helped to shape the ideology of the PNP.
Pickersgill spoke about the articulate minority, an offensive statement to the articulate minority because it was telling them that they do not count. And it was offensive to the inarticulate majority who form the impression that Pickersgill believes that inarticulate persons do not understand the issues. But what Robert Pickersgill said was also true, which is the second irony. There is in fact an articulate minority and consequently an inarticulate majority, despite the best efforts of Norman Manley and his son Michael.
Today, almost all Jamaican adults under the age of 35 have had some sort of high school education. But high school education has not made the entire populace articulate or even literate. The third irony is that this is happening while the PNP is in power and has held power for 30 of the 52 years of politically independent Jamaica.
We hear about the Roger Clarke factor in the Central Westmoreland by-election. We hear about the popularity of Dwayne Vaz in the Central Westmoreland constituency, which resulted in a lot of young people turning out to vote for him. I was disappointed that my Jamaica College schoolmate Michael 'Husky' Erskine did not get a chance to be MP and demonstrate his ability to be a real asset to Jamaica. But could 'Husky' bring out the youth vote better than Dwayne Vaz, which caused his victory margin?
Dwayne Vaz's victory shows that the constituents were not all that concerned about the purchase of Outameni or the expensive return trip of Yasin Abu Bakr to Trinidad or even the 'articulate minority' statement by Robert Pickersgill. If these matters were created as controversies just for the by-election campaign, it was all in vain. Too many believe that current affairs issues are paramount in voters' minds at election time, and then they cannot understand the election results when announced.
And too many refuse to learn because they have fooled themselves into believing that they know enough. Because of mental slavery, too many believe that if they did not know something before then, it is not so. It was the late Monsignor Gladstone Wilson who articulated that "all learning is the process by which the finite mind journeys towards the infinitude of realisation". In other words, the process by which the limited mind travels to unlimited realisation is defined as 'learning'.