Marleise McBean-Graham | Time for Jamaicans to participate in economic recovery

Jamaica has come a long way, we have had successes in many arenas, take sports, for example, but economic stability eludes us. Our little country is well known all across the world, for our talents in many fields. However, we have been struggling for a long time; it is time to pick up the mantle of the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey who said, “up you mighty race”.

The get-rich-quick mentality has consumed many of our citizens, to the extent that some goods and services are excessively overpriced. Look at our taxi and bus services, when they get an increase from the government they add an additional amount. Also, if you are out late evening or night, depending on your journey and the time of evening or night, you may be asked to pay double the fare. If you talk to the person on the street the common thread is that “the government nah do nutten fi help poor people”. Yet some of these same persons are unwilling to work to improve their circumstances. They are willing to live off handouts or by begging.

Who is the government? Is it our elected officials? No, we are the government. We use our votes to put a political party in place to organise the affairs of the country. We have allowed our voices to be drowned by our elected officials. Throughout the years we have seen several incidences of corruption in both major political parties, but we have all sat silent and allowed these happenings to continue.

But we have a voice, where are the learned people among us? Paul Bogle, Sam Sharpe, Nanny, and Sir William Gordon fought for freedom from slavery, how did they achieve what they had envisioned? A free Jamaica? Did they just sit around?

We are surrounded with criminals, who though in the minority cause us to be fearful and blight our tourism success on the world stage. We are the government; we need to let our voices be heard. We want the criminals to be subdued. We applaud the actions of the police who have been having some success in apprehending the criminals, but we need to get to the root of the problem. We need discipline in our society, fathers and mothers need to be held responsible for providing for and supervising their children, so that they will become productive citizens.

We want the mentally ill off the streets and assisted to be rehabilitated. There has been an increase in rape cases, according to the media. We want our children to be safe and not to be preyed on by rapists and murderers. We want economic stability so that our dollars can have better purchasing power. We want promises by politicians to be honoured, to pull down the garrisons and transform the ghettos into viable communities. We want transparency from our elected officials. We want Jamaicans abroad to feel comfortable to come home.

We want our people to be paid proper wages so that they will not be inclined to steal. Yes, we need investors, but we cannot allow our citizens to be underpaid so that foreign companies can make billions which go out of the country and do not benefit us in in the long run.

We want clean roads and communities, and equal opportunities for our children in the public schools. Jamaicans are heavily taxed, more than a quarter of our salaries go back to the government. Taxpaying is also an inequality. Government employees bear the brunt of the taxpaying which is used to provide amenities for the country; this needs to be addressed.

MAXIMISE ON OUR SUCCESS

How are we helping our young people? Young people say, “Jamaica hard”. Parents complain that by the time the children get to high school they are burnt out. They have school, extra lessons and lessons on weekends. When do they get to play? Some university students are failing courses over and over again,. What is happening to our children?

We have seen the brain drain of our young professionals. Many do not want to leave but they do not want to be struggling as they have seen their parents do. What can we do about the windshield wipers, the young people who beg on the streets? What are the social services that are offered? Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) does not cater for all.

It is time for the people of Jamaica both locally and overseas to own Jamaica and participate in its economic recovery. It is time for us to educate all of our populace so that they can become productive citizens. It is time for us to give up the criminals hiding in our communities, so that we can be free to navigate our streets. We must stop throwing garbage in gullies which can cause flooding of our roadways and pollution of our beaches and seas. It is time for us to protect our innocent children who are being killed. It is time for us to teach our children to work hard to achieve instead of begging and stealing. It is time for our elected officials to stop bribing to gain the popular votes, and to gain on the merit of performance. It is time to build factories to process the rich yielding from our soil to sell and earn foreign exchange. It is time for us as individuals to give of our time, energy, and resources to help in building our country. In the words of President Abraham Lincoln, “government is of the people, by the people and for the people”. This is our democracy, built on the back of slavery. Let us not sit on the sidelines and criticise. Let us help so that we can maximise on our success in all areas of our society.

It is time to reclaim our rich cultural heritage. Let us emancipate ourselves from mental slavery and liberate our country, so that we can achieve economic prosperity.

Marleise McBean-Graham is an assistant lecturer at The University of the West Indies School of Nursing. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.