Letter of the Day | Building a culture through a culture of building
Published:Friday | March 22, 2019 | 12:00 AM
The EDITOR, Sir:
Few things afford humans richer empowerment than living in a home called their own. I speak about the article The Gleaner carried on March 20, 2019, namely, ‘Time to build: PM unveils new NHT benefits’. The JLP administration, through the Building Cash Cow, the National Housing Trust (NHT), has dug a sturdy foundation to make dreams, formerly impossible to some, a reality. This, through an increase in the limit for loans by $1 million, a ceiling hoist for construction loans, and a move, among other things, to have interest rates nearer to ground level, thereby opening up doors of opportunities to the common man, as the Government solidifies a key commitment in building a culture via a culture of building.
This home-building roll-out, all would agree, when added to what can be called the most visible show of road construction any living in Jamaica can recall, creates a duality of purpose that is slowly but surely cementing a culture of building, one that must not only be preserved but encouraged.
A CULTURE OF TEARING DOWN
There is a splenetic and rather dyspeptic counterculture that has grown accustomed to tearing down good or calling the good bad. As many are cultured to feel that no news is good news, people seem to have a built-in resistance with claws out, ready to attack.
Commendation and constructive criticism, rare tools, go a far way in building values and attitudes, a type of social construction that can’t be measured in blocks of economic theories, but rather through the humanities, through up-building our fellow man, through kinder words and deeds and a tolerance for an opinion that may be founded on a learning principle, in a sea of principles, different to ours. We oftentimes miss a senior moment or opportunity to teach or edify another because of an unfeeling, rigid, wall-like approach, not built on basic human skills or content to let ideas contend.
Shortly, as early as May 1, house plans may be in gear and poised some time after to overlap roadworks.
This duo of house and road would work even better if the country, as far, and wholly, as possible, endeavour to demolish the culture of tearing down by seeing the good that these two goods offer to nation building. In so doing, not only do we aim to make Jamaica home to better roads, but, surely, make roads to better homes.
In building the spirit of commendation, and as we give good where good is given, let me be among the first to take the opportunity to formally say well done, Mr Prime Minister. Keep the work up and keep widening the building blocks across other areas of the nation’s social and economic terrain. These two works are solidly built upon the rock mass, and history can only render good for good for these deeds.
MATTHEW BAKER
Lecturer
University of Technology,
Jamaica