Gloudon bemoans dependency on remittances, handouts
VETERAN journalist and talk show host, Barbara Gloudon, Tuesday night chided Jamaicans for their dependency on remittances, handouts from overseas, and visas to enter first-world countries.
“We need to turn to our own ingenuity rather than wait for handouts from other people,” Gloudon said in an address to the Dr Lloyd Cole Foundation scholarship awards at the Medallion Hall Hotel in Kingston.
“The world is changing, so we have to find ways to rely on ourselves,” she said. “Stop spending your life waiting on a visa for the United States and the United Kingdom and build for ourselves,” Gloudon added.
She criticised the tendency of parents to depend on the Government to raise their children, and challenged them to refrain from hiding behind the cloak of poverty.
“We need to stop the finger-pointing, stop the complaining and stop the whining,” Gloudon said. “Mothers and fathers must bring up children. Tell them about reality and the journey you have made. Let them also know that this country is poor but we have people who are proud, and let them know that their future is not necessarily in somebody else’s country.”
Gloudon’s audience was made up of students, their parents and teachers who work with the foundation, which was born out of a need to assist poor, promising pupils at the critical transitional period from primary to secondary school.
Each student is given a $15,000 grant to help enhance their educational future.
Fourteen students from seven schools in the Corporate Area and rural Jamaica were awarded plaques at Tuesday’s function, in acknowledgment of their outstanding performances in academic and extra-curricular activities.
The foundation, which was established on April 28, 1994, has presented more than 150 scholarlarships to schools. Dr Lloyd Cole, a Jamaican physician and surgeon registrar in neonatology, spent his earlier years in London and is active in community service. He personally funds the scholarships.
Gloudon, in her keynote address, ecouraged the students to continue to learn and reminded them that the awards were not hand-outs.
“Treat this opportunity as if you’re in a partner and this is your first draw,” she said. “Throw the next hand, and when you draw, draw for education. Use this chance you have been given …be ‘smaddy’.”
She made an appeal to the boys, in particular, to pay attention to their work and urged their fathers to support and nurture them.
“Boys are not doing well,” she lamented. “Look for a role model, a minister; an uncle-somebody,” she advised. “Boys need fathers to grow… You need somebody to teach you to be a man.”
The function was also used to recognise Professor Rex Nettleford, vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, for his dedication, achievements and services, especially in the fields of education, culture and the humanities, to the people of Jamaica and the Caribbean.
He was not present to collect the plaque. However, Gloudon graciously accepted it on his behalf.
The British high commisioner, Peter Mathers, and deputy chief of staff of the American Embassy, Richard Smythe, addressed the audience as well.