We have been electing higglers all this time
I wonder if my leaders are really higglers dressed up in suits. I have to ask the question because the latest frenzy of sidewalk selling is ramping up now that the election is coming and there is great need for finance to do the “run wid it” politics.
They tried selling the Goat Islands to get the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP) going, but the Chinese really needed an outpost, not a logistics hub. So it is said they settled on giving the Chinese lands on the north coast along with the concession for building and operating a toll road highway for not 20, but 50 years.
They are selling the two national airports. They can’t operate them to make a profit, so they peddle them to make money. We had Air Jamaica, and they couldn’t run that, so they sold it for “a money”. They couldn’t run the cement company to make profit, so they sold that to make a money. They sold the right to drive around the country for free for decades, by selling concessions to build and operate toll roads because they couldn’t build them, so they sold it to whoever could build it.
Just about anything the Government touches turns to rust; and they can’t run anything to last, make a profit, or even break even, so they end up selling our natural resources. In fact, I am tired of watching them run for, or run with anything, because they have been absolute failures in every regard — coming last every time — and yet these politicians continue to make so much money.
Those who have had the benefit of being in the room (government) when the country was being sold have been beneficiaries of the “largesse”. Reminds you of kings and queens granting lands and titles in the 15th century? This has got to stop. I don’t want a Jamaica in which I will have to speak Chinese to get service at a store, or Spanish to visit a hotel, or a visa to come home. That seems where we’re headed.
We must ask of the Jamaican Government, what will be left of Jamaica for us the children of the slaves brought here in chains when everything is sold off. The bauxite done, the hotels are no longer full because the entire island is one big caustic soda dump that no one wants to see or smell. What will happen then, will the Government be selling us off to farms in foreign countries, or to be nurses, doctors and engineers and send home the money? We must ask the question if they got into politics as a career move to put on their resumes, or was it just for them to become billionaires. Was it that they wanted to be powerful? It seems so. None of them are demonstrating any kind of leadership that makes me feel that they are ones with us in this struggle. It appears that we are just optics for them, a means to get rich and powerful. They have assumed the mantle of the plantation owner and overseer in their ruthless desire to retain the new-found wealth and fame at any cost.
I think if our politicians were not higglers in their thinking they would have spent the billions of dollars borrowed from others and taken from our taxes, to enable the nation’s people to grow economically, politically and socially. Instead, they saw the opportunity for them in the political world to make fortunes. They must realise that no one in Jamaica wants a bloody revolution, or it would have happened already, Jamaicans keep finding a way to survive. But the people are tired of the struggle now, tired of just getting by, tired of the excuses for failed leadership, and the excuse for leadership. The politicians are just standing around watching us struggle, and exhorting us to make more bricks without straw, while they smile and laugh among their friends at their good fortune.
I wonder if it would not have been better to create partnerships to develop the resources of the country and concurrently ramp up the energy generation and food production. Instead, it seems that the Government has been dusting off and marshalling the plans put in place by the English during the colonial period for markets that have changed or are disappearing. The energy required for the development of industries was never looked at by the Government. Instead, they have relied on an electric generating and distribution system built in the 1950s along with a distribution system equally archaic. Looking at any major city in Jamaica, it is obvious that electric distribution system options have never been an object of innovation or creative policy; to a politician the cobweb of overhead electric, telecom and cable wires are a sign of progress. If we continue on this route, the streets, starting with the sidewalks that are easements granted to the electric and telephone companies, will be reserved and used only by the utility companies, removing the few inches we have now. The tangle of overhead wires is the result of a colonial design feature, and reflects the Government’s typical failure to manage the planning of any part of our environment.
Higglering, as an activity, can be a profitable outcome. All goods are fair game. The Jamaican Government has been operating as prime higglers, selling off even our professionals in hope of remittances. What a policy! The truth is, though, not all Jamaicans are higgler-minded, some have long-term vision of manufacturing.
One glaring example of the lack of vision by the Jamaican Government was the handling of the counterfeit “Clarks” making operation uncovered under the nose of the Central Police Station. The quality was that good that the counterfeiters were making products that were hard to tell from the originals. A creative solution would have been to call Clark’s of England and have them assess the quality of the shoes and value, and if they turned out to be of a quality that Clark’s could have endorsed, then an arrangement could have been made with Clark’s to license the operation in Jamaica, and steps made to compensate them for whatever infringement was made to the company. How cool would that be, if the Jamaican Clark’s could have made a dent in the niche market for these well-made shoes? No, all we can do is sell them. So the higglering continues.
In regards to the worry of mining in the Cockpit Country, what is to happen once the millions of tons of bauxite have been removed and sold to pay our debts? All that will be left are gaping holes in the ground, caustic mud lakes, and bauxite dust for the citizens who have the misfortune of having to live there. If the Cockpit remains natural as is, it can be the heart of a huge pharmacy and tourist industry, while still providing water for Jamaicans to drink for centuries, not the source of the next lump sum payment to the International Monetary Fund as we choke in bauxite dust.
We have been electing higglers all this time. We need honest, ethical, creative, competent and brave Jamaicans to run for office next year. Those who can and will deliver opportunities to Jamaicans and who can create and implement opportunities for the masses of the country to aid the development. We don’t need masters of illusion, promisers of growth, and blunderers. We need to protect our resources from hungry politicians who only care about their next election win. Most Jamaicans are expressing frustration about the failures of the politicians and their parties, especially now that we are being put into a position leading us back to being slaves to the new masters overseas. It’s time to remove the yoke of these people from off our necks. They are selling the things that have greatest value to us as if they are theirs to sell. Jamaica should not be sold on the sidewalks of false prosperity, while we the masses remain in rags, sleeping in slave barracks with nothing to show for 185 years of freedom or 54 years of Independence.
Hugh M Dunbar is an architect. Send comments to: hmdenergy@gmail.com.