Phyllis Thomas, News Editor
LAST WEEK I made reference to one set of Jamaican housewives the poor ones who cannot pay their bills - who have angered their creditors.
There is another set - equally poor - but who are experts at budgeting. They are in the majority. They are able to stretch, cut and carve out a living for their families. They will not get the luxury items; no bling bling brand name clothes and shoes. There is no extravagant spending simply because the housewives cannot afford it. Their meals are basic. Their existence basic.
Christmas is coming and the children are looking for something extra. So the chicken back and rice will probably give way to rice and peas and the whole chicken. The housewives continue to stretch, cut and carve their dollar because they cannot afford it. But they have a dream that things will be better tomorrow. In the meantime they pay the rent man. The children go to school and they are clothed and fed.
They have set an example for the children not only in money management but also in values and attitudes attaching great importance to the things that seem insignificant to others.
Professor Rex Nettleford once told a group of students at a CARIMAC lecture: "You can't have your cake and count calories." That's the advice I am passing on to the Government of Jamaica. You can't continue to spend heavily and to squander the public purse and expect to be able to settle your debts. That's impossible. If you continue to do today the same things that you did yesterday, you will get the same results.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DECLINE
When I think of all the waste in Government, for example, paying out millions of dollars to contractors for work that was not even completed "it grieve me to my big toe". Like the rest of the country I am appalled because I know that the kind of social and economic decline we are witnessing in the country didn't have to reach this stage. This country is suffering because of a bunch of losers incompetence personified yet in charge of the public purse.
Carl Ross, senior managing director of Bear Sterns, in an article in Friday's Financial Gleaner looks at the orthodox and the unorthodox approaches to reducing the debt burden and the one embraced by Jamaica. The orthodox approach, he said, seeks to lower the debt-to-GDP ratio over time through the generation of fiscal surpluses and the fostering of conditions for economic growth while the unorthodox approach is based on debt restructuring. Jamaica is onto the orthodox approach but so did Argentina and we all know the kind of economic fall-out that took place there in 2001. Yet, as Mr. Sterns points out, restructuring of the domestic debt could result in most financial institutions in the country going bankrupt.
BOTTOM LINE
Jamaica's position here amounts to one of Hobson's Choice no choice at all. But call me a son of a... or whatever. There is not one drop of sympathy within me for those who have landed us headways in this mess.
To quote Mr. Stearns further: The "bottom line is that we cannot answer how and when Jamaica will emerge from its debt problem. However, we can say that there are enormous costs to both the orthodox and unorthodox approaches."
This means that we can expect, indefinitely, the hand to mouth existence to continue and for teachers, firemen and other public sector workers to wonder each month end if they will get their salaries, indeed, if schools can remain open. Suppliers who provided goods and service on credit to the Government will continue to wonder if they will ever get paid.
When we have to scrape and count each penny before deciding if we can really afford to finance school fees for a mere 44,000 students, then we have sunk to new levels. When we have reached the stage where as many as 80 upgraded schools with a population of 120,000 students face closure because of the Government's failure to provide them with the necessary resources, we have gone to the dogs.
The Government consistently makes it difficult for the housewives to run their households and feed their families and consistently the housewives find a way to survive. How is it that they are able to do it? Maybe the Government should call up a bunch of them for advice. Better yet. The Government should establish an official team of housewives to be known as the Housewives on Money Manage-ment and Equity (HOME) Consultative Committee.
You can't pay them but I guarantee you they'll do it for free.
Comments? email me at:phyllis.thomas@gleanerjm.com
