THE EDITOR, Sir:
I TAKE real serious issue with people who claim that they are talking for the poor but who don't have a clue what it means to be poor. I lived my entire life in the inner-city community of Cockburn Pen before I left Jamaica and we knew what it meant to be poor. In all that time we never participated in any demonstrations or roadblocks.
Instead, my parents pooled what slim resources they had so that we could go to school and we in turn made use of that opportunity so that we could improve our lives. I went to school without lunch money several times and on some nights all we had for dinner was bread and 'sugar and water', but we made do. I say all of this to emphasise the fact that poverty is no reason for people to break the law and there are ways to improve your circumstances without 'mashing up everything'.
Life in Jamaica has always been hard for the majority and that is not a new phenomenon, but through hard work and determination you can rise above it. It is not impossible, even today.
The problem is that we have given up in Jamaica. Nobody wants to work hard anymore. My parents taught me that if we didn't have something, then we went without and we were never to let on that we were without (grin and bear it). People now prefer to beg or wait on handouts rather than to work for what they call 'monkey money'.
A big part of the problem in Jamaica is, of course, the Government and their policies, but equally the people are also a major obstacle to themselves.
I am, etc.,
RICARDO SMALLING
rsmalling@sympatico.ca
Barbados
Via Go-Jamaica
