A RANT!

I don’t think we understand how terrible poor people have it in this country...

There should be a whole manifesto on just that...

It is estimated that over 55% of the working class earn minimum wage or a bit above and of that amount 80% is spent on food...

Yet we have politicians struggling to increase the minimum wage because big businesses want to continue to exploit ppl in there sweat shops...

60% of our urban population live in the ghetto (slum is too fancy) and NHT a collect me money monthly and don’t have much to show!!!!!!

That is one glorious disappointment by itself.

I notice that we normalize seeing kids working in markets, at stoplights, selling door to door and ppl are “oh my look at those entrepreneurs” during school hours and at nights before school.

Sigh

Have we forgotten that’s a crime ?

Most times we allow it to stay that way - why - where are the state of the art care facilities for kids in this country, how are they managing during COVID ?

Yet we have motorcades daily with catchy jingles with chants of recovery and building

68 of every 100k of children are victims of violent crimes...

80% of kids in Jamaica exp. some form of psychological or physical violence administered as discipline...

65% are bullied at school and 79% witness violence in their community or at home...

Source: CAPRI

According to data from the Child Protection and Family Services Agency, there were 2,623 cases of sexual abuse against children in 2019 an increase of 276 over 2018 when 2,347 cases were reported

Since COVID and ppl staying home more with kids - we can make some sad assumptions

Yet no provisions are made, kids being at home now have less ppl to notice their abuse and less people to tell it to - what has been the plan on that and in which manifesto can I find that as a priority ?

Yet we say it’s down as if we don’t know why http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20200628/sharp-increase-minors-under-10-being-raped-may-pen-smo-sounds-alarm-over

I will touch briefly on the access to education - me mind all over the place...

Idk if is me alone notice that school starting back for a lot of the prep schools and still no solid plan yet for primary schools - it’s SEPTEMBER 2nd.

Where is the minister ?

This goes right back to the inequality in high schools - those kids will be better prepared to matriculating further into traditional high schools who btw have a solid of how they restarting too ...

Who is disadvantaged the most in this scenario - poor people - yes - them again

You see the middle class, even though they might send their kids to primary schools - them buy all the books, can help them most times in the evening and here comes the jackpot ...

They can afford extra lessons!

We have to look at class sizes, teaching aids, play time (yes kids need it) and social distancing in this back to school period but instead we allow politicians to place the focus on elections.

Who is managing all of this ? MOE alone and where is the info ?

I note in the PNP manifesto that they offered a grant for teachers working at home - I think it was a 100k and I saw so many laughter on here - I was shocked ...

We know how much we paying teachers so idk why we assume they have the tools at home to can teach from home ...

It’s not the political point that resonates for me as much as how we have been focusing on the wrong things.

Reducing poverty is the solution to everything and having plans that solidly attacks this is what we need with measurable, actionable KPIs.

Let me continue to rant

The small man when him want to start a business don’t have access to funding that the big man has ...

ESP the micro sector!

They borrow at interest rates, usually between 3% to 6% MONTHLY.

The MicroCredit Act has been on the table for sometime but is yet to be finalized...

Yes yes the grants are good in the manifestos but when are we going to regulate - leaving the sector unregulated only helps the players and more than 1/2 of our economy is informal - so why hasn’t this been given much attention ?

But let me tell you something ...

Those persons in the micro sector are resilient people, to borrow at those rates mean churning a high profit or risk operating in a revolving debt scheme ... as you pay it off, you take another one...

Majority of these entrepreneurs are women who head households ...

and again in some instances can’t effectively balance the roles of having to do both nurturing and providing.

Saw some good things in the PNP manifesto and also JLP but the latter focused too much on SMEs when Micro was growing.

Start with regulation - it will trickle down!

My last point as this is taking away from my schedule mandatory daily mother calls - sigh.

Before we knock somethings, we need to investigate and research; accountability is lacking in our country and that is why corruption thrives.

Stop taking things as face value as often

times they aren’t what they seem - low unemployment with low GDP and an almost planned inflation doesn’t usually go hand in hand with high crime rates.

Social issues and addressing the vulnerable needs to become the central topics of our conversations.

Therein the solution.