Jamaica the Welfare and Entitlement State
- Independence and Freedom means absolutely nothing without a strong sense Responsibility and Discipline.
- Equality, Social-Justice, Self-Reliance and Discipline are wonderful principles to live by and we should try to instill these principles back into our society.
In Jamaica a Garrison is the collective term for a body of diehard partisan voters stationed in a particular poverty stricken ghetto location, created to secure votes for a particular political party and used as a home base for criminal activities and nightly Dancehall Merriment.
The residences of the Jamaican Garrison are afforded certain rights and liberty by the political class that is not given to regular citizens living outside of the garrison community. The Ghetto Garrison is a self-Governing entity whose leaders are appointed by the executive members of the political class. Most people living in the Ghetto Garrison pay no taxes and enjoy various utilities for free, as payment for votes rendered and for turning a blind eye to violence and crime.
The Jamaican Garrison Community was created by the political class, over the years they have meticulously engineered and transformed certain low income, working class communities with decent hard working people by injecting violent drug gangs used to set up and maintain puppet regimes with the primary purpose of ensuring that the people within the Political constituency vote as one, in a block.
Force is not the only way of maintaining a Garrison, it is required from time to time to make sure the people remember just who is in charge, coupled with force is free handout, give a hungry, poverty stricken man a dry crackers and he will love you for life, as the years progress the mindset of the people change as they become more accepting of Ghetto Garrison lifestyle, at which point the hard work of transforming hearts and minds is over, the Ghetto Garrison is now a self-sustaining, living entity free to evolve into what it is today. These days most of the inhabitants of Ghetto Garrison were born into that system, it is all they know and want to know, the people have adapted to life in the Ghetto.
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| Clovis Toon |
When most of us think of the ghetto we think of rundown shanty town community, somewhere disgusting, violent and nasty, a place where everyone is trying to escape from, trying to claw their way out but cannot, trapped like prisoners in a penal colony, unable to break free, destined to live a life of suffering and crime.
The ghetto might be all these things but is everyone really trying to escape it? Could it be that for a large amount of its inhabitants the ghetto offers a type of life, liberty, freedom and lifestyle that can exist nowhere else? This makes living in the Ghetto worthwhile and the negatives a small price to pay.
Life outside of the ghetto is very structured and organized, almost regimental, executed with a sense of purpose where one is not free to do what one wants to do. Life outside of the Ghetto follows a strict code of conduct that sees us sacrificing certain amount of liberty and freedom. It is truly a rat race where everyone tries to play the game in order to stay one foot out of the dreaded ghetto and want to achieve the Jamaican uptown dream, big house on the hill, a big car and maybe a browning or two. Most of the anxiety about the ghetto comes from people living outside of the ghetto, since to them it is a scary black box, a place dark and disgusting with guns barking nightly, people running from here to there, kids crying and the streets filled with dead bodies.
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| I saw this printed on the T-Shirt of a Hood Rat and wondered why the Glorification of Criminality |
If the Ghetto is such a dark disgusting, hellish place then why would anybody live there, anywhere would be better than that place. A nice quiet rural community, where one could plant some food and live a nice quiet life would certainly be more appealing than the dreaded ghetto. But I have been told that Ghettos Life Nice. A life without structure, I was told that very little rat race exist in the ghetto and it is all about ones comfort level. Lots of people in the ghetto get to live for free. Lots of people in the ghetto have electricity and water they never have to pay for and free health care at the expense of the state. I have been told that the vibes in the ghetto does not exist anywhere else.
Della - Ghetto Life Nice (2012)
I am by no means saying that there are not people in the ghetto struggling and trying to get out, what I am saying is that it is becoming very hard to identify these people, to separate them from the spongers and blood suckers of our society. A lot of people in our society pay lip service to Poverty, using poverty as a means to an end. Our political class pays lip service to poverty all the time, it is their favorite pastime. Paying lip service to poverty and the poor can win you votes because it makes members of the political class look like they are defenders of the poor and downtrodden. The so called Poor and Downtrodden also use poverty to get what they want and live how they want as these days crying poverty is now the “Great Excuse”.
The Political Class have converted Jamaica into a welfare state since the most important thing to the political class is votes, it is the source of their wealth and power and the poor and downtrodden are willing to give their votes in exchange for various handouts and the freedom and liberty to be Irresponsible and Indiscipline. Any attempt to hold the so called poor and downtrodden accountable is met with fierce resistance from both the poor and certain sections of the political class as each use the “Great Excuse”, we/they are too Poor and Downtrodden to be held accountable and Government should turn a blind eye to their actions and let off tax payers’ money to support their lifestyle. The poor and downtrodden of Ghetto Garrisons have created a vast network of illegal electricity connections and water pipes hook ups, on free capture land on which they squat and any attempt to hold them accountable is attacked with cries of, “leave the poor people alone… you too wicked”.
A person once wrote to the Gleaner outlined his experience trying to hire some young people to help him reap his crops from his farm. He said it was time to reap his crop but it was way too much work for both his wife and himself and as they are getting on in age he needed help. On driving out of his property he spotted some of the local young people standing idle on the street corner, he stopped and asked if they wanted the Job to help them to pick his produce. But the response he got back shocked him… “After wi nuh farma” one said … another said “a slave wok dat”... he tried to reason with the young people but to no avail so he decided to leave them to stew in their own ignorance, just before he could drive off one young man shouted … “Boss yu can let off a money, fi buy a food”…. Work no, Begging yes…
Not too long ago a group of illegal squatters was evicted after many years of being given eviction notices, one of the Poor and Downtrodden evicted woman had 8 children and pregnant with her ninth and no father in sight, all born on the captured, squatted land and I am shocked to read people asking for the Government to locate land to “Give” to these Poor and Downtrodden squatters, one person said they should find land in parishes like St. Ann to “Give” these poor people, free of change, not even asking for a smalls, out of principle? .…and I said, a how dem so lucky?
In Portland a group of squatters was evicted from Railroad land and the Government instructed the Social Development Commission to identify new land for the squatters. These people are just given free stuff at tax payers’ expense. Can I contact the Social Development Commission to find me a nice piece of land in Portland, near the beach, free of charge? …and I said, a how dem so lucky?
The Pedro Cays is a small island off the coast of Jamaica captured by 400 to 500 people as some fish the waters around cays, of which about 150 are “women”. I have been told the place have a make shift bar and a Go-Go club, in one interview a man described the place as being filled with prostitutes and nightly merriment. These people are just the nastiest most disgusting set of people I have ever seen, they have converted a once beautiful island into a shanty town, filled with shacks as they live and eat amongst their own waste and filth, they pay no taxes, most are not licensed fishermen but demand that the Government spend tax payers money to improve their living conditions. Among the health and environment issues at the Pedro Cays are the absence of running water, a lack of toilet facilities (as they defecate in plastics bags and in bushes) and a rapidly increasing garbage dump but they have bars, Go-Go club, whores and nightly merriment. …and I said, a how dem so lucky?
I read that during a conversation between the Jamaica Environment Trust and the representatives of the squatters, the trust outline some possible solution which involves some new rules and regulations as to how Pedro cays should be used. The poor and downtrodden hates rules and regulation, they do not like it and are not afraid to tell anyone who dare to impose or propose Rules and Regulation where they can stick it. They asked for attention but did not like the attention they were getting since it meant a change of lifestyle, so some took to the air waves to assure the General Public that it was a lie, all is well, they no longer want the spot light turn on them.
TVJ Peter Espeut - Environmentalist and Shernett Linton - Shopkeeper at Pedro Cays
It was reported the other day that the Government is to use tax payer’s money to build bathroom facilities for the residents of Tivoli Gardens. WTF!! When is it the Governments duty to build bathrooms and if it is the Governments Job, how then can I get them to make an addition to my house, free of charge, at tax payers’ expense? The residence of Tivoli gardens can keep a dance almost every night, carry on with the most almshouse and slackness but cannot build their own Shit House?
There are people in and out of the ghetto who sells ghetto sympathy and guilt which is used by the people in the ghetto to get what they want and live how they want to live...
- They are poor so it is OK for them to keep a dance 7 nights a week… “Tun-It-Up-Till-It-Buck-And-Stuck”.
- They are poor so it is OK for them to capture and squat on land they do not own.
- They are poor so they should not have to pay for electricity, Water or pay taxes.
- They are poor so the government should finance their existence with tax payer’s money.
It is not only we who are being used, ghetto people are also being used by the political class, these people are told that so long as they vote for a particular party, run behind the Political representative and carry on like low class idiots, that when that party comes to power they will be allowed to live at the expense of the tax payer and however they want.....
However it gets very hard to motivate people when they see such large unequal distribution of resources and income inequality. Political corruption is demoralizing to any society; it is like being stabbed in the back. Here we are busting our chops trying to contribute to the greater good, following the Rules and Regulations of our society that was put in place by the political class, while the very same political class like pigs at the trough gorge themselves at the public’s expense, consuming the public’s resources for their own selfish, greedy needs. It is part of the reason we are in the mess we are in today because rat “nyam” (eat) out the conscience of our Political leaders.
I understand that a lot of these people are poor but giving them free stuff without demanding any sort of accountability is doing more harm than good. We do not give squatters free land, we rent/lease or sell them land, they must provide monthly payment, if even $100 but they must learn to be responsible. We do not give fisherman free access to Pedro Cays and the freedom to build what they want and live how they want. The Government should build standardized huts, for a certain number of people on the island and rent/lease these huts to licensed, tax paying Fishermen only, with regular patrols carried out to make sure people who belong on the island is actually on the island as a matter of fact access to the island should be done through the coast guard front office who registers who is on the island at any one time but all this is wishful thinking, since in order to guarantee votes the political class have allowed the so called Poor and Downtrodden people of the Ghetto Garrisons the Freedom and Liberty to be completely "Irresponsible and Indiscipline".
Spot on (again). As a government you should use tax dollars to create more jobs, raise awareness of how important it is for Jamaicans to stop valuing imported stuff over local things (thus creating a bigger market and therefore more jobs), improve the school system where needed (thus creating better education for all), public transport, roads etc. Tax payers money should be spend there were most to all of the inhabitants of a country benefit from it the most. Of course no one will benfit from it all the time, that is why it is taxes in stead of you spending your money on yourself, but it should be spend on creating a better society for everybody and by doing so creating a better life for everyone even if sometimes indirectly.
ReplyDeleteI will never understand (and this is not happening in Jamaica alone) how someone who has nothing to offer brings so many kids in the world. Do they have no sense of responsibility for the lives of those they bring into this world? Is it really that you cannot afford birth control or is it that you just don't care and rather spend the money on other things. And if you don't have money to even buy birth control then how in Earth's name are you going to have the money to feed your kids, to buy them clothes, to send them to school, to give them a freaking chance in h*ll to make something of themselves? What is the example you are giving to your kids, sitting there whining about how all you need is a little assistance, just a little piece of land.. she says 'everything just get messed up right now'.. lady, things were messed up from when you were bringing 8-9 kids into this world while you were squating a land that didn't belong to you, just the fact that you believed it could last forever doesn't mean it wasnt messed up to begin with.
I know I sound harsh.. and I feel for these kids that did not ask for any of this, but giving her a free piece of land (or anything) will only send the message that you don't have to take responsibility for your own choices and actions as 'everything is gonna be alright'.