Ronald Thwaites | Classic case of mix-ups

Some straight thinking would help us to stop confusing ourselves and wasting time, money and lives. Can we stop making a virtue of mix-up and claiming crooked thinking to be about ‘personal freedom’, or more seriously, exercise of ‘conscience’?

Don’t mistake me: freedom and conscience are sacred but aren’t absolutes. To be virtuous, their exercise must be informed and consistent with principles of the common good – that is if you want to live in a society rather than in your own selfish cocoon (aka ‘bubble’). Here are some examples.

In the rich, well-educated United States, thousands of people susceptible to rampaging COVID-19 are paying big money to buy and ingest horse and cow medicine, rather than avail themselves of the free vaccine, which, the best science in the world informs, will offer reasonable protection against the virus.

If that isn’t mix-up, what is? And no matter how much money they have and how bruk we are, please don’t let them bring their contagion here as tourists.

Then there are heaps of instances locally. Take this week’s news that the economy is rebounding admirably. We are all happy with Nigel but hope he could help us with the mix-up, because while that is happening, the minimum wage cotch and there is more hunger across Jamaica than ever in our post-Independence history – worse than 1979, trust mi!

The big news is that the Government says it has taken even more money from our pockets in tax than it hoped for. That means we have less to buy a likkle somet’ing at the shop. Is so di rake run? Feel like mix-up to me.

What about the ‘pro-life’ people (I am one) who are twisting (read, mix-up bad, bad) their minds to be against the vaccine which helps to save life. What confusion allows you to be both at the same time?

Mix-up thinking has seriously invaded government policy. Mrs Williams says education is free and no one need pay, while every single child has received a voucher – to pay. Not to mention the futile long book lists when last year’s texts have hardly been used.

We are still hearing big talk about prosperity, but scant reference to increased productivity. Check lawyers, surveyors, other professionals and the ordinary citizen whose food money is dependent on doing business with a government department or agency. Right now, waiting time has doubled, and if you complain you are likely to wait longer, especially if you won’t pay.

Hello! No matter how yu bright or how many seats you have inna the House, there can be no prosperity without an increase in productivity. Stop mix-up people!

COVID-19 has provided us the excuse to want more money and freedom, while falling short on our responsibilities. The 2018 Survey of Living Conditions just published reports that among the poorest quintile of our population, 47 per cent of children had no father figure in their lives. The dropout rate for boys in the higher grades of our schools is anywhere between 15 and 38 per cent, according to a recent study soon to be published. Go figure why crime can’t done. Stop the mix-up. You can’t build a society on these foundations.

REOPENING SCHOOL

As we fiddle with the dates for reopening school,the country is still in denial as to the level of educational and social fallback being experienced by students. What is the new plan for remediation, since the previous ones have clearly not worked and you refuse to consider redoing the year?

There needs to be a safe transportation plan worked out for each school, and, where necessary, students must be temporarily reassigned to schools near where they live. But back to school they must go. Have the teachers, all of them, bought into that imperative, or are some of them part of the mix-up, masking irresponsibility with mouthing about personal freedom or conscientious objection?

The best news last week, the hope for emerging from the mix-up, has been the hordes of parents taking their children for inoculation, even as the positivity rate skyrockets. Every school board and administration should be active in ensuring that all eligible students are vaccinated. Forget the TRN and birth certificate, if these prove a discouragement.

The political administration and people like Howard Mitchell of the National Health Fund deserve our high commendation for securing, at long last, adequate supplies of certified vaccines. In this respect they have averted mix-up and saved lives.

PRAISE HEALTHCARE WORKERS

Even greater plaudits are reserved for the healthcare workers who, for the most part, have exposed and sacrificed themselves to care for the rest of us. It is a shame that the nurses and junior doctors have to be scrounging for a little extra money, and that we have to be turning to Cuba to relieve our shortage, while we wallow in the mix-up of not training enough for our needs as well as the export demand.

COVID-19 time is the opportunity for clear thought and very bold action. Are you seeing enough of that?

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.