Ronald G. Thwaites | A better way

Let us return to the question of what standard of living, underpinned by what values, we aspire for all Jamaicans. After all, we are about to spend almost a trillion dollars on ourselves, while facing uncalculated risks due to unreformed, weak and often corrupt institutions; the scourge of COVID-19; and external shocks over which we have little control.

Add to that the reality of the low level of trust between the governing class and the rest of us. Disappointing experience and coaching ourselves on media platforms combine to reduce our capacity for cooperative action, because everyone is believed to have an ulterior motive; a skeleton in their closet to discredit them. We trust no one.

I am vexed that the stupidity and cruelty of the war in Ukraine is going to cramp our feeble efforts at economic recovery. Try as they will in the Budget Debate, the Government cannot refute the ‘bitter medicine’ projection offered last week by Professor Densil Williams. He thinks a return to even pre-pandemic, lop-sided, inequitable economic growth will likely be postponed to 2025-26?!

No wonder the long lines at the United States Embassy are recurring. Sorry, Bruce. In the minds of many, their economic rights and enablement do ‘start at Liguanea’.

What does a near-US$100 barrel of oil do to the national Budget and to the pockets of the majority of us trying to live decently and raise a family on 10 grand a week? Let’s start the discussion on how to correct the downward arc of productivity in this context.

WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM?

Without the scamming, the money laundering and bureaucratic corruption, much of what we are celebrating as evidence of economic recovery would not be taking place. Where is the endless money coming from to finance the high-rises?

Look where we are spending our savings and taxes. I counted 18 car marts between Williamsfield and Spur Tree recently. Where is the foreign exchange coming from to purchase and maintain the near-million motor vehicles on our roads, especially now that tourists are scarce and remittances are flat?

The same time as we have to budget $8 billion to prop up empty seats and ‘bruk-down’ buses in the public transportation system. Think what that money could do for education. Does that expenditure make good business sense? And what about pouring money into public bodies that never give account or paying people who do no work?

What do we really want as a people? What priorities do those who hold political power urge us towards? Or do they merely facilitate and participate in the free-for-all which we euphemistically call ‘market forces’? We need our money to stretch so we all can eat.

One good high-school I know of has a $20-million annual shortfall in its budget. The school absolutely needs this money if it is to maintain quality. Where is it to come from? This Government said it would make up for what it told parents they need not contribute. They never did. It won’t happen. Until there is a sustained ideology of, and spiritual commitment to, the common good, there will be no realisation of quality education for all. Every other school is in the same position, or worse.

TRUMP AND PUTIN

Trump and Putin seem able to find common cause. Vladimir is fully exploiting the divisiveness of the American polity, laughing at the untidiness and inefficiency of democracy, just as the selfish and corrupt do in Jamaica. The Donald, autocratic ginal and no conservative, thinks Putin to be a “genius”. The two seem to me to be of the same ilk. They are both selfish, ruthless and decisive. Do we convincingly repudiate either way of thinking and acting?

So faced with a Budget which needs serious revision even before it is passed; a pandemic-crippled education system, the remediation of which we sidestepped before the parliamentary committee last week; and a crime rate, much of which is never reported, and the worst of it, we think, can be cured by repression, where is the honest, trustful, inspiring thinking and reporting coming from?

Who is going to lead us to the acceptance that our consumption patterns will have to change in a way that is sacrificial for some, but gives hope to all?

A restructured Budget Debate, allowing for real dialogue on both the revenue and spending sides to determine how the dollars will affect all of us, would be a start. The present format does not allow for any of that. This is not by accident. We continue to choose form rather than substance – the rule of the few, instead of the engagement of the many.

There is a better way.

“In everything you do, act without grumbling or arguing. Prove yourself innocent and straightforward, children of God beyond reproach in the midst of a twisted and depraved generation..” (Philippians 2:14)

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