Norris McDonald | ‘Panka-panka’ hustle, ‘politricks’, dirty tricks and ‘moneytricks’

Panka-Panka hustling is a daily fact of life for poor people. I can remember back in the 1960s when my mother, Mrs Linda, was a dressmaker, midwife, and sometimes domestic worker; she would make clothes to sell on Innswood, Monymusk and Gray’s Inn sugar estates.

Panka-Panka hustling is small-scale economic activity, such as higglering – buying and selling for a profit – as a means of surviving; hoping to escape the harsh poverty of Jamaican inner-city life.

‘Mass Lambert,’ my father (who called himself ‘Genius’), was a tailor and a political organiser for Premier Norman Manley. He was also a distributor for The Gleaner. Therefore, I used to sell The Sunday Gleaner, and later THE STAR; moving from a ‘Gleaner Bwoy’ to become a journalist, author and publisher.

That’s what life is about: growth, hard work, ambition, self-improvement.

THE 1960s INNER-CITY LIFE

Coming from a working-class family, and growing up in the 1960s, at the time of the birth of the new nation, I can say that our life was like that of many typical poor families, whether in Jamaica or other places in the world.

Many families had no access to good, clean, running water. We never did. There was no electric light. There was no flush toilet. All those were to come later. There were a lot of shanty towns and slum-like conditions. Housing conditions, therefore, was extremely dilapidated. But the focus was on getting a good education to escape poverty.

If money-macka jook yu,

Yu jus’ run out of cash;

Ah bwoy! Ah wha’ fi do?

Derval [not his real name] was the local street corner loan shark who had all the answers. He loaned money at a weekly interest rate. It was about $10 on every $100 borrowed.

Take it or leave it. And if you couldn’t pay back the loan, Derval was willing to lend you more money to pay him back!

Simply put. Let’s say you are working $2,000 a week, but you have a weekly debt of $2,200 with Derval, you really are in a deep financial hole.

This, my friends, is called a debt-trap!

‘POLITRICKS’ AND DIRTY TRICKS

In the meantime, the 1960s was rich in cultural life. It was the birth of ska, reggae, and dancehall music. There was extreme poverty, which bubbled up into social explosions as the Rasta Riots and the 1968 Walter Rodney Black power riots.

Poor people all over, however, aspired for good education for their children. We all aspired for a better way of life. This was not just for individuals. There was a reasonable expectation that all people, despite political differences, wanted to see improvement in their lives, and they had high expectations from government to help achieve this.

Michael Manley’s Democratic Socialist government (1972-1980) was, however, the first, in my opinion, to put forward a serious plan to lift the Jamaican poor people out of poverty.

The last 60 years have been a period of hope and change. It also gave birth to all sorts of diabolical, Machiavellian politics – ‘politricks’. In this, we can add the 1976 stunning allegations by Phillip Agee and other former agents of the US Central Intelligence Agency of purportedly acting in collusion with the Jamaica Labour Party to overthrow the Manley government.

Moneytricks, politicks, moneytricks,

All sorts of CIA dirty politricks!

‘MONEYTRICKS’

‘Moneytricks’ like ‘politricks’ are nefarious activities that take place in different ways.

To understand the international moneytricks, let me tell you about a time in the 1970s when all nations had to tie their national currency to precious metals such as gold.

This was the so-called ‘gold standard’.

Then two very important ‘moneytricks’ happened in the world money markets:

• In 1971 President Nixon got rid of this so-called ‘gold standard’

• America also reportedly struck a deal with Saudi Arabia “to allow oil prices to be quoted in the dollar” (bullionstar.com)

This was the birth of the so-called petrodollar. This was both ‘politricks and ‘moneytricks’ at work.

“The petrodollar gave the United States great power and lifted its economy to new heights,” the financial website Bullion Star said. “It was a brilliant political and economic move by the United States because it ensured growing demand for both the dollar and treasury bonds.”

Moneytricks, moneytricks, moneytricks,

Politricks, moneytricks, what’s the difference?

It is spelled out in American dollars and cents!

‘A FOGGY, FOGGY ROAD’

For Jamaica, 60 years after political independence the country has a national debt of US$14 billion. Meanwhile, Jamaica has US$4 billion “held in trust” by America even as it is borrowing money to pay back a national debt that just keeps growing and growing.

Politricks, debt creating, moneytricks

Debt creating, Independence gift

Borrowing money to pay back debt!

This debt trap, politricks, moneytricks!

Where is the hope and promise for a bright future? Where is the national vision?

The Jamaican people expect fair wages or salaries that they can ‘meck life wid’. And they expect that their tax dollars are going to be used to give them good healthcare, high-quality education for their children, a crime-free society and a peaceful life to enjoy retirement income.

Indeed, the engine of economic growth of all society comes from the mental wit, and creative skills of her people, ‘fighting for survival’.

People want serious answers as to where the country is going. As Winston ‘Burning Spear’ Rodney would say…

“The way is long, but the road is foggy

My way is so long, so long but the road is foggy, foggy.

A foggy, foggy, so foggy, foggy road

Forward my brother, no stumbling back.”

Jamaica 60 – no more dirty tricks, politricks or moneytricks!

Jamaica needs a government that is trustworthy to rally and mobilise the people around a forward thinking, forward moving, national strategy to work on uplifting Panka-Panka poor people out of poverty, extreme hardship and this crime-infested way of life.

That is just the ‘bitta’ truth!

Norris McDonald is an economic journalist, political analyst, and respiratory therapist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and miaminorris@yahoo.com