Ronald Thwaites | Public confidence

Public confidence in important service institutions is essential for any society to be productive and for individual lives to flourish. I have been defending the restoration efforts of the Jamaica Public Service Company in Miss Beryl’s aftermath against the embarrassed bromides from sundry ministers. Casual observation of the linesmen operating in St Elizabeth this past week supported my view that they are doing as best they can in a very bad situation. Gradually, public confidence was being restored.

DRAW BAD CARD

Then they go and squander all their equity by issuing extortionate estimated bills to some who have had no service, and then drape up the rest of us with a 30-plus per cent rate increase, without notice and with implausible and contradictory justification: causing Daryl to cuss some more, the OUR to appear flat-footed, while the public is tossed a dibby-dibby apology and a $50-million sop, even as Nigel gave JPS a $400-million duty waiver with our money.

We the customers will have to absorb the knockout punch, while those who reward themselves for supposedly protecting us get a pass. There has not been a word from the three government-appointed directors on the board of the electric company. Did they know about the price gouge? How could they have not? Managers could not have imposed new tariffs without reference to their board and, in turn, to the regulatory agency and upwards to the responsible minister and, finally, to Cabinet? Hardly likely.

Either some people were careless, or complicit, or have intentionally set out to damage the rest of us who have no Public Utilities Commission to appeal to as we did with much effect in the past. Why the delay in the firings and resignations? Telling us that the bloated bills may be withdrawn is cold comfort. We know the company will find a way to claw back the money they calculate to assure their guaranteed rate of return.

MORE MAKKA

So be prepared for more makka fi juk wi. Ordinary Jamaicans are having to choose between paying the light bill and buying enough food. Recent, fairly modest inflation figures do not reflect levels of food price increase. Look at one cho-cho retailing at close to $900. Or the tomatoes selling at $1,200 per pound, or the fluxy cabbage and imported vegetables costing easily 40 per cent more than three months ago? Who gets the licences to import anyway? It’s a blessing that Jamaicans love soup and porridge. These, and rice and flour, are all most of us will be able to afford. Then, watch for the epidemic of non-communicable diseases!

NUTRITION AND EXAM OUTCOMES

An integral part of post-hurricane relief has to be the enlarging of the school feeding budget for September 2. Here are some bald facts. At a staff meeting I attended recently at a underperforming rural high school, teachers and the guidance counsellor reported a direct correlation between nutritional sufficiency and school attendance and performance. That school is only able to provide breakfast and lunch for 20 per cent of those who need food to be able to learn. It’s going to be worse next month. One small finger of ripe banana cost me $70 this past weekend.

Instead of the security force leaders regaling us with justification for police killings, but being unable to identify and deal with the causes of the continuing seepage of youth into the gun culture, they ought to be confronting these roots of moral pop-down.

At another high school where I am working, only three students in the entire CSEC class passed English – and with very low grades at that. What level of competence does a grade 3 pass certify anyway? There were no passes in mathematics; a third of the cohort were not even entered for the test; and of those who were, nearly 20 per cent never turned up.

In another school, after the illiterates have been exposed to a year of the APSE programme, very few have advanced. What we are doing expensively and with the very best intentions is not working. There is no alternative pathway to literacy!

UNITE FOR CHANGE

Setting out these realities, with plenty more to come as diagnostics are done for seventh-graders and external exam results are analysed, is not in any way intended as a critique of the minister, the Ministry of Education or the teachers. Rather, it is to strengthen the advocacy of those people for us to face reality, change course and prioritise investment levels in the sector. The pressure must come from the base of the education pyramid. Dr Mark Smith, Mr Livern Wright, Mr Stuart Jacobs, church leaders who own schools, unite; and as Michele Obama says, “Do something! You have nothing to lose but your shackles.”

Lisa Hanna drew blood recently by detailing the undeserved spreads seized by banks and financial institutions in foreign exchange transactions. This is done with full government approval. Last week, an institution I am connected with received a remittance from abroad, which our bank converted into Jamaican dollars without reference to the payee and at a rate of their choosing, which effectively deprived the receiving institution of $250,000. To quote Julius Krein in American Affairs recently, and equally true of Jamaica,” our economy has become one based on extracting rents rather than building (useful and lasting) things. It rewards those who invent clever ways to squeeze money out of government and poor people”.

“Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees, depriving the needy of judgment and robbing my people’s poor of their rights. It is you the elders and princes who have devoured the vineyards; the loot wrested from the poor is found in your houses…” (Isaiah Ch 10 v1-2 and Ch 3 v14).

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.