Freeness mentality

Keith Noel, Contributor

For a nation to be truly successful, its citizens should hold themselves, their communities, and their nation in high esteem. In Jamaica, our political system has emerged from a colonial structure that did not place the needs of our people as a top priority. For decades, successive governments thought it more important to retain power than to build a truly independent people. So we concentrated on building garrisons, distributing scarce benefits to party supporters and to those we would wish to win over to 'our side'.

Our citizens have always been very astute. So they demand from those they put in power suitable rewards. Crash programmes, Christmas work and employment on government projects are a part of this reward. So our citizens don't believe that this work is 'real' work. It is a means to get a wage which is, in itself, a reward for their party loyalty. And I speak not only of the labouring classes. Civil servants expect rewards of this kind - and get them.

Despite the work of the church and the attitudes we brought with us from our ancestral homeland, it has been a struggle to get some of our citizens to develop attitudes that would foster the ideals of 'a fair day's work ...' Or to have them see the building of a nation as their responsibility.

Insightful politicians

As we grew as a nation, insightful politicians realised that we needed to develop a different attitude to ourselves as individuals to our communities and to our nation. So, despite the fact that our political culture kept dragging us in the other direction, they tried to help us do this. The most broad-based programme of this kind was the 'Values and Attitudes' campaign of the Patterson era. But a more direct and more specific attack on this negative side of our national personality was contained in former Prime Minister Hugh Shearer's statement that "we must put an end to the 'freeness mentality' and stop looking for handouts".

Until now, most of our national pride has come from our success at sports. The feats of our track and field athletes over the years, our footballers in getting to France, the glory days of cricket, and in recent times our netballers, are the foundation on which most of it is built. The political leadership continues to be hamstrung in its attempt to play a real leadership role in this struggle for true nationhood by what it sees as the demands of the 'realities' of our political situation.

Complain

So we have situations like the ones where persons break the law and build on gully banks, and when their homes are washed away, they feel quite justified in angrily declaring to the TV cameras "a two weeks now wi wash way an nobaddy nah say nutten to wi". Then there are those who cry foul when customs officers state that they should pay duty on the goods they bring in to sell; and those who complain when the parish council insists that they should no longer sell on the sidewalk. Somehow, the fact that their having "seven pickney a yahd" is justification for not obeying reasonable laws and not paying taxes.

I maintain that in an attempt to be populist, the actions of successive governments have led to this. So we now have discussions about school fees, prompted by political types, where people can defiantly say that they "nah pay five, six thousand dolla fees" because "ah eight pickney mi ave a yaad".

There are, in fact, those who cannot pay. But the majority of working-class parents are willing to scrimp and save and deny themselves in order to pay their children's fees. They generally agree with the need for fees to be paid.

Schools' guidance counsellors (and later PATH) would identify those parents who should be exempted. But there is a small, but growing (and very vocal) minority who can, but do not wish to pay. The schools know them and try to find ways to 'force' these freeloaders to do so. But it seems that now our officials have started to wilt under the pressure of these 'freeness mentality' TV-limelight hogging protesters and make principals into the villains of the piece.

Keith Noel is an educator. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.