Small hands

"My hands are small, I know, but they're not yours, they are my own." That was the singer, Jewel, circa 1998.

"I'm going to change the world, feed countless numbers of hungry, starving, destitute people. My foundation will make NCB's look like a joke. It will make the Scotiabank Foundation seem like it isn't even trying. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will have nothing on the Din and [insert my beautiful future wife's name here] Duggan Foundation. Yes, the world of philanthropy will be my playground - as soon as I'm filthy rich." That was me, circa 1998, 2000, 2004, 2007 and, probably, 2010, as well.

It was circa last Friday that the United States averted fiscal calamity and global embarrassment when Democrats and Republicans squeezed out a budget deal, avoiding a government shutdown. The eleventh-hour drama was the culmination of the Republican Tea Party's 2010 campaign promise to substantially slash government spending. These intellectual stalwarts, led by the likes of Sarah 'I can see Russia from Alaska' Palin and Michele 'global warming is a hoax' Bachmann, have defied the advice of objective economists and, instead, pushed for budget cuts at a time when a tepid economic recovery requires sustained government spending.

manipulating human nature

It's funny that these 'tea baggers' suddenly find it fitting to promote fiscal discipline - cutting funding for public radio and attempting to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency and Planned Parenthood - yet most supported former President George W. Bush's US$1-trillion Iraq war. I suppose we shouldn't expect better from a party that mainly exists to serve big business and feed America's military-industrial complex.

It still baffles me that any well-thinking American would support the intellectually depraved ideas of a party eager to eliminate Medicare and Medicaid (the health-care programmes for elderly and low-income Americans) and handing US$500 billion in savings to the wealthiest two per cent of Americans. What psychological tactics are they utilising to fool their supporters - mostly middle-income Americans, many of whom are themselves a few paycheques short of poverty - into believing that a party that does absolutely nothing for them is worthy of their support? Then it struck me - they're simply manipulating human nature.

People have a natural tendency to mischaracterise their positions in life. The next man is poor because he's lazy or foolish. My unfortunate circumstances, however, are the result of hard times and bad luck. Another heap of people suffer from the delusion that they will, one day, be substantially wealthier than they are today. It is this delusion of future grandeur that enables a party, primarily dedicated to society's wealthiest, to attract millions of average, working-class supporters. It is this same illusion that prompts reasonable people like myself to postpone, for some distant, rosy, more prosperous future, doing the good we can manage to do right now.

weaving the change

YUTE doesn't need our help in the future, it needs it now. Youth Upliftment Through Education (www.yutejamaica.org) is an initiative of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica aimed at empowering young people in troubled, inner-city communities. The programme seeks to create 50 full-time jobs and 260 internships for these youngsters, while enlisting 800 volunteers to serve as mentors. YUTE presents a tremendous opportunity for businesses and individuals alike to heed the call of duty and step up to bat for the overall upliftment of Jamaica.

Others are in need - Food For The Poor; PALS; Mustard Seed Communities; St Patrick's Foundation. These organisations require the generosity of ordinary Jamaicans to strengthen and empower the neediest of our citizens - the very people who many of us are (or were) a few unfortunate circumstances away from becoming.

Sure, with gas prices at record highs - though the imminent reduction in ad valorem tax should ease that burden - and incomes seemingly at record lows, many of us barely have two dollar coins to rub together. But there's an old African proverb: "If every man donates one thread, the poor man has a shirt." We each at least have a thread - be it our strength, our wisdom, our education, or a few simple words of encouragement - with which we can begin, right now, two small hands at a time, to weave the change we so desperately need.

Din Duggan is an attorney who now works as a consultant with a global legal search firm. Email him at columns@gleanerjm.com or dinduggan@gmail.com, or follow him at facebook.com/dinduggan and twitter.com/YoungDuggan.