What is the good life? Who defines it?
Published:Friday | September 10, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Wilberne Persaud, Financial GleanerColumnist
My on-time, ultra-competent and dependable refrigeration technician turned up on a visit to commission an ice maker in a GE machine and greeted me thus:
"Morning, Prof, mi haffi tell you wha mi see las week. Bwoy, one a dem area big man 'ave a Escalade, you see, ... 'im jus sey 'start' and yuh 'ear chrr-chrr-chrr, vroom! Engine a run. Bwoy, dat great; dem bwoy deh live well, eeh?"
His representation of sound, with guttural and nasal embellishments, was much better than my attempt at capturing it in words could ever manage.
An animated conversation on the nature of the good life and who defines it ensued. We considered its impact on modern Jamaica, whether we could expect change for the better.
Mr T, a returned Jamaican migrant, could speak perfect English, worked and trained at the General Electric factory in the United States, and wanted you to know.
He kept up to date with new model technology by video manual. A no-nonsense man - always the correct fittings, electronics and genuine spare parts for him - he preferred no compromise. But he lamented the younger apprentices: they want to earn with no learn; sweets with little sweat, and so on.
So I asked: "Well, what role model does the Escalade man present and what is its impact on Jamaican society?" Hard question. For those who may not know, the Escalade is a Cadillac SUV, 5,800 pounds or 2.9 short tons in weight.
I enjoyed the gems we shared before allowing him to set to work. Upon completion of his task, we considered the interesting political happenings, the contemporary plight of both savers and borrowers, and then he left.
Political future
Today, contemplating our political future, the call for older heads to go, the apparent attraction politics generates to some whose main interest appears to be feathering their own nests in corrupt ways, the apparent lack of knowledge younger entrants to politics have of the genesis and history of their party, our Constitution and protocols of good governance. All these and other disconcerting features led me to recall this spirited conversation.
We were really discussing the question: what is the nature of the good life as perceived in Jamaica? How do we achieve it? Do the current definitions and perception of this good life have positive or truly deleterious impacts on our society?
A well-equipped Escalade can be taken off a US automart lot for about US$70,000; add US$4,000 for shipping and insurance plus duty of, say, another US$74,000.
Add 20 per cent mark-up for a total of US$177,600, or J$15.8 million.
This calculation is deliberately conservative, yet sounds like 'house money', you say, right? Plus, most of these and similar vehicles, most of the time as they pass you by, include one occupant - the driver.
If you get 12 miles to the gallon of petrol you'd be happy. Environment, balance of payments, road congestion, and who-knows-what-else pay the price.
Yet the driver is accorded status. The peacock's beautiful plumage is not created by nature for our visual pleasure, nor for us to put the plucked feathers in ladies' hats. It is created for survival and procreation, to flaunt against rival males, show good health as a potential mate, attract, charm and tempt initially reluctant females.
The peacock's 'good life' is demonstrated in his radiant plumage. It is no mere cosmetic but an absolutely integral part of his species' success.
We appear to have determined that our analogue to peacock's plumage is ostentatious, showy, brazen, even pretentious consumption and possession of endless material things that immediately and undeniably shout out: pricey/money!
Teacher, farmer, agricultural or livestock innovator, brilliant sage, poet - none of these is as valued for his or her intrinsic worth to the human endeavour. And yes, from slavery and the master's need to dehumanise the black man, coupled with our peculiar history, we have ascribed status by colour gradation.
Happily it's on the wane as today black, brown, etc, Jamaican vie for the same positions, for the most part, on competence and capacity.
The distinguishing factor may be 'Kingston X', for instance. Discriminatory mechanisms still exist but they have undergone signi-ficant change.
Yet, the ascription of status based on material possession and demonstration of 'arrival' by reason of material wealth seems to be generally accepted as the 'good life' defined by a significant set, if not, perhaps, the great majority of us.
In part, this drives people to use positions of power and influence, however attained, to grow peacock's feathers. Two things though: the plumage sometimes does not sit comfortably on the wearer; and the status generated is ephemeral, potentially dissipating as readily as it grew.
The notion of values and attitudes embraced by former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson was, is, not after all, a bad idea! But did it, could it, have a chance of defining the good life?
Not before we begin to value and offer recognition to those human endeavours that, even if fuelled by vanity as reward, generate uplift in the gestalt of our people.