I am reading an interesting piece on the relationship between Debt and GDP, this continued from my reading last week on Debt and the Exchange Rate… I am trying to figure out at what point I should start to feel good about increasing GDP and lowering exchange rate. Since increase borrowing can increase GDP but only marginally so that the trade off is not worth the borrowed money and increase borrowing can lower our exchange rate since we artificially flood the market with currency we did not earn. Our Governments have trained us to react to certain stimuli without giving us the real story behind those stimuli.
Marginally increasing GDP and lowering exchange rate through excessive borrowing, doubling our debt is nothing but window dressing, eye candy and false positives as it is not sustainable or real, unless we earn way more than we borrow and debt repayment is a low percentage of every dollar earned, currently our debt is over 140% of GDP and 80 cents out of every dollar goes towards servicing the debt. Our Governments love to play with words, “we grow the economy” or “we lowered the exchange rate” even when the reasons for these claims are there for all to see… Yes because they doubled our debt or consumed the NIR.
Starter Fluid is rich mixture with low auto-ignition temperature sprayed into a spark plug hole of an engine to get added fuel to the combustion cylinder quickly. It is not used to continuously power the engine but as an added booster to kick start the process… Borrowing should be like starter fluid to the economy, borrowed money is injected into the economy to kick start the process, once kicked started the process is supposed to be self-sustaining, generating the energy/funds required to drive the economy, create new investments and pay back the loan. You cannot run a business on only borrowed money, you can however inject borrowed money from time to time in order to improve the process of auto-income generation by the business but if the only money coming out of the business is money borrowed then that business is not sustainable and will fail, it is only a matter of time, it is not if but when.
The Jamaicans economy is like a failed business borrowing large sums of money, most of which is not being used to kick start the process of income generation but is being used for day to day operation of the country, to finance the over the top lifestyle of the people. Most of the money coming out of our economy is borrowed money because we have failed to use this money to make the right investments and common sense decisions needed to put our economy in auto drive. Not only that our borrowed money through imports is used to drive other people’s economy, every time we buy imported items from overseas we are building overseas economy at the expense of our own and don't get me started on the interest and loan repayment which is like a chain wrapped around a swimmers leg.
It seems the in-thing in Jamaica these days is to talk about GDP as a measure of success or failure of any Government without understanding that GDP rate is just one of many Economic indicators use to determine the state of a country's economic and social health. GDP is the measure of goods and services produced within a country in a given period and not a measure of welfare, it tells us nothing about Income distribution and the lives of people. Along with Economic indicators we also have social indicators which show us the standard of living of all the people within the country. The whole purpose of Government is to service the needs of the population and the whole purpose of the economy is to also service the needs of the people, both Government and the Economy exist only to better the lives of all the people and if they fail to do that then, they are both completely useless as the only thing that matters is the standard of living of the people.
Examples of other important Economic indicators are unemployment rates, inflation rates, Consumer Price index, income distribution, Balance of Payment and Balance of Trade, etc. All these indicators and more must be considered favorable, all moving in the right direction for the majority of the people to sit back and declare that all is right in their world. Favorable indicator in one and bad indicators in the rest means nothing and could still represent hardship in the lives of the people.
Hypothetically let’s say a country had a GDP growth rate off 20% but 25% of the people are unemployed, 23% live below the poverty line and Inflation rate is in double digits… The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The country suffers from income inequality and a quarter of its population cannot read or write, supermarket shelves is full of imports but only the rich can afford it…The majority of the population suffers from poor standard of living, kind of like colonial Jamaica.
Hypothetically again, Let’s say we have 6 companies and five of these companies are foreign owned, and they produce a lot of widgets, tons of the stuff and sell so much widgets that our GDP jumped 10%, lets also say these companies pay meagre wages and piss poor benefits but make super-duper profits which they export back to their mother country… Yes our GDP is up by 10% but we are no better off because that super profit did not contribute to the increased welfare of the people, income distribution was poor.
In the above examples it makes no sense boasting about GDP to the population as their lot in life have not changed and in fact got worst. GDP is selective indicator used when someone wants to prove a point. Highlighting GDP without highlighting any other economic and social indicators means nothing as It does not give us a full understanding of the true state of the country and the plight of its people.
Then we have the Social Indicators:
Infant mortality rate:
Life expectancy at birth:
Availability of Healthcare
Availability of affordable housing
Literacy Rate
Employment Rate
Crime Rate
Etc.
So the next person who tries to big-up GDP had better come with the state of the remaining economic and social indicators. Yes we want GDP and all the economic indicators to move in the right direction but going crazy about one indicator as if it is the beginning and end of it all is Crazy and a complete waste of time.
I cannot think of anything worse than celebrating Columbus Day, well except celebrating Hitler Day. When it comes to Columbus I see nothing to celebrate, I view Columbus like how I view Galactus the Destroyer of Worlds, a character from the Marvel comics, except that Galactus is make believe and the actions of Columbus actually wipe out entire civilizations from the face of the planet and all for the love of Gold. I view Christopher Columbus no different than I view Adolf Hitler or any other Genocidal Maniac.
In school we studied how the Spaniards wiped out entire tribes in their quest for gold, they did not come to the new world to make friends, they came to lay waste, to rape, pillage and murder while taking the resources of the new world, they did nor value humanity. We read in school that the Spaniards played a game, to see who could remove the head of an Indian with one blow from their swords. We learned how they enslaved the local population and when the local population died out from war, slavery, cruelty and European diseases, when there was no one left, they traveled to Africa, captured, extracted and enslave the Africans, all with the blessing of the Religious Order who also wanted gold and cared nothing about Humanity.
But when the victors write history, they write it in such a way as to create fantasy and nostalgia of days gone by, they write from a position of their greatness, how wonderful they were and what they did for the world and the people they enslaved and murdered. Columbus brought riches to Europe and as a result delivered nothing but death and destruction to the peoples of the new world, his arrival opened the very gates of hell and unleashed the genocidal demons on the native population. Christopher Columbus’s actions wiped out civilizations, cultures and enslaved millions resulting in hundreds of years, of genocide from the tip of North America to the tip of South America and Africa.
The world does not remember or care about the millions who died and suffered as a result of this little European expedition, European Greed. They labeled the local populations as savages, less than humans and the Europeans who murdered and enslaved millions labeled as Civilized and worshiped as great heroes to this very day. I find Celebrating Columbus Day disgusting, I see nothing to celebrate, this was genocide and if we lived in a Just World, today would be a day to honor the millions of human beings who were murdered, who suffered not the murderers who killed them.
…We stole countries! That's how you build an empire. We stole countries with the cunning use of flags! Just sail halfway around the world, stick a flag in. "I claim India for Britain." And they're going, "You can't claim us. We live here! There's five hundred million of us." "Do you have a flag?" "We don't need a bloody flag, this is our country you bastard!" "No flag, no country! You can't have one. That's the rules... that... I've just made up! And I'm backing it up with this gun... that was lent from the National Rifle Association."
During a recent online debate, a certain muppet began to blame the Jamaican people for the Peoples’s National Party being in power for 18 years between 1989 and 2007. I find it completely unfair to blame the Jamaican people for the PNP being in power for 18 years because it was not the people of Jamaica that was at fault but the Jamaica Labour Party, who did not present themselves as a viable option and who I believe should return the opposition salary they received after 16 years of being the worst opposition on the face of this planet as it was not until after the question of leadership for that party was settled that they began to focused their attention on the Jamaican people and do the job they were paid to do.
In November of 2004 Edwards Seaga announced that he was stepping down from representational politics and by mid-January of 2005 his announcement came to past. The Jamaica Labour Party had not won any of the 4 elections between 1989 and 2007 and if one was to research the series of events that took place between those periods, one would clearly see why.
The Peoples National Party won every election between 1989 and 2007 not because that party had the answers to Jamaica’s problems, because they did not, not because Jamaica was moving in the right direction under the PNP Government, because it was not, not because the standard of living of most Jamaicans flourished during those years, because it was not but simply because the Jamaica Labour Party was a party in turmoil. The JLP was not a unified party but a party that had separated itself into different warring factions. It was always the gang of “Some Number” fighting Edward Seaga for the leadership of the party and it took 16 long years for the JLP to settle the question of leadership and 18 year to return to power. “We remember well the Gang of Five and Gang of 11 disputes, as well as other squabbles over leadership that ruptured the party over many years.”
Within those 18 years it was not so much that the PNP won the elections, it was more like the JLP lost the election or did not bother to turn up and there was no way under the sun the Jamaican people or any sensible people could vote for a party that was going through such intense internal power struggle and infighting. During one election the PNP campaigned solely on the words of the Gang of “5/11” as they publicly attacked each other like Hyenas fighting over a dead carcass, all the PNP had to do was play the recordings of these bitter attacks straight from the horse's mouth and use it against them, during that period JLP man cuss JLP man like dog.
I would go even further to say that during those 16 years Jamaica did not have an active opposition we were in fact a one party state. We paid the opposition to keep the Government in check and to be ready at moments noticed to take over the seat of power but there was no opposition to be found.
Independence and Freedom means absolutely nothing without a strong sense Responsibility and Discipline.
Equality, Social-Justice, Self-Reliance and Discipline are wonderful principles to live by and we should try to instill these principles back into our society.
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“Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base. The garrison is usually in a city, town, fort, castle or similar. "Garrison town" is a common expression for any town that has a military base nearby.”
In Jamaica a Garrison is the collective term for a body of diehard partisan voters stationed in a particular poverty stricken ghetto location, created to secure votes for a particular political party and used as a home base for criminal activities and nightly Dancehall Merriment. The residences of the Jamaican Garrison are afforded certain rights and liberty by the political class that is not given to regular citizens living outside of the garrison community. The Ghetto Garrison is a self-Governing entity whose leaders are appointed by the executive members of the political class. Most people living in the Ghetto Garrison pay no taxes and enjoy various utilities for free, as payment for votes rendered and for turning a blind eye to violence and crime.
The Jamaican Garrison Community was created by the political class, over the years they have meticulously engineered and transformed certain low income, working class communities with decent hard working people by injecting violent drug gangs used to set up and maintain puppet regimes with the primary purpose of ensuring that the people within the Political constituency vote as one, in a block.
Force is not the only way of maintaining a Garrison, it is required from time to time to make sure the people remember just who is in charge, coupled with force is free handout, give a hungry, poverty stricken man a dry crackers and he will love you for life, as the years progress the mindset of the people change as they become more accepting of Ghetto Garrison lifestyle, at which point the hard work of transforming hearts and minds is over, the Ghetto Garrison is now a self-sustaining, living entity free to evolve into what it is today. These days most of the inhabitants of Ghetto Garrison were born into that system, it is all they know and want to know, the people have adapted to life in the Ghetto.
Our political class has mastered the formula for Ghetto Garrisons creation, at the core of any Ghetto Garrison is low investment in education coupled with the freedom and liberty to be totally irresponsible and indiscipline, the likes of which is not afforded to anyone else. Poverty is also essential tool in creating the Ghetto Garrisons, if they are poor enough, uneducated enough, hungry enough then you can control their hearts and minds, just give them enough to keep them eating out of your hands and because hardship alone won’t work, you then give them the freedom and the liberty to enjoy themselves anyway and anytime they choose. The Ghetto Garrison only has two rules, 1) only vote for one party and 2) “informer fi dead”, no matter how disgusting the crime or how close to home the crime is committed… “Say Nothing and defend your friendly neighborhood Crime Lord/Don/Warlord and Political Activist!!”
When most of us think of the ghetto we think of rundown shanty town community, somewhere disgusting, violent and nasty, a place where everyone is trying to escape from, trying to claw their way out but cannot, trapped like prisoners in a penal colony, unable to break free, destined to live a life of suffering and crime.
The ghetto might be all these things but is everyone really trying to escape it? Could it be that for a large amount of its inhabitants the ghetto offers a type of life, liberty, freedom and lifestyle that can exist nowhere else? This makes living in the Ghetto worthwhile and the negatives a small price to pay.
Life outside of the ghetto is very structured and organized, almost regimental, executed with a sense of purpose where one is not free to do what one wants to do. Life outside of the Ghetto follows a strict code of conduct that sees us sacrificing certain amount of liberty and freedom. It is truly a rat race where everyone tries to play the game in order to stay one foot out of the dreaded ghetto and want to achieve the Jamaican uptown dream, big house on the hill, a big car and maybe a browning or two. Most of the anxiety about the ghetto comes from people living outside of the ghetto, since to them it is a scary black box, a place dark and disgusting with guns barking nightly, people running from here to there, kids crying and the streets filled with dead bodies.
I saw this printed on the T-Shirt of a Hood Rat and wondered why the Glorification of Criminality
If the Ghetto is such a dark disgusting, hellish place then why would anybody live there, anywhere would be better than that place. A nice quiet rural community, where one could plant some food and live a nice quiet life would certainly be more appealing than the dreaded ghetto. But I have been told that Ghettos Life Nice. A life without structure, I was told that very little rat race exist in the ghetto and it is all about ones comfort level. Lots of people in the ghetto get to live for free. Lots of people in the ghetto have electricity and water they never have to pay for and free health care at the expense of the state. I have been told that the vibes in the ghetto does not exist anywhere else.
Della - Ghetto Life Nice (2012)
I am by no means saying that there are not people in the ghetto struggling and trying to get out, what I am saying is that it is becoming very hard to identify these people, to separate them from the spongers and blood suckers of our society. A lot of people in our society pay lip service to Poverty, using poverty as a means to an end. Our political class pays lip service to poverty all the time, it is their favorite pastime. Paying lip service to poverty and the poor can win you votes because it makes members of the political class look like they are defenders of the poor and downtrodden. The so called Poor and Downtrodden also use poverty to get what they want and live how they want as these days crying poverty is now the “Great Excuse”.
The Political Class have converted Jamaica into a welfare state since the most important thing to the political class is votes, it is the source of their wealth and power and the poor and downtrodden are willing to give their votes in exchange for various handouts and the freedom and liberty to be Irresponsible and Indiscipline. Any attempt to hold the so called poor and downtrodden accountable is met with fierce resistance from both the poor and certain sections of the political class as each use the “Great Excuse”, we/they are too Poor and Downtrodden to be held accountable and Government should turn a blind eye to their actions and let off tax payers’ money to support their lifestyle. The poor and downtrodden of Ghetto Garrisons have created a vast network of illegal electricity connections and water pipes hook ups, on free capture land on which they squat and any attempt to hold them accountable is attacked with cries of, “leave the poor people alone… you too wicked”.
A person once wrote to the Gleaner outlined his experience trying to hire some young people to help him reap his crops from his farm. He said it was time to reap his crop but it was way too much work for both his wife and himself and as they are getting on in age he needed help. On driving out of his property he spotted some of the local young people standing idle on the street corner, he stopped and asked if they wanted the Job to help them to pick his produce. But the response he got back shocked him… “After wi nuh farma” one said … another said “a slave wok dat”... he tried to reason with the young people but to no avail so he decided to leave them to stew in their own ignorance, just before he could drive off one young man shouted … “Boss yu can let off a money, fi buy a food”…. Work no, Begging yes…
Not too long ago a group of illegal squatters was evicted after many years of being given eviction notices, one of the Poor and Downtrodden evicted woman had 8 children and pregnant with her ninth and no father in sight, all born on the captured, squatted land and I am shocked to read people asking for the Government to locate land to “Give” to these Poor and Downtrodden squatters, one person said they should find land in parishes like St. Anne to “Give” these poor people, free of change, not even asking for a smalls, out of principle? .…and I said, a how dem so lucky?
In Portland a group of squatters was evicted from Railroad land and the Government instructed the Social Development Commission to identify new land for the squatters. These people are just given free stuff at tax payers’ expense. Can I contact the Social Development Commission to find me a nice piece of land in Portland, near the beach, free of charge? …and I said, a how dem so lucky?
The Pedro Cays is a small island off the coast of Jamaica captured by 400 to 500 people as some fish the waters around cays, of which about 150 are “women”. I have been told the place have a make shift bar and a Go-Go club, in one interview a man described the place as being filled with prostitutes and nightly merriment. These people are just the nastiest most disgusting set of people I have ever seen, they have converted a once beautiful island into a shanty town, filled with shacks as they live and eat amongst their own waste and filth, they pay no taxes, most are not licensed fishermen but demand that the Government spend tax payers money to improve their living conditions. Among the health and environment issues at the Pedro Cays are the absence of running water, a lack of toilet facilities (as they defecate in plastics bags and in bushes) and a rapidly increasing garbage dump but they have bars, Go-Go club, whores and nightly merriment. …and I said, a how dem so lucky?
I read that during a conversation between the Jamaica Environment Trust and the representatives of the squatters, the trust outline some possible solution which involves some new rules and regulations as to how Pedro cays should be used. The poor and downtrodden hates rules and regulation, they do not like it and are not afraid to tell anyone who dare to impose or propose Rules and Regulation where they can stick it. They asked for attention but did not like the attention they were getting since it meant a change of lifestyle, so some took to the air waves to assure the General Public that it was a lie, all is well, they no longer want the spot light turn on them.
It was reported the other day that the Government is to use tax payer’s money to build bathroom facilities for the residents of Tivoli Gardens. WTF!! When is it the Governments duty to build bathrooms and if it is the Governments Job, how then can I get them to make an addition to my house, free of charge, at tax payers’ expense? The residence of Tivoli gardens can keep a dance almost every night, carry on with the most almshouse and slackness but cannot build their own Shit House?
There are people in and out of the ghetto who sells ghetto sympathy and guilt which is used by the people in the ghetto to get what they want and live how they want to live...
They are poor so it is OK for them to keep a dance 7 nights a week… “Tun-It-Up-Till-It-Buck-And-Stuck”.
They are poor so it is OK for them to capture and squat on land they do not own.
They are poor so they should not have to pay for electricity, Water or pay taxes.
They are poor so the government should finance their existence with tax payer’s money.
Jamaica it seems is an entitlement society, a welfare state where some people think the tax payer owes them a living and should finance their existence... Everybody wants to “Eat-A-Food” and at everybody else’s expense… We are being used by these type of people and we must identify them and show them the error of their ways, we have no problem helping people who try to help themselves, what we have is a problem with people who have no intention of helping themselves and use cries of being poor and downtrodden as a way of life to sponge of our society...
It is not only we who are being used, ghetto people are also being used by the political class, these people are told that so long as they vote for a particular party, run behind the Political representative and carry on like low class idiots, that when that party comes to power they will be allowed to live at the expense of the tax payer and however they want..... Entitlement and Welfare are traits belonging to much richer countries who can afford to subsidize people’s existence with tax payer’s money. There is no way poorer countries can afford to do this and must then rely on their people to be a bit more practical, industrious, innovative and think outside of the box for the greater good.
However it gets very hard to motivate people when they see such large unequal distribution of resources and income inequality. Political corruption is demoralizing to any society; it is like being stabbed in the back. Here we are busting our chops trying to contribute to the greater good, following the Rules and Regulations of our society that was put in place by the political class, while the very same political class like pigs at the trough gorge themselves at the public’s expense, consuming the public’s resources for their own selfish, greedy needs. It is part of the reason we are in the mess we are in today because rat “nyam” (eat) out the conscience of our Political leaders.
I understand that a lot of these people are poor but giving them free stuff without demanding any sort of accountability is doing more harm than good. We do not give squatters free land, we rent/lease or sell them land, they must provide monthly payment, if even $100 but they must learn to be responsible. We do not give fisherman free access to Pedro Cays and the freedom to build what they want and live how they want. The Government should build standardized huts, for a certain number of people on the island and rent/lease these huts to licensed, tax paying Fishermen only, with regular patrols carried out to make sure people who belong on the island is actually on the island as a matter of fact access to the island should be done through the coast guard front office who registers who is on the island at any one time but all this is wishful thinking, since in order to guarantee votes the political class have allowed the so called Poor and Downtrodden people of the Ghetto Garrisons the Freedom and Liberty to be completely "Irresponsible and Indiscipline". There is a lot of hard working poor and low income people in Jamaica, these are the people who through strength, courage and discipline try their very best to carve out a future for themselves and their families, they follow the rules and regulation of this country, they want to achieve and most are not asking for a handout or to live at anyone’s expense. These are the people we as a society need to identify and do our very best to give them a helping hand, they are deserving of our help because for these people our help is not regarded as a handout but an investment in the future of Jamaica, they and their children will make us proud.
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Independence and Freedom means absolutely nothing without a strong sense Responsibility and Discipline.
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Equality, Social-Justice, Self-Reliance and Discipline are wonderful principles to live by and we should try to instill these principles back into our society.
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Political Tribalism will be the death of us, as we are way too small and too poor to survive this crab in a barrel mentality.
When I was young I hated soup and spend hours at the dinner table as I was not allowed to leave the table until I finished by dinner. I did not understand why we had to drink our dinner but being older I love soup and drink it almost everyday soup, I just love those squiddly dumplings. The other day for lunch I had goat head soup and normally I enjoy eating the mushed up mystery bits of meat and cartilage with my yam, dumpling and Irish potato but on that day the soup was a turn off…
Imagine my surprise when I went in with my spoon only to come up with a piece of goat jaw bone with the dental work intact! I tell you this goat had a healthy set of teeth but it was a turn off and I could not continue. I quickly put the lid back on the container and deposited the soup in the trash or maybe I should have taken it outside and give it a proper burial, then say a prayer or two.
