I will relate to fellow bloggers, a number of recent incidences, which has brought home the fact to me on how hard life is in Jamaica today.
A few weeks ago I was in Mandeville at the main shopping plaza with families and friends having a meal when this lady walked up to us and asked if she could have some of our food. She was a decent looking woman who was clean but appeared to have fallen on hard times.
We handed her one meal, which had just been started and she accepted gracefully and started eating. After a few bites, she place the container in her bag and mentioned that she need to take some home for her kids.
We handed here a few hundred dollars and a juice and she was on her way to get more “help”.
Last week I was in the half way tree area and bought a meal at a Chinese restaurant for lunch having been on the rd all day and was very hungry. Less than halfway through the meal a dreadlocked looking man, who was not dirty but clearly having a rough time approach the car and knocked on the heavily tinted windows. At first I thought what the hell this man wanted, I have no money to give him, but I wound down the window just enough got him to speak.
He said ” Boss man gimme some a deh food deh nuh”
I said ” Dread is chicken diss eno and mi know seh rasta man nuh eat meat, so u sure u want this:
He said ” Boss man right now mi hungry so me we eat anything”
I wound down the window and grudgingly handed him my half filled box of chicken steak and fried rice. even though hungry was still gnawing at my stomach.
He hurriedly took the food and dove into like a man who had not eaten for days, he said ” thank you bos, thank you , thank you and walked away to a bus stop ,sat and consumed the rest of the meal.
I reflected on that sombering moment for a few seconds and said to myself, life in Jamaica has really changed, it’s not normal for a “normal” individuals to take a half-finished meal from a complete stranger and eat it. He did not ask me for money, he asked for food because he was seemingly hungry.
Yesterday I went to a corner shop in the Kingston 11 area and shouted to the man behind the counter “ Big man gimme 10 halls a have $60″
The man behind the counter who I could not see shouted back ” big man only 6 halls that can gee u”.
I said ” wah u mean nuh $6 fi a halls, a $6 mi pay last week fi it right yah so”.
He said “ dat a last week, well this week a $10 a one, u nuh see d dollar a devalue and everyting a go up, so d price a halls gone up too”. He continued ” A nuh me a alone a sell it fi $10 a everybody a sell it for $10.
I said “ aright boss gimme d 6 a dem”.
Simple as it seems, I was buying the halls to soothe my throat and truth be told I did not want to be driving up and down to see if i could get it for less, but the reality of the situation was the price of those halls had increased by $4 or 67% in the space of one week.
I quiver to think of the price increases that many Jamaicans are facing today, with a frozen salary and would not be surprised to see people resorting to eat animals that were once considered taboo in Jamaica.
On another issues have you also notice the increased levels of elderly people now begging on the streets of Kingston, this is a new class of recently converted poor people.
Speak to one of these folks for a few minutes and hear their story, you could be in for a shocking surprise.
Bless.
Filed under: Economics, Inspiration, Public Information |
Warren's Blog 
I am very sadden when I read this. Also, the story re bread selling by the slice. Sad that after many years, this is what we have come to. Jamaica has too many resources to be in the position we find ourselves in. To anyone who do not feel this, you are hopeless. I want to see how the ‘spinners’ going to deal with this one.
Chucks you know what is interesting , its to hear someone say ” bread by the slice deh bout from the 1970’s so a nuh nuttin new”.
I then asked the next obvious question, are you saying we have not progressed much from the 1970’s from an economic standpoint.
Reponse : deafening silence.
This is not something for one to try to defend. Its speaks to how badly the economy has been managed and how life for the most vulnerable in Jamaica have not progressed beyond ” I love you when you are poor”.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device from LIME.
Times are hard. That is a fact. No two ways about it. But, a person can approach the world by believing that “the glass is half full or half empty.” Times are hard, but it is also an opportunity for persons to be very creative in their survival strategies.
This is just examples, and I know that everyone may not be able to do it, but they are examples – I have been reaping hot peppers, calalloo, and bananas from my backyard for the past 4 years. On Saturday mornings, I go to the market to buy stuff for less than what it cost in the supermarket.
In many European countries – e.g., Spain and Greece – the unemployment rate is very, very high.
The IMF has just released a gloomy forecast for the global economy.
The creative imagination of the human animal knows no bounds – we just have to tap into it.
That’s my approach……