What Does $2000 Mean To YOU?

Imagine you were just handed a million dollars and told to choose ONE thing to spend it on.  You could find lots of things to choose from right?  OK, but while you’re at it, add this angle…if you owe any money on what you just paid for you’ll automatically lose the chance to own it.  The list just got much shorter right?  Maybe the idea of that much money becomes smaller if you understand what it really values in the bigger scheme of things.  How about increasing it to five million?  The crumpled list just came out of the dustbin and you’re ready to add ten other things?

Your son applies to med school at UWI and you’re overjoyed, but you can’t pay his tuition with one million dollars.  Luckily you now have five, but I suspect you will owe the institution before he’s finished school.  You opt instead to buy a reasonably comfortable house for the family, but five million will not cover deposit all the way to closing costs etc, so you might owe a balance on your small dwelling.  Maybe a new car for the family that is safe, reliable, can manage to take everyone around, great fuel mileage, low maintenance, high performance and great resale value opportunity.  Seems that would require the five million in Jamaica, unless you want to play it safe and buy a lower end used car and hope for the best. Maybe you might owe a small balance on the car.  How about deciding to do that surgery you recently discovered you need and head to the Tony Thwaites Wing?  Chances are four specialists and their team, room, medication might run you less than five million, but when you see the bill, it might leave you medicated spending the balance.

In the blink of an eye five million can be used for ONE thing.  Of course you already know this, but think how many things you think about doing with it before you have it, and how little it can do if the situation arises.  IF you sent your child to do medicine and had a million left (in another lifetime) could you give him two thousand dollars per day, including the weekends which he still spent doing studies?  That’s three quarters of the million, so clearly if you even already had a car, you couldn’t use that million to buy petrol to take him to school AND still give him two thousand dollars per day. 

We talk about two thousand dollars as if it’s nothing, yet we easily see how five million means nothing.  Many of us who now scoff at two thousand dollars came from households and families where two grand required serious analysis to make do for a week.  Many of us couldn’t dare suggest a pair of school shoes valued at two grand.  Many had to wait on Sunday to see miracles happen while parents worked for minimum wages to make a better way for us.  Many of us went to school and existed because of the “pardner” money, torn from the meagre wages to pay it.  Many of us who travelled the world never saw our parents “fly out regular”.  Many of us born and grow inna deep rural bush, resettle in Kingston long enough, get educated and trendy, and now forget the humble beginnings.  Many of us have sold our souls and the rest just to maintain a lifestyle and profile that fits is in.  Many who are now accomplishing spent a very long time in the rough and tumble of life, but managed to pull it off, and now a new lease on life has made us hypocrites.

Talk about the well known remittances story that has kept MANY families afloat through rough times.  Far more Jamaicans live outside Jamaica, and many of them try hard to get family members to do likewise, but a lot of us saw the small one bedroom become a three bedroom after years because of remittances.  Many of us get visa applications and plane tickets bought by family and friends abroad, so the crowds at the U.S. Embassy don’t mean “money ah run”.

It is a sad state that a document used for travel purposes is so widely used for photo identification in Jamaica.  Many institutions require two forms of said identification, typically a driver’s license and passport, one of the reasons some persons are compelled to get a passport.  Many are always urged to travel by family, and an increase in fees makes the pressure mount “go tek out yuh passport before it raise”.  Of course they know the money has to be sent as usual, so extra money for increased passport is not in the budget.

Some people find it hard every day to buy a beef patty and a drink, find bus fare, dinner money for one pound of rice and some chicken back on a daily basis.  The art of real survival in Jamaica is challenging even for those with better means.  The fact that a passport lasts is valid for ten years doesn’t remove the fact that it has to be paid for at one time.  Whether it is four thousand five hundred or six thousand five hundred, it is a one time payment.  Not every poor Jamaican is spending twenty grand on hair, shoes and clothes to party every night.  The way poor people party and how should be studied and realised before we paint a broad brush on the activity.  How we see it sometimes with poor people is the SAME with some of us…just a sham meant to look like hype life.  Look at many of us who party and look hype every night…are we prepared to have poor people decide what we “spend” to keep up the profile?  Let’s dissect it.

Social media makes us need to be caught on camera by all the sites possible and take “selfies” to make a million albums, but what’s the perceived cost of our partying to the poor man who is looking at people who are just mostly middle class pretenders?  Just for all-inclusive Labour Day weekend:
5 parties @$4500ea = $22,500
Petrol for Kgn and rural $15,000
Total Outfits for 5 events $100,000
Food before/after 5 parties $8,000
Total $145,000.
Since we party every weekend and don’t repeat outfits for four weekends, for the month that’s $580,000.  The year has 12 months, and although we party more than only weekends for the entire year, the modest estimate is 7 million…without any other expense included.  We can now add car payments, mortgage/rent, regular petrol, daily lunch etc, and jog past ten million.  How much would we need to EARN to spend that money and live this lifestyle?  Or is it REAL expense?  How are so many of us able to do it?  When you have the true answers to that, then you will be able to figure out how “poor people” can pull off the perception at a far lower level.  I’m sure poor people don’t have twenty five grand food events rammed by patrons, but we keep looking at our own celebrations and matching it to theirs.

The fact that some people who can afford two grand were part of the mad crowd at the PICA offices recently doesn’t mean anything for the majority.  The fact that we can afford the old fee and the increased one, means nothing.  The fact that we always find a way to disregard a class of people says a lot about us, especially when many of us are barely a doorstep away from that past or grew up with it as a reality is telling.  Some of us simply join the voices of opinion just to appear in sync with popular sounds while our realities match the very things we curse.

If you own an eighty grand phone you couldn’t afford to buy, and can hardly afford two bills credit twice per day, DO NOT say “two grand ah nuh money”. If you have to budget a flask of rum and chaser with ten cigarettes to hang out with friends, DO NOT say “two grand ah nuh money”.  If you have to ask the price for the shoes you dying to buy to see if you can afford it, DO NOT say “two grand ah nuh money”.  If it bothers you that the Jamaican dollar to the U.S. currency is $116.10 to $1, DO NOT say “two grand ah nuh money”.  If you look at the menu in a restaurant and check the price, DO NOT say “two grand ah nuh money”.  Whatever makes YOU value money, remember two grand also values a lot to the person who CANNOT afford to casually spend it.  Think for a minute that while your mother was cleaning floors for minimum wage to send you to school, you respected her and all she could do with meagre earnings to make ends meet.  You never thought to disrespect HER station in life over two grand…DO NOT believe it is OK to now be classist or classless defining people over two grand.  Two grand means more than many of you are willing to admit.

Rodney S. O. Campbell ©

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G-Sat and Student Zoning

I can still recall my days at Saint Richard’s Primary and the anxiety faced by many of my schoolmates around the time of sitting the dreaded Common Entrance Examination (CEE). This was the hurdle between another year in primary school and a stroll into the hallowed halls of high school. The drills in class, after school extra lessons, a sacrificed summer, all played a part in making us potential candidates for hypertension and a stroke. In looking back I realise most of us were quite prepared academically and intellectually, but a few had exam performance anxiety issues. I firmly believe that every teacher I had was gifted and knew how to make the bright students perform consistently, while being able to raise the levels of under performers to be on par with the rest. Let me hasten to add that the student population was quite a mixed bag from the elite to the underprivileged, with many scholarships being gained by those from any address. The major apprehension was not social background, test aptitude or even the day of the test. The real day of jubilation or judgement was reserved for the arrival of the early morning printed results in the pages of The Daily Gleaner.

Searching in Suspense

It is always amazing that around the world children don’t usually wake up early on their own to get ready for school. However, once these results were printed, nothing compared to a Jamaican child waking up at 4am, barely taking a breath or washing a face, waiting for the newspaper vendors at 5:30am to readily supply a document containing the greatest news on earth…or revealing doom or gloom. The rush for papers was also major with each household seeking to purchase two or three in the name of posterity and pride. Having made the two-minute trip to get the newspaper every morning for years, did very little to slow my anticipation on that cool morning. I had the usual small chatter with Mrs Gordon the vendor, flashed open the paper, and looked for my name. There it was not far from the top of the third column of alphabetically listed names. I remember smiling and planning to trick my now deceased mother into thinking I had not passed, but alas she had already gone to get a ‘fresh off the press’ copy from the Gleaner head office, and already knew the results. Well, at least for the first few minutes she played along and allowed me the joy of spinning my surprise. The spirit at school was upbeat for possibly 98% of those who sat the CEE, with the remaining unsuccessful 2% being assured of a place in a school that was on their list of choices.

The Process Then/Now

Things were quite different then, and I like to believe much more was achieved in giving each student a fair chance. The process was very simple based on the understanding of parents and students. There were a set of exams which matched all you had been taught, mixed with a dose of reasoning ability and common sense. A paper was given to each student prior to exams, which you would take home to consult with your parents about which high schools you would like to attend in order of preference…I think 3 or 4 were allowed. The ability to be placed at the school of first choice was dependent on how well you did on your exams. So, if you smashed it you’d be on the way to first, well enough gave you second or third, and if you failed completely you could apply for a space in an available high school….or repeat the form and resit the exam the following year. That was the basic understanding then, pretty much how it is today if you wanted to attend Yale, Harvard or Howard universities. The issue of a school having the space based on it’s popularity in choice was really an afterthought in the minds of many, but one thing was certain. It didn’t matter what address or socio-economic background…if you did well in those exams you felt certain of a placing at the school of your choice.

G-Sat and the Garrison

Unfortunately, the advent of the Grade Six Achievement Test (G-Sat) has changed that belief and reality. At inception, many teachers and administrators in the education system advised all who would hear that there need to be a shift and change in how parents selected schools. This was not about their need to change choices in schools, but change the address of the student. It was common knowledge, and has been for years, that if your child is taking G-Sat and you expect a placement in a school of your choice, then find an address that is close enough or at least appears to be in keeping with the geographical location. HOW in this day and age in Jamaica with the history we have could this even be remotely possible or be allowed? HOW can the idea of zoning in THIS country even be acceptable? Why should a child from Denham Town Primary who has passed his exams with good scores, and wants to attend Immaculate or Campion, be sent to Denham Town High simply because she/he lives in that community? Why should any suggestion be made that it saves time, money and other expenses to keep a child “close to home” if that child aspires to attend a school of her/his choice? The housekeeper who works in Norbrook keeps asking her employer if she can use her address on the form for her child who is sitting exams…why? because she wants her child to stand a chance of getting into that school and not relegated to ghetto status exposure and socialized deprivation.

Classist Culture

We have had a long history of classist culture in Jamaica and it doesn’t only flow from the rivers of the rich. Many persons from deprived communities have schooled their children in the thought that they can’t proudly declare their ghetto connections until they’ve made it in life and at a level. There was a time some of us wanted our children in certain schools because we figured the infiltration of the lower class was minimal and wouldn’t compromise the quality of the stock. There was also a time when poor people wanted their children in certain schools to refine them and create a new social order and class recognition. Many of these schools we now refer to as “traditional” were founded and existed on the premise of being strictly for the upper class, monied and ‘brown/white’ people. We all know that many of them had NO room for the children of the poor. However, we remain steadfast in our present day thoughts that many of those same schools are still seen as elite and premium and wish to select them for our children to attend. But why not? Why not choose what is perceived to be our ‘Ivy League’ schools? Why should a Jamaican child be denied access to ANY school because of address and not achievements?

New And Rising Stars

There are many schools in Jamaica that were seen years ago as next to nothing. Many of them used sports as a foundation for us to realise and recognize their scholastic achievements. I can list some of them in recent memory that have surpassed expectations and have gone on to do well consistently, but still fail to gain national acceptance and overall commendation. I wonder if some people remember that not so long ago NO ONE was fighting tooth and nail to have their child attend Ardenne High School? Yet, since the coming of a Scripps Howard Spelling Bee champion the tables have turned and the long-standing successes of Ardenne has been accepted. Some others are:

Haile Selassie High
Bridgeport High
Dunoon Technical
Charlie Smith
Tivoli Gardens High

These and many more have achieved successes, even though they’re not on the front burner for the average Jamaican parent or child. Most of them will be filled with children from surrounding and adjoining communities, along with those deemed ‘unable’ to get into the school of their choice. What we should be doing as a country is opening the gateway to high quality education to all, raising the standards of teaching AND the social platforms for these communities, instead of making them believe that their address is a curse and not coincidence. Do we recall that for decades the address of a person could be the difference in who gets a job and doesn’t? Or what position you can attain or not? Do we forget that many people who are today gainfully employed had to lie about where they live just to get a job? Yet we want to start the lives and minds of young, potentially great Jamaicans with the deck stacked against them. It is bad enough that we perpetrate this by the very prep schools we want them to attend, but the reality is this must be corrected and stopped NOW…or we will forever deem and doom our future generations to fail.

Rodney S. O. Campbell ©