Going Round In Circles or Getting Nowhere Getting Old in Jamaica

Jamaica just celebrated Fifty Two years of Independence. There are two Bank Holidays to commemorate Emancipation and Independence. Schools already out for the Summer, so school kids had a whate of a time enjoying the season and the holidays.

A lot of effort was placed on getting the National Stadium prepared for the Grand Gala  Parade. Both Television Stations carried the event Live and although money not running as we would all want, we all nevertheless enjoyed the celebrations in our own different ways.

I tried to enjoy myself flipping from FLOW channel 110 to channel 112 and vice-verse and comparing presentations by TvJ and CVM. I had to notice that our Prime Minister, true to her words, was Working, Working, Working from early in the morning at Kings House right through to late evening at the Grand Gala.
I at first wondered why was it that Andrew Holness, Leader of the Opposition, had to use a Proxy for the morning Session at Kings House. It later dawned on me that it was an effective if not a Smart move to have assigned the job to one of his Senators. The message was easier delivered to the populace without the usual rhetoric of not wanting to hear Andrew Holness or the JLP tell Jamaica his/their version of the bitter truth. So perhaps people would remember the message.
The message certainly made me wonder about the 20% Jamaicans that were already citizens of Jamaica at Independence some 52 years ago.It also made me wonder about other foreign nationals privileged to witness Jamaica's fifty second independence ceremony - if they were able to remember their own country's first day of independence; whether they were able to reflect on their country's socioeconomic achievements. What grade would they give their leaders in delivering the mandate of Day 1 to their 80% youth members half a Century later.

It made me very sad that outwardly all appears to be well, but inwardly the suffering, the challenges and the pain are raw to the bone. Having worked so hard in this country for 36 years and paid my dues, I have nothing to show for it - at least in the way my parents would have wished for several years ago. Claudette Crooks of Money Masters Ltd. shows us daily (Monday to Thursday - 5.30 p.m.) on Nation Wide News Network Radio how to be financially prudent and how to prepare for retirement. And every evening at 5.30 p.m. I answered her by saying that I bought a commercial property as investment property that would be my retirement income one day. Now, what good is it if one has a commercial property in excess of US $300,000 if one can neither sell nor rent it? Business in Jamaica is so stagnated that old entrepreneurs can't access financing to turn around their businesses and young entrepreneurs haven't the wherewithal or the 'backative' to finance Real Estate purchase or lease to get their fledgling business going.  If one has a similar property in London, New York or Dusseldorf, one could confidently say that  one has a retirement income at age 60 instead of having to compare oneself with that Financial Services Commission (FSC) advertisement where the poor guy has "no Pension" because ''Business Marsh Up ". Yet the same FSC 'allowed' the likes of David Smith of Olint get away with duping several Jamaicans and Jamaican Businesses including Financial Institutions of their hard earned dollars.Nothing to date has happened to get a redress of Jamaica's version of American Greed.

The writer has shyed away from writing for several years under the guise of experiencing 'burn-out'. Well this writer has decided to come out of the woods especially when one has nothing else to lose but one's life - after one's back has gotten tired of being against the proverbial wall.

This is just an introduction to the topic of : Going Round In Circles or Getting Nowhere Getting Old in Jamaica. The writer intends to post under this topic certain  experience with the Jamaica Public Service, National Water Commission, LIME, DigiCel, Flow, NIS and NHT to name but a few. The writer  invites readers who have factual information and who want to write about it to contact us.

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