“We are doing Less with More Money”
“… the GDP has been reduced…..we are doing less with more money…..we have now stopped the 14 consecutive quarters of negativity”……PM Portia Simpson.
There is this particular video that is making its usual rounds on social media. The speaker was the Prime Minister of Jamaica.
I am not one that usually seeks gratification from people’s personal mistakes. We are not perfect but we can certainly be careful. Any speech by a Prime Minister or President of a country is I would imagine either written by the leader themselves or by their speech writers and vetted by other departments to ensure the message is not only concise but consistent with the aims and objectives of the governing administration.. Then I would assume the leader would actually spend some time reading the gospel prepared for them to preach. Don’t really need to know the inner mechanism of these operatives. It is just common sense. But the unfortunate pronouncement made by the Prime Minister at her party conference is a shake your head moment at least or an inadvertent admission to the truth of her government’s performance since their election.
(Video: CVM TV) There is not a day in this fair country that someone does not make the headlines as the Comedian of the Day. The recent high climbing tower act by a frustrated singer was the latest one in memory that made the disastrous 7 pm news. No surprises here as stress make you do the craziest of things. But you do not expect this from a Prime Minister, not with all her aides and highly paid writers and secretaries and all the other overpaid civil servants on the taxpayer’s payroll.
Watching the conference on the pitiful TVJ news , you saw the high spirited PM running with a hoard of ‘security’ and her suffering supporters embracing her presence. She looked fit and well. If she could only communicate to the nation and her ministers to keep a healthy body , it would be one of the few things we could credit to her legacy. But that is another topic. I am accustomed to seeing the PM with her dark shades of spectacles , looking sinister and mysterious. Indeed she reminded me in my younger days of a feared security officer who wore a similar dark glass everywhere he went, so much so he was called ‘Man behind the Glass.” But the PM sans her glass, gave me reason to wonder, can she actually see to read her prepared script? She rubbed her face, she rubbed her eyes. She bucked, she stumbled through her speech. I knew she was in trouble. The speech moved no one, not her, not her ministers nor her supporters.
I may be giving away my age when upon seeing her reading the speech I reflected on the days of PM Michael Manley whose message you might not support or be in agreement with but you certainly did not want to miss the delivery. No leader, before or after his death has come close to his charisma or his innate talent of commanding a crowd’s attention.. You were mesmerised to hear him. He lighted up the crowd with his dramatic and inspiring speeches. The world, CNN at the time, carried his speeches live, not just the local TV. When he spoke , even the President of the USA listened. I cannot stay the same thing for this PM or those before her.
The attendance to the conference seems paltry, even by some of the supporters standards. TV has a habit of selecting the most comical persons for soundbites and the persons selected all said the same thing, smiling with their gums devoid of teeth,in their heavy, colorful rural Jamaican accent..
” mi kinda worried bout the attendance…it look bigga a adda conference..”
That may be true, after all one of them attended every conference since he knows himself. I am sure the political triumvirate may be worried as well but politicians are unable to tell the truth even when it hits them in the face like PM Simpson. They are too busy fooling the people all the time so they never listen to themselves. When I listen to the Jamaican politicians, something I seldom do, I believe that their interpretation when they speak about the ‘ people of Jamaica” are only referring to those people just beyond Cross Roads in Kingston and heading south.
This government has done nothing for the middle class in terms of enacting legislation and removing cumbersome bureaucratic cronyism to get that sector producing and creating jobs , which invariably affect their ‘people. The social and economic reality in Jamaica is the 1% of the upper class which includes the politicians are doing just fine. Money crosses from one table to the next, generating interest and foreign exchanges that are held overseas in bank accounts. The economy is set up to benefit them and the economic corruption of paying none or very little taxes is left unchecked.The 90% or the lower class are either struggling to find money to feed their family, or supported by overseas remittances from their families or working if they are lucky to get a job or they make up the many sellers of panties and bras on the streets. That leaves the 9% of the middle class that are the beating bag of the government , paying the heavy brunch of the taxes, paying the increased JPS bills and are yet to hear any member of government, including the PM, say on a public political stage..members of the middle class, i feel your pain! Not one politician has ever done anything to support and promote their economic welfare. They don’t need handouts, they just need an opportunity to grow their businesses and be a part of the Jamaican economy. The PM publicly stated ‘‘she loves poor people..’. That is her mandate. To hell with the rest.
She is correct. Her government has done less with more money. Has she taken a walk in any of the supermarkets lately? Has the PM ever pulled up at the gas station one day and pay $138.00 for gas and the next day pay $142 for the same gas? Has she or any of her party stalwarts been to the hospital lately? Has she or her politicians been to a government office seeking assistance and faced the grueling sloppiness of a civil servant? Has she or her government been to any tourist purveyor and see who controls the tourism market in terms of nationality? Does the PM realize that investments are welcome but cannot be to the detriment of the people of Jamaica where total control is in the hands of the foreigner and the Jamaicans are left as second class citizens in their own country! The PM said her government is doing an excellent job and the economy is up, yet we spend IMF money to import red peas, red peas in this country! She is correct, the government is doing less with more money!
Seeing the video made me shake my head and pondered, not again. Not another politician publicly putting themselves up to be a political sand bag .
Written by Paul Tomlinson
well said.. thumbs up for this. Every thing you say is true…
I am not too apease with your remarks re civil servants. In any organization, whether it be private sector or the aforementioned public sector, you will encounter such behaviour and at times it would be highly satisfactory. Even though the truth prevails fro the mouth of the incumbent head of government, you seem to gather your satisfaction for failure in one place to seek your ego. Where is your solution posted to better anything since you have the medium to broadcast your voice? Pointing fingers will not curb and soothe anything but your ego
A great read. I appreciate the detailed assessment of the speech and by extension, how the government’s policies have affected the country- policies that have eaten away at any credible growth on the middle class – the engine of the economy. If they are doing less with more money, why couldn’t they do more or even what they are doing now the money they had before stamping the IMF deal
I, a Jamaican living in the USA, endorse your message. I also like how you mentioned one of my mentor, the late world leader and younger statesman to his dad, Michael ‘Joshua Manley, some of whose policies with which I did not agree. If I was living in Jamaica I would be a part of the 9% which would be ignored by the government.
Every word that you have written is true. Whoever disagrees has a problem with his or her conscience.
We elect servants who we called leaders Vanessa Jermaine Gayle, who entrust to govern in the interest of the people, but they failed miserably, yet some of us still pretends as if its the opposite. They were elected as a result of their pre-election promises that they will govern in a way to make people’s lives better. You and other party sympathizers should just realize that the Prime Minister’s “mistake” is just the truth that came out by mistake.
This article is amazing!! well written. I don’t often tune it to what the “Leaders” of our country are up to but the few times I do it’s always a shake head moment. We who identify the flaws in the system need to unite and make changes.
All I say is this we may not agree with everything our government does. However if I constantly degraded my children they would probably not grow up to be good citizens. So same for the government if I constantly degrade them then they won’t be anything but that as they will become what the public wants. What if the country had a change in perspective and started believing and expecting them to perform by telling them “You can do it”. Is this not what our children needs? Well same for government we need to stop thinking along the lines we… Read more »
How can a nation gain confidence to propel itself forward after hearing our head of state address.
Forgive me, but when I see this woman it’s like watching a comedy sketch…seriously surreal lol
Can we get over that PSM is not suited for the position and instead use our voices to make a change in the Party and demand a higher level from our leaders instead of writing articles to analyse a 1 minute sound byte?
We spend so much time berating her that we have not actually determined what it is that we should have in a leader….
Amen, my brother!