Buildings Without Consideration for People With Disabilities

  

Jamaica is an island where social services for persons with disabilities are not commonly seen throughout the country. So, people with disabilities have to contend with the daily difficulties that impede their ability to be self-sufficient during their daily movements outside their homes. Even today, newly constructed commercial buildings are not attainable to those persons with disabilities which means that they have continued to experience problems accessing not only the top level floors but even the first level. This problem was commonly noticed in the new city of Portmore where recently constructed buildings such as a medical complex, which is expected to cater to the sick and people with disabilities, do not provide them with accommodations to get  to the upper level floors. Since previous and current Jamaican governments has never given any attention to even the buildings they occupy, there is no surprise in their lack of efforts in introducing laws that ensure that commercial buildings throughout the island are constructed with disability access.

New Secondary Schools in Jamaica Set Up To Fail

The educational system in Jamaica creates a dividing environment that has throughout the years set up the new secondary schools to fail. These schools have been established since the 1940s, and at that time,  were known then as senior schools. Subsequent name changes were made for them to be called: junior secondary schools, new secondary schools, and eventually high schools. While the Ministry of Education plays with the name changes, it slyly diverts from the main issue by making no effort to balance the new secondary schools' enrollment with high achiever that normally gravitate to the traditional high schools. Throughout the years, these new secondary schools have developed a stigma that has left a negative, lasting impression on those young primary school and prep school children and their parents who will not consider those new secondary schools as suitable institutions to attend when asked to make the preferred high school choices. So, of course, the traditional high schools that have made a name for themselves over the years have continued to be considered as first choices to attend versus the new secondary schools. Therefore, the Ministry of Education, while under both the PNP and JLP leaderships, have continued to maintain the divisive practice that permits the brightest students to gravitate to certain traditional schools which, of course, will always produce many students who excel academically. On the other hand, the governments' intentional oversight or convenient silence of the need to balance students enrollment in all secondary schools based on students' varied learning abilities mean that the nation will continue with the age-old problem of segregating students from each other on their academic capabilities. This system has been ingrained in the mentality of Jamaicans since the British colonial era. So, the problem does not stop with the secondary schools, as it continues to adulthood in a country that promotes classism. Undoing a poor educational system that has been in place over decades would be a challenge especially since it may be met with objections from those stakeholders who will do all that is possible to maintain the backward colonial policies that divide students based on their academic abilities. An education system that relegates some students to succeed and others to fail does not benefit a country's development.

Education System Fosters Majority Failing Underclass

Port Authority of Jamaica - Pension Double Standards

Many may remember the 2016 report of Paula Monroe-Ellis, the Auditor General, that uncovered how the Port Authority of Jamaica's board members authorized outrageous multi-million dollar "golden parachute" pension payments to three senior officers with one receiving over $146 million dollars in pensions and gratuity. These officers had initially been entitled to pricey pension packages when the board disregarded government guidelines and approved exorbitant multi-million dollar payouts to their colleagues. Furthermore, the auditor's report uncovered that this same board at the Port Authority of Jamaica under the leadership of Messrs. Hilton and Shirley authorized payments of over $15 million in gratuity to other senior officers. However, while the decision makers at Port Authority of Jamaica did not hesitate in authorizing multi-million dollar pension increases to their equals, pension increase requests of low income level retirees do not stand a chance of any consideration although these retirees can barely survive on the minimum pension payments as they struggle daily with the constant rising costs of living. Port Authority of Jamaica's CEO and also the vice president of Human Resources' reasoning for denial of pension increase in one particular case is that the employee signed a pension contract, so the retiree is bound by the signed document. Yet, this frivolous reasoning did not seem to apply to those senior officers who were given multi-million dollar increases although they too signed and were bound by an initial pension agreement. The curt, unsympathetic response from the Port Authority of Jamaica's executives to the retiree's pension increase request is an example that in Jamaica there still exists a blatant disregard for those with no influence while systematic class-based preferential treatment continues to be shelled out to the connected and affluent.
Senior Port Authority Officers Get Multimillion-Dollar Payments To Which They Are Not Entitled

Jamaica Prime Minister's Attorney's Murder Case Lags Behind

Since October 1st, 2016, a man was murdered by gunshot and stab wounds at the home of attorney, Patrick Bailey. No one seemed to immediately know the victim's identity and the reasons for his overnight stay at the home of the attorney, so chatter around town indicates that people have made their own salacious assumptions. In normal circumstances when a murder occurs, there would be a police investigation into the case. However, this crime was different in that it was committed by a well-known attorney who not only has represented the wealthy, including politicians, but has been considered a part of the upper-class for his own rich standards of living even though a court later gave the go-ahead for him to stand trial for defrauding a client out of millions of dollars. Well after Bailey's doctor advised for the "stressed" Bailey to be on bed-rest after the murder and should not speak to the police, the former police commissioner did not mention why the case had seemed to be going anywhere. Furthermore, neither the former security minister, Robert Montague nor the Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, would respond to inquiries in parliament or elsewhere on the lack of public knowledge on the progress of the murder case. But, since Mr. Bailey is the attorney for the prime minister, this bears no surprise for their non-response that has lead to the suppositions why the case has been dragging. It appears these politicians believe that with silence, and the fact that this victim was not a public figure, memories of the case will somehow be erased from people's minds as time progresses. So, there is an expectation that no one with ever remember that Patrick Bailey's political connections affected the progress of his case. But, the records of the crime will always remain public so when people hear his name, the first impression among the many other negatives, is that a man was murdered at Patrick Bailey's home, and no other persons were present except for Bailey himself.

Death At Prominent Attorney's Home

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When Government Ministers Won't Retire

Many were curious as to why efforts were not made earlier to oust Robert Mugabe from his long reign of Zimbabwe until the ripe age 93 years old. Similar curiosity lies with such Jamaican government ministers as Mike Henry, who is now over 80 years old. Why has he not yet called it quits after serving in politics and the Jamaican government for so many years?  However, ironically,  many workers are forced out of their government jobs in Jamaica immediately when they reach the retirement age although some are generally not ready to leave and are still quite capable of continuing to work several more years thereafter. But, government ministers in politics seem to be immune from the national retirement standards. Mike Henry is one of them who continues to be entrusted with cabinet ministerial positions for the ruling JLP party although he is way past the age of retirement. This selfish practice impedes the younger generation from undertaking and growing in government leadership positions. It is time, Mr. Henry, to graciously move on and allow younger politicians to take over your current responsibilities. May be the demotion from the Minister of Transport to a Minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister is a signal that it is time to move on.