Crime in Jamaica.
Who is to blame for crime in Jamaica?
We all are. Crime is a social disease. Our country is socially, morally and financially sick.
These are the main causes of crime.
1. Economic necessity – lack of jobs, lack of opportunities, hardship.
2. Indiscipline – lack of socialization and civilized behaviour.
3. Physiological problems, Greed etc.
Money is the root of all evil or the root of all problems. Or is it lack of Money?
Talk to anyone today in Jamaica and the first thing out of their mouth is “beg you ah……” or if they are your friends it’s always “What happen money man, let off a bills nuh”.
The pursuit of money has overshadowed our lives. People are no longer people, they are “Bread winners”, “Tax payers”, or “Stakeholders”.
Economic Crime.
Most Crime, except murder & other physical crimes are all about getting “paid”.
Someone who does not have the legal or sufficient means to earn money wants to take your stuff, so they can sell it or use it.
In the beginning, people steal for basic survival. After a while, it becomes their occupation.
Especially in a society like Jamaica where opportunities for a certain class are “limited”. So we have the development of crime.
In case you missed it, I will repeat. Man steals to feed his children. He cannot get a job, so he steals again. Rent, Light bills, water bills, food, school fees, school uniform, school books, school lunch all require money. And every year the same items increase in price. Stealing and lying go hand in hand. Then we have violence. Sometime during the commission of the crime the victims may fight back or the criminal fears for jail so he injures or kills. The police have guns so the criminals get guns. It’s all about protection. Pointless to go stealing if you won’t make it back. Who will look after your kids? And when you are incarcerated they will have to steal to survive, or other things like prostitution etc. So the criminal generation develops and after 47 years of so called “Independence” there is still no hope for some Jamaicans. The prison population has increased, orphaned youngsters have increased, the price of everything you need has increased and with the “economic crisis” hardship has made everything worse. Even people with jobs which barely pay a living wage will also steal. Police have been accused of corruption, talking money from criminals who are wealthier than they are.
Jobs and hope will go a far way in beginning to make an effect on the crime in the country.
Then there is INDISCIPLINE.
Physical Crime.
Quite likely the society that has no respect for the rule of law, since even government servants, police etc are always pointed at as part of a corrupt society, also has not respect for another person’s life.
Indiscipline is what causes people to lash out, especially violently against others whenever they have an argument, and that’s why we have Domestic Violence which is violence against someone in your household of someone you are quite close to emotionally, & intimately. A properly socialized people might have the cause and concern for human life to not consider it so lightly just because of a disagreement. All too often someone who is angry will say “Mi ah go kill yuh!” Many will tell you they don’t mean it, and many unfortunately do. Why is it necessary to “Kill” someone just because you disagree? Jamaica is not alone with domestic murders but for such a small country with a bankable ‘friendly spirit” we are a little too uptight. We have lost our society and our civility when we continue to encourage a people to be so uncaring and violent towards one another. It is a lack of some kind of education which must be mental in its application to ensure that we truly care for each others lives. It can also be traced to economic causes. A “poor” man with no hope is dead already so taking your life means nothing to him, since clearly his life means nothing to society.
Physiological causes of Crime.
Despite the richness of some economies there are individuals who may be advantaged yet they still steal or commit other crimes.
Economics and money can still be blamed for some of these.
How? The stress level associated with working and inflation can make “good” people “lose it”.
A man who has a job is not any better off that the man without one, because he might have more bills to pay. Don’t look at the number of the money but the percentage that has to be expended. If I make $1,000,000 a year and it costs me 60% of my after tax income to survive, I am just as broke as the man who makes $100,000 and also expends 60% of his after tax income. Inflation affects everyone. Then when there is crime in the country my earnings are affected and the price of my household requirements increases, as well as the protection I need to expend extra money on. Security gate, burglar bars, alarm, gun.
It is a vicious spiral.
Enough to drive you to drink or make you snap. A poor economy leads to health problems.
Then you have habitual criminals and psychos.
It’s often about money and then it’s about health. Some people are crazy and need help. A better economy will cut down on the economic crime and we can spend time trying to deal with mental illness.
There are those who study Psychos and blame their relationship with a parent as cause for their condition. It could possible be seen that maybe the parent was stressed with working to make ends meet and not getting anywhere that they neglected their child. So blame money for everything.
So what do we do? And how do we do it?
Go to page 3…..
SOLUTIONS TO THE CRIME PROBLEM.
Money.
We need to get it out of the way of true civility. It interferes with our humanity.
The daily quest for it, the lying for it, the stealing for it, the cheating for it.
If you didn’t have to work for money what would you do?
Would you paint? Travel? Help others?
A man once said,
“The purpose of human life is to help others, but I don’t know what the others are here for!”.
Who do we help? Usually it is the people who have no money.
We can help them. Really help them. By creating a society that is above money, that works, that is civilized, that has hope and opportunity and fascination and wonder, and we really love our children.
This is the hard part.
The “Economic Crisis” is about the failure of money. The distribution of money and debt.
But it’s a hollow joke.
Why? Because money doesn’t really exist. It’s just a tool for equalizing transactions. It’s just a measure of value of a good or service to create equilibrium in society. It’s just paper.
It’s all Monopoly money. Except in the game Monopoly we start the game with the same amount of money, unlike in life (not the game of LIFE, in all games we all start equal), some of us have the deck stacked against us and have to do unbelievable things to survive. Why should that be so?
It is written somewhere, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;”
We need to be able to look beyond what is normal in today’s economics.
Therefore we must give all citizens in the country an equal start and an equal existence. Sounds like Socialism or Communism doesn’t it. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!
What we need is a Singapore solution.
We must as a nation come up with a plan for National Development. By that I mean a plan to provide everyone with a livable house and a school and a job based on the training that will be available. A society of 2.8 Million people would require a certain number of persons in each occupation. That is what you train towards. Choice would be appropriate in the initial determination of programs to place the “trainees”. Then they could do a Vocational Aptitude test, like is done in the US Military, to place them.
How to pay for all this you ask? Ah!.. the multibillion dollar question.
Let’s recap. The National Plan is to provide housing in communities for all citizens, provide schools for all children, and training institutions for all adults to ensure that all required social services in the country have adequate labour. Hospitals, Police and Firestations, Postoffices, Airports, Bus terminals, Marine Ports – Harbours. Roads, Bridges, Highways. Enough as are needed.
WHERE IS THE MONEY TO COME FROM.
We will have to create it.
We will never earn it.
And it will be too much to borrow, we will never pay it back.
Therefore, the only thing to do is create it.
Let us again look beyond what is normal in today’s world.
Jamaica is an island in the Caribbean Sea. Inhabited by Tainos (Arawaks) for several thousand years their economy flourished and they survived without a central bank or massive trading partners.
If today’s Jamaica was undiscovered and had to exist without trading partners what would be do? Would be survive of would we make do with what we have?
Primary needs – (1) Housing. We have lumber, stone and rock for construction. Alternatives to steel could be found and we have yet to explore for iron ore in Jamaica. We do bauxite mining. We had a steel company once didn’t we?
(2) Power generation – Electricity. Like gold, rare. Alternatives to oil based generation are, Wind turbines, Geo Thermal, Hydro electric, and Solar. If we own the power company and we generate free (cheap) power we control our destiny… and don’t forget Water.. completely surrounded and we have a drought?.. Need to build damns and water desalinization plants nationwide..
Cuba has two currencies in circulation: the Cuban peso (CUP) and the convertible peso (CUC); individuals can buy 24 Cuban pesos (CUP) for each CUC sold or sell 25 Cuban pesos for each CUC bought; enterprises, however, must exchange CUP and CUC at a 1:1 ratio.
We can do something similar.
What I propose we do after we come up with the great plan, is to float another currency to pay for all the internal work in the country. Electronic Money..
(Not finished)