College? Not for me

 A few years ago, speaking to a young American, I was shocked when he declared that he was sorry he had gone to college. When I asked him why, he explained that he had wasted four years of his life getting a degree, cum laude too, only to find that the job market for graduates was no good. He told me that all around he heard of the thousands of young people who did not graduate with anything but were making huge sums of money on things like gaming and You Tube.

Interestingly, he did not mention criminal activity though.

I was a bit puzzled as where I come from, Jamaica, higher education had long been considered the route to upward mobility, including financial success.

I guess I am out of step though for I am only realizing that the type of youth that I knew who hungered for higher education, now seem obsolete, especially among young men.

It came home starkly when I was advised recently that two well-advertised scholarships valued at $2.4 million, to our own University of the West Indies, was commanding little interest.

These scholarships were being sponsored by Violet Edwards, a Jamaican, who is one of five people in the world that got a university degree while in their 90’s. (Joan, my views: Reflections on aging (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

Even then I didn’t want to believe there was a serious trend until a friend sent me this recent news item from TVJ. (https://youtu.be/Y9WiSxpcc7I.)

 In the news clip, you see and hear Minister of Agriculture Pernell Charles Jr, bemoaning the fact that there are dozens of scholarships available for which there are no takers.

And to think that for years I have been living under the illusion that just enough scholarships are available for poor students! 😞                                                                    I really shouldn’t be surprised you know but I am genuinely dismayed.

I say I shouldn’t be surprised, for I have known for years that Jamaica is a country where crime definitely pays. 

So if you can get rich quickly and easily through crime, why study?

Even when our criminals are as high profile as Dudus was, the law does not touch them as our security force is super corrupt.

One of the homes alledgedly owned by Dudus

And, there are so many easy ways to make money and openly enjoy the flashy lifestyle in Jamaica without ever being deterred (unless the Americans step in), that those who don’t choose that route could be considered either cowardly or stupid!

Among the easy ways the youth see people making lots of money and living large without studying are; scamming, extortion, drugs, religion and politics.

On the other hand, most who choose the long tedious route involving years of study, after graduation, they end up in jobs which don’t even give them the ability to pay rent in relatively safe neighborhoods, if they don’t get the opportunity to migrate.

Of course, there are exceptions to this general trend, but clearly not enough to give most young people the impetus to pursue the straight and narrow.

Till we tackle this drift, college and higher education will continue to be unattractive to many in the younger generation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never a Dull Moment

I could just see the "Star" headline 'Well Known Bridge Champion Caught With Stolen Car" or better yet "Wife of Criminal Attorney Heads Car Stealing Ring".  

Seriously though, sometimes we forget we live in Jamaica and take these things for a joke when they could be lethal, for had that the "stolen" car not being driven by a lady  but instead by one one of the regular male drivers  the the headline could most likely read  read "Car Thief Shot After Attacking Police with bicycle Pump". So we need to thank god for small mercies and that all ended well.

This was the potential dramatic ending to a wonderful weekend of riding, swimming, eating and frolicking as the members of "Fun and Thrills Adventure Club" rode out in search of fun over the Emancipendence Holidays.

On Emancipation Day, we the sane ones, rode to Caymanas river while the crazies pushed their bikes up to Hollywell.
lol (based on the pictures I saw!)

Caymanas ride was easy and uneventful. I was at Dunrobin at 6.30am as arranged only to see poor Nicole Thompson there as she had been told to meet the other riders at 6.15am.

I had to remind her that there is Jamaica time and then there is Fun and Thrills time. As we waited, up drove Neville anxiously asking if we had seen his sister Lisa as their father Ayatollah had sent him to find her. (Lisa only recently started riding).

Although Nicole assured him she had not passed, full of anxiety, he drove off searching for her. About fifteen minutes later she arrived, amply protected under Pat's riding wing.

All went well until we got to the river where there was rope across the gate and a young man thought he should shake me down for an entry fee of $150.00. When I informed him that the fee was for parking and I was riding, he told me things had changed and we had to pay to swim.

As I started to enter, he tried to block me, but I had to warn him that if he touched me it would be assault, so he sullenly stepped aside. Then he stepped aside for Sheriff but kept the other eight or ten rides who came up after, sweating at the gate.

They eventually got in without paying and all went well at the river although, because of the drought, it was quite shallow.

That suited Theresa fine however as despite all her attempts at diving, she never went below the surface of the water!                                                                                                                       I had actually decided to ride back to Kingston but when I was ready, I discovered that my back tire was punctured. The Ayatollah loaned me his bicycle, but the seat was a bit low and although I did manage to ride to as far as New Haven, when Neville drove up, I jumped into his support vehicle.                                                                                                                                    Being out of it, I only heard the next day that poor Aswaria had an accident and have to get 7 stitches on her foot. She is a good sport so I hope she will be back on her bike soon.

On Sunday we had a more difficult ride, this time to Mountain River Cave. 

As usual, the group was late so when Chully and Chuck rode up, I took off with them. Chuck stopped off at Jose Marti round-about to wait for the others, but we continued until we got to just below Dovecot and saw David waiting with a support vehicle and Grace all saddled up and ready to ride.

I later had her eating crow as she swore to Chully that it would be a flat ride all the way as "She drove that route every day for one term."

Flat ride my foot, it was mostly hill and it is the first time in recent history that I went thorough 4 containers of water.

Chully with his macho-self, rode away and left me just outside Kitson town and as we neared Guanabo Vale, Donovan caught up with me and I stayed with him. We were running out of water then Larry and his sister drove up and gave us a little, just enough to take us to the bottom of Cudjoe hill where Delroy,  a former tenant of mine, lives.

He loaded us up with water and to tell the truth, as the sun was really billowing down, had he not told me it was just a mile left 'and not a country mile either," to our destination, I might have given in to my normal inclination and jumped into an air-conditioned auto.

But I kept struggling up the hill. When we were almost at the top, Donovan's vehicle drove up and he headed to get his fluids then changed his mind and jumped into the vehicle although I assured him that we had less than quarter mile to go.

Alrick and I suspect, Maurice (aka RIBI,) lost money off me as they had expected to see me arriving in a vehicle, but I rode up in fine style only to find out that Chully who had left me in the dust did not ride up the hill, neither did Sean who has become quite a strong rider although he rides infrequently.

After a good breakfast, a lot of clothing material (claats!) were being described by Ayatollah for Barry had taken away his vehicle to go to his farm and it had the swimming clothes for Chully and Fatman.

 I left him ranting and raving and walked down the treacherous path to the river, followed by Alrick and RIBI. I actually had hoped to take the easy route to the river which is beyond the huge rocks that others relish climbing down, but unfortunately the easy route is now overgrown and I was attacked by burrs and insects and had to return with my tail between my legs to where we have to climb down over the huge rocks.

I must admit though, F&T has some real gentlemen, so all was well but (rider) Stanford refused to climb down the rocks so missed a great swim and frolic in the water, which was again quite shallow because of the drought.

As we enjoyed the water and camaraderie, the air was pierced by a blood curdling scream as Bernadette had gone into the cave behind the waterfall and encountered some little 2 inch fish and let out such a scream that would have led a man from Mars to think she had been attacked by a dinosaur!

It was a really great day and I couldn't even remember the woman I had cursed off on the previous visit when she sought to denigrate us with her constant reference to what the "white people' did and how they reacted as opposed to how we did. Typical house slave. Anyway, I don't even know if she was there on Sunday.

As usual, RIBI and a few mad ones rode back whereas most of the us simply got our revenge on the hill by riding down until we got to the flat area then piled into the support vehicles.

On Independence Day the ride was also great, especially when we got to the cool, peaceful Bog Walk Gorge with the Rio Cobre river flowing peacefully beside the road.

Before we got to the Gorge, we were joined by Andrew at Angels, as he had left out early to make a stop. We were running a bit late as Ayatollah had gotten a puncture in Kingston and Charles the second got one at Jose Marti round-about. It was there I saw Barry and was quite surprised as I had assumed he would have ridden with the A team over the hills but he admitted he wasn't a hill rider. (The A team had wanted to ride up to Clydesdale but compromised by joining us but via the difficult route.)

I rode mostly alone but by the time we got to the end of the Gorge, I was dying of thirst as my second bottle was in Chuck's vehicle. Luckily, Carolyn came along and saved my life then when we got to the first coconut stall, everyone stopped, and Maurice treated me to a cool nut.

This was at the back of Jucci Patty where a number of persons had already gathered. We waited a while for the A team but when they failed to arrive, we headed to our final destination. They never arrived till we had headed to the river and were enjoying a wonderful swim as the Rio Cobre which was beautiful and clean this time, unlike the red water we encountered on our first trip there.

When we went up for breakfast, the drama unfolded, for up drove Betty in Bernadette's vehicle closely followed by two severe, no-nonsense looking policemen.

As it unfolded, Bernadette has had tracking equipment in her vehicle for five years and had recently complained to the security company that they were not doing their job properly as her vehicle had gone to all sorts of remote and strange places and they had never called to ask her if she was with the vehicle.

Today was therefore their day of revenge, for Betty had gone to buy gas and couldn't find the switch to unlock the gas tank so the helpful attendant had gone into the car and pressed a button which turned out to be the panic button!

So finally, Bernie's alarm company got some work to do and quickly called the police to let them know a possible kidnapping or car theft had taken place!

 Although Betty said she did not think it was she the police wanted when she first heard the siren, when she finally stopped, it was the clicking sound of the guns that brought her down to earth!

One policeman admitted that it was because she was a lady why they bought the story she told, so they followed her to verify that the owner did in fact give her permission to be in the vehicle. We had a good laugh when it was all over, but I shudder at what might have happened had one of our male counterparts been driving, for the trigger happiness of our police often ends in tragedy for poor young men.

I had to leave early so after breakfast did not even get the opportunity to return that twelve love Carolyn

had given me in St. Mary as I jumped in the first vehicle leaving which was Chuck's, for you know Caymanas racing cannot survive without him!

Breakfast was not too great as I cannot eat our national dish of ackee and saltfish as it makes me sick and there was no mackerel. So I had to settle for liver which I don't really like. The Guinep juice was fantastic though and it was overall, a good day with all ending well.

As Chuck was in a hurry, Maurice and I rode from his home, me downhill all the way and Maurice uphill most of the way, but what the heck, he is a man so he must work!

Incidentally, on my way down, I saw about four or five police vehicles at Wickam Avenue and wondered what major crime had taken place, only to hear on this morning's news that it was a ganja find at an unoccupied house.

As we enjoy our various forays into the countryside however, we must give tremendous thanks to people like Omar, Brian, Sheriff, Donovan, Charles, Ayatollah, Chuck, Mark and the ever-present Howie (except this weekend) and all the other people who have made their vehicles available to us on all these rides and all the people who put up with the boring feat of driving at 5 miles per hour behind us so we can enjoy ourselves. None of this would have been possible without all these great guys and girls who give of their possessions and time so willingly for our pleasure.

A ray of hope?

One of the most lucrative criminal practices in Jamaica and the greatest disincentive to commerce is the extortion racket. Yet for some strange reason neither the police nor the powers that be have exerted much energy to bring it under control. In fact, it has now become so pervasive that not only is it the norm in business districts in Kingston but it has spread like wildfire to May Pen, Mandeville and the northcosast.

The reason for its success is the overwhelming presence of corrupt police, for anyone operating in these business districts will tell you of regularly seeing thugs beating vendors , conductors and taximen into submission while the police turn their heads away or simply walk by. Why?

Because these corrupt police are on the payroll of the extortionists.

While there has been much exuberance expressed over the so-called success of the recent crime initiatives, I have remained very sceptical because of level of corruption in the police force.
I was therefore pleasantly surprised to see the story in the Star of Monday 28th June "Accused extortionists arrested". According to the report, two men were seen on Princess Street extorting money from vendors....." While this would have been a normal exercise in law abiding countries with a reasonably clean police force, such action is such an exception here that it was given page 3 treatment in the Star!

So does this mean that there is now going to be a new thrust by the police to deal with extortion? Will those gangster cops who are in league with extortionists be removed from the force? Will the police be sending undercover cops into commercial areas to observe the behaviour of the uniformed ones who are supposed to be patrolling these areas?

I am nor holding my breath but holding on to a little hope that maybe, just maybe, we are seeing the dawn of a new day.