What's in a name as long as it spells jobs?

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Government's Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP) is a well intentioned poverty alleviation initiative, crash programme or not, which is desperately needed in an economy which has a high rate of unemployment such as ours.

Once again, a potentially useful programme has hit a rocky road, not on the basis of its potential for good, but because of the need for political point-scoring, a problem which has hampered the implementation of government policies since Independence. Let's face it, the people who have not worked for years don't care who started what.

This claim of paternity by the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party's (PNP's) claim of maternity both smack of the usual political tribalism that we are so desperate to put behind us, especially after 50 years of Independence.

In the same breath, we wish to condemn in the strongest possible way the call by Comrades to remove Labourites from jobs on the Fern Gully main road development project in St Ann. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller should immediately make it known that that crab-in-a-barrel mentality will not be allowed to stand.

It is our view that a government programme does not belong to a political party but to the people of the country. All ideas are the evolution of a series of earlier contributing ideas and therefore ideas are the product of collective cerebral interaction. It is ironic, if not transparently dishonest, for the JLP to claim that the JEEP was a repackaging of their programmes when less than a month ago in the general election campaign they dismissed it as unworkable. It would be equally dishonest if the PNP did not acknowledge its antecedents.

This is not a zero-sum game and the benefits are much less if there is no equity in distribution and participation, in which the only criteria for selection must be that the person is Jamaican, willing and able.

JEEP, as conceived, if it remains on the straight and narrow in its design and implementation, can make an economic contribution to employment, infrastructure and the environment. The scale on which the programme is implemented will depend on the allocation within a budget in which half has to be used to pay debt and resources from external development institutions.

JEEP is compatible with the road improvement programme which the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) had already approved, and the funds are ready for disbursement. The pertinent information on the road improvement programme can be found on the IDB website.

We are pleased that a campaign promise is being fulfilled, given the failure of so many others, and Dr Peter Phillips, the finance minister, must be congratulated for moving quickly and decisively to harness the IDB funding, irrespective of who the negotiator was.

We'd hate to see a return to the days of the senseless name games which gave us things like the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), then the Agency for Public Information (API) then back to JIS; and the National Youth Service, then the Human Employment And Resource Training (HEART) Trust, among others.

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COMMENTS (18)

4/25/2012

Brukins, Let's agree to disagree beaucse you have your firm belief and so do I People should not have fun sex with multiple partners? then produce kids from uncaring men, then want the state to be responsible for their care PERIOD. That lady at 00:54, don't her children go to public school? She should pay someone must pay for them. It can't be loans, loans more loans. Tax what that they eat beaucse that's the only way to pull them in the taxnet.

4/20/2012

You people hsould come out and protest against the everyday killing by gunmen just the same because no investors will invest in jamaica's killing fields.The gunmen are stifling your potential progress. just remember government don't provide real jobs, it's the private sector that provide jobs. We can't overtax them because they will be more reluctant to invest. The big new hotel that have 10yrs 10 15? yrs tax abatement that was granted by Omar Davies. Oh what hypocrits they are.

nervous investor
1/28/2012

The fact is that RE-branding a program organized and funded through JLP efforts as being the NEW Government's own creation (JEEP) - around a month into their administration - is nothing short of dishonest and a three card trick version to fool up the masses. So sad.

Anthony Johnson
1/27/2012

I believe the other day about 600,000 plus people voted in the recently held elections plus another 900,000 who didn't vote, that makes 1.5 million......and I am sure that a lot of these voters have no jobs and are you telling me that Mama P can only roll out 700 jobs for the masses of people that voted for her. In fact it can't even start, Omar decided to park it for now. What a big joke and laughing stock this party is though. A wonder if Omar & Mama P looking to buy a bigger JEEP...LOL

Tom Stroke
1/25/2012

Mr Editor, not to be long and winding, but since you appear to endorse JEEP. Does it make any sense for Mama P to be bringing in health workers from Cuba as reported in an article last week or there about, and will be paying them high wages, meanwhile, all that is provided for the Jamaican people, is for them to bush road and clean gullies? Is this the kind of help that Mama P said during the election that will be on the way? Is this not pure and undiluted madness? Simply amazing.

Tom Stroke
1/25/2012

Mr Editor, please think hard and long on this editorial you wrote today. To begin with, what will happen when the money is done in a few weeks? Will Mama P and crew be identifying more borrowed funds to feed the unemployed? So, will this become a cycle of adding to the massive debt for poverty alleviation crash program? Where will it end? That aside, the manner in which the 700 jobs was announced by Mama P was deceptive. Today we hear out musicians and others, bellowing about the need to protect intellectual property rights. You cannot simply rename an artist song and call it your own, or rename a musician’s album and declare that it is your work. Then turn around and ask, what’s in a name when it spells entertainment? This is an issue at many university, where students pass off work they copied elsewhere as their own. It may be the reason why many of our so-called intellectuals in high places in this society cannot figure their way out of a wet paper bag. We need original thinking. No wonder the country is in this sorry state.

Will Will
1/25/2012

Nejeeper KNG , I tried to reply to you yesterday but comment on the article " We want to take over the work now" was closed. I do hope the publisher will allow me to do so today and hope you see my reply.
Nejeeper KNG, I would certainly hope that the Government would have all the expertise to embark on target market research abroad so as to produce and deliver high quality products at competitive prices to those markets. These ventures, however, should be profit based, albeit less than would be required by private equity. In so doing, the profit generated should be shared more equitably amongst the workers to raise their standard of living and to sustain future outlays for the businesses. These operations should in no way be sustained by the already overburdened taxpayers.

Tajai Grant
1/25/2012

Mr. Editor you are on record denouncing crash programs. Have your stance changed? Are you now in support of Crash Programs? BIG UP CLOVIS

Tajai Grant
1/25/2012

Mr. Editor I do not support your stance, you have missed the point. All the Opposition asked for was for the Govt to be honest with whatever they are implementing. What u have choose to address is petty in comparison to the scandalous way in which the program is being implemented where MPs are consulting with Councillors to give out jobs. Dnt u see that this is clear vote buying for the Local Govt election. That's not the functions of MPs and Councillors.

Nejeeper KNG
1/25/2012

The fact is; successive Govt has been borrowing to pay public sector wages among other things. The debt to GDP ratio is a sign that we are not producing enough to change the economic status. Growth/productivity should be encourage and support by the Govt by means of policies and incentives. The Govt should do for the people what they can’t do for themselves and nothing more. A country doesn’t grow economically by investing in dependencies it grows by investing in education. Stop the handouts!!

Nejeeper KNG
1/25/2012

In a time when developed countries are making drastic cuts with a focus on increasing efficacy; how can developing country increase expenditure (especially being in debt) and grow their economy? JEEP should have more emphasis on training. Everyone collecting a paycheck from the Govt (via JEEP) should enroll in a training program to develop necessary skills so they can contribute to the growth of the country if not Jamaica will be permanent welfare state. Stop the tribal handouts!!

Meat Head
1/25/2012

Agreed - the source of the idea for JDIP/JEEP is irrelevant. What is relevant is how the dollars will be spent, whether politics will overcome economics in deciding who does the work and where it's done. Obviously, the temptation will be to reward the faithful, which could mean replacing competent with incompetent workers, and/or doing work where it is not critically needed. That is, if tradition holds, in 5 years, we could be worse off economically than we are now.

ras london
1/25/2012

Why are so many people complaining about a crash program. If it takes care of an immediate need until we get to long term solution then so be it. Some always quote the proverb "teach a guy to fish..." but while he is learning how to fish he needs his immediate needs taken care of like paying bills, car fare, sending children to school etc. It's not that some don't want to work but the reality is that there are only a few jobs available.

0o k
1/25/2012

....except the Comrade Leadership rubbished all the previous JLP Government achievements claiming it was on their books.
In any case it would be interesting to find out by which magic a 100 person programme got expanded to 700, using the same funds?
....and how it is Tribalism to point out hypocrisy?

enquiring mind
1/25/2012

The IDB funding was already harnessed, with the MOU signed for the training of persons who would then be signed and held to performance based contracts. Now we have 700 persons chopping bush and cleaning drains. Definitely not the same end result.
Additionally, it is disingenuous to announce a start of a highly touted program without disclosing that it is actually a re-branded program that already existed.

Peter Lawrence
1/25/2012

The only time I've ever benefited from politics is as a teenager with A levels. Our MP lived in the community and he gave me a letter of recommendation which I took with me to a job interview ,along with one from a Pastor and another from a businessman who knew my father. My Dad believed everyone should work to pay their way in life, and I am not so sure I would be welcome at his dinner table if I did not. So why the fuss if people WANT to WORK to NYAM a food? lets get to the real nitty gritty.

Will Will
1/25/2012

Politicians on either side of the political divide who are staking claim for first conceptualizing the jobs program are rather childish and are exhibiting a nitpicking mentality that borders on idiocy. The greatest concern should be focused on how the program will be funded. Will this be an open ended program being funded by borrowing? And if so, would this debt be an additional tax burden to the middle and lower class that are already overtaxed? Or, would this program be thoroughly thought through and be launched as a self sustaining revenue generating entity? If not, then funds should be sourced from the wealthiest in the country and perhaps even the Parliamentarians whose recent salary increase alone may have amounted to the annual salaries of about 10 unskilled workers.

wanda woeman
1/25/2012

How come when the transportation center was opened in Kingston or the cruise ship pier opened in Falmouth we did not hear claims of PNP paternity?
Neither did the PNP come out and say anything. What is wrong with the JLP? They got their chance and blew it.
I see where the JFJ has now got into the act.

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What's in a name as long as it spells jobs?