Dear Editor,

With some knowledge and experience in agriculture, and having some amount of academic exposure, in addition to being a voter, I believe I am qualified to speak on the captioned subject, in connection to the by-election to be held shortly in Portland Eastern.

Inducements to win votes exist worldwide and take various forms. In Jamaica, some popular inducements targeting particular groups have been chickens and feed, fertiliser and other farm chemicals, seeds, tools, and other farm supplies, tinned mackerel and rice and other grocery items, meals and drinks, phone cards, money, clothes, books and other school supplies, goats, and many more.

Among the inducements being suggested by the two contenders in the political campaign now going on in Portland Eastern are goats by Damion Crawford and books and other school supplies by Ann-Marie Vaz. Whether or not these are practical offerings should be analysed.

The offering of books and other school supplies as vote inducers has been around for quite a while. Many politicians from both the People’s National Party and Jamaica Labour Party have taken the view that the best way to empower poor people is through better education and, as such, have offered books and other school supplies occasionally to potential voters. Given the particular item, and the varying costs, it is not impossible that every child in Portland Eastern could be given something for school by Vaz, who is offering school supplies – either from her own resources or with the help of sponsors – and, therefore, this offer seems doable.

The offering of goats as a vote inducer has been around for many years, but is not as widespread as offering school supplies for many obvious reasons. Among the reasons is that goats are relatively expensive and can only be afforded for a small number of people. As far as I know, a weaner may be had for $10,000, or not much less. If a substantial number of “schoolers” in Portland Eastern were to be provided with goats, this would require thousands of goats, costing millions of dollars, and beyond that would be a major logistics exercise to source, transport, and deliver in Portland Eastern, particularly given that the goat population in Jamaica is relatively low and sparsely distributed, and travelling through some parts of Portland Eastern to deliver goats may be challenging. Recipients of goats would probably need to find funds for rope and swivel, and find time and suitable areas in which to tether their goats daily.

Damion Crawford has announced that a she-goat should be provided for each recipient to use as a start for a business – apparently in goat production, but several rams are going to be needed if the stocks are to be multiplied, and so he needs to provide some rams too, or make arrangements for artificial insemination later on. Therefore, there are several other challenges to be faced by these “schoolers” if Damion was to deliver the goats, including constantly being forced to secure their goats from the praedial larcenists who I believe would have a field day in Portland Eastern given that goats are high-priority stock for this group of criminals.

If Damion Crawford had to make a choice, then, between goats and books, would he have chosen goats as he is now recommending for these “schoolers”? The education one gets from a book may be kept for life and be the basis on which one may be able to acquire goats as Crawford has done, or become whatever else one wants to be. A goat may soon be lost and in Jamaica, it most often ends up being curried. While I don’t know of many truly successful goat farmers in Jamaica, I am aware of a vast number of individuals who are successful because their choice was the book. Most likely the voters of Portland Eastern might have given some thought to this matter, and if these offerings of books or goats have been found to have any significance, the question is: How much will books or goats influence the votes?

Winston Foster

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