Dear Editor,
Yesterday (December 1, 2014) was the date of the by-election in my home parish of Westmoreland and I have been bombarded with questions of who I was voting for by both friends and morons alike.
Joke's on them because I'm not even registered to vote, but I had a bit of fun telling them I'm selling my vote. That sure got some tongues wagging.
On a more serious note, I am disappointed in myself for not being registered to vote. Our political leaders of yonder years worked hard to grant me this right and it was one of the few things that they actually got right when they weren't trying to eat each other's head off.
Even more disappointing is that many people of my age group share the same apathy towards elections of any kind. The prevailing statement is that "nutten nah go change, so why bother?" Why should I wake up, put on good clothes to enter a polling station, spend taxi fare to get to the polling station, stand in line for hours, just to vote for years of the same treatment, bad roads, low to no employment, and favoritism with taxpayers' money? 'Waste a mi taxi fare that.' We've heard the promises, seen the curry goat and, frankly, we are bored with it all.
Holness has been out and about, wandering around the parish, even in my hometown of George's Plain, promising a change. Our illustrious prime minister graced us with her presence and declared that Westmoreland was "PNP country". The collective hissing of teeth is an understatement as a response to either of them since it barely registered the frustration we feel.
Westmoreland, no the western side of the island, is like a country to itself; only being remembered when votes are needed. The diehards will, of course, disagree, saying that we benefited and will be out in their numbers screaming, "Shower!" or "Power!", whichever makes them comfortable to sleep at nights. But the majority of us will be on the sidelines, at a rum bar, or on the plazas looking on and sardonically chuckling to ourselves because we know that, when the election is done, we'll be singing Vybz Kartel's Life We Living.
I once heard an elder state that, for politicians, Jamaica stops at MoBay, "after that a just country dem call wi. Free land, free vote, cane piece, bad road an nutten more wi be to dem". As the years pass, we can add gullible to the list.
Patrick Lawson Jr
shhayyne@live.com
One-day election wonder
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Yesterday (December 1, 2014) was the date of the by-election in my home parish of Westmoreland and I have been bombarded with questions of who I was voting for by both friends and morons alike.
Joke's on them because I'm not even registered to vote, but I had a bit of fun telling them I'm selling my vote. That sure got some tongues wagging.
On a more serious note, I am disappointed in myself for not being registered to vote. Our political leaders of yonder years worked hard to grant me this right and it was one of the few things that they actually got right when they weren't trying to eat each other's head off.
Even more disappointing is that many people of my age group share the same apathy towards elections of any kind. The prevailing statement is that "nutten nah go change, so why bother?" Why should I wake up, put on good clothes to enter a polling station, spend taxi fare to get to the polling station, stand in line for hours, just to vote for years of the same treatment, bad roads, low to no employment, and favoritism with taxpayers' money? 'Waste a mi taxi fare that.' We've heard the promises, seen the curry goat and, frankly, we are bored with it all.
Holness has been out and about, wandering around the parish, even in my hometown of George's Plain, promising a change. Our illustrious prime minister graced us with her presence and declared that Westmoreland was "PNP country". The collective hissing of teeth is an understatement as a response to either of them since it barely registered the frustration we feel.
Westmoreland, no the western side of the island, is like a country to itself; only being remembered when votes are needed. The diehards will, of course, disagree, saying that we benefited and will be out in their numbers screaming, "Shower!" or "Power!", whichever makes them comfortable to sleep at nights. But the majority of us will be on the sidelines, at a rum bar, or on the plazas looking on and sardonically chuckling to ourselves because we know that, when the election is done, we'll be singing Vybz Kartel's Life We Living.
I once heard an elder state that, for politicians, Jamaica stops at MoBay, "after that a just country dem call wi. Free land, free vote, cane piece, bad road an nutten more wi be to dem". As the years pass, we can add gullible to the list.
Patrick Lawson Jr
shhayyne@live.com
One-day election wonder
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