BY FRANCINE BLACK, Staff Reporter
WHY IS THAT some Jamaicans who migrate overseas act as if those of us who remain should be sorry?
Not everyone in Jamaica is suffering and although crime is high, the police are trying to keep the levels down with some success.
Recently I met one woman who acted as if those of us remaining in Jamaica were "bad lucked" because we were not overseas.
HORRIBLE LIVING
I was talking quite fine with the woman up until the point when she heard that I was from Jamaica. "I don't know how you still do it. I mean down there is so horrible," she said.
At that point (being the patriotic person that I am), I tried to reassure her that although crime was in the island, it wasn't everywhere and people were still prospering and doing well nonetheless.
All this time I thought she was a foreigner who happened to have been a victim of the island's bad publicity, but then she said 'Anyway take care of the place for me because I soon come home.'
The statement shocked me because the way she spoke before sounded as if Jamaica was not somewhere she wanted to visit, much less live.
While I found this woman's behaviour offensive, it's not something unique to her. So many persons still believe that going to foreign is a profession. If you see John Brown after 15 years and you ask him what he is doing, his answer might be, "Mi deh a foreign." As if that is a job.
Some of them who are acting as if the streets of 'foreign' are lined with gold are in worse positions than they would have been if they remained in Jamaica.
Apart from accepting menial jobs which they would never do in Jamaica, some of them endure racism and have to be constantly on the run because of their illegal status in the country they are living in.
I am not saying that those Jamaicans who have migrated are not prospering. The fact is, with the Jamaica dollar devaluing, they are definitely making money that some of them would never get at home.
NOT SUFFERING
However, since they choose to leave, there is no need for them to make the rest of us appear as sufferers. There are many hard-working Jamaicans who have been achieving the dream home, car and lifestyle, without leaving the island.
Instead of bashing us, they should help to build the island, not only by sending remittances. Invest in the country, encourage friends and acquaintances to visit and where possible, use your expertise to help develop some community or industry locally.
If we all give back and work together to build Jamaica, it can become a place where we can all be proud of. It can become a place free of crime, free of poverty, free of suffering. It can become an island with no problems.
email francineblack@lycos.com
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