Women are the agents of social change!

From the Book " Children of the Jamaican Working Class" 

Copyright © Crystal Evans 

I was watching a local television report where an elderly lady living in a zinc house. When I say zinc, I mean the entire structure is made out of zinc.  The middle age lady claimed that she and her daughter lives in the house with several children. She has seven children and her daughter has two. She went on to show the news crew her father's house which was made out of Zinc and Tarpaulin. I shook my head. Several generations of poverty and no one is making an attempt to improve the situation. I kept wondering what happened to the daughter's baby daddies.  They are suppose to provide shelter for their children. 

I don't know about any woman but I refuse to allow some man to " cock me up" anywhere and impregnate me. I mean if you don't have any where to put the head on your neck, you should not be in a rush to shove the one between your legs into an orifice. 

I stand firm by my belief that having too many children is the main culprit for the social maladies we experience including criminality and poverty.  This is something I observed from childhood. 

Mother has five children for five different man. Every man comes and promises to enrich her life and take care of the children. He leaves as soon as she gets pregnant for fear of committing to the financial burden of providing for her and her offsprings. 

Her sons grow up with feelings of inadequacy because they cannot buy " clarkes" to wear go school and not one teenage girl would glance their way cause they are not wearing Hollister and Polo. By the time they are fifteen, they become embarrass of living in the small house with mother and the smaller siblings. As the new man in the house. The son develops a growing sense of responsibility to his mother and kinship. He attempts to alleviate his mother's financial problems by turning to crime. He might die leaving children fathered by him for his already poor mother to take care of. The cycle continues... 

Daughters sometimes make the same mistake as the mother. She is often blackmailed or forced into relationship with older men who knowing the financial plight of the family offers to help finance her education in exchange for sex. Mother may or may not be aware of the arrangement as well as she might be complicit with it. The girl gets pregnant and the man abandons the union because he did not want a child or any form of commitment.  The daughter brings one more mouth to feed in the already crammed dwelling. If she does not wise up then very soon some other man will promise her financial security the way they did her mother. She will end up having children, she too cannot take care of. The cycle will no doubt continue. This is a transgenerational cycle of poverty and it will not stop until someone puts a condom on. 

Women are the agents of social change. Control how many babies we have and we could change the world. We cannot deny the connection between having too many children and poverty.  We know that poverty leads to more crime. Contraception literally saves lives.

Family structure contributing to the cycle of poverty in Jamaica

People say time hard yet I see Jamaicans wearing expensive clothes and hairstyles. I cannot understand how you can afford to maintain a particular appearance and yet your children cannot go to school nor can you provide their nutritional needs. 

I am of the opinion that we need to establish a statutes that precludes women of a certain financial background from having a certain amount of children. This might sound prejudicial or even classist but it is consistently factual that our lawless young men are often from a background of a struggling single mother with too many children. 

It simply means that the mother who fails to adequately provide for her children will often lead children to find creative and illegal ways of fending for themselves when they are old enough to understand their economical situations. Look at it this way. The woman who lives in the one room house with the five children has a higher percentage rate of. Inadvertently contributing to the crime rate in the next ten years. 

Her son will become ashamed of the one room house that he lives in by time he attends high school. He will try to hustle to change or improve his mother's and siblings financial status. This is one of the reasons why we have so many teenage scammers. The teenage boy will most likely stop going to school either because he cannot afford it or his new found "job" is providing so much money that school now seems obsolete. 

This "job" that he gets will in most circumstances be illegal. His mother might it may not be cognizant of where he is getting money from to feed their family. Chances are he will end up in jail or in the morgue by way of his own circles or police officers. This mother might lose several sons to criminality and lawlessness because every younger son will attempt to either improve or undone what the eldest died for. These boys have a misconception about masculinity. They believe that their manhood is defined by how dangerous they appear to society. 

There is a flip side to story. The single mother's daughters will leave home early to live or sleep with an older man who can assist in financing her eduction. The mother will allow this because she cannot afford to supplement the needs of the teenage daughter including clothes and school money. If the teenage daughter is not smart or the man involved does not love her. She will get pregnant and bring another mouth to feed into her mother's house to feed.

The cycle of poverty continues threefolds and spans generation until someone decides to put and end to it and start another family history. 

The cycle is perpetuated by the teenage daughters children who might end up like herself or her brothers. Young men who die from a life of criminality often leave children behind who has mothers similar to their own mothers. We have a family with career criminals and matriarchal family structure that is transgenerational in Jamaica. 

My beef with women in Jamaica that have too many children or who do not pay specially attentions to the needs of their children is that they are creating menaces to society without even knowing it. I know our women can do better because I know women with several children who made sacrifices to ensure that their children become good adults and have better futures than they did. 

People Mistakes and some

Of us have to make them several times before we understand  fully understand the scope of our choices. You have no choice in the consequences of your actions but you must remained committed to improving your life and that of your children. 

Be careful what you do with your child. What you teach him and the type of behaviors that you encouraged. The rest of the world will have the live with that person that you created. If he becomes a liability to his society the you will surely bury him. 

Legalizing procreation in Jamaica

We are the World, We are the Future!!!

I once read a book that asserts that If there was a law that forbade people who were not financially able from starting a family then we would have a better society. 

The author may have some truths in his claims because the dominant factor in the social maladies affecting Jamaica ties to people who were born in poverty. Most if not all criminals have similar backgrounds, single parent mother with several other smaller children, absentee father and high school drop out. It is a fact that most felons have similar familial and social backgrounds. It means that crime is endemic to lower socio economic groups. 

The author claims that basic child rights would be secured and the standard of living improved  because we could not procreate without first improving our economical standards. 

We would not have great poor masses as the poverty lines would be marginalized and therefore the poor population contained. If poverty is reduced then criminality is easier controlled and tracked in its small pocket groups. Reducing the poor population also minimizes our long term exposure to criminality. 

The author endorses the need for government to pass a legislature that forbade persons who are not financially capable from having children or too much for that manner. Some might say this is unnecessary because we have a free system of healthcare and access  to contraception. 

It is indicative that unwanted pregnancies and derelict women having children may be attributable to deeper social problems than merely sanctioning reproduction. 

If basic financial stability is made a legal requirement before one can start a family the author purports that this prerequisites  would preclude children from being born into poverty, without proper nutrition l, shelter and access to education and health care which would in turn create a stable environment. 

Most young people I know who choose a life of debauchery have backgrounds tied to poverty and mothers who bred too many children. A young man growing up in a family setting where mother has too many children will become embarrassed by the time he is a teenager of the way he lives. His mother might encourage him due to his academical failures in school to seek a trade or work. She might be unable to continue his education and he begins to seek subsistence elsewhere. 

If he chooses a life of crime. He will become a scammer, a robber or a lackey for some criminal network. He can get money to give to his mother to take care of his siblings and improve her economical standings by expanding her house. The mother might or might not be privy to what he does for a living. 

A female in a similar family settings may begin sexual relations with older men in order to continue her education or contribute to the maintenance of the household. Some mothers intentionally push their daughters into these situations. In many cases, you have a woman with daughters, who are all high school dropouts and teenage mothers. The mother often hopes the daughter manages to "use her head" and continue her education, some do but many become just like their mothers. 

Many homes have mothers and their daughters having babies in the same year. Grandmothers pregnant with several small children and grand children in what may be referred to as a single family unit house. 

This means that the cycle of poverty would stem to several generations before it can be eradicated. We know of families coming from stuffings in the board structure to keep prying eyes out or who "you could take tick juck them out" whose children ended up " passing the worst". 

But we know that those who have managed to get out of poverty are in most cases born smart and others superbly talented. We do have stories of people without aptitude or flair who simply never gave up or give in. 

Effecting social change fosters a better society and that is imperative...if not remedial. We cannot move into the future positively. If we hope to have a better world, we need social reformation. We will just be a land of savages with technology if we do not improve our nation's value system. 

"Excerpt from Jamaican Acute-GHetto-Itis"

Why GHetto children become criminals in Jamaica?

Being a product of the Ghetto, I understand what can happen to your mind when you live in the slum. The socio-psychological elements of the lower socio-economical class of Jamaica will turn any cherub into a monster. The gun has become the emblem of power and living within the confines of fear is a mind murdering component.

But many bad boys will tell you that this is not how they envisioned their future. They once imagined that they would become who their parents wanted them to be when they became adults. Life throws curve balls at a youngster, those who are not psychologically equipped to deal with this life will turned to gangs.Most people in the ghetto do not trust police officers and they hate politicians because they blame the police for harassing them and the politicians for misleading them.They see the government and the police officers as oppressors.





Ghetto People are largely exploited by people with money. Men with money bribe ghetto boys into becoming soldiers of their militia by supplying them with money, clothes and guns. Men with money also have several young women in the ghetto who carry children for them that they never recognise or take care of. Some politicians use the myopic knowledge and wistful dreams of the Ghetto people to put themselves into power.

Ghetto people feel marginalised, abandoned, hopeless, angry. Their children internalise these elements and therefore grow up to live a life similar to their ancestors. Most Ghetto children there is no escape from the life they live or the labels attached to them because of where they were born.

Girls who try to hold their heads up are allegedly raped or impregnated to keep them in their place. Our Children are not safe. Our boys are being drawn into alternative lifestyle practises for the sake of money. In the Ghetto, money is the order of the day.

Money equals life, food and validation therefore a man will do anything to get money. Children are inadvertently taught that people who seems as if they have something in abundance should either be charmed into giving it to them and if they refused then they should be coerce either by badness or death to share what they have. Parents do not purposely tell their children to become criminals but they encourage certain behaviour of borrowing, begging and indiscipline that shapes the mind of the violent adult.

The gun culture is as strong as ever now. Most kids want to become either a shotta or a scammer. Only shottas and Scammers making money in Jamaican Ghetto. How can we convince them to turn from a life of crime when people who live civil lives are victimised and suffering. One gangster said "I do not believe in suffering, I only believe in life and death".

Imagine growing up seeing your dad not having anything to eat or drink, siblings bawling for hunger and cooking outside on the wood fire even when it rains. This will turn any well meaning youngster into a killer, after all a popular Jamaican adage claims that man have to die in order for some other men to live. You begin to want to emulate the don because he has nice cars and a house. He has his choice of women. Who would not want his life. So you are lured into survival. It is not about keeping your dignity or values, it is about your life.

But then we create monsters even within ourselves. When we kill a little boy's father then your family and community becomes his enemy for life. He will no doubt choose a life of a gangster. And otherwise normal child grows up with feelings of vendetta, carrying vengeance for the death of his father. He will never reconcile why someone who should have secured his well being choose to take away his parent from him and leave him angry,sad and bitter. People you know will make your life a living hell, people you grow up with will fight you over scarce benefits and murder your family for money.

Sitting whole day with nothing to occupy ones mind will turn it into an abyss. So its better to create some drama in ones life even if it is mayhem.
Gunshots play havoc on a child's concentration, how can he learn in school when he has to worry about his meal and whether he will live to become an adult. How can you encourage him to go to school when he can stay at home and scam? Make money to feed his family and buy guns to protect his property? The means define the ends!!Most young ghetto men will tell you than their lives is just means to an ends. They do not have a future so they live in the now and pray that this moment last forever.