ANY country that does NOT look out for the MOST vulnerable among us, is NOT on its way to making it a place to live, work, raise families and do business AT ALL!!!! Said this BEFORE and WILL say it AGAIN even after today. Our children, persons with disabilities, women dealing with gender-based violence and the elderly are NOT given even a QUARTER of the attention they NEED in this country. It is as if the powers that be have become blind, deaf and dumb to their plight, and it continues to be business as usual in good ole JA.
Case in point; on August 26th; I visited the Cross Roads Tax Office and saw the usual Bob Marley funeral – looooooonnnnnnngggggggg line. Yet, there was NO senior citizens’ line. The SIGN was VERY much there, however, there was NO one there; and the senior citizens were told that the person who was supposed to be there was at lunch. The customers were expected to just take that and go join the general line that was out to the door. However, one very vocal (and RIGHTLY so) senior citizen, said that this was NOT the first time he came there, or one of his friends or colleagues went there, and at whichever time of day, there is NO one at the window, and they were also told to join the general line, so clearly, this was something that was happening, and not just at lunch time either.
What really got to me, was the fact that not only was there NO one at the window, but the callous and off-handed way in which the question was responded to when asked by these senior citizens, as to why there was no one at the window, made me SO upset, I had cold bumps all over my body. I was utterly INCENSED at the fact that there was NO one at the window in the first place, and then the terse and “don’t ask me nothing” kinda of body language that came from the staff; as the enquiring senior citizens were told “there is only ONE line,” and “ask the supervisor”. That supervisor NEVER appeared, albeit there was LOUD talking outside and it was OBVIOUS that people were very disgruntled!!
I was ASHAMED and REALLY upset, and I VOICED my thoughts and opinion on the DISGUSTING way these people were being treated, but inside I was CRYING; crying for the COMPLETE helplessness I felt, and the HUGE sadness that engulfed me as I looked at these people who served us and this country in MANY ways, and are STILL serving us; just differently, but are now being treated with SUCH disregard. I was, in THAT moment, ASHAMED to be Jamaican, and ASHAMED to have personally witnessed this AWFUL treatment of a group of the most vulnerable among us!!!!
We seem to just do whatever we want to do as a society; with no thoughts to those among us who a modern, non-barbaric society should especially look out for. Instead, we have no seniors citizens’ lines; we sit in the seats in public buses that are supposed to be reserved for persons with disability and the elderly; and don’t even get me started with these new roads that have no pedestrian crossings; dangerous for everyone, but even more so for our elderly citizens and the other vulnerable persons amongst us. We seriously need to take stock of these things, if we intend on being a nation that is even remotely close to being able to achieve this 2030 vision that our politician have for this country. SHAME ON YOU JAMAICA, we HAVE to DO better iyah!!!!
