Give it back, it’s mine! On matters of ‘cultural appropriation’

It’s trite to say that the world is complicated. However, many of us are involved in trying to simplify much of the world’s complexities, with some success but often failing miserably. The following is just an example that arose this week.

We’ve just passed an important annual celebration in our nation’s short history as an independent entity and it tends to focus minds, often on things that were hiding in plain sight. Because of that realisation, we’re often treated to a brief period of outrage, but can’t say with hands on heart that anything will change and the cause of our ire will not recur.

So, the topic is ‘appropriation‘. In its simplest form, dictionaries define it as ‘the act of taking something, usually without permission, like stealing your brother’s french fries when he is momentarily distracted. Appropriation originally referred to the taking of private property, usually by the government’. Ironically, our ire has been stirred by a private person taking something our nation (qua government) owns and taken us into the thorny forest of ‘cultural appropriation’.

So, normally, we get upset if we suspect appropriation has happened to personal property (at its worst, we suspect theft). But, we are also upset if this appears to happen to things we see as ‘national property’. Again, at its simplest, we notice it with real assets such as land or other forms of property, but also our financial wealth (eg if our national foreign exchange reserves were seized or frozen by another country or misappropriated by public officials). In such cases, it’s quite easy to understand what has been taken. But, the world has become more complicated when it comes to assets and those that are less tangible, such as intellectual property, can cause lots of problems.

Over the past few days, this latter problem has surfaced because the American superstar-musician Kanye West came to Jamaica all of a sudden and performed a ‘Sunday Service’, reflecting his new-found state of grace in enbracing Christianity. His religious conversion is his business and sharing iti with anyone else is also his business. But, in the process he appropriated some of Jamaica’s property in the form of our national symbols (coat of arms and crest of the City of Kingston) on merchadise that was being sold to commemorate the event and of course to gain revenue to more than compensate for any costs he incurred: it’s business, profit is normal. Our Minister of Culture and Entertainment has said publicly that this was done without seeking permission: “We neither received a request for nor did we give permission for our national symbols and emblems to be used for a commercial manner or otherwise. I have since requested that the items be withdrawn, and the vendor has agreed to do so,”. She has requested the merchadise be pulled. Enter stage right, on cue, Outrage and National Pride.

I wish the minister good luck. I think, for the sake of goodwill, the merchandise will be pulled, though someone will need to check on a continuous basis that this remains in effect until such time as permission is sought and granted. Whatever costs were incurred in creating the merchandise needs to be covered directly by selling it or by ekeing out profit from other sales to compensate for the loss. If reports that Mr. West’s business is valued at US$1.5 billion and hopes to soon move to $3 billion are correct, one can do the quick assessement that things that make losses are not part of the ‘master plan’. But, what if ‘good will be damned!’ steps in, despite this seeming like an un-Christian stance? What could little Jamaica do? The means to protect intellectual property nationally through the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) or internationally through the World International Property Office (WIPO) isn’t easy, not least because other countries stand to gain much from filching others’ property. The adage is that size doesn’t matter, but trust me, in matters like this, it matters a lot. ‘Take him to court!’, ‘Throw the book at him!’ Calm down. Where should we take him to court? Which book should we throw at him? Many Jamaicans will know that even simple matters of law and fact don’t come to quick resolution in the land of wood and water. In fact, our motto could be changed to ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’; that’s a bit harsh, perhaps, but enough cases have languished for one to say that it’s not too far from the truth.

So, I will watch from my little perch to see where the exhortations and pleadings go. I’m not a cynic, but a realist, and being an economist my vision of the future must be based on prudent assumptions. But I don’t see any major win coming our way, though I am happy to be proved wrong.

I haven’t shown any clear images of the offending merchandise out of a sense of (too much?) caution that doing so would also be a kind of infringement.

Sunday Service Concert at Emancipation Park, October 18, 2019 (photo credit: Buzz Caribbean)

But, keen people can see more precisely for themselves what is at stake by searching the Internet.

In all this, I could add the somewhat obvious points about what happens when: (1) things are done in haste; (2) negotiations are between unequal parties; (3) talk is cheap and actions don’t stand up as tall as words (how long has the matter of protecting national property rights been on some ‘back burner’); or more. But, let’s leave those considerations for another time, eh. 🙂

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Celebrating our many national heroes hiding in plain sight

Every year, since I came back to Jamaica, a singular thought runs through my head: National Heroes Day needs to celebrate the many Jamaicans who have done so much for this country who are unlikely to find themselves on any list of honours. I suspect that almost every family has a person somewhere in its history who can be seen as a national hero. In my case, I often think back to the stories of what family members did to build something for themselves and by extension for others in the family.

• My maternal grandfather left South St. Elizabeth to work the cane fields of Cuba, to then return and continue to be father to his 11 children.
• My paternal grandmother left St. Mary to go to Kingston and sell charcoal, later become a domestic and lay a base for my father to also go the capital, study more and later work as a nurse at Bellevue Hospital.
• My parents left Jamaica in 1961 so that my mother could find better work as a nurse, while my father abandoned his nursing career to follow her, and build a base for me to study in England and eventually go to university and later find myself working for the IMF. I don’t think either of them would want to have more done than the family’s recognition. No need for ribbons and bows. No need for any ‘Windrush Generation’ accolades.
• My maternal uncle who studied hard and loved education so much that he eventually became Principal of Nain All-Age School, and died having done much to expand and extend the scope of the school in his ‘home’ district. He was also the family historian, whose memories of those now long gone were so valuable.
• My aunt who went to England in the 1950s to nurse and later provided encouragement for my father to also go to England, despite his real reluctance. Her children were all born in England and still live there, but manage to visit Jamaica often and keep some real connection with this island. This aunt is now happily back in St. Mary, in her home district.

While some will sit at Kings House under tents or on chairs, I will be raising a silent toast to those above and others whom I know are truly Jamaican national heroes.

Please don’t consider alternatives

Just reflecting on Jamaicans’ often common resistance to full discussion, in the following Twitter thread.

In Jamaica, there's a common tendency to only look at things from just one side, or see all things as black & white. Many don't understand a need 4 other perspectives, especially if they cast some concerns about a subject. People show positives and hail that as a success.

— “My great and unmatched wisdom." (@dennisgjones) October 20, 2019

Looks like a duck, walks like a duck. So, why pretend we are not seeing another traffic ticket amnesty?

There’s an understandable tendency to defer to authority. At it’s worst, it means that people accept that all things done in the name of authority are good. It’s often manifested in reactions such as ‘rules are rules’. However, it’s good when ‘rules are rules’ are met by ‘well only some rules matter’ when applied by ‘the authorities’.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen a flurry of highly publicized instances of traffic infractions being sent to courts and the results are ‘interesting’. The police have done their part: fines have been issued and summons have been laid against those who are delinquent in paying them. Jamaica has gone through years of fines going unpaid and the police have flagged that they either cannot impose payment or the system of ticket was dysfunctional and didn’t permit a proper tracking of non-payment. This was well spelled out in a recent Gleaner editorial, What’s So Hard About Fixing Traffic Ticket System?. As the Gleaner reported then: ‘…national security ministry conceded that their Traffic Ticket Management System isn’t appropriately synchronised across agencies and that it is often not fed with correct information.’ We learned, also, that drivers sometimes went to pay fines and found they could not! Without going into the technicalities, that dysfunction seems to have been fixed. However, in light of previous enforcement problems, the authorities decided to ‘cut their losses’ by offering amnseties, which ‘cleaned’ the slate, in essence. But, there were financial wins for the authorities, during the last (2018) amnesty, if they collected J$700m concerning 300,000 tickets, that’s about $2300/ticket. Not a bad haul. However, set that against the J$5 billion, at the time of the 2012 amnesty, and J$2.84 billion during the last one. That’s a hefty discount offered by the State. But, as I have said, repeatedly, Jamaicans are extremely rational and naturally saw the bigger win for them in hoping for and then accepting amnesties. The simple truth, though, is that the country was forced to lose precious revenue and accept that law-breaking paid. That’s a truth that stretches far and bolsters the sense of impunity that has its worse manifestation in the crime ‘wave’ that seems to know no cure.

Jamaica Constabulary have worked hard in recent weeks to repair some self-inflicted damage in the matter of policing traffic infractions and publicized a series of cases where those with astonishing numbers of unpaid tickets have been ‘brought to justice’, eg:

Taking the previous figures as illustrative, we can see from these cases that the authorities are getting somewhere between $80-300/ticket–against some $2,100/ticket last time. This is an even heftier discount. I’ve no figures to confirm the actual level of fines that underlies these cases. Naturally, many see this as a travesty and worthy of query about ‘what is going on?’.

However, anyone who’s numerate or can apply logic can figure out that what has happened recently with the flurry of traffic convictions/fines is that the Jamaican ‘authorities’ have offered another disguised amnesty. The most generous interpretation is that the courts have applied fines to some infractions and excused others, or decided to apply ‘discretion’ and lower fines on all/most tickets. Either way, the outcomes are tme same. As we say in Jamaica: they gave a ‘bly’.

As past amnesties proved, they DO NOT CHANGE BEHAVIOUR, merely encourage delay in paying fines.

Will the authorities come clean?

The public sees rampant bad behaviour on the road, especially by some route taxi drivers, but also by other citizens. But, they also see little real evidence that the authorities want to curb that.

Thoughts on some Jamaican productivity issues: traffic woes and paper flows

Last night, I should have attended an important launch in New Kingston. Fortunately, I didn’t try to go but ended up heading to the University of Technology to sign some loan documents for a student. I heard on the radio that traffic was terrible, after another bout of seasonal afternoon rain, and my student sent a text message to say that our 6.45pm meeting would have to be at 7.30, though her class was due to start at 7. After I got home, I had a few thoughts on this common situation, which are in the following Twitter thread:

Regular commuters in the Kingston Corporate Area have had many nightmares over recent years. Periodic delays brought on by rains & subsequent flooding have worsened because a multitude of roadworks have left many corridors in a poor basic state & drainage has been worsened.

— “My great and unmatched wisdom." (@dennisgjones) October 17, 2019

Random image from my dashcam last night. Old Hope Rd, eastbound

Let’s all play detective 🤔

Over time, I’ve developed a high degree of skepticism. Years of dealing officially with people who have strong interests in hiding information have taught me to at least double check what is presented as facts.

Internet access and social media, specifically, have opened up a flood of false reports, in part because people get a buzz from being part of breaking stories, but also because some like being disruptive and misinformation is another ‘toy’ in their arsenal; some also don’t know how to verify information and rather than being seen as passive or not caring, they will share indiscriminately. At its extreme, there’s just fabricated information. Often, there’s misinformation that gets spread with good intentions but without any serious checking. Sadly, we all have to be the filters. Other than hoping that everyone checks before pressing ‘forward’ or ‘retweet’, I’m not sure what exhortations one can offer.

This is a constant concern, but it sometimes hits home more when one reads or sees something that palpably false. Add to this, technology that allows creation of false images or videos that are not truthful. (The BBC drama ‘The Capture’ is a scary crime story based on fabricated CCTV footage.) Yet, we are often comfortable that what we see and hear should be believed.

If you’ve any experience with photography you’ll know how easy it is to convey false narratives with images, just by simply choosing a particular perspective from which to film.

For my own sanity, I trust few things on first take and often rewatch to see if I note signs of splicing, shifting of angles, etc. That’s harder with amateur videos, say, that purport to be ‘live’ action, with its shakiness, etc. But, I often look for tell-tale lies, such as signs or evidence to disprove a certain claim regarding location or timing. I saw one video of a robbery in Jamaica where the vehicles in the footage were driving on the right side of the road–we drive on the left. Without sound, eg foreign voices or accents, one can easiy be fooled. A video of police allegedly beating a young man in Kingston was circulated at the weekend, and is now being investigate by the JCF. However, one of my first thoughts was to recall reports of people dressing as police to perpetrate crimes. That is not a new story (see ‘Beware of criminals in cop clothes‘ reported in 2015, and convictions of people impersonating police officers). As I noted to a fellow blogger, yesterday, I was also intrigued initially by the seeming lack of concern by the alleged policemen given that it was clear that people were using phones to capture their actions. This incident, first shown in a 30 second video on social media, was followed by much longer video versions of the incident (WARNING: VIOLENCE & OBSCENE LANGUAGE).

We’re seeing many more instances of ‘citizen journalism’ and flitering is often harder because the initial intent is usually just a personal recording that then turns into something more interesting, especially if the incident shows apparent law breaking. At its more amusing and less harmful are the plethora of pet and children videos. At its more disturbing are the CCTV images captured of crimes or misdeeds, eg inside people’s homes by caregivers or inside instutitions where responsible caregivers are seen to be abusers.

But, it’s a set of difficult paths to tread. We’re finding in Jamaica that well-intentioned video taping of traffic infractions may be less useful if the person recording is not prepared to be publicly associated with it, for a bunch of understandable reasons (reprisals, collusion, etc). Each person has to find his/her own comfort level. We do know, however, that video evidence has not eliminated misdeeds, most vividly in the case of police officers wearing bodycams or using vehicles equipped with dashcams, which are then the source of corroborating evidence. The Brookings Institute (2017) study, ‘Do body-worn cameras improve police behavior?‘, stated ‘The behavior of officers who wore cameras all the time was indistinguishable from the behavior of those who never wore cameras…Those officers may become more likely to use force when they know camera footage will demonstrate the facts were on their side.’ 

So, we’re left with another puzzle to solve in the Internet age.

 

The muse isn’t dead

Writers are often advised to write what matters to them. But, sometimes you don’t write because dealing with the matters in words doesn’t seem so productive. However, things that matter are all around, and to use another cliché, a picture says a thousand words. So, here are a few thousand words.

I drive past this squatter community just outside Kingston several times a month but often cannot get a picture as I’m behind the wheel. This weekend, I was a passenger and our car was stuck in traffic. Voila! It looks near idyllic but is a warren of unmarked lanes and limited access. But, for many it’s home, though it represents one of Jamaica’s perennial social problems.

I rarely see soldiers not acting as guardians, so it was interesting to see a squad out exercising just as I joined friends for golf on Saturday morning. I wasn’t due to play as I’ve back issues. One of my friends is a retired major and he explained how it was necessary to teach the recruits to run and rest with equipment.

Few things catch my attention as the wonders of nature. The mimosa flowers are so fine and delicate and so contrary to most flowers. I remember that there sensitive to touch. Awesome!

International travel is much less fun these days. But it’s sometimes less arduous. I fly through Atlanta last week; it’s a huge airport. My connection time seemed ample till I remembered that the concourses are long and connected by a train. Fortunately, one of the buggy drivers saw me limping and offered to take me to the train link. I love the clean lines of the design of these stations: shiny steel.

What you been up to?

I’ve been chirping around in other places over the past few months, thinking and writing and expressing my views but not in essay format. I’ve enjoyed taking in my surroundings visually and taken lots of pictures.

Typically Jamaican things always catch my eyes, like these boiled crabs sold in Kingston at Heroes Circle:

Scenes from travels abroad-Exuma with family:

Time spent with family and friends doing enjoyable things, including watching tennis legend, Roger Federer, win another title in Miami (when I should have been travelling with my wife on business to China):

Enjoying the wonderful natural sights of Jamaica:

Working a few golf tournaments like the US Open at Pebble Beach in the bitter cold of June 😱 but worth it to see another living legend, Tiger Woods.

So, bear with me while I reestablish some writing equilibrium. My thoughts are freely flowing on Twitter (@dennisgjones) and my pictorial interest shows up on Instagram using the same handle.

“Economic Reggae”

“Economic Reggae”

“Economic Reggae”
— Read on jamaican-journal.com/2019/06/18/economic-reggae/

A quick roundup of various thoughts on Jamaica’s recent economic developments, not just its use of music to get out the message.

The Citizen’s Guide to the 2019-2020 Budget: a good start, but…

First, let’s be happy about what the Minister of Finance is trying to do in making the annual budget something that more people can understand and relate to. That latter aspect is important because it raises the chances that policies will go in the desired direction. For the first time, there is an attempt to put a non-technical document out to the public “in an easily understood format”. It’s close, but has a few steps to go, I’d argue.

Amongst those steps are ‘how will more people get to read the document?’ We’re long past the days when pamphlets about government policies were only available at official outlets and in paper form. So, a pull-out supplement in a Sunday paper is welcome. But, we know that many don’t have or want their access limited to this format. So, while the website address to the ministry of finance is prominent on the front of the document, a visit to that site doesn’t offer an electronic version of the guide. Why not? Worse still, the site listed under ‘Resources’, http://MOF.gov.jm/documents returns a ‘404 error’!

Put out the document in electronic form across the many social media platforms that now exist.

Economics is not a subject that is short of jargon but its use should be minimal when describing things. Also, simpler terms are better, I feel: ‘used’ is better than ‘utilized’, ‘aids’ is better than ‘facilitates’, for example. Plain language goes over better.

Graphs and charts are good, so use them more.

Accuracy is important but understanding doesn’t demand precision.

At the least, the decimal places could be dropped and the numbers rounded, eg J$274,447 millions. That should make for easier reading, at least.

Consistent simplification is needed. It’s great to see a heading like ‘Where does the money go?’ but why should we then have to translate ‘compensation of employees’? Couldn’t it be ‘What money staff get’ or similar?

There are some ‘inaccuracies’ that can be confusing: ‘bilateral institutions like the IMF and World Bank’ is wrong–they’re multilateral institutions. That difference can be explained simply, if needed, by pointing to bilateral institutions (citing the bilateral partner country).

While the guide doesn’t ask for feedback, I’ve offered it! However, I think feedback should be sought explicitly. After all, it’s better to hear how well citizens feel about the guide.

Just some thoughts. 🤔