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Maybe locals would finally start paying more reasonable prices for
goods.
Imagine HiLo and Tru Valu scrambling to drop their food prices and
even begging customers to come for free bread and cheese to compete
with the foreigner!
I remember not too long ago when the minimum wage was $7 hour and
you could have purchased a pack of 1800g full cream powdered milk
for under $40.
Those days have since gone as costly grocery prices continue to
rape the pockets of citizens.
Nine dollars an hour later and the price of that same package of
milk is now a whopping $60.
Something has to be wrong with the society we live in today if a
cellphone has now become cheaper than a basic food item.
Maybe Digicel should try opening a grocery now.
While the mobile phone war rages, poor people in this country are
still suffering and escalating crime rates continue to blight the
nation.
Government and those in authority sit in their high chairs and wonder
why the crime rate is so out-of-control and what they could do to
stop it.
Well, I have a suggestion: Lower prices on basic food items and
other basic necessities.
I know that would not stop the problem, but it could lower the probability
of someone going to steal a pack of rice because the price is too
high for them to purchase it.
Most if not all of the blame for the crime situation has usually
been put on poor, young Black men from depressed/ghetto areas.
But, if you put yourself in their shoes maybe, you would understand
why they do what they do.
I am not saying that all their actions are right, but what I am
saying is that people need to understand before they pass judgement.
Society has already labelled the class of people from the so-called
ghetto areas, e.g. Laventille and Morvant, as bad.
I am from Laventille and I can tell you first-hand what residents
have gone through over the years.
How would you feel if you grew up in a home where your parents couldn’t
afford to provide a hot meal for your family each day?
Well, that was and is the reality of some residents in most crime-riddled
areas.
As a young man growing up suffering, and knowing your parents had
been trying their best to provide for the family yet it was never
enough, it could really interfere with your mind, especially if
some bad influence offered an easier way out.
As a youngster not wanting your family to go through more hungry
days, you could end up choosing the wrong way, which is never the
right decision.
But if by going that route, he could maintain his family and give
back to his parents, why not, some of them argue.
This is why we need to come together as a nation and take on this
problem head on.
We need to focus more attention on the children in these communities
and make sure they don’t fall into the trap.
There are still several children in TnT who have never been to primary
or secondary school.
Why?
People in authority, instead of sitting on the outside looking in,
should take a walk into the ghetto and seriously listen to the residents’
various problems.
Grocery prices are way too high to survive on minimum wage pay;
something definitely has to be done about that situation.
A law should be passed to stop the groceries from raising the prices
on essential goods, at least for a while.
A further look at how severe the escalating prices have become:
a pack of 50 cents snack for our children has now been increased
to 75 cents.
These overpriced goods are now becoming more and more ridiculous
every day.
It seems, to me, that the system is organised in such a way that
the rich must stay on top and the poor will always be poor.
Is that really right?
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