THE EARNING STREETS FROM
… Downtown youth tout benefits of hustling
MICHAEL ‘HELLO’ Curnaldy and Brendon Clarke are two of many Jamaicans who enjoy the freedom of not being ‘tied down’ by the formal working system.
Curnaldy, at 30 years old, has been selling patties and drinks in downtown Kingston for the past six years. Each day, he spends between $7,000 and $8,000 to buy goods.
“This is how I take care of my family, send my sons to school, and me and my babymother can live. Before this, I was doing construction work or any work that come up, but nothing like a permanent job, and this would be considered my permanent job,” Curnaldy shared with The Sunday Gleaner.
Curnaldy grew up in St Mary, and after attending Annotto Bay All-Age School. He said that his mother couldn’t afford to continue to send him and his siblings to school, so he took to the streets to make a living hustling. He now lives in Portmore and has three children, one of whom will start Wolmer’s Boys in September.
“If I am not doing this, then I don’t know what then, because if me work fi the Chiney, the Chiney a guh pay me $6,000 a week while this can give me $6,000 a day. It better me do me own hustling,” said Curnaldy.
FREEDOM AND FLEXIBILITY
His job also provides him with the flexibility and freedom that he desires.
“Me come out when me feel. If me get up tomorrow morning and me don’t feel to come out, me nuh come out. If me did have a boss, me would have to come out every morning. Matter of fact, me would have to come out on time, to, and me can’t come a work two day late or dem a guh fire me. With this, me can miss three weeks, and when me come back, me customers still here,” noted the father.
He has no issue with persons frowning on his job because it doesn’t fall into the formal job setting.
“I love doing this and no want work for nobody. It no make no sense you a order me around while me can do whatever me please in my job and come out whenever me please while bills still a pay and kids a get taken care of. You see what matter still is not where you work, but is how much you save. At the end of the year, me have to see how much money me earn so that next year