YL: DOLLARS AND SENSE
IN THIS section, I appraise, in dollar value, things that do and do not make sense. If an issue is of great importance to me, I will give it a value of $1,000. Every subsequent issue will be given a reduced dollar value to reflect its decreasing significance to me.
What a merger!
In case you haven’t heard, top news entities RJR Communications Group and The Gleaner Company have merged operations! I can’t really think of a decent reason why I’m this excited, so let’s just call my continued use of exclamation points shock! Yup! It’s a shocker, and now we can totally expect to see hard-core journalism at its finest! The two giants have knocked heads. Is that a monopoly I smell?
Once upon a sixth form
I don’t know what exactly we, as young people, did to this country why we are continually being punished via the unattainability of an education. It’s bad enough that tertiary fees cost like a gazillion dollars, but now the increase in sixth-form fees is a step too far, and I’ll tell you why. The ordinary Jamaican is considered to have ‘lef school’ after fifth form. Sixth form is a prize, so much so that some schools don’t even offer a sixth-form programme.
I have seen way too many of the kids I grew up with lose their way after the five years of high school either going on to childbearing or menial jobs. When you raise the bar for sixth forms in terms of cost, many more will begin to drift and silly grown folks will continue to ask those like me, who finished fifth form years ago, why we haven’t given our parents any grandchildren yet. This is the reality.
What’s so wrong with tradition?
All my single ladies! All my single ladies! Now put your hands down. This is not a drill. This modern-day version of feminism has lost all my support. The independent lady of 2015 is the one who says she does not need a man the one who asks the man to marry her – in the event that she gets one – and the one who gets played. Call me oldfashioned, but if I should start a family one day, I want to do the traditional things like wash, cook, and clean for my family. I want to be the wife who keeps the house clean and the whites really bright while my husband kills the cockroaches, fixes things, and provides for us, and sure enough, I’ll still make my own money and have my career while my husband has his. The ‘independent’ female who can do it all on her own is today’s misconstrued version of a woman. I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m saying it’s unreasonable. Don’t grow up with that thinking.
As the end of summer draws nigh
I doubt there were 104 days of summer vacation, but sure enough, the new school year is coming along to end it. If you’re anything like me, you counted down the days to your summer break only to now be counting how many days till school. I mean, a whole day of scheduled things to do, a pocket full of money that your parents have given you, and I never thought I would say this but, the joys of doing schoolwork! School actually sounds appealing! I need to go out more, huh?