Tower Of Babel

I must say that it was with a bit of trepidation that I decided to check the Gleaner on line today…I feared that the main stories for this Friday would have to do with crime. I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised… (this does not mean that nutten went on in the crime department still…)

Nuff stories surrounding salaries…money my people. Who tops it? Well, its the Air Jamaica pilots. They have finally reached a wage agreement which will see them taking a cut in basic salary and some fringe benefits. Good to hear that they have finally reached an agreement. On reading the article I would ask one question though. Apparently they were previously being paid OT while they were on sick or vacation leave!? If man deh pon vacation, or if man sick…how you mus get OT pay??? The next time I encounter our bredrin Ed Mad Bull I will ask him to reply to that one. You see the rude bwoy feature inna Gleaner tho?

Now, here is yet another article that reports that Air Ja’s pilots are flying high. Personally, I don’t have any problems with that. When I sit in the seat of one of our planes, I want to be damn sure that the people inna de cockpit know what dem doing to make it lift off and land safely. I doh want to be in a situation where I have to be wondering if dem not in a position to fly, or if dem not sure what buttons to push, or worse, if they inna de cockpit a play wid dem owna cock! (I really too damn bad you nuh…cho, is Friday!)

Look people, monetary compensation is usually determined by your skills, how long you had to study in order to become qualified to do what do, and how much responsibility your work entails. I tell folks all the time that I never put my head down on a pillow and seh ‘Lord God help me,’ the night before my exams and then woke up qualified the next day. Yeah, they say He helps those who help themselves, but one nite of prayer before exams wouldn’t cut it. It was nuff years of beating book, seeing patients, clerkships, fretration and sweat in exam room and ting. In the same way, a pilot does not learn to fly safely by guessing and spelling.

This reminds me of an incident at the hospital a few years ago in the days when we used to collect our salary cheques from accounts… (they now lodge them directly to the bank.) I collected mine and opened it. There was a yute behind me whose job is clerical. He apparently saw the figure on my cheque and burst out, “Ra$$ Doc! A so much money you a carry home?!” I turned to him and asked him a few questions….”Do you work at nights? Do you work on weekends and public holidays? Does your job require you to make decisions that can affect the lives of people in a positive or negative way? Did you have to study and pass a number of examinations in order to do your job?” He replied no to them all, so there endeth the ‘argument’.

Now, I wasn’t dissing the man. I respect anyone for whatever honest means they earn a bread by. But everything in life is relative my crew. If your job involves mopping floor, as far as I’m aware, you don’t require a university degree to hold that post. So, don’t cow down a man who has a job that requires one, or two, or three…..zimi? The Ministry of health is often heard making statements about how much percentage of the health budget goes into paying healthcare workers….don’t get me started with that. In the same way, a large portion of Air Jamaica’s salary budget should go into paying its pilots…not its executives. So, I will say, don’t envy a pilot for his wages, don’t envy a doctor for his wages. It is all relative. We all can’t be professionals. Just bear in mind that if you want to be earning big bucks, it don’t come by chance. For those of you who have children it is suppem you may want to remind them of. Man cyaan drive Bimmer and live in big house if him jus loaf out him school life and end up having no skills when him turn big man.

Now, another story about salaries that caught my eye, is one ’bout our Police. Apparently, they not being granted an increase, and as a result they going to be staging a vigil about this downtown on Sunday!” Now, I have no issues with the police being well paid, their job is a difficult one and when they go out to work, there is no gurantee that they will be returning to their families alive while protecting the citizens of our country against the vermin that roam our streets armed with guns. BUT, I am not sure that the vast majority of the force should stage the vigil downtown. That may just give the nassy insects ideas…you get me? All the Police bwoy dem downtown a protest….so mek we gwaan wid some ruption! Fret not, I do believe that their cries for better pay should be heard, but nuh bodda wid the vigil.

Anyway, let me end this discourse about monies by saying, I hope that if the spirit moves you, that you find yourself having enough funds in the kitty to be able to buy yourself some spirit later. If not, I hope maybe one or two of your bredrins will sorry fe you and chip een. TGIF people!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 6th, 2005 at 9:14 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.