Dotted around the world right now, in places like the United States and Great Britain, are the young people who will eventually inherit Jamaica.
There are more than a handful of them, mostly from Jamaica’s richer and more powerful families. They are busy at colleges and universities acquiring the skills what will enable them to literally step into their fathers’ shoes when the re-descend on the Caribbean in say, three, four years time. It’s a precise plan.
One of them is Joseph Issa. He strikes one at first as a shy person, he speaks however of an arrogant side to his nature he is anxious to suppress. He has an enviable string of academic and non-academic successes that would look good on any CV; an acute grasp of world politics, boundless energy to fuel his many ideas; large, very round, soft dark eyes; a playful, boyish grin and a plan that’s as precise as you could wish.
Joey is coming up to the end of his year at the London School of Economics (LSE) – the year was a compulsory part of his four year sojourn at the Holy Cross College, just outside Boston in the United States. His father, leading hotelier and Senator John Issa is financing all this education and there is a career awaiting him back home. All he has to do is enjoy London and everything that goes with it – the parties, the people, the socializing, the architecture, the recent Wimbledon – while doing the family proud of course!
“Yes, I think I am quite lucky,” admit this privileged child (Joey’s just 21)- over melting ice cream in a cool, downstairs, Covent Garden ice cream parlour.
His maternal grandfather arrived in Jamaica from Jordan with next to nothing. Business instinct soon turned that around however and today, the Issa family practically controls the island’s hotel industry. But like his father, Joe believes it is not enough to just be lucky: giving something of yourself, back to your country is of the utmost importance.
“People should give some of their time to their country,” says Joey, “we should not be self centered.”
So just how is Joey doing that; how is he repaying the country that helped give him a headstart in life? The Educate the Children Fund is an Issa Junior Idea, originating at the start of the year and nurtured to fruition this summer with enthusiastic aid of his fellow LSE students.
One of the Joey’s primal concerns is the state of Jamaica’s education system and the Educate the Children Fund targets those problems directly.
“Jamaica has a good school system but it doesn’t go far enough. There aren’t enough schools, there aren’t enough CXC places for the amount of children taking the exam. We have had to build twice the number of schools that existed when we got our independence, but there’s still a shortage.”
SPONSORS
As the time draws near to celebrate his island’s 25th year of ‘freedom from England’, Joey expresses disappointment at the ragged journey from 1962 until now.
“We are in a bad state. In the 25 years we have fought and got back nothing. It hasn’t been a true independence either, we have had to borrow money and gone into a lot international debt. We still can’t afford to pay our teachers – a lot of our best brains have been attracted to North America and so; and we can’t afford to buy books…”
This is where the school project comes in. Furious fund-raising and raffle ticket selling has amassed £3000 which will enable the Jamaica Ministry of Education to purchase Maths and English language books for five of the neediest schools in Jamaica.
Jamaica was chosen because of its special anniversary year, but in 1988, two other Caribbean islands with severe education problems, St. Kitts and Dominica, are to benefit.
“This show that the Caribbean can do things,” stresses Joey, who is already ticking over another plan to help hard hit schools and involves sponsorship. “It would be great if business could just adopt a school. It doesn’t take that much; and it could provide books, equipment and so on,” he enthuses.
When Joey zooms out of London later this summer, he leaves behind an able back-up team ready to continue the Educate The Children project.
Back at Holy Cross, he is even busier. Not only is he top accounting student there (and overall ninth best out of a class of 684) but his also editor of the Holy Cross Journal of Political Economy; founder of the College’s International Students’ Union, a reggae deejay, all round sportsman and believe it or not, an Eucharistic minister.
Allegiance
Joey explained the strategy behind attending an institute such as Holy Cross: “It wants to produce good citizens; they done have to be rich, they just want its students to have a social conscience- and after four or five years, they hope they leave with one”
Joey is the eleventh member of his family to attend the college.
When Joey returns to Jamaica in about three years, as is his plan, he wants to put his accounting experience skills to use as an hotelier.
Joey already boasts valuable experience as a trainee manager with Trust House Forte in Kingston, working at all levels from kitchen to supervisory. Another wish of his is to open a restaurant in London – a place he loves.
Although one of the reasons behind studying at Holy Cross was to get more experience of the North American way of life so he can better deal with Americans, as a hotelier, when they visit Jamaica as tourists, Joey prefers England and feels he has learned so much more in his one year in London.
But in the end, his allegiance is to Jamaica. He believes that education is the key to a better Jamaica, whether by seeing the skills for three or four years outside Jamaica’s shores or by adopting a school or buying books.
“I would also encourage young people to get involved in politics. We need two strong parties – so I would promote education and youth involvement in politics…”
Look out Jamaica – in a couple of years that is.
Source: The Gleaner
