When voters go to the poll on election day, Thursday, February 25, Juliet Harris will be among the absentee voters.
Harris, who lives in Palmer’s Cross, Clarendon, said she is totally disillusioned by politics in Jamaica.
“It doesn’t make sense. Whether one or the other win, there won’t be a difference in anything like me even getting a job,” she said, appearing resigned to the fact that her lot in life is to struggle her way through.
Unemployed for some time, Harris said she has been seeking a job for more than five years, with no luck.
“Supermarket … anything I am given to do, I would. I am willing to work,” she said.
At one point, she was interested in making life better for her three children by seeking to get a ‘farm work ticket’, but even that was a turn-off for her.
“They pick and choose who they want to give, and sometimes the ones that get them aren’t even as desperate as the ones who really wanted it,” she said.
“Yuh eva waan one likkle help and cyaah get it?” she asked, deep frustration showing on her face.
Harris won’t be the only one in her family staying away from the polls. According to her, her 24-year-old daughter, who recently graduated from the University of Technology, majoring in food and nutrition will stay away also.
“She is sitting down at home unemployed, also having no luck with the many applications she has sent out,” said the frustrated mother.
Will she ever exercise her right to vote? Harris was resolute in her response: “When I get what I want, then I will.”
– Cecelia Campbell-Livingston
