Jamaican Lottery Continues to Claim Victims, While Giving Rise to New Elites in Jamaica

Jamaica has become a steady second to Nigeria in sweepstakes scams. Francis Miller, a Spokane Valley, Wa., resident has become the latest victim of the Jamaican lottery scams. She racked up a high telephone bill calling the island to verify if a call she received informing her that she had won a sweepstake prize of US$2.5 million was legitimate, according to KXLY. The scammers tried to solicit a fee of $200 to insure the money for delivery. What's terrible is that Miller has health problems and she receives less than $700 monthly in disability payments.

The lottery scam, which raked in US$30 million in 2009, is tainting whatever is left of Jamaica's image abroad. Besides one of the highest murder rates in the world, with high gang activity, we now have to contend with lottery scammers on the island. From January to May 2010, nearly 600 Jamaicans have been murdered. This isn't the Jamaica early leaders such as Sir Alexander Bustamante, Marcus Garvey, Sir Norman Manley, Donald Sangster and Hugh Shearer envisioned. The lottery scam speaks to a larger social issue that has been largely ignored by the mainstream media and the Jamaican government. This is a means for the poor to blaze a trail out of the ghetto and to change the course of their lives. It's not right, but it's their reality.

Last year police in the US, Britain and Canada joined with Jamaican law enforcement to form a joint task force to combat the lottery scam which reportedly rakes in US$30 million annually. The Joint Operations Linked to Telemarketing (JOLT), was formed after persons in the state of Minnesota received threats of death, arson and the rape of their grandchildren if they did not fork out money.

Local police report that more than 100 persons have been killed by the lotto 'scammers' and say the scam is linked to the mayhem that has besieged the tourist resort of Montego Bay in St James. Ten cops stationed at the Mount Salem police station in the parish were recommended retired in the public interest for their alleged roles in the illegal lotto scheme by former police commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin.  Source: KXLY

As horrific as this scam seems, it has led to rise of a new class of elites in Jamaica -- young male millionaires from the ghetto, looked up to in their communities as progressive people worth emulating. Sad, but true.  According to media reports, youths, as young as 16 years old are becoming millionaires overnight. They are becoming pillars of communities that grades individuals on their socioeconomic status. Being poor is socially repulsive than being a criminal or even a drug lord, like Christopher "Dudus" Coke, for example. Very few know that 60% of Jamaican males subsist on less than $60 a day and a great number of Jamaican males are illiterate and unemployed.  So, the prospect of shaking themselves free of the shackles of poverty is made attractive by the possibilities of becoming wealthy by scamming innocent foreigners, mainly elderly, of their hard-earned money.

As someone who spent her formative years in Jamaica, I am appalled and saddened at the current state of affairs on the island. There was once a time when you could literally leave your back door open and not have to worry about a break-in. There was a time when kids could walk on the streets and not be kidnapped, as has occurred in some areas on the island. Of course, there are exceptions and there are people living in Jamaica who have never come in contact with this seedy underbelly of the society. To correct this insidious problem, Prime Minister Bruce Golding must realize that some residents have become disenchanted by the economic system of Jamaica and have resigned themselves that they will never make it by walking on the straight path, but by any means necessary, even if it means scamming law-abiding citizens of the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries. He also must realize that there are rogue elements in the police departments engaging in criminal behavior and they need to be weeded out.

It doesn't help that the politicians are far more interested in their aggrandizement in wealth and stature, than to care one iota about the plight of the poor in Jamaica. The elite and well-connected run like Usain Bolt from the poor and pretend as though the suffering of the lower class is self-inflicted. The salubrious communities on the outskirts of Montego Bay, Kingston and other cities are stark reminders of widespread poverty and a loss of faith in the Jamaican system. It is a black mark on what is billed on the "premier tourist destination" of the Caribbean. I have to wonder if the British government reclaimed Jamaica and kicked out the political leaders, if the plight of the poor would improve. As it stands today, Jamaica isn't fit to govern itself. It should go back to being ruled by the British government in all aspects, not just having the Governor General Patrick Allen as a representative for Queen Elizabeth II.  Jamaica, land of wood and water, is fast becoming land of gangs, murderers and scammers. This isn't the Jamaica I knew and loved as a child.