- Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Christine Clarke, Ph.D. candidate at Rice University in the United States.
Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
THEY SAY that she will become the first female Governor of the Bank of Jamaica. True, Christine Clarke is only 22 years old. But what does age matter, when she is capable of grasping concepts that would boggle the mind of the average individual?
Christine Clarke, within hair's breadth of collecting her Ph.D., is no ordinary mind.
The young student blazed a distinguished path at Mount Holyoke College in the United States where she majored in economics and mathematics. She graduated cum laude in May 2002 and also distinguished herself at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom where she completed her Junior Year as an exchange student.
Currently, she is a candidate for the doctor of Philosophy in Economics at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where she is simultaneously pursuing the Master's of Art programme in economics. For Christine, getting distinctions appear to be almost an everyday occurrence, starting at Campion College in Kingston where she was awarded this top mark for Mathematics in external examinations while still in fourth form. She graduated from high school in 1997 with a first honours award for a 90+ average.
The young student is not afraid of academic study.
She is the 2002-3 recipient of an Organisation of American States Graduate fellowship, and she also won the Phobe Tulman Perlman Prize in economics at Mount Holyoke in 2002. She was the recipient of the Laurel and Balfour fellowships at this same college.
Determinants of crime
What she does admit that she is afraid of is that the theory learnt in the classroom will not work in the real world.
"My worst fear," she said, "is sitting in a job where I can do no more, and knowing it."
Continuously, she strives to see how her work in Economics can be applied to analysing and finding solutions to national problems.
Christine is the author of the seminal research piece 'Determinants of violent Crimes in Jamaica', the senior thesis completed at Mount Holyoke college in 2002. The student investigated the underlying causes of violent crimes using the 'incentive-disincentive framework controlling the drug industry and the proliferation of drugs in the island'.
What has Economics and Mathematics to do with drugs and crime? you may want to know.
"You can use Maths to help society," Christine comments and goes on to prove her point with a review of the research she did on 'Determinants of Violent crime', which looks at how the murder rate evolves in Jamaica over time and the relationship of this trend with activities in the drug underworld.
"The prevailing hypothesis is that the drug industry does not have a judicial process and therefore the only method of avenging crime is by murder. Murder is also used to assert power and to discipline those who encroach on their territory."
Christine says that the difficulty in Jamaica is that the figures are not broken down in terms of causes or motive for murder. Still, she was able to use the aggregate figures, added to further research, to come to certain conclusions.
"Yes, there is indeed the murder rate and the drug industry. We looked at additional factors like illegal gun findings and presented indicators from the economy to see if there was a relationship between unemployment and the change in crime figures."
Eight million a day
One part of the research, she said, which was really interesting, was the amount of money Jamaicans earned from drugs.
"If they are really running the streets, they can earn as much as US$8 million a day. This kind of earning undermines everything that the authorities try to put in place. The earnings cannot compare to the usual jobs in the economy," she notes.
Jamaica is in fact second behind the Colombians where murder per capita is concerned, especially Kingston. "Across the world, we are high up there," the researcher noted.
She said that the matter of solutions to this crime/drug connection was discussed in her defence of her paper before the Holyoke College dissertation committee, but the results were inconclusive. There is no way of knowing how effective the current crime fighting strategies are.
"The government of Jamaica and other countries have been putting in place X-ray machines, but how do we know that those involved in the sale of drugs are not bribing people to bypass these? One cannot assume that they are not buying faster speed boats also. They may no longer be using drug mules, but are they buying their own ships instead?"
Where money laundering laws are concerned, the researcher notes that the drug dons may also be sending their ill-gotten gains to Cayman or changing it into goods and then sending it home. "We still do not know how much any of these measures help."
Christine Clarke is excited by such research. "The part of economics I like is the ability to test hypotheses," she says. Her fascination is with numbers and what they can do, but this was not always so. She went through Common Entrance with the help of her mother who is a teacher and then delivered a lacklustre performance for the first two years in high school.
It was at this point that she said that her father put her in extra classes run by Keith Irons, teacher and past vice principal. With his tutelage, she gained a distinction in Mathematics while still in fourth form. After that there was no looking back.
Economics has superseded her love for Mathematics. Both are numerical, quantitative, but economics is also applicable to everyday situations.
Are men intimidated by her mind? We ask.
"People always assume that because I have travelled in Europe and because I am doing a Ph.D. no man is going to marry me, but I do not see it like that. When they get intimidated is when women rub it (their achievements) in their face. If someone meets me at the Friday night ministry (church) they would not know that I am a Ph.D. candidate. I communicate at a level where everyone deserves respect."
Still, Christine's first love is the church where she has worked for a number of years in young people's ministries. This she says, "it is not like a normal job. It is totally different and dynamic. People come willingly and they get what they need spiritually, something which empowers them for work, school and home."
On Sunday mornings she helps with praise and worship at church and she is also a discussion group leader. She is a part of Friday night ministry which involves several denominations.
She is satisfied that she has found several ways in which she can create change in society, which is what she always wanted to do.
