The Editor, Sir:LET the Census 2000 be meaningful and worth it. The Census 2000 exercise is meant to head-count everyone who live in Jamaica at a particular point in time. The very interesting radio commercials gave the impression that the information sought would help in better social and economic planning, and would not be used for any other purpose.
Why then must I state the number of rooms in my house and if I carry out any form of business from it. Why was census for year 2000 taken during the last quarter of 2001? Why is it that my hypothetical 'spouse' who emigrated in April 2001 or my 'grandma' who died in August 2001 are not being included in the survey if it is Census 2000? Why, in the face of so many Jamaicans becoming unemployed in the past three years or so, is there not a single question in the six-page questionnaire about occupation or unemployment?
I would have thought that this would be a perfect avenue for STATIN to decipher the absolute number of the unemployed, their age groups and gender category, how many farm workers there really are so that a true picture of the duty-free concession motor-vehicles can be computed for instance, and how many workers are there in different industries and which job categories beside IT require immediate attention.
When one listens to Government Ministers defending ministerial budgets in terms of number of people to serve, it always never adds up. And it is always rather disappointing, if not annoying, when listening to talk shows and to well conducted interviews of supposedly knowledgeable persons in Government as well as the private sector, that these people rarely ever have pertinent statistics on any subject at hand.
Some $300 million is being spent on the Census exercise, and ought to be well worth the taxpayers money.
"What is worth doing at all, is worth doing well".
Let the Census exercise be meaningful and worth it.
I am etc,
CATHY TUCKER
cathytucker28@hotmail.com
Via Go-Jamaica
