Over-Tara

I have to feel sorry for Tara Abrahams Clivio, she's trying desperately hard to prove that she did not get her part-time writing job at the Jamaica Observer because her daddy is famous.

We already pointed out that Tara is of black African descent, but she insists on using the third person plural to refer to members of her own ethnic group. She seems to be saying that all upper middle class people in Jamaica are "white"/"European"? Tara is a bored housewife, and somewhat of a cry-baby judging from her latest attempt at poetry. I am confused about Tara's platform because she refuses to acknowledge her heritage and ingenuously continues to display her upper-middle class ignorance to the reading public. No wonder people make fun of her.

For example, one reader (not Shaggy's girl) had this to say after her September 29 article on domestic helpers:

I often wonder if I am the only one who, after reading Tara Abrahams-Clivio, says "What tha'.?" Quite frankly, I am baffled as to why she has column space in the Observer. I am guilty of reading it, but I just think I do so not for the "substance" of what she says (because, that, it surely lacks) but to see what ridiculous thing she is going to write about next.

I don't think that Tara understands the meaning of hardship. Taking on a job at McDonald's and being victimised by a white anal-retentive boss doesn't make you a helper. When the daughter of a Jamaican media executive goes to a fast food restaurant and mops floors, she's doing social research. Just like Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie for "The Simple Life". Or like Prince William in Kenya.

You see, even as a McDonald's employee, Tara was insulated from hardship because she always had daddy's mansion to run to at the end of a long, hard day. Seeking after hardship when you had a social safety net is a lifestyle choice, and is not the same as being powerless to escape hardship. Furthermore, most helpers can't afford to spend upwards of JM $200 on a McDonald's hamburger, so Tara would have been meeting her friends and neighbours anyhow.

Speaking of hardship, I recently saw a documentary about a beautiful young white girl in Argentina who gave birth to her first child at 13, and who could not even get a job as a helper because there was no-one to take care of her child. She lived in an old hut in the middle of a dirt patch, cooked her meals outdoors and slept on wooden slats each night, with another young, homeless mother and her child. She had only the clothes on her back, and the baby had no clothes to wear.

She could not afford to buy medicine for her son who was now suffering from malnutrition, and had huge legions on his skin. The paediatrician could only offer her cold comfort. "The child is your responsibility. You are everything he has". She decided to look for a job but couldn't find one because she was underaged and had a young baby.

Of course I didn't have to go that far to find stories about hardship. They exist right here in Jamaica.

Tara doesn't have to experience hardship to feel sympathy for people who are less fortunate, and she doesn't have to feel guilty for having had a privileged background. She should give thanks that her children have a father to provide for them and that she never has to worry about where to rest her head at night.

I would rather see Tara spend her time working for charity. Maybe it will give her better material for her poetry in the Jamaica Observer.


Thursday, November 10, 2005
Mopping floors
Tara Abrahams-Clivio
(In defense of statement by above-mentioned critic)

To the critics who feel that all helpers are poor, black women from the country who are so simple that they are so easily exploited and incapable of honouring the basic elements of an employment "contract", those who feel that the rich are all "white" and useless, unable to even mop a floor, preoccupied with socialising, and those who feel that certain women's opinions should be censored, maybe now you do know just a little about me. Now you might understand that I do not feel mopping the floor is beneath me. I have done it, and continue to do it if need be, just not particularly well, it seems. Maybe now I don't fit your stereotype of someone who feels she is superior to the working-class woman, because I have done her job. Maybe you felt I thought I was also superior to you, maybe now you will think again. Don't! I do feel I am superior to you because you are racists, and I am not.