Quote Originally Posted by Sweet_Dawta View Post
Consider that half the Jamaican population lives abraod and work and send FREE money back to someone on the island. It is customary to want something and look to someone (mostly) in the States for it. Kids, parents, and sibling often ask for things from those abroad.
Remittances is the term for what is being described above. In the developing world, when the unemployment is high and the average wage is low, remittances are a common occurrence. This happens world wide and is not exclusive to Jamaica. As we are all human and have many of the same wants and desires, when a family member is lucky enough to live in a first world country, there can be expectations on the part of those not so fortunate back home.

Sweet Dawta - after reading your remarks, it seems that you have strong feelings in this area where you are intimately involved. That is understandable. While this does have an impact on the society, this is not something that a tourist would have to encounter since there would not be any family/blood relationships in the first place.

The begging issue presented by the original poster includes the "buy me a beer" and "give me a dollar" kind of thing that one will encounter when on a vacation as well as the phone calls (when a home phone number is given out) asking for anything from money to a chain saw. This behavior is more prevalent in tourist areas with the obvious wealth disparities and number of people involved, but is not a major factor when viewing the island as a whole from a broader perspective.

Your living outside of Jamaica for so many years offers you a interesting perspective on the situation and as I have also lived outside the US for so long I have different perspective on America as do those who live there. As Bnewb stated, the sharing of each person's perspective gives a better understanding of the situation.