Nothing wrong with ‘$5000 hairstyle on $5 head’ comment

On Thursday January 21, 2016 Pastor Glen Samuels uttered the following at the National Prayer Breakfast in Jamaica - "It makes no sense to have a $5,000 hairstyle on a $5 head".

Four days later, Monday, January 25, 2016, those words continue to dominate day-time and evening radio talk programmes across Jamaica. For greater clarity and to place the utterance in context the full statement was - "It makes no sense to have a $5,000 hairstyle on a $5 head, it’s better to have more in the head than what is on the head”.

What in the world is offensive about this? It is symbolic and it has context. It is simply about the practice of many in Jamaica, across all social strata and gender, often preferring to adorn themselves with outward 'bling' while little, in contrast, is being spent to increase their intellectually capacity. Many will spend “1000” times more on fashion and bling than on education. Is it not truth that this is happening? Where is it better to spend your resources?

Right Priorities

It is being thrown around that the comment reeked of classism, if not sexism, but in my opinion that is nonsense. In essence it was about setting right priorities. For years teachers and wider society have been preaching the importance of gaining knowledge and skills, i.e. putting something of value in the head.

He went even further to challenge the men who are nothing more than "sperm donors" with multiple baby mothers yet behaving like boys when it came to taking care of their responsibilities. “There is too much irresponsibility among our male and female folk. We need more responsible fathers in this country. It is not enough to be a sperm donor”, Pastor Samuels said.

What we have across social strata today is an emphasis of many on bling, "keeping up with the Joneses" while many young and old adults are ill-prepared to be productive in the wider society. Too many times we hear of men and women adorned in the priciest clothes attending the most exclusive parties and the next day they are broke with no plans for their or children’s education.

Message should be endorsed

All women’s groups should have whole-heartily endorsed this message, instead some are deeply offended by the statement, notwithstanding the clear context.  It is absolutely shocking to see why there should be this reaction and especially by those who should seemingly no better.

We seem to prefer pretty words and lies instead of the truth that will set us free. Pastor Glen Samuels said nothing wrong. This is clearly an example it seems where the truth is an offense.

As Thomas Hardy is reported to have said, “If an offense come out of the truth, better is it that the offense come than that the truth be concealed.”

Pastor Samuels is the President of the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.