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Brand Jamaica = Brand Incivility
published: Monday | March 3, 2008
Dr Hume Nicola Johnson, Contributor
Boorishness, from playing loud music to jostling to enter a bus, has helped reaffirm Brand Incivility which has tarnished Jamaica's image, Dr Hume argues. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer
New Zealand, the country in which I have lived for the past four years, says it will not send its netballers (the Silver Ferns) to Jamaica because of fears for their safety. Recently, the Economist magazine wrote about the 'sun, sea and crime' in Jamaica. We are now known as much for an exciting culture and beautiful scenery as much as we are for crime and violence. I call it crime tourism and at home it's Brand Incivility.
But having witnessed and been a victim of crime myself in the United States and in beautiful and civilised Aotearoa (New Zealand) where my purse was stolen), I begin this article with a caveat. Every society, past or present, has illustrated tendencies to violence and intolerance that contradict the ideal notion of civil society as a haven of openness, non-violence tolerance and altruistic citizens working for the 'common good'. In Jamaica, embedded and blatant incivility has always lurked behind the call and desire for a more civil society.
Civil society is itself not all virtuous. In the first place, its network of associations is cast so wide, it automatically and unwittingly embraces criminals, hate groups and extremists, as well as tendencies and practices that constitute everything civility is not. There are groups in Jamaica which skirt the boundaries between legal and extralegal behaviour. Civil society contains both civil and uncivil actors, and legal and extralegal practices, processes and dimensions. This has led to confusion over its meaning and, in contexts such as Jamaica, may trigger doubts over its usefulness as a force for societal transformation. The following is the reason.
Just three months into 2008 and we are already obliged to come to terms with the familiar, but stark reality - the predominance of disorder and incivility over order and civility in many of our social spaces and institutions - schools, politics, streets and within homes. Disorder won out in 2007: More than 1,500 of our citizens, including 20 policemen, were slaughtered; young schoolkids mirrored the society's example of violence and attacked each other while their classmates watched, cheered and captured the violence on cellular phones; schoolgirls had sex on buses, and at one Clarendon school protested their right to break the school rules. The television media sanctioned their indiscipline by providing coverage; violence and vulgarity reigned in our music, was reproduced on radio, and in the dancehall, and defended by our intellectuals. Our people lived free of accountability, and showed disregard for the trappings of modern social control, and our politicians accommodated thugs, fostered violence and provoked tribal divisions among the citizenry in their quest for political power.
Violence, the national language
We accept violence as normal. Our language is that of hate and violence. The way we played, told our jokes, our sense of self was imbued with the language of hate and violence. Words are meant for us to communicate. Language is meant to be a beautiful thing. Instead, we use language as weapons to injure, condemn and attack. In politics, disagreement between opponents is the sign of a healthy and flourishing democracy. Not so in a culture already as violent as ours. The bickering and the smear campaigns during the 2007 election and the deepening of the boorishness and cass-cass after the election, and which still continues, are exhausting and a poor example to our people. It means that civil society cannot still depend on political leaders to lead us into constructive dialogue. Yet, it is from within civil society - albeit not a cure-all - that we must look for hope and transformation.
Role of Civil Society
We always knew that there was an absence of strong and genuine political leadership in Jamaica, but never before has this crisis of leadership across all the domains of the society been so obvious. There is a curious silence about the role of civil society - the musicians, the social networks, the Church, the community groups and the media.
Civility is about demonstrating respect for others. Civility is the common language of communicating respect for one another. Offering your seat to a lady or an older person is your way of communicating respect for them. Civility also means self-regulation, holding back in the pursuit of your own self-interest, for the sake of living in harmony with others. So if playing your music loudly is how you get your groove on, realise that this may be a disturbance to your neighbour. Civility also relates to public behaviour - not blaring music loudly on buses and not using profanity.
Civility does not mean respect and sympathy only towards specific people, but having generalised empathy for all those who share the society with us. Civility must be returned to the conduct of citizen politics.
A House Divided
One of the challenges with accomplishing this sense of civility is that we don't have a shared sense of values which define us as a people. For example, we are not yet united on the idea that there should be respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual. Some of us believe criminals should be executed; they should get no rights. Some of us believe gays should be murdered. They have no rights. Yet, this same section of the community will claim to support human rights, but only in the sense that the police officer should not draw his weapon in the performance of his duty.
We are not all united in our commitment to the rule of law. We are at war with the rule of law. Citizens have withdrawn from participation in crime fighting because they feel it is the Government's responsibility.
We are also not united in showing compassion for those in need. We remain in deep disagreement over these values, and a house divided against itself cannot stand.
Role of the State
Civil society is not at war with the state but deeply depends on its efficient performance and accountability. Civil values are so fundamental to the kind of society we want. Innovative public policy initiatives by the Government can go a long way in promoting civil virtues and values in Jamaica. Civic education is required and the avenues through which this can be done are fairly obvious. Schools have a pivotal role to play in any initiative to strengthen civil norms. Countries such as Australia and New Zealand have, for example, developed a Values and Attitudes Survey which measures or tracks the social and moral development of the students. The benefit of this is that you get a sense of the attitudes and core character of students long before behavioural problems arises.
Civics is no longer a compulsory element of the school curriculum, but it should be returned to the school curriculum because it's an introduction to responsible citizenship. If a child drops out of school at age 12 or 15, at the very least, he or she would have already learned what it means to be a responsible citizen. This is because they would have learned tolerance, respect for opposing positions and the views of others, a willingness to abide by rules and regard for the institutions in the society. In other words, they would be less inclined to forfeit their 'social contract' with the state.
More Self-Regulation
The police and other guardians of the law are essential to any programme to renew public civility. The current resort by some police officers to unlawful behaviour in the pursuit of order is a huge hurdle to the overall objective of creating a civil society. There is also, in my view, an overreliance on the police to regulate behaviour. A civil society would be one where citizens engage in self-regulation. This means abiding by the laws, acting civilly and doing the right thing so as to reduce the incidents where the police must employ force.
Entertainers must heed the critique of the many voices urging them to take stock of the messages they disseminate and see their roles more in line with responsible citizenship. We now exist too close to the edge not to care or to be mere contributors to the problem.
The country's music product has always been a reaction to society and reggae artistes have helped to articulate the concerns and grievances of the poor and often mount a lyrical counter-war against an oppressive power structure. However, Jamaica's contemporary (reggae versus dancehall) music culture transmits intensely violent and antagonistic values and norms, leading to the development of an ambiguous social language inimical to civility. Current research into this arena only renders passing commentary on this development and so it is worthy of critical exploration.
As citizens, we are obliged to participate in the process of governance in our country. Many of our citizens are too comfortable with being mere spectators in their own society. The media are obliged to play a more active, educational role. In the same breath, there are many fair-minded, responsible thinking citizens so there is still hope. Politicians and the police can't and won't do everything. We can no longer escape our part in the struggle.
The response of the State and of civil society to this spectre of chaos is crucial.
Dr Hume Nicola Johnson, a broadcaster, holds a PhD in political science and public policy from the University of Waikato in New Zealand and has published on the challenges to civil society and governance in Jamaica. Email humepela@gmail.com.
published: Monday | March 3, 2008
Dr Hume Nicola Johnson, Contributor
Boorishness, from playing loud music to jostling to enter a bus, has helped reaffirm Brand Incivility which has tarnished Jamaica's image, Dr Hume argues. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer
New Zealand, the country in which I have lived for the past four years, says it will not send its netballers (the Silver Ferns) to Jamaica because of fears for their safety. Recently, the Economist magazine wrote about the 'sun, sea and crime' in Jamaica. We are now known as much for an exciting culture and beautiful scenery as much as we are for crime and violence. I call it crime tourism and at home it's Brand Incivility.
But having witnessed and been a victim of crime myself in the United States and in beautiful and civilised Aotearoa (New Zealand) where my purse was stolen), I begin this article with a caveat. Every society, past or present, has illustrated tendencies to violence and intolerance that contradict the ideal notion of civil society as a haven of openness, non-violence tolerance and altruistic citizens working for the 'common good'. In Jamaica, embedded and blatant incivility has always lurked behind the call and desire for a more civil society.
Civil society is itself not all virtuous. In the first place, its network of associations is cast so wide, it automatically and unwittingly embraces criminals, hate groups and extremists, as well as tendencies and practices that constitute everything civility is not. There are groups in Jamaica which skirt the boundaries between legal and extralegal behaviour. Civil society contains both civil and uncivil actors, and legal and extralegal practices, processes and dimensions. This has led to confusion over its meaning and, in contexts such as Jamaica, may trigger doubts over its usefulness as a force for societal transformation. The following is the reason.
Just three months into 2008 and we are already obliged to come to terms with the familiar, but stark reality - the predominance of disorder and incivility over order and civility in many of our social spaces and institutions - schools, politics, streets and within homes. Disorder won out in 2007: More than 1,500 of our citizens, including 20 policemen, were slaughtered; young schoolkids mirrored the society's example of violence and attacked each other while their classmates watched, cheered and captured the violence on cellular phones; schoolgirls had sex on buses, and at one Clarendon school protested their right to break the school rules. The television media sanctioned their indiscipline by providing coverage; violence and vulgarity reigned in our music, was reproduced on radio, and in the dancehall, and defended by our intellectuals. Our people lived free of accountability, and showed disregard for the trappings of modern social control, and our politicians accommodated thugs, fostered violence and provoked tribal divisions among the citizenry in their quest for political power.
Violence, the national language
We accept violence as normal. Our language is that of hate and violence. The way we played, told our jokes, our sense of self was imbued with the language of hate and violence. Words are meant for us to communicate. Language is meant to be a beautiful thing. Instead, we use language as weapons to injure, condemn and attack. In politics, disagreement between opponents is the sign of a healthy and flourishing democracy. Not so in a culture already as violent as ours. The bickering and the smear campaigns during the 2007 election and the deepening of the boorishness and cass-cass after the election, and which still continues, are exhausting and a poor example to our people. It means that civil society cannot still depend on political leaders to lead us into constructive dialogue. Yet, it is from within civil society - albeit not a cure-all - that we must look for hope and transformation.
Role of Civil Society
We always knew that there was an absence of strong and genuine political leadership in Jamaica, but never before has this crisis of leadership across all the domains of the society been so obvious. There is a curious silence about the role of civil society - the musicians, the social networks, the Church, the community groups and the media.
Civility is about demonstrating respect for others. Civility is the common language of communicating respect for one another. Offering your seat to a lady or an older person is your way of communicating respect for them. Civility also means self-regulation, holding back in the pursuit of your own self-interest, for the sake of living in harmony with others. So if playing your music loudly is how you get your groove on, realise that this may be a disturbance to your neighbour. Civility also relates to public behaviour - not blaring music loudly on buses and not using profanity.
Civility does not mean respect and sympathy only towards specific people, but having generalised empathy for all those who share the society with us. Civility must be returned to the conduct of citizen politics.
A House Divided
One of the challenges with accomplishing this sense of civility is that we don't have a shared sense of values which define us as a people. For example, we are not yet united on the idea that there should be respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual. Some of us believe criminals should be executed; they should get no rights. Some of us believe gays should be murdered. They have no rights. Yet, this same section of the community will claim to support human rights, but only in the sense that the police officer should not draw his weapon in the performance of his duty.
We are not all united in our commitment to the rule of law. We are at war with the rule of law. Citizens have withdrawn from participation in crime fighting because they feel it is the Government's responsibility.
We are also not united in showing compassion for those in need. We remain in deep disagreement over these values, and a house divided against itself cannot stand.
Role of the State
Civil society is not at war with the state but deeply depends on its efficient performance and accountability. Civil values are so fundamental to the kind of society we want. Innovative public policy initiatives by the Government can go a long way in promoting civil virtues and values in Jamaica. Civic education is required and the avenues through which this can be done are fairly obvious. Schools have a pivotal role to play in any initiative to strengthen civil norms. Countries such as Australia and New Zealand have, for example, developed a Values and Attitudes Survey which measures or tracks the social and moral development of the students. The benefit of this is that you get a sense of the attitudes and core character of students long before behavioural problems arises.
Civics is no longer a compulsory element of the school curriculum, but it should be returned to the school curriculum because it's an introduction to responsible citizenship. If a child drops out of school at age 12 or 15, at the very least, he or she would have already learned what it means to be a responsible citizen. This is because they would have learned tolerance, respect for opposing positions and the views of others, a willingness to abide by rules and regard for the institutions in the society. In other words, they would be less inclined to forfeit their 'social contract' with the state.
More Self-Regulation
The police and other guardians of the law are essential to any programme to renew public civility. The current resort by some police officers to unlawful behaviour in the pursuit of order is a huge hurdle to the overall objective of creating a civil society. There is also, in my view, an overreliance on the police to regulate behaviour. A civil society would be one where citizens engage in self-regulation. This means abiding by the laws, acting civilly and doing the right thing so as to reduce the incidents where the police must employ force.
Entertainers must heed the critique of the many voices urging them to take stock of the messages they disseminate and see their roles more in line with responsible citizenship. We now exist too close to the edge not to care or to be mere contributors to the problem.
The country's music product has always been a reaction to society and reggae artistes have helped to articulate the concerns and grievances of the poor and often mount a lyrical counter-war against an oppressive power structure. However, Jamaica's contemporary (reggae versus dancehall) music culture transmits intensely violent and antagonistic values and norms, leading to the development of an ambiguous social language inimical to civility. Current research into this arena only renders passing commentary on this development and so it is worthy of critical exploration.
As citizens, we are obliged to participate in the process of governance in our country. Many of our citizens are too comfortable with being mere spectators in their own society. The media are obliged to play a more active, educational role. In the same breath, there are many fair-minded, responsible thinking citizens so there is still hope. Politicians and the police can't and won't do everything. We can no longer escape our part in the struggle.
The response of the State and of civil society to this spectre of chaos is crucial.
Dr Hume Nicola Johnson, a broadcaster, holds a PhD in political science and public policy from the University of Waikato in New Zealand and has published on the challenges to civil society and governance in Jamaica. Email humepela@gmail.com.