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WIGNALL'S WORLDMark Wignall
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Congrats to Carolyn Gomes
Today I turn 58 and my first duty, apart from the unseen ones, is to warmly congratulate Dr Carolyn Gomes for having won a UN Human Rights award. She deserves it.
In the late 1990s when I first saw her and others demonstrating in the tough inner-city enclave of Grants Pen, I walked up to her and said, "What's a nice brown-skinned, middle-class lady like you doing in Grants Pen?"
She smiled almost shyly then went on to give me chapter and verse on the human rights of the poor. Since that time, Gomes has fought relentlessly to right the wrongs of a heavy-handed state apparatus that is often misunderstood by armchair commentators in Jamaica.
In 'normal' societies, a Carolyn Gomes would have her place without the rancour and the suspicions of hidden agendas. Jamaica is anything but a normal society. As head of Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ) Gomes was at most times a misunderstood person.
At the formation of JFJ, I was of the view that it was a splinter group of the NDM and the JLP. At another time I looked upon the JFJ as a group of uptown, brown-skinned, white-skinned professionals who were on a great conscience trip; trying to give back a little after doing so well in a country that protected the brown minority class but battered the majority black-skinned class. For a while, I dismissed the JFJ as a group of persons socially and economically well off who came together to have a demonstrable guilt trip.
But Gomes and the JFJ would not go away. They were like little uptown poodles constantly yapping at the heels of government. The fact is, JFJ is ahead of its time in terms of the ability of our citizens to recognise that all views and positions must contend. Too often it appears that JFJ is anti-police. The other fact is, the closer one understands our police force, the clearer it becomes that too much of the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) has elements of state thuggery attached to it.
The JFJ has never singled out justice and placed it aside only for one set of people. But it appears that way. This is so because JFJ and Gomes believe that it is the 'little man' who must be protected. Many of our armchair commentators have deliberately avoided criticisms of the JCF for obvious reasons. The JCF has awesome power so it is better to hurl barbs at 'suspects,' too many of whom are executed by the police.
Keep on doing what you have been doing, Carolyn. I may even criticise you in the future but, guess what, you have been there before, and in the first place you didn't have to do it. It may be controversial to say this, but a group of black Jamaicans as bright as those making up JFJ would not be anywhere near as successful as the initial group formed by Gomes.
Why? Because in our society, our police force finds it easier to crack black skulls than even talk hard to uptown, brown-skinned professionals.
Why? Because that's the way Jamaica is.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Congrats to Carolyn Gomes
Today I turn 58 and my first duty, apart from the unseen ones, is to warmly congratulate Dr Carolyn Gomes for having won a UN Human Rights award. She deserves it.
In the late 1990s when I first saw her and others demonstrating in the tough inner-city enclave of Grants Pen, I walked up to her and said, "What's a nice brown-skinned, middle-class lady like you doing in Grants Pen?"
She smiled almost shyly then went on to give me chapter and verse on the human rights of the poor. Since that time, Gomes has fought relentlessly to right the wrongs of a heavy-handed state apparatus that is often misunderstood by armchair commentators in Jamaica.
In 'normal' societies, a Carolyn Gomes would have her place without the rancour and the suspicions of hidden agendas. Jamaica is anything but a normal society. As head of Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ) Gomes was at most times a misunderstood person.
At the formation of JFJ, I was of the view that it was a splinter group of the NDM and the JLP. At another time I looked upon the JFJ as a group of uptown, brown-skinned, white-skinned professionals who were on a great conscience trip; trying to give back a little after doing so well in a country that protected the brown minority class but battered the majority black-skinned class. For a while, I dismissed the JFJ as a group of persons socially and economically well off who came together to have a demonstrable guilt trip.
But Gomes and the JFJ would not go away. They were like little uptown poodles constantly yapping at the heels of government. The fact is, JFJ is ahead of its time in terms of the ability of our citizens to recognise that all views and positions must contend. Too often it appears that JFJ is anti-police. The other fact is, the closer one understands our police force, the clearer it becomes that too much of the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) has elements of state thuggery attached to it.
The JFJ has never singled out justice and placed it aside only for one set of people. But it appears that way. This is so because JFJ and Gomes believe that it is the 'little man' who must be protected. Many of our armchair commentators have deliberately avoided criticisms of the JCF for obvious reasons. The JCF has awesome power so it is better to hurl barbs at 'suspects,' too many of whom are executed by the police.
Keep on doing what you have been doing, Carolyn. I may even criticise you in the future but, guess what, you have been there before, and in the first place you didn't have to do it. It may be controversial to say this, but a group of black Jamaicans as bright as those making up JFJ would not be anywhere near as successful as the initial group formed by Gomes.
Why? Because in our society, our police force finds it easier to crack black skulls than even talk hard to uptown, brown-skinned professionals.
Why? Because that's the way Jamaica is.
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