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Things fall apart
HEART TO HEART
With Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Dear Reader,
I'm getting the feeling that optimism is becoming the scarcest commodity in Jamaica these days. When you know that things are really falling apart is when diehard Jamaicans - those who swore that they would never leave Jamaica, even those who stuck it out during the turbulent Manley years - are talking about migrating. "The writing is on the wall," I hear some of them saying, or "There is no hope for Jamaica. If I can't protect myself and my family, what's the point of living here?"
There is no doubt that optimism is under attack, and for obvious reasons. There is not a single day in our country that the sight of dead bodies is not on display for all to see. In fact, the murder of young Jamaicans is so commonplace that there is very little empathy or concern for the person's humanity. Nobody inquires about families and young siblings devastated after the murder of their loved ones. Very few of us seem interested in knowing what those "push" factors are causing teenagers and young adults to commit heinous crimes, and to become victims themselves of a deadly cycle of violence.
What we are experiencing now in Jamaica is not just constant death, but the death of outrage, and as the numbers of body bags increase, the indifference and the numbness increase commensurably.
Then there is the economic crisis that is deepening by the minute. In my over 30 years of working with the poor and dispossessed, I have never experienced a time when people have been so impoverished and so without hope. People are no longer just begging money, they are asking for food, and the looks on their faces tell the story of plain hunger. Increasingly, those begging are the elderly, small children, and mothers with babies in their arms.
But things are not just falling apart at the bottom or in the middle. Of even greater concern is the fact that things are falling apart at the top, and the simultaneous resignations of the governor of the central bank and the commissioner of police are indicative of the weakening fabric of governance and the deepening crisis enveloping the Golding administration.
While the fine details of the two most significant resignations that could take place within any government - the police chief and the central bank chief - while the specifics are important, the broader implications are indisputable, and it is that the Golding administration, two years along, is losing both the economic and national security battle.
Of course, the politics of deception and distraction kicked in right away, and as the leader of the well-oiled partisan machinery, the prime minister capitalised on the perfect opportunity to place the blame of Latibeaudiere's exit squarely at the feet of former Finance Minister Omar Davies. So instead of focusing on the critical IMF negotiations and the inevitable negative ripple effects of any agreement to be arrived at, the pundits and partisans are busy pointing fingers at each other and engaging in the usual "hit and run" politics.
True to form, the PNP struck back with responses that prove that they are not only completely out of touch with the sentiments of the Jamaican people, but that they refuse to break away from the overused, overworn, shallow, "slash and burn" politics of the past. The greater disappointment is that the PNP found no hesitation in using the young, inexperienced senator, Mark Golding, to be led like a lamb to the slaughter for Omar Davies' sins. I'm disappointed that Mark Golding has become the latest victim of blind party loyalty in trying to defend the indefensible. As a former Comrade put it, "The PNP squandered the opportunity to reclaim the moral authority they lost in the last election."
I think its becoming clearer and clearer, even to supporters, that neither political party is capable of rescuing the country from the precipitous free fall now occurring, and the resignation of the police chief is another blatant example of the ineptitude and impotency of the current administration. It took the prime minister of the country almost four days to officially respond to the resignation of Hardley Lewin, and when he did, he left all of us still asking, "Why? What exactly caused the police chief to resign?" The spurious argument that Lewin was ineffective in stemming crime is so openly dishonest that Jamaicans like myself have started to tune out.
Those of us who are serious about our country need to remind the prime minister that we are not so partisan or so dumb as to not recognise that one single human being is incapable of solving Jamaica's crime problem, particularly when the problem has its roots in the political establishment. Instead of seeking to scapegoat yet another crime chief, Mr Golding should tell the country how he intends to bring to book those gunmen with whom he admitted to have had "associations", and how exactly he will move to dismantle his own garrison constituency and those others that have seceded from the state.
I don't know what it is going to take for the people who lead us to come to grips with the fact that things are indeed falling apart and that the days of empty spin and "tit for tat" politics are over. What the Jamaican people are hungry for is honest, straightforward talk and for solutions that can, at the very least, give them a fighting chance in the race of life.
With love,
bab2609@yahoo.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...FALL_APART.asp
HEART TO HEART
With Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Dear Reader,
I'm getting the feeling that optimism is becoming the scarcest commodity in Jamaica these days. When you know that things are really falling apart is when diehard Jamaicans - those who swore that they would never leave Jamaica, even those who stuck it out during the turbulent Manley years - are talking about migrating. "The writing is on the wall," I hear some of them saying, or "There is no hope for Jamaica. If I can't protect myself and my family, what's the point of living here?"
There is no doubt that optimism is under attack, and for obvious reasons. There is not a single day in our country that the sight of dead bodies is not on display for all to see. In fact, the murder of young Jamaicans is so commonplace that there is very little empathy or concern for the person's humanity. Nobody inquires about families and young siblings devastated after the murder of their loved ones. Very few of us seem interested in knowing what those "push" factors are causing teenagers and young adults to commit heinous crimes, and to become victims themselves of a deadly cycle of violence.
What we are experiencing now in Jamaica is not just constant death, but the death of outrage, and as the numbers of body bags increase, the indifference and the numbness increase commensurably.
Then there is the economic crisis that is deepening by the minute. In my over 30 years of working with the poor and dispossessed, I have never experienced a time when people have been so impoverished and so without hope. People are no longer just begging money, they are asking for food, and the looks on their faces tell the story of plain hunger. Increasingly, those begging are the elderly, small children, and mothers with babies in their arms.
But things are not just falling apart at the bottom or in the middle. Of even greater concern is the fact that things are falling apart at the top, and the simultaneous resignations of the governor of the central bank and the commissioner of police are indicative of the weakening fabric of governance and the deepening crisis enveloping the Golding administration.
While the fine details of the two most significant resignations that could take place within any government - the police chief and the central bank chief - while the specifics are important, the broader implications are indisputable, and it is that the Golding administration, two years along, is losing both the economic and national security battle.
Of course, the politics of deception and distraction kicked in right away, and as the leader of the well-oiled partisan machinery, the prime minister capitalised on the perfect opportunity to place the blame of Latibeaudiere's exit squarely at the feet of former Finance Minister Omar Davies. So instead of focusing on the critical IMF negotiations and the inevitable negative ripple effects of any agreement to be arrived at, the pundits and partisans are busy pointing fingers at each other and engaging in the usual "hit and run" politics.
True to form, the PNP struck back with responses that prove that they are not only completely out of touch with the sentiments of the Jamaican people, but that they refuse to break away from the overused, overworn, shallow, "slash and burn" politics of the past. The greater disappointment is that the PNP found no hesitation in using the young, inexperienced senator, Mark Golding, to be led like a lamb to the slaughter for Omar Davies' sins. I'm disappointed that Mark Golding has become the latest victim of blind party loyalty in trying to defend the indefensible. As a former Comrade put it, "The PNP squandered the opportunity to reclaim the moral authority they lost in the last election."
I think its becoming clearer and clearer, even to supporters, that neither political party is capable of rescuing the country from the precipitous free fall now occurring, and the resignation of the police chief is another blatant example of the ineptitude and impotency of the current administration. It took the prime minister of the country almost four days to officially respond to the resignation of Hardley Lewin, and when he did, he left all of us still asking, "Why? What exactly caused the police chief to resign?" The spurious argument that Lewin was ineffective in stemming crime is so openly dishonest that Jamaicans like myself have started to tune out.
Those of us who are serious about our country need to remind the prime minister that we are not so partisan or so dumb as to not recognise that one single human being is incapable of solving Jamaica's crime problem, particularly when the problem has its roots in the political establishment. Instead of seeking to scapegoat yet another crime chief, Mr Golding should tell the country how he intends to bring to book those gunmen with whom he admitted to have had "associations", and how exactly he will move to dismantle his own garrison constituency and those others that have seceded from the state.
I don't know what it is going to take for the people who lead us to come to grips with the fact that things are indeed falling apart and that the days of empty spin and "tit for tat" politics are over. What the Jamaican people are hungry for is honest, straightforward talk and for solutions that can, at the very least, give them a fighting chance in the race of life.
With love,
bab2609@yahoo.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...FALL_APART.asp
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