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This was back in 2003, I got this email:
That was a good discussion on the Forum and I am pleased to see that the respondents had some insights into the general problem facing Jamaica and some views on the shortfalls of the all inclusive mode of tourism which as you pointed out is only one aspect of the issue. Also, the good general tone of bantering and agreement/disagreement with respect seems to now be the norm on RBSC, so hats off to RBSC.
However, I would like to add to the debate coming out of the Canterbury discussion, the deeper theme of a society (Jamaica) evolving into a kleptocracy, where new roles and relationships have been established for individual participation in the society. Predators and victims occupy the same space and swiftly interchange roles when conditions permit. Good men/women are silent or dead.
These roles range from the political elite, the dons, the corrupt and corrupting businesspersons, taxpayers (on whose backs corruption is borne), the poor working class and the children whose patrimony and right to live in a just society is being abrogated daily. Add to this, the "criminal element" who fall into two categories, those who are the "dirty hands" of respected businesspersons (including women) and politicians and the controllers of the drug trade;and the inchoate mass of unorganized petty thieves and thrill killers who rent a gun when it suits them, and kill whoever they please, but run the risk of being brought to justice by the dons if these events occur in his/her domain. Winners and losers, all participate in the destruction of the society by permitting themselves to be manipulated.
The coercive and oppressive power of the state is provided by the "bullwhip" police and what has become a very efficient tax collection machinery, designed to suck every last drop of blood from the working poor to enrich the beneficiaries of mis-allocated resources.
In this re-organization of the social order, we have rolled back the hands of time to achieve a new reality, which mirrors that of plantation society. We have allowed our leaders over the years to pursue a path of injustice, one where our populace has been re-enslaved. There really is little concern for the poor and their suffering. In the news clips that accompany descriptions of the mayhem, has anyone taken time to notice the squalor in which a great number of our people live and children are being raised, and the lack of facilities?
The people who complain, protest and sometimes demonstrate are not wicked, they are just suffering. As in the days of slavery, and in the days of the Morant Bay rebellion, the condition of the people cry out for remedy.
Beautiful Jamaica, land we love, is a hollow shell, a new Matrix, a false reality based on lies and denial of the conditions of the people, an eggshell ready to implode unless the embryo of its destruction hatches first, giving rise to either anarchy or a new social order with no guarantee that it will be more just than the one it replaced. Bring justice to the poor, oppressed and enslaved, break the shackles of the Neo-Slavery, free the people! Yes, we need to create a new Jamaica.
That was a good discussion on the Forum and I am pleased to see that the respondents had some insights into the general problem facing Jamaica and some views on the shortfalls of the all inclusive mode of tourism which as you pointed out is only one aspect of the issue. Also, the good general tone of bantering and agreement/disagreement with respect seems to now be the norm on RBSC, so hats off to RBSC.
However, I would like to add to the debate coming out of the Canterbury discussion, the deeper theme of a society (Jamaica) evolving into a kleptocracy, where new roles and relationships have been established for individual participation in the society. Predators and victims occupy the same space and swiftly interchange roles when conditions permit. Good men/women are silent or dead.
These roles range from the political elite, the dons, the corrupt and corrupting businesspersons, taxpayers (on whose backs corruption is borne), the poor working class and the children whose patrimony and right to live in a just society is being abrogated daily. Add to this, the "criminal element" who fall into two categories, those who are the "dirty hands" of respected businesspersons (including women) and politicians and the controllers of the drug trade;and the inchoate mass of unorganized petty thieves and thrill killers who rent a gun when it suits them, and kill whoever they please, but run the risk of being brought to justice by the dons if these events occur in his/her domain. Winners and losers, all participate in the destruction of the society by permitting themselves to be manipulated.
The coercive and oppressive power of the state is provided by the "bullwhip" police and what has become a very efficient tax collection machinery, designed to suck every last drop of blood from the working poor to enrich the beneficiaries of mis-allocated resources.
In this re-organization of the social order, we have rolled back the hands of time to achieve a new reality, which mirrors that of plantation society. We have allowed our leaders over the years to pursue a path of injustice, one where our populace has been re-enslaved. There really is little concern for the poor and their suffering. In the news clips that accompany descriptions of the mayhem, has anyone taken time to notice the squalor in which a great number of our people live and children are being raised, and the lack of facilities?
The people who complain, protest and sometimes demonstrate are not wicked, they are just suffering. As in the days of slavery, and in the days of the Morant Bay rebellion, the condition of the people cry out for remedy.
Beautiful Jamaica, land we love, is a hollow shell, a new Matrix, a false reality based on lies and denial of the conditions of the people, an eggshell ready to implode unless the embryo of its destruction hatches first, giving rise to either anarchy or a new social order with no guarantee that it will be more just than the one it replaced. Bring justice to the poor, oppressed and enslaved, break the shackles of the Neo-Slavery, free the people! Yes, we need to create a new Jamaica.
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