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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>In the throes of a a state of emergency</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=350 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Dear Reader,<P class=StoryText align=justify>It doesn't matter where you sit or which pair of partisan lenses you wear - whether green or orange - the plain truth is that Jamaica is in the throes of a state of emergency. The irony is that while the two major political parties jockey for power, the problems of the country are so Herculean that they transcend party politics, and as far as I am concerned, neither of the two has demonstrated the ability to pull our country out of its present state of crisis.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Even in those communities that have been carved up for political gain, and where the poor have been so systematically manipulated, the people are saying that they are sick and tired of what is going on. "Wi no interested inna politics nuh more", one woman shouted, "Yu no see wa a gwaan, PNP a kill PNP, JLP a kill JLP. Di gun dem a kill wi. Politics can't full wi belly!"<P class=StoryText align=justify>And the guns are definitely barking. Last week alone, close to 20 people were murdered in one section of the country, more than six in one day. In one area of Western Kingston there is not a day that goes by that at least two people aren't murdered. One of last week's victims was a quiet and humble young man who was taken out of his bed in the wee hours of the morning with his 10-year-old son hanging on to his legs and begging for his father's life. He was killed in his front yard while his son watched. The story is that he was murdered for being an informer.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It would be interesting to check the current state of the morgues and whether there is any space for any more dead bodies. All this is happening in a country experiencing peace, and a country with fewer than three million people.
The plain fact is that over the past five years more people have been murdered in a state of peace in Jamaica than American soldiers killed in a state of war in Iraq. The figure for Iraq is 3,252, while Jamaica's figure is close to 10,000, and this doesn't include the frightening number of missing people every year. Since January of this year, the number of people murdered in Jamaica is 361. If this is not a state of emergency, then I don't know what is!<P class=StoryText align=justify>Child murders are so commonplace now in our country, that they only warrant one-day news coverage. It's back to business on day two. Let me put this as plainly as I can. Any country that has had close to 500 children murdered in five years is experiencing a severe state of emergency! When two- and six-year-olds are being slaughtered, we have definitely reached the tipping point - not the Mafia, not even in war, are babies targeted!<P class=StoryText align=justify>In a conversation with a friend, she lamented with sadness in her eyes that the only thing she could liken Jamaica's current situation to was what she saw when she visited the African country, Rwanda, after it had gone through the period of genocide. "Jamaica is almost there," she said, "it's the same kind of brutality". The truth is that with close to 10,000 murdered in five years in Jamaica, the situation is tantamount to genocide.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But it's not just the murders generally, and the killing of children in particular, that is alarming. What is equally disturbing are the hundreds of thousands of children across the country who are being shortchanged by
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=350 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Dear Reader,<P class=StoryText align=justify>It doesn't matter where you sit or which pair of partisan lenses you wear - whether green or orange - the plain truth is that Jamaica is in the throes of a state of emergency. The irony is that while the two major political parties jockey for power, the problems of the country are so Herculean that they transcend party politics, and as far as I am concerned, neither of the two has demonstrated the ability to pull our country out of its present state of crisis.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Even in those communities that have been carved up for political gain, and where the poor have been so systematically manipulated, the people are saying that they are sick and tired of what is going on. "Wi no interested inna politics nuh more", one woman shouted, "Yu no see wa a gwaan, PNP a kill PNP, JLP a kill JLP. Di gun dem a kill wi. Politics can't full wi belly!"<P class=StoryText align=justify>And the guns are definitely barking. Last week alone, close to 20 people were murdered in one section of the country, more than six in one day. In one area of Western Kingston there is not a day that goes by that at least two people aren't murdered. One of last week's victims was a quiet and humble young man who was taken out of his bed in the wee hours of the morning with his 10-year-old son hanging on to his legs and begging for his father's life. He was killed in his front yard while his son watched. The story is that he was murdered for being an informer.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It would be interesting to check the current state of the morgues and whether there is any space for any more dead bodies. All this is happening in a country experiencing peace, and a country with fewer than three million people. The plain fact is that over the past five years more people have been murdered in a state of peace in Jamaica than American soldiers killed in a state of war in Iraq. The figure for Iraq is 3,252, while Jamaica's figure is close to 10,000, and this doesn't include the frightening number of missing people every year. Since January of this year, the number of people murdered in Jamaica is 361. If this is not a state of emergency, then I don't know what is!<P class=StoryText align=justify>Child murders are so commonplace now in our country, that they only warrant one-day news coverage. It's back to business on day two. Let me put this as plainly as I can. Any country that has had close to 500 children murdered in five years is experiencing a severe state of emergency! When two- and six-year-olds are being slaughtered, we have definitely reached the tipping point - not the Mafia, not even in war, are babies targeted!<P class=StoryText align=justify>In a conversation with a friend, she lamented with sadness in her eyes that the only thing she could liken Jamaica's current situation to was what she saw when she visited the African country, Rwanda, after it had gone through the period of genocide. "Jamaica is almost there," she said, "it's the same kind of brutality". The truth is that with close to 10,000 murdered in five years in Jamaica, the situation is tantamount to genocide.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But it's not just the murders generally, and the killing of children in particular, that is alarming. What is equally disturbing are the hundreds of thousands of children across the country who are being shortchanged by
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