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Cry! Cry! O beloved country!
Thursday, November 05, 2009
If we could step out of our minds and look objectively at the state of our country today, we might say with Thomas Paine in his The Crisis, that these, truly, are the times that try men's souls.
Jamaicans might not be faced with Thomas Paine's American revolution of the 1700s, but these are no less perilous times for our country. And the pain and the burden belong to all of us.
Few Jamaicans, if any, would dispute the view that crime and the economy are the two most important issues facing the country today. Yet, in the midst of the darkness shrouding the land, the best we can come up with in response is the dismissal/resignation of two of the critical leaders.
We wish to resist the temptation to see all our problems through Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) or People's National Party (PNP) eyes. Because, for those who can see, the crisis is upon us and none can escape, save those who are privileged to be able to jump on a plane and leave.
The dismissal of Bank of Jamaica governor, Mr Derick Latibeaudiere and the resignation of Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin as police commissioner - same difference - ought to serve as the proverbial wake-up call, assuming that we still needed one. And if we did, add the controversial downgrading of our creditworthiness by the rating agency, Standard and Poor's. All of this right in front of the visiting members of the team negotiating the hardly-can-wait-to-get-it pact with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Murders continue to climb relentlessly and joblessness is not even making the news anymore, so commonplace it has become. Schoolchildren are still killing each other, aided and abetted by the scums of our society, as evidenced by our page one photo in today's edition of the Observer.
Neither have we forgotten the call by the Police Federation for the resignation of a good policeman, Mr Les Green, for saying what we all know - that there are criminals in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), some of whom get killed in the midst of their criminal activities.
The point here is that things are bad, and in the words of that great calypsonian Sparrow, "getting more bad". Yet, we seem to be pretending that it is business as usual. If a recession cannot jolt us into reality, then we wonder what else can.
It is full time that as a country we put aside the things that divide us and draw long bench. At a time like this, we should be organising public forums and town hall meetings, from one end of the island to the next, to discuss a way forward out of this gloom and doom.
Let us hear the words of Marcus Garvey, declare 'Up ye mighty race' and rise up from our slumber. Let us ask "Is there a man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, this is my own, my native land?"
As patriotic Jamaicans, we must stand shoulder to shoulder to halt the slide. No foreigner is going to do it for us. Together let us cry! cry! for our beloved country.
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