Dear Editor,

I watched TVJ news last Thursday night and saw vendors along King Street remaining tight-lipped about the level of business they had been experiencing since Monday’s unrest.

Their reluctance to speak out in the face of what must certainly be declining revenues, and their off-camera pronouncement that “dem must leave Dudus alone” are evidence of the most basic human instinct — survival.

They know where their fortune lies, and under no circumstance will they do anything to jeopardise it. Our normally God-fearing people have very easily mixed God and Jesus and Dudus into one sentence!

What does all of this illustrate? Where the State has failed to create the right environment for its citizens to make a living, provide for themselves and their families, where the State has failed to protect its people, where the State has failed to create social structures to provide identity and build communities, it has given relevance to strong community leaders who can provide economic sustenance and then use this clout to galvanise the community around them.

It makes no sense for us to pontificate about “blood money” and “donmanship” and all that goes along with this. When our basic human needs are not met and then a provider comes along and fills that void, the lines between right and wrong become very blurred.

So the failure of the State, and, some will argue, the complicit actions of the State, have created a monster in our so-called garrison communities. Let me ask: if and when dons are extracted from the equation, what will fill that void? Is the State ready and able to step up and provide a means for people to make money, to keep its people safe, to facilitate sound social structures around which communities can flourish and contribute to national development?

If not, what will fill that vacuum?

Kelly McIntosh

kkmac218@gmail.com