Where were they?
Dear Editor,
It is the season for do-gooders. While there are those who give like the widow giving her mite, there are those who give with one hand and take back with two, and the dog-and-pony show upstages any genuine sense of purpose, with the emphasis on “show” and not the urging of the inner man to make a difference without the glare of the camera and the decibels of a radio microphone.
Would it surprise you to know that some of these same do-gooders turn their own sister out on the street to beg bread? I would like to quote one of the most underrated philosophers of our time, Bob Marley: “Open your eyes and look within; are you satisfied with the life you are living?”
In other words, indulge in some introspection and subdue “Me, myself and I”; “Me first, me second and me again” otherwise called “selfishness”, marinated with self-centredness, not unlike the behaviour of a pig in a sty.
The situation at hand is that some self-entitled criminals in our society have hijacked law and order, and through their ill-gained financial resources, subsume the population of a cult-like village called Tivoli. These people were forced to blaspheme by comparing criminals to Jesus.
The rain, the sun, and the hurricane affect the rich and the poor alike; the security forces are not like a team of medical surgeons who can carefully cut away the cancer without damaging adjacent organs. This does not absolve them from ruthless behaviour, but the self-acclaimed do-gooders erupt into a self-righteous fit of indignation against the security forces for taking this bad situation by the scruff of the neck.
Prevention is always better and more effective than cure. Where were they when this alien type of human experiment to short-circuit a one-upmanship type of political power was set in motion? Where were they when one woman in that village voted in a secret ballot for another party, and her family was wiped out? Where were they when the Opposition leader was threatened with “blood for blood” at the hands of a private army?
Where were they when at 6 pm one day vigilantes took over Spanish Town Road between the cemetery and Oxford Street? Where were they when the lives of normal citizens and targeted ones were snuffed out daily? Where were they in the late 1970s when destabilisation in concert with foreign intervention besieged Jamaica? Why are these big-mouth mice still afraid to call the real conceptualist out, instead of playing a cat-and-mouse blame game, while the culprit is living the life of Riley? We in the diaspora can only hold the mirror. The answer, my friend, is embodied in selfishness.
Fitz Anderson
fitzanderson@yahoo.com