ROGER hobbled up to me in the little town square, and as he made the last few steps before he stopped, he reminded me of one of my senior citizen friends, Gabby, in his 90s but still shuffling along with his walking stick and smiling with a cigar stuck in one corner of his mouth.

Roger was in his early 40s, had a breakout of fine rashes over his skin, was in pain, and had no money for painkillers. As he made the appeal to me I gave him $200 and suggested he also buy juice to better sustain his fight with chik-V.

An engineer/researcher friend of mine in his early 50s walked across the square and was dragging one leg behind him. He woke up one morning with burning fever and painful joints. He spent a day in bed, taking painkillers and drinking lots of fluids:

“The way I see it, it made no sense for me to go to the doctor and pay him just to tell me what I already know. The next day I went out with friends, walked into a bar and I ordered a shot of white rum mixed with lime juice. As I was bringing the cup to my lips I felt myself slipping away. Wasn’t a nice feeling, and I told myself that I am not going where that feeling wants to take me.

“I moved away the bar stool, crouched, then lay myself flat out on the floor. I told my friends that it was better I did it so instead of falling off the stool and maybe hitting my head. I told them so that I could avoid someone dousing me with a pail of water or having some stink shoe placed over my nose. Sweat washed me for the 15 minutes or so as I remained there. Then I crawled back up and asked that they take me home. That was two days ago. Now my buttocks and thighs are in pain, but I refuse to give in anymore.”

A young man in his 30s, a sound engineer in a recording studio, came over to me the next day . I look on as he painfully moves towards me — painful for me to watch as well. There are rashes over his skin: “Don’t tell me you, too!” I said.

“Yes, lick me down yesterday. Drank water all day, took painkillers,” he said.

I blurt out: “What the hell is happening! I know many other people affected and the circle is closing. This could be worse than actually getting it along the lines of the Shakespearian ‘a coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once’.”

On Thursday I saw my ex-wife and she was quite fine. Early Friday morning she calls and tell me through an equally pained voice, “I have chikungunya. So much pain.”

In my case, too many people I know are affected by it and I’m sitting, walking, driving, and just waiting for my time. According to word out of the Ministry of Health, it is estimated that between 30 to 60 per cent of the population may become affected by the bite of a mosquito carrying chik-V!

Will I be lucky to be outside of this group or should I look forward to getting it with the full understanding that I will be immune later on?

It is said that some people attract mosquitoes more than others. Chupski and I will be seated on the same couch and she has the electric swatter in her hand and she is constantly using it. Beside her, my legs are stretched out, I am only in shorts and I’m not having a problem with mosquitoes. In that way, the mosquitoes and I have the same problem. We can’t keep away from her.

I must admit that I feel some apprehension going inside public places where there are people affected, knowing there must be even one mosquito on the prowl. But it is almost an impossibility for me to stay cooped up inside the house where I work, live, sleep, and do other stuff.

Locking windows, using insecticide, and having fans on rapid help, but somehow the mosquito finds a space somewhere to sneak in. All that carbon dioxide pulling him towards a warm-blooded being like me, like you.

As the breakout spreads exponentially, I have no place to run and nowhere to hide. The chik-V did not send me the memo which draws out a chart showing what must be its many thousands of paths. And neither did it inform me of the specific one that may head in my direction.

Based on what I am seeing just in my small corner, and also on what others are telling me, there must be many thousands of people in Jamaica affected by chik-V.

Having established that I cannot remain in any one place for too long, I am forced to move around in the hope that a moving goalpost will make it harder for the opposition to score. At the same time, it also makes it easier to walk into the spot right where the ball was aimed.

A few people have sent me links with chik-V ‘cures,’ and so far I am still searching and waiting on the link for the chik-V prevention handbook.

People are suspicious of every politician’s motives

A few weeks ago the perennial powerhouse in the PNP, former Prime Minister P J Patterson made a national appeal to our people asking them not to broad-brush politicians. The reasoning was simple and even simplistic.

Some are evil and corrupt. Others are filled with so much goodness that it borders on ‘divine’ altruism. That’s the simple part. The simplistic part was, some are up to no good while the good ones conveniently cannot see and hear any evil.

Patterson ought to know that if the perception is the driving force fuelling the distrust, it is reasonable to question what it was, in the first place, that brought on the perception that politicians are not to be trusted with any faith investment (vote) the people made in them.

And Patterson, certainly in no way a naïve campaigner in politics and government, must also know that there is darker side to the overriding perception. That is, the ‘sins’ which come to light are never as odious as those that are buried and which will never see the light of day when powerful forces at the top of the society deem them sealed.

In a recent article I wrote on Thursday last, ‘Making Michael Lee Chin an offer he can’t refuse’, some readers came out swinging on behalf of Lee Chin.

One reader, Courtney, who always prides himself on having superior knowledge than most others wrote: “Like most Jamaicans, Vaz is seriously afflicted with money-counting disease. Jamaica has done nothing for Chin, while Canada has done a lot. So, it is only natural that he would extend generosity to Canada while benefiting from it by getting tax write-offs again and investment gains in that country, something which you did not consider or quite likely did not know about Mark. And Vaz seems naive about this fact as well.

“Vaz is concerned about the state of the hospital. He wants to use other folks’ money to fix the hospital. Why he does not use his?

“Lee Chin is not an idiot. He is fully aware how corrupt Jamaican politicians are. Why doesn’t he offer policy prescriptions to grow the Jamaican economy and finance the country woes. Vaz should pay more attention to cleaning up Jamaican politics than eyeballing others’ wealth that they toiled for in foreign lands .”

Another reader, Eron, wrote: “I write with regard to Daryl Vaz’s public appeal to Michel Lee Chin to assist Portland, reacting to Lee Chin’s generous contributions in Canada. I’m no expert on things Canadian, but here in the US, where I now reside, incentives are given to those who make donations/contributions/gifts through the law codes, where gifts can be written off and thus reduce the amount of taxes paid. I just wondered if that prevails in Canada and thus provides incentives for gift giving on a large scale. Does Jamaica have any such incentives in place? I don’t know, but I just wonder.”

I have not checked it out but I would be surprised if such local laws are not in place.

Another reader, Richard, took aim at our politics and development entropy and said: “The deterioration of Jamaica’s hospitals existed long before Lee Chin came back to Jamaica to invest his funds and talent. Our problem is that we need to properly maintain what was built and not let it deteriorate and then act as if nothing was done; then, ‘bun it dung’ or sell it to foreigners who then make it a success.

“Our health care system is evolving, maybe not fast enough, but with careful planning from colonial to more recent times; from parish hospitals to community primary care health centres, to regional centres. But if we do not maintain them, we will suffer. It is not the duty of foreigners to do what we must do.”

Then the reader goes off into speculative territory and writes: “I feel Vaz’s public letter smacks of politics… It also disrespects the diaspora’s contribution. Being a former dual-citizen, Vaz should know well how charitable contributions are handled in tax codes, and how it affects a corporation’s bottom line.

“Vaz would have us not check the facts such as the annual contributions from NCB via its foundations or the direct investments to Jamaica via Portland Holdings. Lee Chin not only gives to his birth country, but he invests in both his parish of birth and Jamaica at large. What do ‘poli-trick-ans’ do but blow hot air and make deceptive statements?

“I have to always remind Jamaicans that, at Independence, we had the best roads after France, and we built new state-of-the-art facilities such as the Pegasus hotel. We even had microwave telephones before cellular phones became popular. We have a ‘don’t care’ mentality and love to complain and berate ourselves.”

Another reader, Mike, saw sinister motives at almost every juncture: “So, Mark, does your article represent the third collusion, in what seems to be a politically designed yet very creative and intriguing matter? For you know how well read your column is! Therefore, any who missed Daryl’s well-timed election appeal, like I did, are now certain to see it!

“Mark, another question. Why wasn’t the request made for Buff Bay Hospital? Port Antonio Hospital is in East Portland. Daryl’s constituency is in West Portland, home of the once-famous, now dilapidated Buff Bay Hospital, which inefficiently and impossibly serves 37,000 constituents! West Portlanders have to go to Annotto Bay for their medical needs, where they are sometimes treated like third-class citizens! You are the most astute journalist in Jamaica at this time. Why did you avoid asking that question?

“Mark, a third question. Is Daryl going to run for election in East Portland? He’s doing a good job in West Portland by Jamaican MP standards ,however, if he’s going to leave for the east….

“Mark, speaking of Jamaican MP standards brings to mind other governance standards. So my closing question, can you imagine the furore in the USA if a congressman wrote an open letter requesting help for another Congressional District and not his own?”

Joan was terse in what she wrote: “The Canadians are accountable and responsible. Not one cent of that money will go into the accounts of politicians. The money will do what it is slated to do. Years from now the contribution of Lee Chin will be appreciated. In Jamaica it will just be a nine-day wonder.

“Mrs. Louise Bennett donated her works to a trust in Canada. Maybe the reason is that many will plagiarise her work here in Jamaica. People are afraid of the corruption of our politicians.”

Here is the real problem. I believe in many things he did, along with the errors and mistakes, P J Patterson meant well. The same can be said for Daryl Vaz. But the wider constituency are not at this time prepared to meet the politicians halfway and sign any papers of compromise, any lessening of strained relationship.

Where a good politician, like Vaz, means well, the greater burden on him is to hard-sell his ‘goodness’ to the people. That hard sell will almost certainly come up against the people’s experience of the last 40-plus years, and that experience has not been a good one.

observemark@gmail.com