As a young boy, I learnt that Buckley’s cough syrup was the cure when your cold turned into a cough that wracked your chest. It tasted awful, but it worked!
The makers were making a product that cleared up your congestion and colds. They were not interested in creating a good-tasting product. As a nation, we face a troubling situation with crime and must decide whether we want to cure it. What will we do?
When we see that we have had multiple oil and gas booms and nothing has changed for the better, what should we do? The lives of many of our citizens have not changed after living in the shade of enormous wealth. Multinational companies have taken our wealth to places unknown to most of us.
The crop may have changed from sugar to gas, but the effect is the same. We are living on a plantation—not even the locals, who have benefitted, care. We have not a shred of an excuse since George Beckford, The UWI academic, warned us in 1972 that the result would be persistent poverty.
The dismal picture of a deserted Frederick Street at 7.30am on Carnival Monday by David Abdulah reminds us of the disappearance of Ispat Mittal. Just when we believed we had something worthy, the mask slips off, and we are left barehanded.
We are left standing and wondering, like the naughty boy who ran away to Scotland, only to discover the ground was as hard and that the yard was as long. The planters who enslaved our ancestors got rid of the sugar estates, and the bauxite mine owners left Jamaica high and dry, so why do we expect something different?
His billion dollar empire started properly in Trinidad.
(Courtesy Rediff)
As a point of reference, in the 1970s, bauxite accounted for more than half of Jamaica’s GDP. Now? It is barely 5%! Is this the template for our energy sector?
But the problem is not only that of the rape by the multinationals. Our own people discard us like an orange sucked of all its goodness. We are relegated to holding the ropes to keep our brothers out of the available pittances. We have regressed.
In the 1950s, the elites had their version of Carnival in The Savannah while the plebs paraded themselves in Marine Square—now known as Independence Square. The elites were then on trucks. Today, we, the plebs, care for their every imagined need.
Do we only exist for their pleasure and comfort? Is there no mercy? Some live tormented lives so that others may live luxuriously. This structural imbalance sets the stage for our crime situation.
(Copyright Mark Morgan)
Our politicians of every stripe have accepted this state of affairs. They lifted not a hand to help the impoverished. Building tall buildings on our Waterfront does not constitute development. While the energy technocrats negotiated reasonably well, what did our politicians do with the receipts they got?
How were our lives transformed? Was conspicuous consumption in the boom years worth it?
Not every wrongdoing is punished. When our men and women are broken by their labour in our workplaces, who should care for them? When some shareholders manipulate the stock market for their benefit, who sends them to jail?
When we underinvest in some schools while, with the blink of an eye, we bestow a lab or a whole school building for others, what do we expect? When schools do not help our children get an opportunity for a better life, when the hospitals cause us to wait 24 hours or more to see a doctor, how do we keep hope alive?
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/ Wired868)
By these actions, we are setting the conditions for violence. The neglected residents become more aggressive, more likely to carry weapons and act without thinking. This hopeless uncertainty about life triggers more violence.
When companies speak about corporate social responsibility, what are they describing? As John F Kennedy said: “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
There is no desire to transform lives or communities. We gratify ourselves with the obligatory press release and retreat to our coves of comfort. We permit our towns to burn because we foolishly believe that does not affect us.
When we unleash the police with no accountability, we do more harm than good. Police misconduct disconnects the police from the community. The residents no longer view the police as potential allies and neither provide tips nor report crimes. This silence leads to the rise of more violence and the impeding of justice, leaving all our communities unsafe.
(Copyright Trinidad Express)
To break this cycle and stem the violence, we need to gain an awareness of ourselves and our place in the world. We have to gain self-confidence to get the will to tackle our structural problems.
It is not a question of acquiring skills—our nationals run the plants on behalf of the multinationals. Only as we prioritise our interests will we ensure that our institutions and politicians serve us. It is the route to a society that values its citizens in a manner that ensures their well-being.
Are we willing to take the required medicine? Or will we continue to ramajay and not move an inch toward a safe and prosperous society?