What does it mean to be a J'can?

THE ANNIVERSARY of our independence fast approaches. The birthday of our nation is almost upon us, but with all the carryings on in the "Wild Wild West", we seem to have little reason to celebrate. I can't help but think that this unabated violence, this unmitigated carnage, this overt display of disunity, this self-destructive armed conflict is in great part due to the fact that we, as a nation, have lost our focus.

If you are myopic you will know how it feels to walk around without being able to focus properly, you will not be able to see where you are headed, you will have no sense of direction, you will become hopelessly lost. Every nation needs a "rallying point", an ideal for which everyone can stand. Most great nations celebrate their victory in their war for independence; we were very fortunate that we had no need to fight for our freedom.

On a deeper, more philosophical level, I sometimes muse that perhaps had we fought for our freedom, we would appreciate it more and we would also have a great sense of unity having come together to fight a "common enemy" so to speak.

We never had to fight in the knowledge that we were embattled for the greater good of all, for the freedom to live and move about without fear, for the preservation of our unique Jamaica. We were never forced to band together as a nation in order to repel some formidable threat to our very existence and so we never really learnt to appreciate each other and the priceless value of the life of each and every human being.

In spite of the disgraceful display of the very antithesis of what it means to be a Jamaican, in spite of the pall of gun smoke hanging over our nation, in spite of the black-eye that this highly publicised, moronic conflict is giving us internationally; we need to celebrate our independence now more than ever. We need the corrective lens that only national unity can provide because it supersedes all other causes and affiliations.

When we were so easily "invaded" by the Carnival activities I became very concerned. I realised that we all but disposed of the traditional Independence Day celebrations, which suddenly paled into obscurity. The Carnival quickly became the biggest single national event on the calendar.

This imported activity soon usurped our energies, financial resources and our very sense of culture. For so many to so easily embrace a foreign activity meant that many of us had frail bonds to our Jamaican identity, culture and sense of worth. Hence the unceremonious dispensing of our hitherto regal Independence Day celebrations to an almost perfunctory, low key event carried out "just because" on an annual basis.

For instance, how many of us remember or even know last year's Festival Song? Who was the Festival Queen? Was there a Festival Queen? Also of note is the National Flag which is representative of several things, our hardships, goals and our natural resources.

The flag is also a banner, another point of focus that we so badly need in these times. It is interesting that there is an over-abundance of flags with each international football encounter but only a scattered few whenever we celebrate our independence. This speaks volumes about our commitment and our national self-worth.

There needs to be a concentrated, concerted effort to revitalise our very own, unique celebrations.

We need to go back to the days when our national birthday was the singular event of the year. We need to have high-profile float parades and gala performance at the National Stadium once more. We need to have all the hype and hoopla associated with such happenings. We need national performances in which everyone from every walk of life can participate.

We need fireworks and streamers. We need to bring the nation together even if it's for this one annual event. There are too many alternative foci that only serve to distract, divide and destroy from within.

It is painfully obvious that the focus on party politics, on drugs, on gang dominance, on financial woes and on the prodigious production of progeny has only served to rain pain and suffering on many of the less fortunate within the society. In addition to the mandatory social reforms, we also need to redirect, retrain and refocus the thoughts and mind-set of those lost souls within our society.

This maelstrom of violence needs to be put to rest once and for all. In the short term there has to be a removal of the instruments of death and destruction (the guns). The intermediate plans must include the initiation of solid social reform programmes.

The long-term plans must see to the continuation of those programmes and they must also include the inculcation of our people with events such as the Independence Day celebrations so that the over-all national good and unity will always prevail.

Dr. Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice.

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