Melville CookeAnd don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine Messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgement and it seems that I can hear God saying to America "you are too arrogant. If you don't change your ways I will rise up and break the backbone of your power and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name".- Martin Luther King Jr.
GOD (OR somebody else less mythical) save us from the Queen, Elizabeth II. Or, maybe to put it more aptly, somebody save us from ourselves and our smooching of the Queen's throne.
The Queen's visit was heralded by a couple legal-sized pages of proper terms for herself and co., from some protocol people or the other (which I didn't read past the title). Along with those instructions to the dutiful press came the cleaning up, the painting and the road fixing, to dutifully present a facade of prosperity.
I am sorry she didn't come on my road. I have the beginnings of a swimming pool or two right outside my gate that would do with a regal filling.
I despise this attitude of making everything just right for the Queen of England. I am pretty indifferent to the lady - in fact, I am almost sure that I would like her a lot and be charmed out of my socks. But frankly, I don't think she cares two hoots - or even notices - all the 'improvements' that have been made for the three days of her life that she has been here this year.
It is the mentality behind the improvements that I despise. This is the mental slavery that Marcus Garvey spoke about, this attitude that things have to be better for backra massa than they are for ourselves.
I have seen a couple snippets of coverage of the Queen's Jamaican Passover on BBC America. It has been good, as they have gone past 'feel good and sing' reports. I was struck by the reporter's comment on the part of significance of the Queen's visit to Trench Town Comprehensive being a facelift for the school. The reporter also said that this is probably the closest that the Queen will come to Jamaica's poverty.
So if we think we are fooling anybody, think again. We are just showing how mentally imbalanced we are.
Let the Queen of England come, but let her see Jamaica as it really is - the rich, the poor, big mansion, tenement, clean streets, rubbish-strewn places, potholes and Old Harbour Bypass. In all of that, she may just understand how comes so many people swallow condoms full of cocaine and board British Airways.
Placing a visiting dignitary in a cocoon does not help anyone. I have no problem with Queen Elizabeth II, insofar as she is Queen of England. But she has much as relevance to me as Paul's letter to the Corinthians. After all, he was not writing to me, was he? Reading other people's mail is such bad manners.
Since she was here at this time, I wonder if anyone broached the question of stolen Ethiopian religious items to her. To put it in a nutshell, the British, as they are wont to do, stole these items and have them in their museums. An ark was returned about two weeks ago, to great rejoicing, but the now civilised, polished Brits refuse to hand back the rest of the loot the savages that preceded them stole (after widescale murder, I must add).
The argument is that there is a rule about not returning material that has been housed in their museums. I would have thought there was a greater law against stealing.
More on the Ethiopian property, including dates and details, next week.
CENTRELINE: Bush in S. Korea
Again on BBC I saw the street protests against George W. Bush in South Korea. They know that when the elephants play, the grass gets trampled and they know that if crazy George moves against North Korea, it is they who will feel it.
I also saw the press conference where Bush took questions from the Korean representatives of NBC and the Washington Post (what sort of press conference is that, anyway). As he answered the very mild queries, he wore the expression of a man to whom things were so simple he was amazed that anyone else could see the situation differently.
Bearing the magnitude of what he plans to do in this 'war of error,' that is the attitude of a madman at best and a zealot at worst.
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
