Melville Cooke THE FILM Injustice takes an in-depth look at four of the over 1,000 deaths to have occurred at the hands of the British police since 1969, told from the victims' families perspective. Of these four persons two, Joy Gardener and Brian Douglas, have Jamaican roots.
Brian Douglas died five days after sustaining a blow equal to the force of dropping on his head from a distance 11 times his own height, but the police officers said he was hit on the shoulder and the baton "slid upwards."
There is a scene in the 98-minute documentary where a crowd is ready to tear the place apart in their rage over the killing, but they are restrained by his mother, Jasmine Elvie, and sister Brenda Weinberg.
That was when they had faith that Brian Douglas' death would be thoroughly investigated and justice seen to be done. As the official stonewall tactics block their every move, Brenda Weinberg looks back at the moment when the potential riot was averted and says:
"It would have been better to have let them go, tear up the place and property. And that day represents the death of Brian."
With the exception of the death of Gladstone Allen, who was stabbed and killed in Westmoreland on Monday, I have no problem with Monday, January 6, representing the day that the straw settled a little more heavily on the back of ordinary Jamaicans.
That murder was a terrible, inexcusable act which the PNP tried to get some mileage out of, picking some PR off Mr. Allen's carcass.
I began to get upset about the whole affair when I read The Sunday Observer of January 5, 2002, with the headline "Tourism leaders condemn planned strike." In the story, Josef Forstmayr makes a ludicrous statement. Mr. Forstmayr says:
"Anybody who gets it in their heads to start this nonsense will be labelled unpatriotic."
"This nonsense"? Protesting a fine of $20,000 for running an illegal taxi is "this nonsense"? "Unpatriotic"? Somebody needs to let the Fortsmayrs of Jamaica understand that patriotism is what is inculcated in a people when the government seems to be acting in their best interests and not just standing for the National Anthem before the movie starts at a cinema near you.
It would seem to me that patriotism is the luxury that those who can see three square meals and no police harassment in their immediate future can afford.
(And while you are it, Forstmayr and other purveyors of patriotism, what do you think about Jamaica's moneyed class, the people who really run this little dot, keeping most of their money abroad, a gleeful eye on the Jamaican dollar's downward spiral and some loose change tucked away for a couple plane tickets out of here?)
That Observer story, remarkably badly put together, basically lines up the voices of tourism against a quote from an unnamed person and a brief statement from Horace Chang. Apart from that, it is all condemnation and emphatic statements about what such action would do to the tourism industry at this time.
If that is so, then like Bob Marley I say great. What other place to hit them than in the pocket and what other time to do so than when the hand is about to drop the cash in?
Maybe the taxi operators in Montego Bay in particular would have been more 'patriotic' if they could link tourism directly with their livelihood; not simply toting workers to and from the hotels, but carrying tourists in their cabs on a regular basis. But I maintain that most tourists come to hotels, not Jamaica. For a tourist town MoBay is remarkably empty of tourists, except for on the Hip Strip and in the plaza across from Holiday Inn near Coral Gardens. It is either they are penned in the all-inclusives or whisked from the cruise shipping pier to some in-bond shop.
Talk about the 40,000 jobs all you want, but Jamaica's tourism leaders by and large have a much more vested interest in their pockets than any "patriotism."
I have been in the St. Ann's Bay Courthouse and see a grown man cry as he was remanded in custody because he could not pay a $5,000 fine for operating an illegal taxi. It was a charge he denied vehemently, but the Transport Authority man said so and that was that. I have known of cases where said Transport Authority people have accused persons going about their business of running taxis and that was that. I once gave someone a ride and, as I was letting them off in Half-Way Tree, a policeman rode up beside me and said, "Rasta Man, yu know sey yu no fi run no taxi yaso."
He was wrong on both counts, but if he had decided to prosecute me I would have had to pay up. Because the law is never wrong, not in the couple times I have been to traffic court.
Jamaica does not exist simply for tourists to come here, soak up some sand and pay over $100 a bottle for a beer in a hotel.
It may not get anything rolled back, but the protest sure as heck made a statement.
Speaking of tourism, after the World Trade Centre attacks in 2001 quite a few hotel workers lost their jobs. Were they ever rehired, I wonder, now that we are set for such a good season? After all, The Observer breathlessly informed us on Tuesday that "the protests, however, appeared to have spared the delicate tourism sector and there were few reports of visitors being caught in the melee."
Oh. Soh Mr. Gladstone Allen a noh smaddy too?
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
