Valerie Dixon, Guest Columnist
THERE WAS a time when Jamaica could be considered the holder of the heavyweight title in the English-speaking Caribbean, as far as natural beauty and development were concerned. Forty-two years later, any bantamweight holder can challenge us and beat us with one hand tied behind his back. What has gone wrong? It seems that those who were the keepers and upholders of law and order have abandoned us and are either dead, or exiled to their rose gardens at home or in foreign lands.
It is said that if young bull elephants are left without 'guidance' or 'mentorship', they go berserk and become rogue elephants. They destroy everything in sight, including the very food they eat. However, if a mature and strong bull elephant is placed in their midst, order is immediately restored. He teaches them how to be 'an elephant'. I can only imagine order being restored, when he 'digs and roots' out the troublemakers and make good examples of them. This implies that he knows who the troublemakers are.
Even if this analogy is not scientifically correct, it contains the seed of what ails Jamaica. Too many of our males who are in the prime of their productive years, are behaving like rogue elephants. They have never been taught how to behave as humans and males, they don't know how to be productive, and so they can only be counter-productive.
RAISING A MAN
We have lived a lie in this country for many, many years. It is the lie which says that a woman can successfully raise a man-child all by herself. Will someone please introduce me to a woman who experienced being a man before she started having children? In other words, most women lack a frame of reference in this area and therefore have very little to fall back onto when faced with the difficulties of raising a man.
Many of our children have no clue as to what is a family and what is a stable home environment. Many of our women have chosen just to have babies, without any understanding of what it takes to raise and nurture them properly. Some of them are even highly educated and financially independent, and still some feel that even if the man has his legal children, it is no big thing to add one more to his 'nest'.
So many of our men, rich and poor alike are seen not as 'fathers', but as sperm donors and meal tickets. Most of these bastards, (a word that is now politically and socially incorrect) have now become like 'rogue elephants'.
I am now tired of listening to talk-shows, where people lament how they miss the days when this country had strong leaders and when law and order was the rule and not the exception. I am tired of hearing how if you were scolded by adults in the community, you would get another scolding when you reached home. So if this generation was so properly raised, then they must be held responsible for tearing up the fabric upon which the correct values and attitudes were sewn.
It is my generation that has spawned this monster called 'Crime and Violence' that is now eating our food. To whom much is given much is expected. Most of us in this 'well-raised' generation have given back little or nothing to the society that sacrificed so much for us. Many of us are free-placed scholars to the then grammar schools. Many of us sailed through tertiary education free of cost. But our quest for gold and other material things has driven us to compromise our values and attitudes. So we now live in silence and hang our heads in shame. Many of us don't even know how to cultivate the seedling of desire for the higher spiritual treasures of life. This is evidenced by the words those in positions of leadership utter. Prime example is when we are told to "Fly the gate and let in the pirate." Who is a pirate? In Jamaican parlance, a pirate is an 'ol' tief' who has permission from his king/queen or head of state to steal and plunder.
I used to be a keen listener to a morning talk-show where I could hear knives and forks clanging away in the background. This show has now become the chief apologist for those who have no clue how to get the 'Production and Development Train' of this country rolling again.
Many of those who lead us today are just plain intellectual dunces. If it is not in a textbook, then they don't know the answer.
Our politicians and others in the public and private sectors have little or no vision, and those within the society who have this ability and can get things done, are either destroyed like the railway system, or sent into exile at home and abroad. Only the pirates must rule. These talk-show hosts and their guests are forever asking the question "What would you suggest as a solution to our problems?"
We need strong leadership that knows where and what the explosive issues are and who have a plan on how to best address the root causes of these issues. We have to find the political and the social will to get past the past and make Jamaica friendly to investment once again.
The private sector must be honest and admit that over the years they have been given a lot and most of them have a lot. A lot has been given to them by people who have no choice but to support them. Have they ever considered using even a smidgen of their lot to make even a small difference in the society that they sometimes sleep in? Some businesses are good corporate citizens, but they are relatively few. Our manufacturers need to admit that many of them do not deserve to be called manufacturers, as they have merely become distributors of foreign manufactured goods.
The British are no longer handing out permits for young people to help manufacture their goods. As for the great United States of America, their attitude is to send every Negro (read non-white) back to his 'plantation' for even the most trivial offence. So if our people cannot survive legally, then they are going to survive illegally.
Much has already been said by many more erudite than I and I hope the arguments continue. However, the long and short of this argument is that we cannot give up. Those who can, must plant their rose bushes. But this question remains to be answered: Can we continue to plant rose bushes in a minefield?
Valerie Dixon is a teacher and the executive director of the non-governmental organisation, Sustainable Communities Foundation (SCF).
