Richard Ho Lung - DIARY OF A GHETTO PRIESTWITH OUR Brothers in Haiti struggling for food, churches and church-based individuals in the United States and Jamaica have made major attempts to meet the needs of our ministries. Our foreign associates have formed a fascinating network of helpers who, motivated by Christ and the poor, labour with a vision of justice and righteousness to bring about the good news in a real and visible way. Christ's feeding of the 5,000 has become a vision they want to fulfil in everyday life. It is marvellous to see it come to fruition in our friends and helpers who have visited and worked with our missionaries known as "the Jamaican Brothers" in Haiti.
My fear is that Jamaica will suffer, as does our neighbouring territory from the departure of its own native people. One of the greatest problems is the exodus of the middle class and intelligentsia from Haiti. At present Haiti undergoes the problem of not having too many options in government. My contact with Haitians in Jamaica and our Brothers in Cap-Haitien tell me that aside from the ousted government and the rebels there really is no other leadership. Over the years thousands of Haitians who deeply loved their country have left because of lack of opportunities, a sense of forward movement, and coherent vision in building the country.
MAGNIFICENT COUNTRY
The country is magnificent in beauty and has great potential in agriculture, tourism, minerals, and fishery. But there is no leadership to fulfil this potential. Praise God, Jamaica is not quite in that state. But I fear the exodus of young bright people and professionals in Jamaica. They are a great loss. Without them we lose a potential for options in governance as well as the potential of a new generation who will produce and make economic stability in our island.
The point is we need all Jamaicans who are skilled and love this island. Though I am Oriental, I am a Jamaican and I was not born here by accident. God placed me here with a purpose and an intention. I am in Jamaica to fulfil a definite plan that is valuable for our country and my people. Likewise, every Jamaican, even those who have left or who are thinking of leaving have a valuable contribution to our country. Nobody is born here by accident. Every man and woman is valuable. We must work as businessmen, doctors, lawyers, teachers, agriculturists all professionals to work and serve our country and our people. Every person born here has a vital role.
Jamaica has much to contribute to the world. Whether our island be undergoing good or bad times, we must bind together, struggle together, and support one another. In our island, there have been the highest skills exhibited in the arts, in athletics, in business, and the intellectual fields.
At the heart of a Jamaican there is great courage, great daring, a readiness to do and try anything. At the heart of a Jamaican there is an out-going quality to live for others, to serve, to work, and enjoy life, to give every man or woman a break something so rare even in advanced countries.
When we leave this country where we were born, where God placed us, we uproot ourselves from something basic and essential. The language we speak, the music we sing, the people we know cannot be replaced, they are an essential part of our soul and our very selves. Language, music, food, friends are part of our body, soul and emotions.
Jamaicans are leaving our country, and each one is more valuable than the money they carry with them. The brain drain, the potential for leadership, the ability to move things forward become alienated from our country which is so badly in need of us at this time. The greatest disaster for a country is to lose its young people, the future leaders, the people with talent and a real love for this country of their birth. Jamaica must not become like Haiti which is void of altruistic young and bright people who can create alternative leadership, and a hope for their country.
FEAR
What I fear is that this quiet but strong inclination to go away from Jamaica on the part of the young will create a vacuum for decades to come. With the young, strong and intelligent gone, Jamaica could collapse without bright minds and a future generation that is imaginative, daring and full of love for our nation.
I encourage all those who are leaving or thinking of leaving, to stay, work out your salvation here for yourselves and our people. But we must make a sacrifice of ourselves for our country. Perhaps there is more money and security to be made overseas. Right now we are a young and unsettled country, we are a country in the making. We cannot offer as much materially as other countries. But nothing is more worthwhile than to expand your lives on the building of this exciting, frightening and beautiful little island that is yours, given by God as a task, as a gift and a way of life which can make our word a more beautiful and exciting place according to God's plan.
Father Ho Lung is founder and leader of the Missionaries of the Poor
