Amina Blackwood Meeks/ColumnistAND HOW did you sleep last night?
It seems to me that after a good plate a food, the most important thing to a Jamaican is a good sleep, during which woe betide the man, woman or barking dog who lacks the decorum not to interrupt. You know that the culture has had to devise ways to rouse people from their slumber. Strategies like a huge pot of ice cold water come in very handy. Or just put on some more food and start cook. Some other time we can talk about why we love sleep so much and exchange tips for waking the slumberer, they might come in handy.
For now just take it from me that I have been pre-occupied with how well people sleep. I asked the question of the women who turned out to support the march for peace organised by the Women Resource and Outreach Centre to mark International Women's Day 2005.
We've been raised on fairy tales that tell us that after a good night's sleep everything is more beautiful - from your face to the state of the world. Sleep and a Prince will come to kiss you and offer you the world. Sleep on a whole pile of mattresses and reveal your royal stock by being disturbed by the grain of pea at the bottom of the pile. Sleep like Rip Van Winkle for 20 years and wake up not a day older to behold the transformation of the world.
ASLEEP TO ATROCITIES
Well, it seems like for at least some places in Jamaica a good night's sleep is hard to come by for many people. The sleep is disturbed by the nightmares about how to pay the bills and people toss and turn till day light. Once upon time day light came with the landlord taking off de doors and windows all the better to shed light on your lack of resources. Maybe for some people it still does. Some people stay up all night taking care of the baby or dodging blows from the spouse or baby-father or listening to the cries for help next door. And, as one woman told me, if she doan check every burglar bar an meck sure she "locked up like a parakeet" she never close her eye. Yes, for many Jamaicans sleep is a very illusive thing.
There are those, however, who can sleep through anything. Not even a fridge full of ice-water can come between them and that "natural state of rest characterised by reduced body movement and decreased awareness of surroundings." They speed along the new highway revelling in the comfort it affords or they afford, and the less stress to the shocks and other parties which both themselves and the car deserve, taking delight in how much more they accomplish in the extra 20 minutes they save, completely oblivious to the shacks that line their path to development. See if you can see them next time you enter the highway, just before you pay the toll, which depending on the size of your vehicle and whether you are making the return journey might very well be a day's pay at minimum wage levels for someone who lives along the highway.
You might even see some of the children who "fight sleep" so they can get up early in the morning to fetch water and firewood. Believe me it still happens in Jamaica in the year 2005. If you don't see them, take a good look at the United Way Ads the next time you get a chance. In these ads needy people just fade away like Casper the friendly ghost, right in front of the comatose eyes of those who don't want to see, sleep walking or sleep driving or in some state of less than awareness, not easily altered by external stimuli.
VIOLATED
Too many of us are asleep to the many ways in which peace of mind is violated long before the morning calm is shattered by the statistics that make banner Deadlines in newspapers or lead Crime Time News on television. The violation of the peace of mind happens too quietly, of course, to get anybody's attention. It is still a culture of noise. We still have to block road for someone to notice that the road is a thing of the past of that the backpay cannot cover all the costs we need to pay back or whatever is the substance of the nightmares.
The need to march for peace is a symptom of our collective inability, or is it stubborn refusal, to provide the atmosphere within which human beings thrive. We are ailing from the growing statistics of joblessness, the lack of respect from our elected officials, the arrogant leadership of those whom we pay to be public servants, the unresponsiveness to the voice of the people and the cries of the poor.
A GOOD NIGHT'S REST
Finding peace and ensuring a good night's rest for everyone must move beyond spending seven point plenty billions to beef up security. It must be about how we promote and secure democratic ideals and protect human rights. It must include how public officials understand accountability and must be reflected in a genuine partnership for strengthening and involving civic groups in public dialogue with government on crucial national issues and laws, including how to solve the problems that have some of us locked up like parakeets.
It is still about promoting sustainable development through comprehensive strategies that address, as a matter of urgent priority the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable. And it is still about liberating women from their treatment as second-class citizens even as we ask them to bear the first-class burden of transforming the society from what it is now into one in which we can all sleep well at night. In fact, a good night's sleep will come with the recognition that both men and women need to work together to build genuine peace... And that's a job for all of us. Otherwise I shall be happy to receive your tips for rousing those who can sleep through the present nightmare.
