THE EDITOR, Sir:
THIS IS a time of reckoning for our society, all that we have planted; the wheat and the tares are now maturing and we seem completely unprepared for the harvest.
The harvest includes the areas in which we are excelling locally and internationally, successful businesses going global, achievers in sports, academics and other pursuits to name a few.
There is the harvest of murder, slain policemen, students in our high schools fighting and killing each other, spitting in the teacher's bottle, our people in jail overseas for drug smuggling and other crimes. In our schools we are underachieving and we are yet to address the problems in a serious and sustained way.
In many of our communities it seems to be 'bad man time'. People have to flee their homes to save their lives as they face the onslaught of young men gone mad. Imagine six gunmen spraying a bus full of school children with bullets. This is so tragic as we celebrate Child Month.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
The levels of trust are very low as we have lost faith in our politicians and business people. What is to be done? It is clear that what we have achieved as a nation has to be salvaged and that we have to develop a consensus about the future of this country. We seem to have great difficulty agreeing upon anything. Carl Stone was prophetic when he raised the alarm in the early 1990s about our destruction of the authority structures of the colonial era without the establishment of new authority structures.
When people are caught doing wrong things there are wonderful legal and moral arguments to defend the indefensible.
We have difficulty holding our leaders, parents and business people as well as ourselves responsible for what we have done. How many Jamaican men are still not registered as the fathers of their children? How many business people are under-invoicing goods in order to reduce taxes? How many policemen are selling gun licences? How many mothers are prostituting their daughters? Why do people have children that they do not want? Who is responsible for the selection and development of hundreds of Jamaicans as gunmen, extortionists and political enforcers?
Some of our young people have given up; as usual some people are running away. We have to find a new direction and I hope that the incoming political leaders of both political parties realise the gravity of the situation.
I am, etc.,
HILARY
ROBERTSON-HICKLING
hilary.robertsonhickling@uwimona.edu.jm
