THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE HEADLINE in The Gleaner published on Tuesday August 2, 2005 says 'Million Woman March Flops', but the absence of supporters from the march was a much more powerful protest than the march could ever hope to be - a message that both the headline and the story itself failed to capture.
Doreen Billings, organiser of the event is noticeably angry and that means that she too has missed the point. Jamaicans are well-schooled in platitudes and public gestures and their 'no-show' is saying to everyone this time around we need more. Historically, nothing ever comes from these supposed public signs of solidarity. The PSOJ march also was a flop on the day, but it has become an even bigger flop subsequent to the event and that's the message the Jamaican populace is sending. We have had enough of platitudes and empty gestures. Give us substance.
We need to find more creative solutions than simply standing or marching on the road. Maybe we can learn from Jamaicans For Justice that not only uses the media, but also hires lawyers and experts and creates a website and solicits international attention. We need to do more if we intend to succeed. The marches and cries from the inner-city communities that 'we want justice' has been met with a profound deafness from those in the middle and the upper classes.
When, those classes are terrified by the crime scourge and are marching for justice, rightly, or wrongly, the inner city also doesn't listen either. Maybe we have all gone deaf, or it could be that we all have just gotten used to the same noise.
I am, etc.,
HAROLD MALCOLM
bruce_262hotmail.com
Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies
Cave Hill, Barbados
Via Go-Jamaica
