THE JAMAICAN society is suffering from a degeneration of the social order. But it is not a new phenomenon, rather it is the culmination of a long process and series of events. Our major failing is that we are very good at 'talking the talk', but very poor at 'walking the walk'.
Across politics and religion, across class and colour, there are a lot of us saying the right things but too few of us doing the right things, which is what I mean by walking the walk.
Take the matter of crime in some inner-city communities (or whatever euphemism or other name you want to call such an area). Whenever some dastardly act is committed that brings blood and mayhem, there are heart-rending cries (once the shooting has subsided and the cowardly killers have departed), that the police is not doing a good job or protecting the citizens in that community. Some in that community will even go as far as to accuse the police of incompetence in their failure to catch the criminals.
CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY
Yet still, when these criminals are taken in and brought before the courts, few in that same community will see it as their personal civic responsibility to carry the process through to the full end, by giving clear statements and being credible witnesses to convict these rapists and murderers.
I know that some of the apprehension in coming forward may be caused by the slow pace of the justice system and fear of being intimidated or even killed by friends of the accused. But the same citizens of the victimised community will then complain how easily these same criminals walk free to commit further mayhem at a later date.
It is not only with regard to crime that we are failing to walk the walk however, as whether on an individual level or even across major firms, much less in the Government service, the boast of excellent customer care and commitment to high standards is normally just that, an empty boast. Lateness, absenteeism, theft, sloppiness, are all excused away. Listening to a Jamaican talk, you would imagine that this the country was a first class one.
This is not to say that other countries doesn't have their problems, but there are many little things we can put right in Jamaica to turn-around our country and, one of them is doing the little things right. If we can get the majority to buy into that and carry out such practices, we can then stand up and chat as long as we want, as long as the jobs are being done on time and at a high level of quality.
