Beverley Anderson -Manley
WHAT IS referred to as 'spring cleaning' should not only take place in our homes. Recently, I watched an expert from one of Jamaica's foremost pest control companies sanitise our home of pests of all kinds. It brought back memories of growing up with a mother who recognised the importance of a "wash out" before going back to school. As we protested, she would tell us the value of this ritual-cleaning our bodies of all the muck we had consumed over the holidays so that everything could work as they should. It was not a pleasant exercise but one that needed to be done and on a regular basis.
The second thing I am reminded of is how much clutter we collect. As I cleared out cupboards and closets I used the opportunity to get rid of stuff I no longer needed, sometimes by passing this 'stuff' on to someone else. I then re-organised what I was putting back so that there was some kind of order. Human beings are amazing 'hoarders'. What are you hoarding and why? What are you holding onto that no longer serves a purpose in your life? Release it and make way for something else
CREATING INDIGENOUS INSTITUTIONS
At the level of our households, communities and societies, 'spring cleaning' also applies. To quote Michael Manley - 'the challenge of the future is to shake off the shackles of yesterday's assumptions' in a way that takes us out of victim-hood and allows us to create lives that work powerfully for us. For example - let us have the courage to create conversations and establish institutions that work in our interest, rather than continuing as 'mimic men' - living our lives as puppets, dancing to the tune of our 'masters'.
There are so many behaviours that we manifest in Jamaica that we need to 'wash out' - that is dispose of. Crime and other aspects of anti-social behaviour are foremost among these. Lack of caring and recognition that "it takes a village to raise a child" is increasingly becoming absent from our societal norms. The inability to make connections, for example, between inappropriate parenting, lack of early childhood education and young people carrying out criminal activities by the time they are 13 years old - is another. Projecting every problem we have onto someone else instead of taking responsibility for our choices and actions is another sign of victim-hood.
WHAT WORKS, WHAT DOESN'T
There are several things that work for us. But today I am emphasising those that do not work but which, when we wash them out can create opportunities.
We need to decrease the number of murders from 1700 in 2005 to significantly lower levels in 2006 and beyond. We need to improve our clear-up rate of criminal activity from 45 per cent in 2004 to a considerably lower level. We need to begin to protect our women and children from 148 reported cases of rape in 2004, 87 reported cases of incest and 625 cases of domestic violence in 2005. In keeping with this, we need women and men who take responsibility for the children they bring into the world. At the level of the State, we need Civil Servants to recognise that they are just that - women and men who are employed by taxpayers to give us Service, which is described as the most noble of all the virtues. We need politicians who represent us no matter what. We need political leaders and political parties that are constantly involved in the process of transformation. We need policemen and women who respect our people and our laws. We need to stop polluting our communities and throwing garbage around and then wondering why somebody doesn't clean it up. To put it succinctly, we need to begin to respect each other across gender, social class and race.
So let us begin to spring clean: Firstly, ourselves as individuals, then within our homes, our communities and our country. The time is now.
Beverley Anderson Manley is a political scientist, broadcaster, gender specialist and transformation trainer. Email: BManley@kasnet.com.
