Hilary Robertson-Hickling
Parts of New York are just recovering from a period of four days without electricity and there are recriminations and disgust expressed about the power company and the way in which the matter was handled.
This has come just after last Saturday when all of Jamaica experienced a power cut for which the explanation is still not clear. We look forward to the findings of the experts from overseas and realise that the disruption has had far-reaching effects on personal safety, the economy and the security of the country. Some people lost their food and appliances.
In the United States, temperatures are soaring, so people need air conditioning and the old and infirm are at great risk. The entire city of New York is so dependent on electricity for so many things that life became unbearable.
Electricity is only one kind of power, for our world is wracked by so many power struggles at this time. I miss the joy of the World Cup which, with the exception of a few incidents, demonstrated that people from 32 countries could share power with each other and fans across the world in a peaceful manner.
The Middle East is becoming a conflagration of violence and the prospects of war are growing in the weeks following the World Cup.
Negative power
Jamaica is undergoing a period of intensive power problems, struggles between the Government and the Opposition as well as with some residents of Portmore over the toll.
In addition, public servants and the government are battling about the issues. The discourse in Jamaica is characterised by demands and threats and the exercise of negative power.
Some years ago, our nation witnessed an example of the way we often deal with power. At the National Arena, Jamaicans stood in line to be able to apply for the 'quads' from overnight.
An enterprising young man had been selling spaces in the line. A young police officer observed people moving in an out of the line and when he remonstrated with the 'space man', a fracas developed.
The television cameras caught the policeman hitting the man who was putting up resistance to being removed from the line.
While the young officer had exercised excessive force, his supervisor did not intervene. It seems that we either exercise excessive force or do nothing at all. How much power should be used in a given situation?
One can observe how families allow their children to run wild in public places without saying a word and sometimes when the children interfere with someone or something, the parent exercises excessive force.
Greater balance needed
As a nation, we need to learn to exercise power with greater balance. There needs to be more voices of reason to guide us through this very difficult phase in national life.
There is too much negative power being exercised; this can't work along with a constant slew of threats, this is a very unhealthy state of affairs.
The Opposition and the Government must be able to share power in the interest of the development of the country.
A challenge we have is learning how to exercise power; brutality and power are not synonymous and even the mightiest nations in the world have had to learn this lesson.
We have to recognise that power exists in unlimited quantities and that no group of people have absolute power.
Hilary Robertson-Hickling is a lecturer in the Department of Management Studies, UWI, Mona.
