Valerie Dixon, Contributor

It is my belief that two out of every three black persons living on this side of Africa harbour in their minds the vague memory of a time called 'slavery'. They remember it as a time when they were provided with free food, clothing and shelter. The men and women also remember it as a time when they could have as many children as they wanted because the responsibility of raising those children belonged to the master of the plantation, who would be very pleased with the 'fruit of their loins' because it meant more free labour and therefore more wealth for the master and his family.

Manual labour

In exchange for all this freeness, black people had to put in some serious heavy manual labour. There was deep resentment over this part of the arrangement and 500 years later black people are still (unconsciously) vexed over this issue. This vexation rears its ugly head in many ways. A fair number of black people don't care to be a part of any system that calls for a display of responsibility, they still love the 'freeness', and they still hate anything called 'work'. The worst manifestation, however, is the deep-seated hatred that they have of themselves. As a result of this self-hatred, they don't believe that they deserve anything 'good', so many don't even make the effort to learn to read and write because literacy is only for people who want to have a good quality of life.

It now seems fair to say that most of the leaders of Jamaica instinctively know that this is the attitude of a fair number of the population, and they have never been in a hurry to change it. This therefore means that they can do anything they want to do, such as sell off Jamaica, destroy the land

of wood and water; because a fair number of the people 'just don't care'.

'Blighs'

There is, however, one thing that the majority of Jamaicans with this 'don't-care' attitude do care about, and that is to get themselves enumerated. It is my opinion that they get enumerated so that they can take advantage of any government that promises them free food, clothing and shelter and no hard work.

Only a minority of Jamaicans are aware that all of this has led to a total 'sell-off' of our country. It is the few who work and pay taxes, who sit and watch helplessly as Mirant dishes out power outages and then hands out high electricity bills. Can a country sue a company? Then we sit and watch helplessly as the Cement Company treats us with scant respect - is this another case of total 'sell-off'? The 'sell-off' of the environment.

Promise of jobs

These foreigners come with the promise of jobs, which is an efficient and effective strategy of neutralising local opposition to their projects. This is why environmentalists have such a hard time being taken seriously. By now many people are aware that the Trafigura money is about bauxite - not oil. This was reported by the Sunday Herald of October 15-21. One can only imagine that areas such as the Cockpit Country that should never be touched by miners is going to be destroyed and desecrated by foreigners because, for all we know, "it done sell off" already.

We must thank Wendy Lee of Northern Jamaica Conservation Association for the long hours of research to expose the information regarding Trafigura and the bauxite companies, and the fact that the Government has sold bauxite futures to the year 2012 at well below market value. I totally agree with her when she says, "We need to let the Government know in no uncertain terms, that no deals should be entered into that rely on the bauxite of the Cockpit Country, and that the people of Jamaica and the international community will not allow mining to take place there." We must therefore all rally behind the environmentalists and save the Cockpit Country. The area is too precious and valuable to be destroyed.

Benefits

The Jamaica Bauxite Institute will argue that they receive the bauxite levy, so this must be good for Jamaica. However, let us see what the Jamaican people get from the mining of bauxite (and remember the size of Jamaica). According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov) particle (dust) pollution causes increased respiratory symptoms such as coughing or difficulty breathing, decreased lung function, aggravated asthma, chronic bronchitis, and fatigue. Outdoor and strenuous activities, such as farming and construction, increase negative health effects. The report goes on to say that particle pollution is the major cause of reduced visibility (this could explain why it is so hard to see the beautiful plains below Spur Tree on some days). These dust particles can be carried over long distances by wind and settle on ground water, making the water acidic and thereby damage our drinking water, soil, farm crops and sensitive forests (such as Cockpit Country), and the report goes on.

What is, however, very sad and ironic, is that the foreigners who do mining, and those who build hotels in areas that should be protected, could not do what they do in Jamaica in their own homelands. To my mind this proves that they really don't care about black people and our Government does not care about us. In the 1900s, Pittsburg (USA) was a heavily polluted city; today it is a very beautiful, clean and green city - no more smoke coming from factories, for instance. This tells us that the technology is available to clean up the air and restore the environment, but it is only available in white people's country. I wonder every day where the smoke that comes from Alpart and Windalco goes, and what harm it is doing - but it seems that the majority of Jamaicans don't really care about anything and they are enumerated.

For all that bauxite has brought to the world, how is it that our economy is in such a mess? How is it that countries that have no bauxite and other minerals, such as Cayman and Singapore, and a country such as Costa Rica that earns more money from nature-based and eco-tourism than we earn from our brand of tourism, are all enjoying such high standards of living and good quality of life? The answer is simple - their leaders and policy makers did not sell out and sell off their countries.

Valerie Dixon is a Manchester-based educator. She maybe reached via email at valeriecdixon@hotmail.com