Hilary Robertson -Hickling

There are not enough opportunities for families to do things together

Christmas is about the family, the holy family, its humble beginnings, and its sacred purpose. Here on earth and particularly here in Jamaica the family seems to be under tremendous pressure.

There seems to be a shortage of love, kindness, caring and sharing in a world which increasingly is built around the individual, not the family nor the community. I have never thought of Jamaica as a particularly loving place given its pathological origins and the struggle it has been undergoing to become a good place with good people. The daily assaults on goodness by criminals and other forces at the top and bottom of the society diminish our capacity for love. I was heartened by the response to those young people in the inner city whose requests were featured and fulfilled in recent newspapers.

Professor Patricia Anderson of the UWI delivered an excellent inaugural lecture in which she explored masculinity and fatherhood in Jamaica with all of its possibilities and contradictions. This lecture should be shared with the entire country and the media should open the airwaves so that people could use this as an opportunity to understand themselves and their families better. A companion lecture about feminism and motherhood should also take place because there is a need for us to review the way that we live with each other.

Our loving sides

Yet, I recognise that there is a deeply rooted desire for love and compassion, which is reflected in many surprising ways. The Governor-General and his wife received an outpouring of love when they were appointed and I will always remember the photograph of the Governor-General being hugged and surrounded by students of Rusea's High School on the occasion of the last research day that he attended at the UWI. We seem much more comfortable to portray our sexual selves in public rather than our loving sides. A trip to Cuba reveals couples and families walking together for recreation as part of the way of life. I have been observing Jamaicans at play, largely women and children together and men in the company of other men. There are not enough opportunities for families to do things together.

The popular dancehall seems to be a place where men and women are engaged in a power struggle, where loving touch is scorned or unknown, and yet I assume that in private the artistes and patrons much show tenderness to each other. I also recognise that many relationships in this country are secrets and even when a child is produced that one of the parties can be in deep denial about his presence there. Many women in this country have resigned themselves to being outside women, mateys and women who in the olden days would have been unfit to be taken to the posh Carib theatre.

The concept of one love needs to be revisited and expanded and I was intrigued to see that celebrity couples were featured in Monday's Flair magazine. I am a hopeless romantic and agree with a poet whom I met who said there can be no revolution without love. Jamaica needs both a revolution and love. Love has to be the basis of the repair of the society. Christianity and other religions at their best foster love for other human beings. children need to grow up in an environment where there is love. My wish for Jamaica for 2007 is justice, prosperity, peace and righteousness and an increased individual and collective capacity for love.

Hilary Robertson-Hickling is a lecturer in the Department of Management Studies of the University of the West Indies.