The Editor, Sir:

Jamaica's protracted and fruitless battle to contain and diminish criminal activity in the society has had a profound effect on the citizenry, whether or not we care to admit it. For the dust may not settle anytime soon, and though the population is showing signs of weariness from the harsh realities of the savagery in its midst, the outrage and resolve which should have formed the basis for arresting the downward spiral has not materialised.

We have been left with a population that has retreated behind iron bars, guard dogs, armed guards and secure perimeters, with many citizens illegally arming themselves. In other words, the society has become garrisoned.

Our tourists, for the most part, are sequestered in enclaves, only the brave venturing out to experience a Jamaica they have long romanticised, and which, indeed, may exist in pockets, sometimes contrived and staged, with safety assured only upon the luck of the draw. Our citizens of means have incarcerated themselves like institutional inmates, in gated and guarded communities, coming out to play in numbers sufficient to intimidate the would-be psycho-pathic elements on society's fringes, themselves holding their own communities hostage in their quest to dictate the fear factors of the nation. Only the mentally impaired walk free, blissfully ignorant of the terrors that stalk the land.

Nation in custody

Some government officials cannot afford to venture out into certain areas without a phalanx of security agents to guarantee their safety, while common citizens, unprotected in communities apparently unmanned by state security, lustily take the law into their own hands, as they envision no abatement to the killing spree.

We are truly a nation in custody, and even more seriously, a nation in denial.

For if we took the time to examine the causative factors that loom large in this descent into depravity, we would clean and apply salve to the nation's wounds, instead of treating only the symptoms of the illness. Our selfishness and proclivity for proffering excuses for our wretchedness keeps us laying the blame at the feet of this party or that, preventing us from confronting the harsh reality that we are breeding monsters in our midst, and have gazed for so long into the inky darkness that like marshland fog, it is slowly enveloping us.

Numb

We must soberly realise, those of us who can think, that this Kafkaesque metamorphosis of our societal values has not really been an overnight phenomenon, but the result of the sepsis wrought by unbridled and pervasive corruption.

Reality slapped me in the face when I phoned a particular friend to comment on two multiple murders, each with five victims, only to be told not to worry, "it doesn't affect us!"

Communities need to cease looking for national leadership to solve all their problems, and start with cleaning up the garbage in their midst; the Church needs to forebear the stroking of political egos, and engage their communities in the spirit of what they preach, and the pampered, privileged class needs to know that the danger which once lurked downtown is now in Half-Way Tree and is slowly inching its way northward.

We need to move while there is still time.

I am, etc.,

KADENE PORTER

kadene26@hotmail.com

Woodland Hills, CA

Via Go-Jamaica