We Jamaicans have shown ourselves to be a patient and tolerant people. This August will be 170 years after full freedom and still the wrong of slavery has not yet been even nearly fully righted. Slavery was about inequality and injustice, about one set of people using another set to enrich themselves; and about creating a society where that advantage would be passed on to their children's children, while ensuring that the disadvantage of slavery was visited on the children's children of the slaves. Slavery was about keeping one set of people down by denying them the information that would lead to their advancement, while using the power of the state to brutalise and keep them in line, so that normality can prevail.

Those who study history see clearly how Jamaican society has preserved those relationships, and how politics and economics have collaborated to advantage some and disadvantage others. The 'New Jamaica' that many had wanted to build has not happened. We have been through decades of governments - from colonialism to Independence - which have promised much and delivered little. It is scandalous that more than 45 years after we bid our colonial masters goodbye, we still cannot teach half of our primary school graduates to read properly! Why is it that agents of the Jamaican state continue to brutalise and kill the descendants of slaves, such that we have the highest rate of police killings in the world?

Jamaica needs a change

Jamaica has long wanted a change. Deacon Sam Sharpe wanted a change; Deacon Bogle and Deacon Gordon wanted change; they died trying. Marcus Garvey wanted change; he was vilified, and still is. Busta and Manley promised change, and each had confidence placed in them by a hopeful and patient electorate; they did not deliver, and neither have their political successors.

The 2007 elections were supposedly fought over profound change: the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) promised a change of course, and the much misunderstood 'Portia factor' is a deep gut feeling that someone from the bowels of the working class must understand the changes that are needed. It's all about change. And Jamaicans have been a patient people.

However, some might argue that the patience is wearing thin, as so much of what is Jamaica is protest. Rastafarianism is rejection of the status quo. Pentecostalism is social protest.

Those who analyse society might interpret our high crime rate as misguided social protest against a persistent poverty and powerlessness. If this is the case, then it is no surprise that all the crime-fighting initiatives over the last few years have failed; this situation which calls for social redress rather than strong-arm tactics to allow the status quo to proceed. Many may interpret the flight to 'alternative investment schemes' as a desperate attempt to 'get my share' after lifetimes of deprivation.

I say that 2008 is a 'Year of Hope' because Jamaica is at a crossroads, and a lot of people hope the new JLP Government will bring about the change they deeply desire. The JLP must know that many/most who voted for them are not 'die-hearted' Labourites, but people who wanted a change from an increasingly corrupt PNP government who made it clear they were not going to deliver change.

It has been a shaky start, but there is still room for hope. I look forward to promises being kept: education transformation, better governance, police accountability, the dismantling of the garrisons, environmental integrity, and so on. Many continue to dream, and work hard to build a nation based on justice and equality. Much aspirational capital (some might say desperational capital) is being invested with the JLP. Let us hope they will deliver something this time.