Rome is burning
Lloyd B. Smith
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
"Rain a fall but di dutty tuff
Pot a bwile but di food no nuff
A hungry man is an angry man..."
- Lyrics attributed to Bob Marley
ONE of the most compelling reasons why people revolt against their government is hunger. The recent people's revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Libya among others speak to unemployment and lack of economic opportunities which often lead to empty stomachs.
The French Revolution is one of the most classic examples of hungry citizens taking to the streets and "storming the Bastille". Marie Antoinette's now infamous but telling utterance, "Let them eat cake!" after the hungry peasants clamoured for bread cost her head and the heads of her fellow aristocrats who had lost touch with the proletariat. Unfortunately, some of our leaders have no sense of history and feel rather comfortably that they can fool all the people all the time.
A look at the social pages in the nation's various newspapers would suggest that all is well in the state of Jamaica. Yet while the elite of the society wine and dine in fine style, savour caviar and sip champagne, the price of bread is going up...and yes, so is cake!
Then there is the price of gas which ironically is going up because of the people's revolutions in the Middle East. And when this happens, the prices of most goods and services also go up.
The latest "cake" that the government has given an increasingly angry and hungry populace is the Dudus/Manatt Commission of Enquiry, and one suspects others are planned such as the highly touted JDIF which will be timed to afford sufficient mileage going into the general election of 2012. Meanwhile, Youth, Sports and Culture Minister Olivia "Babsy" Grange, not having got sufficient hype out of the Under-17 Reggae Boyz overall performance, must now be salivating at the prospects next year of the nation's 50th Independence anniversary celebrations and the London Olympics. That feel-good factor that successive political parties have used in Jamaica to postpone the revolution indefinitely.
Every time I hear about the success of the JDX, the trending down of interest rates and the acquisition of low interest loans and I juxtapose those against the harsh socio-economic realities facing especially poor and working-class Jamaicans, I want to puke. Yes, these are noble achievements for which the government should take full credit, but the potent question now is what next? After all, the occasional one-day bellyful cannot fatten "mawga cow".
According to the latest statistics, some 400,000 Jamaicans are unemployed, and of that number some 220,000 are not seeking any jobs which means they have given up doing so, while there are those who have never worked in their entire lives!
There are hundreds of thousands of young Jamaicans in this country who feel hopeless and fed up with the present state of affairs. They are turned off from both the major political parties because they believe it is a case of "no better herring, no better barrel". They are convinced that politicians are interested only in obtaining and retaining power which they use to enrich themselves, their relatives and cronies. In this sad scenario, the people are no longer the centrepiece of any development strategy, but the victims of a system that does not engender equal rights, equal opportunity and justice for them. No empowerment, no self-actualisation, just persistent poverty and hopelessness. Is it any wonder that many Jamaicans are selling their votes?
There is the well-known Jamaican expression, "Fire deh a muss-muss tail, 'im tink a cool breeze." When one observes what takes place in the House of Parliament these days, it is clear that the people's business is fast becoming a footnote. Instead, rabid political one-upmanship, personal aggrandisement and crass ineptitude have become the norm.
Are our politicians aware that there is a seething anger among the people which cuts across party lines, and this is so because there is a serious disconnect between the electorate and those who were elected to govern? Are they aware that among the 80 per cent of black Jamaicans there is a growing feeling of alienation and that Jamaica no longer belongs to them but to those who have one foot in and one foot out of this country?
Hunger is not necessarily just a physical experience. The Jamaican people are hungry for good governance, hungry for a justice system that is equitable and timely, hungry for meaningful opportunities to advance themselves and not to be overtaxed, overworked and underpaid seemingly to ensure that the plutocracy can remain alive and well. And most important, they hunger for respect and a government that cares, not one that rules by fear and arrogance.
Now that Jamaica is approaching its 50th year of having achieved political independence but most ashamedly has not attained economic independence and social equity, it is time that our current crop of political representatives and their colleagues come to the inevitable conclusion that Jamaica is a failing state. It is therefore incumbent on them to seek to come up with a new order and in that context the reform of the 1962 Jamaican Constitution must take top priority.
Regrettably, it is felt by the Jamaican people that our politicians are not too eager to change the status quo; after all, to give the people justiciable rights would abrogate from the power of Parliament. In other words, contrary to the ethos of the Westminster system which we claim to embrace, politicians are our masters and we are their servants.
So while they fight for the power and the glory, Jah kingdom goes to waste. Rome is burning; fiddle on, Nero!
lloydbsmith@hotmail.com
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