Strongmen and weak children

Betty Ann Blaine

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

"Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?" - Matthew 12:29.

Dear Reader,

I am appalled that the controversy surrounding the extradition of Tivoli strongman, Christopher Coke, has been centred on an esoteric debate about legalities and illegalities, with almost nothing being discussed by the thinkers and influencers in the society regarding the broader issue of the role and function of strongmen within self-governing enclaves or garrisons across Jamaica.

As far as I am concerned, the discussion about strongmen cannot be divorced from an analysis of the culture of fear, terror, and blatant criminality that citizens of our country are subjected to every day, and that we have seemingly come to accept as a way of life. It is one thing to jockey for positions and to take partisan sides on the technicalities of the extradition process, but it seems to me that unless we expand the arguments to embrace an honest and open dialogue about the ugly scourge of "garrisonisation" and the actions and influence of community strongmen, we are missing the main point of the matter.

As a children's advocate, I am particularly disturbed about the narrow focus of the discourse and the seeming willingness to separate the content (extradition) from the character (strongman). As the prime minister bats for the preservation of Dudus's human rights along with the other members of his batting team, including a prominent pastor, I can't help wonder who will speak for the human rights of the countless numbers of children, women and young men brutally murdered and abused at the hands of Jamaica's strongmen?

The stories about the treatment meted out to children are especially chilling. "Everybady know di story", the little ones chimed. "Wi know di boy dem punish, Ms Blaine". As a newcomer to the community, I listened in shock and awe, as the children related the tale of the fate of the

10-year-old schoolboy whose mother turned him over to the strongman for punishment. The boy was not behaving and the child was sent to the man they endearingly called "Father". "A one week dem lock 'im in a di manhole," the children related. "Dem only give 'im lickle wata, and nuh food", they added, "and then after that them beat him bad, bad, bad." Father the strongman had dispensed his own brand of parenting with the consent of the mother, and with the complicity of the entire community.

The fate of teenage girls is equally brutal. In fact, girls approaching puberty are at even greater risk than boys from the point of view of their sexuality. While the punishment meted out to little boys typically involves beatings and solitary confinement, teenage girls suffer the long-term emotional scars of sexual violence, including rape and oral sex.

The story was related to me by a policewoman who was put to investigate the case of a missing child. She said the mother kept talking in hushed tones and kept looking nervously around her as she spoke. She confessed to the police officer that her daughter was not really missing, but that she was forced to make the official report so that it would look "bona fide" to the strongman in the community. "I couldn't let them take my daughter's virginity", the mother told the policewoman. "She was only 14 years old, and mi work hard and send mi daughter to school. Mi want her to have a better life than me. Mi couldn't just sit down and watch them take her like that. So mi report her missing, but she really living with mi family in the country."

One of our own clients pleaded with us not to report her child missing to the police because she knew that she the mother would be killed. Her beautiful teenage daughter (and she brought her photograph to show us), had run away and was shacking up in one of the most notorious garrisons in West Kingston. The mother knew exactly where her daughter was, but was convinced that if the child was rescued, she would surely be dead, since the men knew that she was the only person who could lead the police to her child. We could see and sense the fear in her when we explained that we had a legal obligation to report the case, and a moral duty to try to free her child.

My own experience with the massacre some years ago in 100 Lane and Park Lane on Red Hills Road still haunts me to this day. As I toured the community the day after, the stench of death and the smell of burnt goat skin permeated the air. A joint terrorist attack involving gunmen from the east and west descended on the community at night. The first thing they did was to cut off the electricity from the entire area, then they moved from door to door shooting and killing. When it was over, children, women and men had been slaughtered. It was the first time in my life that I came face to face with Jamaican "refugees", packing their meagre belongings on whatever could move on wheels. I asked one woman, "Ma'am, where are you going?" She replied, "Mi nuh 'ave nowhere fi go ma'am, but we cyaan stay ya mek dem kill wi."

So the debate about extraditing the Tivoli strongman continues in a vacuum with no concern for the lives lost and destroyed in communities where fear overides freedom, and where mothers are asked to give up their daughters on demand. So the question has to be asked, who will bind the strongmen and set our little children free?

With love,

bab2609@yahoo.com

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COMMENTS (6)

Ms. Lee B.
3/19/2010

Lady, I thank you for this article. Well written and well thought out.
Most well thinking Jamaicans know that the "strongman" who rises to his position is the one MOST likely to be the violent and depraved. Yet we are told that even then they have rights.

carlos king
3/18/2010

Thank you Betty-Ann. This is a timely and courage article. They (our, so called, leaders) see, what is happening to our little boys and girls and they know the effects of garrisonization but they don't care because their sons and daughters are safely located uptown. Remember, "there is none so blind as he who refuses to see". The only sensible option is to work and pray. Resorting to violence, will lead to only more violence. "The arm of God's judgment moves slowly as it bends towards justice" therefore the wicked do more wickedness. Jamaica is in big trouble!
Regards,

JAN WATTS
3/16/2010

I feel some of these people pain, other's i don't because they are the sameones, that block road and come out acting like the he is god and really he is worst than SATAN, SIN IS TOO GOOD OF NAME TO CALL HIM.

Wilfred Gray
3/16/2010

If,it was unique, to only side of the politcal aisle, then we would salute. als, if,their simlarly called to the other major party or references then we would..but alas!

Elli Deedo
3/16/2010

You see Ms Blaine; Most of the Literatures being posted in the News on the Subject of the Extradition is flavoured with anger, and what was done by those so called DONS. All the Characteristics which helps to form part of the reasons why we should continue to support a extradition treaty doe's not give's us any intelligent answers to the Maths.
It only give's us a bit more understanding of the weak framework of our Political, and Judicial administration. Most of us are aware of the fact that we are a sovereign Nation; we have our own Laws; we have a Government, which have a obligation to maintain Laws, and discipline, and to protect the rights of it's Citizens. Any Government which fails to maintain these Obligations must resign.
This is the bottom line, it must not be waved aside. We must produce the ability to maintain Laws in our Society. We do not need the Americans request of our wrong doers to be extradited for disciplinary actions to be taken against them; there are Laws in Jamaica. We've seen where this Treaty has given the Americans the priority to undermine our Sovereignty. Why are we straying from such Fact? Where is the economic prosperity for allowing this act of disregard?: It has been proven that extradition treaty with other nations is no deterrent to criminal net work, it has failed miserably. We only need to maintain laws. If the Americans have Intelligence on any Criminal activities going on within our system, we welcome their assistance; but the idea of sending Black people Chained up on a Aircraft heading to their Slave Camps in AMerica, depicts modern day Slavery. Our Slave ancestors struggled for a self governing body. Heads wern't Choped of in Jamaica to see the Continuation of White domination.
It was for they to reckognized, and respect our integrity, and intellectuality..as a strong nation..Our Political Amateurs must start getting geared for the return of the rebellion. The struggle was not finished, by execution of Bogle and his fellowmen in Spanish Town, is not the end of it.. to those of you who might be saying we should forget our History, it's not possible, we build our future based on our past..We never need a DUDUS to see that we are not respected. Several Jamaicans have being deported back to Jamaica, without any clear explanation for their deportation.. Is it just about a Visa? "Or it's time you start to
create the facilities which will protect our people from Imperialists intimidation. GOLDING & MILLER this is not a Political affaire, but rather a National one. Extradition treaty must be obliterated: Take up your Civil duties and root out Crime and corruption: Americans are endevour to enlargen their Black Prison population..one doe's not necessarily have to be guilty of a crime to be placed in a Prison Cell, once HE/ she is black they are qualified:

george watson
3/16/2010

We are such a hypocritical and pretend society. The government is pressured by Jamaicans for Justice and Citizens Against State Terrorism and the other myriads of civil rights groups out there to provide the best of living conditions for wards of the state and their job is done.
But don’t these groups know about the scores, if not hundreds of our children who go missing each year and are held hostage in these garrison communities, subject to the whims and fancies of these dons and their underlings? They go to bed in terror and wake up in hell.
Don’t these groups know? Don’t the churches, the media, the government, the PSOJ know? Why don’t they demand that the politicians tear down their garrisons and that these people be freed? No one of us, unless we have been subject to it, can imagine being kidnapped and forced to live in conditions that our slave masters could only dream of.
If Dr. Gomes and others think the government through its agents can even pretend to subject our children to horrific conditions then they have another think coming. They should see how our children “live” in these communities.
Come Dr. Gomes, if you are concerned as you pretend to be, change your name to Jamaicans for Justice for ALL Dr. Sobers; couldn’t your organization seek to provide justice for ALL Jamaica? Couldn’t your sobriquet be Citizens Against Terrorism?

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Strongmen and weak children