Can the great United States be wrong?

Chris Burns

Monday, March 15, 2010

Yes, absolutely, the US can be wrong, and even President Barack Obama acknowledges this, as he seeks to restore America's image and credibility around the world. However, Obama's acknowledgement notwithstanding, as a society and like other societies, America is fallible. The truth is that for decades industrialised societies successfully propagated the myth that governmental fallibility was exclusively a Third-World phenomenon. But this is not so anymore. With the advent of technology and popularity of social networking sites, people know what is going on around the world, in real time.

That aside, no one expects the United States to be all things to all men. It would be rather silly to hold such a view. And although the US stands as a beacon of hope for many and continues to extend lifelines to several millions around the world who come to her shores, it does not convert to infallibility, nor does it mean that America's actions are always above reproach. It does not mean that the United States' intentions and activities are always incontestable or right, and if history is anything to go by, Uncle Sam may still need to submit, in humble contrition, for some of its past transgressions and mistakes.

Mistakes such as its handling of the "noble experiment", its decades-old, one-directional supply side war on drugs, the Tuskegee project, segregation, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ignoring the genocide in Darfur and the clumsy management of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to name a few. Besides, as advanced as the US justice system is said to be, hundreds continue to be wrongfully convicted throughout the US. According to the non-profit group, the Innocence Project, well over 249 defendants, previously convicted of serious crimes, obtained exoneration after the fact, based on DNA testing. There can be no telling what the outcome would have been, had the Innocence Project not taken up these cases to defend the rights of these individuals to a fair trial.

In the mid-1900s, in an attempt to reduce crime and corruption, improve health, solve social problems and reduce the tax burden created by prison and poor houses, President Herbert Hoover initiated the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquors. It was not long afterwards that most of the liquor production, sale and trafficking fell into the hands of gangsters and a carnival of murders and other violent crimes which included mob-style executions sprang up all over the country.

From as far back as in 1954, when Dwight D Eisenhower was president, the United States has been fighting the so-called "war on drugs" and for good reasons. Drug-trafficking and abuse come with enormous economic, political and social costs. However, like "the noble experiment" and after billions of dollars (US$22 billion in 2009), authorities have not managed to curb America's appetite for drugs sufficiently to cripple the supply chain. The United States' war on drugs started mainly as a fight against marijuana, but the suppression has triggered increases in demand for crack-cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, etc, and with them, increases in the outward flows of high-powered weapons from the US to other countries already facing social problems.

To underscore a possible admission of failure in respect to marijuana, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced last year that "raiding medical marijuana facilities would be the lowest priority for US law enforcement agents", a move Kurt Gardinier, spokesman for the marijuana project, hailed as "one of the most significant changes in Federal drug policy in the last 30 years". The American Medical Association recommended that Congress reclassify marijuana as a drug with possible medical benefits. Significantly too, a 2009 Gallup Poll found 44 per cent of Americans supporting legalisation of the use of marijuana. According to a USA Today news report, "At least 14 states this year, some deeply conservative and Republican-leaning, will consider legalising marijuana for medical purposes or lessening penalties for small amounts for personal use."

The historical overview is deliberate, as it shows how failures of US domestic and foreign policies may affect governments and people all over the world. Here in Jamaica, instead of drafting modern laws to deal with the legal cultivation and conversion of marijuana for medicinal purposes, we are busy kowtowing to Uncle Sam, by burning down and arresting citizens who grow marijuana to satisfy America's insatiable appetite. We are doing all these things as 14 states, including Washington State, already have medical marijuana laws, and 13 have decriminalisation laws on the books. My prediction is that America will become the largest producer and exporter of medical marijuana products and Jamaica will end up being the largest importer. Are we nuts?

This brings me to the current controversy surrounding the extradition request from the US State Department for the Jamaican Government to hand over Christopher Coke to stand trial in US federal courts in New York for alleged drugs and gun-running. Insofar as the extradition proceedings for Christopher "Dudus" Coke are concerned, one should not cut off one's nose to spite one's face. I disagree with the prime minister's pugilistic and overarching involvement in the matter and I remain unpersuaded by his attempts to colour his involvement purely altruistic. Somehow, it is hard to see our prime minister defending another Jamaican faced with similar or a lesser charge as staunchly as he has done in this instance. If Mr Golding believes US

law-enforcement personnel breached Jamaica's wiretapping laws while gathering evidence against Mr Coke, then the breach is a matter for a court of competent jurisdiction to hear and adjudicate.

This does not mean that anything is intrinsically wrong with protecting the constitutional rights of every Jamaican citizen. While none of this intends to exculpate the defendant of any alleged wrongdoing, it is hard to accept and equally difficult to fathom our misplaced willingness to cower under fear of economic reprisal from Uncle Sam - all this without regard to blatant acts of injustice or bullying. And as if this isn't bad enough, one needs only to listen to some of the preposterous arguments coming from certain people - educated people - who ought to know better as they defend our obsequious mentality and childlike proclivity to "crawl up into our little shells" every time Uncle Sam orders us to.

We need to tame our eagerness to genuflect to Uncle Sam. This unbridled eagerness to acquiesce is patently backward, to say the least, as no amount of foreign aid or largesse should motivate us to violate the spirit of our political independence or to derogate from the principles on which we attained that sovereignty. While standing for principles is not always popular for those who believe life and life's circumstances are always "positional", we have to create a different mentality - one that appreciates and values common sense, but instructs and advises us to stand for something and discourages us not fall for everything, however enticing.

Burnscg@aol.com

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COMMENTS (14)

Bob Manke
5/23/2010

The Canabis/Ganja haters and their prohibition must fail. They were born from lies and mature in shame and outrageous humiliation for those too poor to hire a legal mercenary to defend them from lies entrenched as anti-marijuana laws. The marijuana prohibition will fail. I am part of why because I champion the truth before the guns here in Iowa.
When we legalize canabis these gangs will disappear just like the whiskey gangs did when we turned off that particular prohibition.
When the suppressed science enters the books about the endocannabinoid system a great veil of darkness will come off the eyes of all the world, including my home, the USA.

Bob Manke
5/23/2010

I am a marijuana advocate here in Iowa. In 1979 I had the great good fun to come to Jamaica for my honneymoon. Jamaica looked so beautiful and your people were decent to us.
The Fact of the USA's patents for medical marijuana are irrefutable. They are law here.
My friends and neighbors? What would you have of us for medical marijuana? What will you think of my country when it is scientifically proven that marijuana is a food?
Last year and this I have stood before the guns identifying myself for the benefits of Ganja because our bodies have not been well described by our medical teachers!
No! I have had college Anatomy and Physiology and never was there a mention of the endo-canabinoid system. Is this suppressed science known in Jamaica, either? I imagine not.
My neighbors I don't know, if we eat foods that have molecules we need to feed and maintain our bodies, and we genuinely have this body-wide system inside all of us, why not need food for it??

Rum Head
3/19/2010

Don't see the point of this article. The fact is that Dudus is accused of drug trafficking in New York and being involved in importing of guns to Jamaica. So whats wrong with extradition?
If anything we should be glad to get rid of him. The Americans are willing to clean house for us. Great! Also the wiretaps were approved by the former PNP govt and were conducted by local security forces, in accordance with jamaican procedures,so how can their legality be in question ?. We extradite the fellow, we get rid of a major crime lord, sounds like a good deal to me!

Devon T
3/16/2010

While we are all entitled to our opinions, and while most people (like myself) believe Dudus is indeed a person with dodgy dealings, it muse be borne that none of the alleged crmes were committed on American Soil, my question then is... Why should he have to go to America for trial? Think people, would you like to be sent to another country for trial which could possibly result in him/her being executed?

Wharf Dawg
3/15/2010

Sad Jamaican: That there is a critical analysis and well needed one. Mr. Burns want to have it both ways.. It does not work like that in the real world.
For too long we have turned a blind eye to the wrongs of our society and now that it has over flowed into the US we want to genuflect?
Oh guess where Mr Burns is talking about genuflecting? USA.
Staying on cows backside cussing cow.. You better be a born American because the way things a run right now, some of us might be sent home on technicalities. I hope you genuflect that Burns.

howie J
3/15/2010

Thanks Chris.
This is another masterpiece from one of Observer’s best writers. This is a well thought out and objective article. People keep up the good work.

mike beckles
3/15/2010

Once the unnecessary big words of this article have been dissected and made simple for all to understand, we realize that what the grand stander is trying to say is that Jamaica should not send Coke to be tried for the alleged Crimes, great so we know where you stand , what we would like to know is how much you have been paid for this dribble.

Wilfred Gray
3/15/2010

If,we have a mutual agreement, with a consenting party, where we are permitted to `yes` or no` and out of 26 times we said`yes` and the one time we said`no` the other party vex and we never, ask `em yet?
Would that consider that respecting!
We asked` em politely!

carlos king
3/15/2010

Our sovereignty should not be hoisted and lowered, like the Jamaican flag, when it suits us politically. If we're sovereign it will be seen in our behaviour and how respectfully and humanely we treat each other whether we live in Norbrook or Trench Town and it will be known by all, Jamaican and non-Jamaican alike. Our sovereignty is not something to be trumpeted in Gordon house- it should be demonstrated in the garrisons.
Regards.

Peter Lawrence
3/15/2010

Not to kneel to the US? have you seen the lines of people wanting to escape Jamaica, waiting at the US embassy? You must have. The US , if anything,treats its allies almost too generously in many cases. Look at how the Israelis almost routinely defy, bully, and even insult US foreign policy planks ad lib. During the '67 war they even bombed a US ship for hours while it flew an American flag, on suspicion that its activities of wiretapping could compromise Israeli security. But they were popular with both parties since three million Israelis held 100 million arabs at Bay who were hostile in large part to the USA.
In Jamaica the question to ask is not why there are so many deportees, but how come so many multiple thousands of unsavory characters managed to get US visas in the first place?. Busta's simple statement "We arev with the West" probably gave the State Department the idea that Jamaica would welcome Us fighter planes and Warships during the Cold War if it broke out into a hot war. Wrong. Neither mental nor physical acceptance of such welcome would be in evidence, except grudgingly by government fiat , and except for those labourers getting paid in Dollars. Another mistake of US foreign policy is not to realise that Jamaica is one of the most stratified societies in existence, a proportion equalled, perhaps, only by the murder rate.. The paltry mini-economy has to stretch to cover 2.78 million BUT, guess where all this is topheavy? In reality the point seven eight of haves far outweigh the other 2 million. So we boast about our motto and limp along in delusion, until crime, the most promising career for those without mainstream hope, grows from pup to dog and now terrorises us. Selah!

Sad Jamaican
3/15/2010

Yes Burns, I agree, we need to tame our eagerness to genuflect to Uncle Sam. But don't we also need to tame our appetites for US culture, US goods, US college degrees, US dollars and US visas? What are we being so selective about, when we relinquished our sovereignty decades ago to administrators who in turn sold it for a mess of pottage?
Corruption has become so metastasized in our culture that we can't distinguish its form anymore; we are more interested in showing off with a national airline and pretending that we have any sovereignty left, than we are to destroying the environment that alows criminality to incubate.
Perhaps we need to tame our eagerness to genuflect to donmanship and ill-gotten rewards.

Jay Brown
3/15/2010

Mr Burns, when peoples coveted green card or US Visa status is at stake what do you expect.
These people just want to make sure they do not loose that status as it would spell disaster from them and their families. After all, how can higglers have green card or visa and Mr Big up town man cannot travel to the USA, that's unthinkable.
This is what we have become as a people, we no longer believe in truth or justice, we only "beat up our gum", but when the rubber hits the road we cower in fear. Mr PM please give up Dudus we we don't lose our status in society.
We cannot go to KPH or UWI hospital for medical treatment, we must go to Jackson Memorial Hospital, without a visa or green card we cannot go there.
Do you expect us to take our wives to VJH hospital to have baby, no sir the child should be born in the USA so he or she can get "status".
These people could not give a da$n about the rights of anyone, afterall they must protect their "status".
I do not believe the PM should have gotten this deep involved, but the media drew him into it, now they want him out of it.
The laws of the country must be uphold as without it we have nothing.
Its just a pity we did not exercise these rules for all our citizens.

Anthony II
3/15/2010

Another beneficiary of Uncle Sam's largesse and opportunities preaching to "stupid Jamaicans." Sidung pon cow back so cuss cow kin! (on behalf of "stupid Jamaicans").

mal kyle
3/15/2010

Based on the unalterable proviso that drug use is essentially an unstoppable and ongoing human behavior which has been with us since the dawn of time, any serious reading on the subject of past attempts at any form of drug prohibition would point most normal thinking people in the direction of sensible regulation. By its very nature prohibition cannot fail but create a vast increase in criminal activity, and rather than preventing society from descending into anarchy, it actually fosters an anarchic business model - the international Drug Trade. Any decisions concerning quality, quantity, distribution and availability are then left in the hands of unregulated, anonymous, ruthless drug dealers, who are interested only in the huge profits involved.
Prohibition ideology is based on lies and the 'War on Drugs' is a de facto 'war on people' (some might even successfully argue that it's a de facto race war). Prohibition has decimated generations and criminalized millions for a behavior which is entwined in human existence, and for what other purpose than to uphold the defunct and corrupt thinking of a minority of misguided, self-righteous Neo-Puritans and degenerate demagogues who wish nothing but unadulterated destruction on the rest of us!
Prohibition is a sickening horror and the ocean of human wreckage it has left in its wake is almost endless.

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Can the great United States be wrong?