Garrison, a criminal community enterprise

Franklin JOHNSTON

Friday, November 11, 2011

I like Andrew. I am determined to be optimistic for him but his garrison walk idea is risible. Eddie, Michael and Bob on stage was the acme of unity, yet every garrison still stands and murders soar to this day. I am ashamed he used this glib, old-boy ploy in a maiden speech. Sir, fire your advisers and speech writers, and show some backbone! Garrisons are not our most serious symptom but it grabs headlines. Politicians have colonised our consciousness and can get us to salivate using this magic word and we pay. We are conditioned to genuflect at the word garrison. Peter Principle works; areas that live decently, work hard and are quiet get shafted, those that "cuss and gwaan bad" get hush money. Garrisons know this. Label an area garrison and its a blessing - housing, contracts, gifts, aid, social workers like manna — welcome to the gravy train. Squeaky wheel theory — give time to and reward evil, ignore the good!

In history a garrison is a space fortified against outside foes — a defence. Ours is a an anti-social enterprise; behind a screen residents are exploited and groups make predatory raids against the rest of society. It's a poor area. Some people romanticise them as areas to defend locals; from whom? The police? For whose benefit? Why the guns? Most are mixed areas with a small criminal core in which a vulnerable silent majority go with the flow to survive. They hold up placards, carry babies and toe the line — or else — and after 40 years know no other way. The glue in this polity is negative energy and we can kill this. Politicians chat, but which one "dismantled" a garrison? Which PM? Big money spent, many are rich, yet all garrisons are still here and growing. Walking, handshaking, hugging has not worked. The verdict? Politics built them but can't take them down!

A garrison is a space and a mindset; symbiosis of a politician and needy people. He might well use them to reach his goal; they use him to reach theirs. All poor areas have the same problems but garrisons have the X factor. Some politicians create them, some inherit them - none can change them. In most areas people go to school or work and take what they get; garrisons make demands and get it. Yet for all the billions spent in Tivoli, it is as dependent today as when Eddie was there! Why? Is it well disguised success or sustainable poverty?

What's the impact?

(a) JLP and PNP are said to funnel extra resource into garrisons and an unintended consequence is the needy and the greedy are drawn there. A sense of entitlement grows, and if the beast is not fed the threat or reality is havoc and ruin to the tourist industry.

(b) More resources are not the answer. They got extra for 40 years, yet remain the same. (c) The way to get extra benefits into an area is to label it a garrison. It builds dependence and is an incentive to anti-social behaviour. To call it "garrison" is to hand it over to criminals, put good youth in a moral maze and create a negative postcode for education and jobs.

(d) Equalise power among communities. Every decade a garrison goes into spasm, we hyperventilate and they blackmail us for cash, houses, jobs, playgrounds, health, experts, etc. Mr Seaga made Tivoli a showpiece. To what end? Normal communities do not have this clout. If Tivoli calls the media it goes. If it calls the PM he had better go! The poor in Prickly Pole or your area do not have this clout. All poor are not equal some are more equal than others. Sad!

What can we do?

Everyone has his idea of how it started. But it's simple. A few MPs to hang on to power made a pact with the criminal poor; self-interest allied with survival and the rest is history. The "whore's contract": I get my way and you can screw the taxpayer for all you can get. So what's the answer? Shock the area, shift power to good folks, empower them, zero-tolerance baddies and the Jamaica Constabulary Force to plan for a brief backlash. Politics built them, left no blueprints and we deconstruct to erode its energy, foundation and superstructure as follows: (a) Disconnect the energy supply. The power source is corrupt MPs and embedded criminals. We need an empowered Office of the Contractor General to erode the former, a resolute JCF the latter. Will Andrew give the OCG what it needs? ( b) The foundation is "reward evil to keep the peace", pay the bully for not beating up kids. Cowardice! (c) The world is a stage and a garrison is art and hard life. They look poor yet some have businesses and houses uptown. It's not in a garrison's interest to show progress as this may halt the resource flows. They also know the key phrases of academics and social workers and trick them too. Poverty is choreography - rent a crowd of 200 women with babe in arms, placards and give 24,800 residents a bad name all to feed insatiable greed! Face it, Dons are as smart as you!

Psychology

The psychology is crucial. There is no garrison mentality - just greed and selfishness of few who visit fear and loss on many inside and outside. At emancipation free men left estates but by week two some were back to where they used to collect rations.Habit is a bitch! Pavlov is right. Ring the bell and they salivate. It takes time to wean from dependence to self-reliance; share graciously, win humbly, lose with dignity! So how do we transform garrisons? With cold justice. We can do it "cold turkey" and cause lots of grief but let's do it gradually.

First, we break the garrison spirit. Kill the termites then build after. No more two-tier poverty. Resources must go to poor areas equally; free basic and primary schooling for all - no favourites! Next, do not pay "hush money" via contracts. Progress has a price, so expect reprisal. Next, reposition these sick communities by dropping the name "garrison". They are just areas in the grip of criminals. The word stigmatises the good, silent majority and romanticises the evildoers. This will help good folks resist evil and save youth "not in employment, education or training" (NEET) by apprenticeships in all depressed areas. Next, the media is crucial. Do not portray dons as folk heroes! Garrisons are negative spaces to be purged and reclaimed by tough love, not admired or copied. Next, dons depend on the usual effete political analysis which offer them a bonanza of contracts to keep calm. The OCG must put an end to the cash flow and stop this. The security forces do not need to kill residents. Just enforce anti-litter, night noises, graffiti, utilities, domestic violence, protect property - get serious with small things. I want to believe that Andrew can do well by us in his time, but I have no evidence to back this. Disappointingly, he promises more of the same! Sir, you have a few months to be a man in your house and reveal your new strategy and team. So far "yuh ain't said nutten we ain't heard before!" Stay conscious, my friend!

Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants currently on assignment in the UK.

franklinjohnstontoo@gmail.com

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COMMENTS (18)

joyce bennett
11/16/2011

why not try, it may help,

Norman Lee
11/13/2011

Andrew is just a continuation of the old - new wine thrown in old barrels. I can't even imagine what such walk would achieve for the long term, after the elections. He was pee-pee-cluck -cluck behind Bruce and there is nothing new from him....YET!

Verna Kitson
11/12/2011

exactly right! Deprive the so-called garrisons of their jockeying rights and treat all communities as equally deserving of the full spectrum of attention: developing community organizations, getting community residents involved in the improvement of where they live, and taking responsibility for their wellbeing. Politicians will soon be asking, how can I serve you? And they will get a list that they have to give serious consideration to. This walking business will not change anything.

Nancy G
11/12/2011

"Get serious with small things"! It worked in New York City! If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. Littering. Public urination. Graffiti. Stop those, enforce those laws, and the rest will follow. The problem is so big that starting small is the only way to make inroads through the total chaos.

Huie Fox
11/11/2011

A political cadre independent of either influence would see that small economies like Jamaica cannot compete on the international technological runaway train. Their productions must settle for food, raiment and ecological uniqueness. They may sell services but never, never, should they sell their real estate. Technology must seek economies within small scale production so as to maximize employment, only on that plane can crime be contained

Huie Fox
11/11/2011

Precise and extensive analysis Mr. J, the medicines you recommend would work where the population at large is geared to apply reasoned responses and is educationally reasonably homogeneous. The reality is that, like in the cosmopolitan communities on earth year of our lord 2011, the underclass has not been politicized to expect that the infrastructure of government they see is supposed to behave in their best interest. They function therefore as the crowd and look for hero to hold beasts at bay

carlos king
11/11/2011

Dear Mr. Editor. Dr. Johnston has again written another thought-provoking article but unfortunately he has erroneously asserted that garrisoned residents are aiders and abettors/co-conspirators with corrupt politicians. That is factually incorrect. It is not the average resident that is the corrupt MP's co-conspirator. His/her partner in crime is the enforcer and/or Don. The residents are victims. Many want to pay fair share like a normal citizen but are prevented from doing by "evil forces".

diehardr sickheads
11/11/2011

free house,work in the Gov sector through party cronism has help to fuel garrison politics.The minds of the people in the garrison are poluted by hardliner politicians and hypocrisy in the media. until recently i only thought that only one garrison was in Jamaica and that was tivoli.The problem in jamaica is that 75% of the poblic sector is politicized which help to promote corruption.people defend their Party. Some believe the working class should mine their supporters.

Chuck Emanuel
11/11/2011

Any politician who have not even annunciated structural changes such as the idea of constitutional reforms, separation of powers, holding criminal aiders and abettors accountable, fixing corruption by entrenching the OCG's Office in the constitution etc., will give us more of the same that currently passes as Governance (JLP/PNP).
The political system is corrupt and bankrupt !

Chuck Emanuel
11/11/2011

Pointed and Accurate !

Lee Hylton
11/11/2011

Franklyn Johnston, what are you implying by stating that because other leaders and citizens had walked those areas before and it did not bring forth the desired results; it is totally unnecessary for anyone else to revisit it and make a fresh attempt at it again? Nature is always revolving and things are cyclical in nature and when the right moment presents itself; no power on earth can stop it from happening Empires stand for centuries and dictators rule for decades until they crumble and fall

R- Cool
11/11/2011

Well said and well written article, Sir!. Could not have been explained better. Even though you will have the mis-conceptionists coming out of the woodworks to negatively crtisize.But when a vast majority of a nation is knowledgeable incompetent. What do you expect! And moreso drenched in Political affiliation.

Nejeeper KNG
11/11/2011

Mr. Johnston you have made some valid points, which I believe would make a difference in the so-called garrison communities. “I want to believe that Andrew can do well by us in his time, but I have no evidence to back this. Disappointingly, he promises more of the same!” Statement like this puts you in the same category as the cynics. You started off by saying “I like Andrew.” I love JA. Mr. Holness is in power for a few weeks and you can already tell it is more of the same. WOW Not enough time.

Hugh Maxwell
11/11/2011

I dont agree that if resources going to poor equally will decrease garrisons.All that will happen is switching. Too many of our non-performing ministers exist and the it is useless to have a PM voting out this term and to return a nother term- ridiculous. Have you ever some of those churches where the pastors have from them just start preach till many years past? That is structure of garrison. Notice the difference with churches who rotate their pastors. Notice the objectivity of the members.

Mark Forbes
11/11/2011

The walk idea would be risible IF the issue wasn't literally deadly serious.Thank you for admitting you were ashamed at PM Holness for suggesting it. You see, a reluctance to admit that they were disappointed that our new, young PM maiden idea turned out to be so old is the only reason I can find why so many (e.g. both daily papers) are supporting it. Why they are pretending as if the circus idea hasn't been tried before to no avail?

David Armstrong
11/11/2011

Garrison constituencies are indeed criminal enterprise. Like legitimate enterprise business that has investors and a return on investment, garrison constituencies are no different. The only difference here it is a political business in which the politicians have a vested interest. The reality is that the politicians are the investors and the return on their investment is votes and full control that enables them to maintain their power. That is one reason why they will not fix this evil system.

fiona corder
11/11/2011

I do not understand why Jamaicans do not recognise what a blight this is on our country and that in the same way crime has spread from these garrison areas to the rest of Jamaica over the last 20 years is the same way the entire Jamaica will sooner or later have pockets of garrisonised communities, as is now happening in Manchester. We fought against slavery, this is another form of slavery yet we tollerate our people being held captive in this way... no freedom of thought, movement or choice

Orville Brown
11/11/2011

Votes for the MP, benefits for supporters, the unholy compact of the garrison. Father was Wills Isaacs in 1949-59, four PNP seats. W. Kingston is a mere defensive reaction of encircled JLP support. Symbolism important to start trearment. Benefits flow could be non-politically directed thru church and private organizations, talk to Henley Morgan. In long term, a general rise in prosperity, end of drug trade only cures as personal success becomes accessible without reference to politics

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Garrison, a criminal community enterprise