Pot calling kettle black?

MERVIN STODDART

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

MINISTER of National Security Dwight Nelson gave a commendable response to the recently released 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report from the US government, which damned Jamaica for not doing more to stem the flow of drugs in and through the island. One was wont to laugh at the serious joke wherein Minister Nelson, in response to the low number of drug arrests cited by the US report, gave statistics to prove that the Jamaican government had increased the number of drug-related arrests over the period in question. One wonders if ridding Jamaica of the drug problem should not necessitate that drug use and drug-related arrests be reduced or eliminated. However, expansive reading of materials relevant to the US war on drugs and the abuse of drugs in America shows that the US is the world's worst drug-abuse nation. Hence, for the US government to malign Jamaica for drug abuse is like the pot calling the kettle black.

The Nation Master website that compiles statistics on international use of illicit drugs gives the following report on the US: "World's largest consumer of cocaine (shipped from Colombia through Mexico and the Caribbean), Colombian heroin, and Mexican heroin and marijuana; major consumer of ecstasy and Mexican methamphetamine; minor consumer of high-quality Southeast Asian heroin; illicit producer of cannabis, marijuana, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine; money-laundering centre." (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_ill_dru-crime-illicit-drugs). The entry speaks for itself. What it omits but what is documented elsewhere is that US government agencies have actively aided drug abuse in black communities in the US. In 1996 reporter Gary Webb of San Jose Mercury News proved that point and Congresswoman Maxine Walters called for a federal investigation. The Kerry 1988 report found that "senior US policy makers" supported using drug money to fund US projects in the Iran-Contra scandal. Various sources, including the following Wikipedia reference, note that: "Soon after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, however, opium production increased markedly." It is no secret that those who gain most from the international illicit drug trade are not the children in Jamaica who are killed or arrested for foolishly using or dealing in drugs. Neither are the drug profiteers the alleged dons and community strongmen like Christopher "Dudus" Coke from Tivoli Gardens or other so-called drug kingpins previously extradited to the US. This writer has deduced from readings that the real profiteers are the US government and its allies, including corporate slave masters, world political leaders, economic agencies, and almost anyone from anywhere willing to be used by the drug masters.

Simply, those who have the power and resources to do so perpetrate the illicit drug trade to enrich the same evil few who use the US military industrial complex to retain control of global socio-political and economic affairs. Their agenda includes the destabilisation and exploitation of so-called Third-World countries like Jamaica. Hence, those same bastards see to it that drugs are shipped through Jamaica. They use certain people to control the drug trade, including security and political personnel who are employed or blackmailed to be party to the drug charade. Most of those who run the drugs for the top masterminds will be jailed or murdered to keep them quiet and to keep the movement going. It is a sad scam run by Washington and some European government centres. This drug game played by the US and other Euro-American governments was responsible for the invasion of Panama and the kidnapping of Manuel Noriega. It was partially responsible for the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and continues to wreak havoc with the economies of Jamaica, Haiti, and other Caribbean and Latin American nations. Apparently, the US government works for the global capitalists who control the military industrial complex and by condemning Jamaica in its Narcotics Control report, Washington is simply being hypocritical.

Jamaica has no cocaine or heroin factories and exposure to those drugs has been forced upon the island's youths. The US government has the resources to eliminate the flow of coke, heroin and guns into and through Jamaica and must share the blame for allowing those deadly products to flood the island. Knowledgeable readers will deduce that the illicit drug trade is related to other parts of the agenda of Euro-Americans who wish to continue their underdevelopment of Jamaica and other developing nations. That agenda includes profit-making by way of the US prison industry; exploitation of those poor nation's resources; and keeping non-white countries suppressed under the political will of white supremacist forces. Is Washington through this narcotics report saying that their loans to Jamaica and other bilateral relationships give them the right to engage in this game of "pot calling kettle black"?

INMerv@hotmail.com

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COMMENTS (14)

Ms. Lee B.
3/19/2010

In response to Mr. Rose: I hope I am understanding your comment correctly. If so, I am not saying that the U.S. should not be criticized. Indeed not. As I posted under the moniker, Ms. B, we have issues that are even more pronounced than the U.S. What the erudite scholar, Mr. Stoddart is saying is that some how, we as a nation, should be excused because of poverty. I have said it before and I will say it again, my parents' and grand parents' generation were much much poorer yet we have no record of them selling the level of illicit drugs that our generation sells.
Look in the cities of U.S., U.K., and Canada where Jamaicans prevail. There are many who are STILL selling drugs, even when given an opportunity to finally PRODUCE. I am not here advocating for the position of the U.S., but rather for JAMAICA'S position. If what Mr. Stoddart wrote is to be taken at face value, then Jamaica and poor nations like it are DOOMED to FAIL, until the U.S. and other first world nations supposedly "free" themselves from their drug habits.
Can we move forward as a nation on this premise? Certainly not! We MUST assume responsibility and be masters of our own fate.
BTW: SAD JAMAICAN, yuh really meck me laugh whole day. This article should be called: WHY I MUST TAN PON COW AND CUSS COW.

rag monty
3/18/2010

The CIA in more than one interview has admitted to using the drug business to get certain desired results. And for those who didn't know it was used in Jamaica in the 70's too. The people who seek that avenue are not all fools they just are desperate some of them and have no way else to make a dollar. JAMAICA'S PROBLEM IS NOT DRUGS IT IS SIMPLY BAD POLICY MAKERS and it has been a failing state for decades. A lot of us will start to say how our side was better than the other but at the end of the day they all failed. You don't win football matches by how many times you hit the post. Maybe when we start to say or imply that our side was better is exactly what the writer meant by "pot calling kettle black"

Basil Rose
3/18/2010

Mr Stoddart you have hit the nail squarely on the head .I think there is a lot more that could be said . I guess there are alot of intellectual fools that have their heads so far down in the sand that when they do come up for air they might find out how different the world really is . I don't think they have long to go before they find out. To Ms Lee B wrong with criticizing the government that how you have a change for the better .Isn't it the reason why present government in jamaica is been criticized .... kettle a cuss pot

Wayne L
3/18/2010

While I'm not agreeing with everything that Mervin is saying here, we'll be only hypocritical not to admit that the US is guilty of calling out other nations when they are one of the biggest perpetrators. It is a known fact that the agencies responsible for national security have previously saturated communities with drugs for whatever reason. You readers who are denigrating Mervin are nothing but uncle toms.

Leanora Holland
3/18/2010

That's the beauty of the American Constitution. Freedom of speech.

3/18/2010

A close look at those same statistics will also show that even in the favored Clinton Administration when the US economy was awash with jobs, Black men were still low down in the employment line. Why? There are many parts to this equation. 1) Truthfully, God knows racial bias and discrimination still abound; 2) Many are simply not trained for a knowledge based workforce, go to any University in the US and you will see an under- representation of Black men.
But, how different is this from Jamaica, where people from the ghetto are refused employment or where those with qualification from the country are slighted by Kingstonians? How different is it from a Jamaica where people think to be "brown" will assure you a better job and at least a sweetheart relationship with some "desireable" man (yes even di dreadlocks rasta have a browning). Not very different at all.
The plain truth is we have no right complaining about the U.S. when was Jamaicans treat each other so badly.
As for the weed, not because I have dirt in my house does not give you the right to come and pass your bodily waste in my yard. That's just plain wrong.
Ms. B

3/17/2010

cERTAI NSTUFF, ARE `FACTS` LIKE UNEMPLOYMENT AMONGST BLACKS IS NOW ABOVE 25%..WHEN NATIONAL AVERAGE IS 9.7 AND WHEN 5% ;15% AMONGST BLACKS,ESP. MEN.
SOME COUNTIES IN USA, AND SOME STATES HAVE MARIJUANA AS IT MAIN CASH CROPS.`TAKEN FROM REUTERS.
WITH US, IT NOT AGAINST THE PERSON` BUT THE PRINCIPLES OF `DUE PROCESS` AND NATION AND NATION RESPECT!

Sad Jamaican
3/17/2010

Mervin. come home nuh? You don't seem to be able to stomach the US anyway, so stop being a leech and just pack your carrouches and come to Jamaica and contribute to our nation building. Since yu so bright.

Ms. Lee B.
3/17/2010

So disappointed!! This type of reasoning is a throw-back of the 1970s when the ostriches amongst us were so bent on preaching neocolonialism instead of assuming responsibility for their part of the world!
It's like the man who rape because he claimed he was tempted. Shame!!

Mark Oliver
3/17/2010

I couldn't agree more. The problem in general is that americans are unaware of most international issues unless it is related to the war on terrorism. You hit the nail right on the head.

Ras Barrington
3/17/2010

The truth is an offence, but not a crime.

Ms. Lee B.
3/17/2010

Sir, this is the most intellectually dishonest piece of diatribe that I have seen in many years.
Are you trying to tell us that the U.S. forced certain members of the Jamaican society to choose to traffic in drugs? There are thousands locked up in the prison systems of the U.S., U.K and Canada and it is mostly because of their own doing. You want to know why? It is because EVEN when some are exposed to a better system they are still UNABLE to PRODUCE.
I believe that you are saying that if demand for these substances were eliminated then supply would dissipate? Sir, if this is your logic, then the same would apply for those who bombard the U.S., British and Canadian embassies for visas. IF Jamaica were to fix its terrible economic problems that stifle growth and development, there would be no need to for thousands of our countrymen and women to live illegally in the these countries and put pressure on the social welfare system. Many work off the books and thus have - and probably will never - make any contributions to Social Security, State, or Federal Income Tax. YET they reap all the benefits thanks to the tax-payers in these countries.
A man in your position you should be shouldn’t be preaching the neocolonialism junk they taught my parents in the 1970s. Rather you should join the rest of us in the 21st century and teach, AMBITION, DRIVE, RESPECT FOR THE LAWS, and how to BEHAVE PEACEFULLY to a failing generation.
Lastly, for the record, NO ONE who desires to write a credible article or research paper uses Wikipedia as source material. This is basic information that any GRADUATE student should know.

D Ranks
3/17/2010

So, Mervin Stodart is saying that the US government is responsible for loading up its own citizens with drugs of all sorts. A far stretch of imagination.
No doubt about it , America uses most of the world know resources, of any kind, why should drugs be any different? The demand is there and if a demand is there then it is going to be filled by drug pushers, suppliers and maufacturers from countries like like Jamaica. It is the demand that fuels the illegal activity, plus the lucretive prices.
If America wants to curb the illicit drug trade then it has to address, and strongly too, this demand. Who can say that they are not doing it? But when an opinion asserts, from deduction of various readings, and no give no evidence that America and Europe are aiding and abetting the illicit drug trade, for whatever reasons, one has to wonder if the imagination is over acting. Mr Stoddart ought check his facts a little bit more.

george watson
3/17/2010

I have always found it very interesting that the Rev. Stoddart never missing an opportunity to denigrate the United States and try to paint it as the worst country in the world, yet he lives, and apparently either works or goes to school there.
I wonder which other country he could be living in and criticizing as much as he does, yet there are no repercussions against him.
To me it is like living in my house and cursing me at the same time.
Certainly the U.S. couldn't be as bad as he always tries to make out.

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Pot calling kettle black?