Lloyd B. Smith

Is there any other place in the world where using a "bad word" (expletive) can make you end up in jail? I find it very disturbing that in this day and age, a citizen of Jamaica may be incarcerated for simply "cussing a bad wud"! And who or what determines what is a bad word? Sometime ago, television viewers saw some big, hefty policemen manhandling and arresting a little girl who had hurled some expletives at them during a protest demonstration. Only recently, a young man visited my office in distress because he had been nabbed by the police and thrown in jail after he was overheard telling another young man about "him b *****."

It bothers me that otherwise law-abiding, well-behaved individuals should be placed in the same cell with hardened criminals such as murderers, rapists and drug dealers, all because they have used a so-called bad word. At present, I really do not have a problem with such people being fined, especially if the "bad words" are used in a disrespectful or demeaning way. After all, the Jamaican patois/dialect is one of the most colourful and graphic in the world. Let's face it, when a Jamaican male wins the lotto and exclaims, "Kiss mi r****!" Should he be fined and/or locked up for this?

On the other hand, if he were to look at a respectable person such as a law officer, a teacher, a Justice of the Peace, etc, and in response to being reprimanded for having done something unlawful or terrible, he blurts out, "Kiss mi ****!" then he should be penalised. But what if someone passing by sees and hears what is happening and says, "Lock up him ****!" Should he also be punished? What a ****!

It is no secret that many Jamaicans, especially the men, are illiterate and therefore have very limited vocabularies. Visit any construction site, a cricket or football game, not to mention a heated discussion in a rum bar or at a domino game and just about every other utterance will be a bad word. Then again, Jamaicans love to "trace" (verbally attack someone) and there is no other way to win this war of words than to resort to the use of bad words.

Ironically, I am told that one of the places that bad words are used most often is the police station. And not by prisoners.
No way, it's the law officers who spew them uncontrollably. Some years ago, I went by the Number 14 Barnett Street Police Station in Montego Bay to bail someone and to my amazement there was this woman sergeant tearing into some young cops with some of the most colourful expletives. Now, if I had sought to stop her by saying, "Lady, shut you **** mouth", I am sure I would have been arrrested and charged.

When all is said and done, I just love my Jamaican language. I mean, which other tongue can express such things as "jook", "boonoonoonoos", "irie", "nyam" and "you dun know"? I do believe it's time that the relevant authorities look at the statutes surrounding the use of expletives and come up with a more reasonable approach. The days of the "40-shilling word" should come to an end. In any event, very few Jamaicans have never used a bad word and the only one to have vowed publicly that he has never expatiated thus is former Water and Housing Minister Dr Karl Blythe - a latter-day saint?

Then again, when Foreign Affairs Minister KD Knight allegedly chastised Local Government Minister Portia Simpson Miller within the precincts of the House of Parliament by saying that what she did (abstaining instead of voting along with her PNP colleagues) was "f*****", the goodly lady did rise to the occasion and told him, "Gwhey!" A most effective retort, I daresay.

There is too much hypocrisy surrounding this issue of bad words. These words are used in high and low places and in many Jamaican settings it is the lingua franca (mother tongue). An employer once told me that for months he had a problem getting his staff to keep a certain door closed. He spoke to them in proper English and even had a sign painted and placed there:"Kindly keep door closed." Nobody paid him any mind. Then one day, he gathered some of them and said in plain Jamaican English, "Me say unoo fe keep di r*** c**** door closed!" After that, the door was always kept closed. They understood him for the first time at last.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not advocating that bad words should be legalised. Indeed, if this should happen, can you imagine what would happen in Gordon House when parliamentarians start to hurl expletives across the floor? My contention is that just as in the case of when a person is caught with a ganja spliff it is reasonable to decide that he should not be imprisoned, I do believe that locking up people for "cussing bad words" is unfair and perhaps even inhumane. What do you think?

lloydbsmith@hotmail.com

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