Good language drives out bad! There are some 42,000 languages spoken today. Latin and Greek have disappeared though they were used in vast empires and many countries; they also embrace the grand writings and tenets which underpin Western civilisation, and even Jamaican students studied the Punic wars, Livy and Pliny.

Many languages are dying as we speak, and English is the language of progress. Jamaican patois will die, not because anyone killed it, but because it is out of sync with the aspirations of our people. Patois has little synergy with cable TV, skin lighteners, BMWs and cellphones. Patois is a cultural icon, but it is of little value in personal and national development.

Patois aka creole

There are two kinds of lies: when we lie to others and when we lie to ourselves. If we say we are "cool" when we are really angry inside, we lie to ourselves and a heart attack could kill us. To tell others to study patois is to destroy their future; we lie to them, we know it and they know it. The patois debate is a diversion to disguise our failure to educate poor people. Patois has no history or artefacts to explore; no ancient ruins or writings to translate. Patois is a means of speech evolved by people deprived of instruction in their native languages and the languages of their masters. If the British had encouraged English, there would be no patois. If our schools were good at teaching English, there would be no patois. Patois is powerful but not versatile, and it allowed Bob Marley to become the only black man to feature in the Oxford Book of Famous Quotes.

Patois' usage is for culture and friends. English has the tool kit to take us to success, the good life and build our nation. The diaspora "hug up" patois because it gives a sense of self to the insecure in a strange land. this too will pass! Patois has no modern or technical vocabulary of surgery, motor repair, music production, nursing or computers. It is not a language. It does not help poor people. Like Latin and Greek, it gives only "big people" jobs at universities and sadly, as interpreters for our criminals in the USA and UK courts. We have no role models who speak patois only. Miss Lou spoke impeccable English, and it was public knowledge as she would switch when on stage, radio or TV. Why did people not learn English like their role model Miss Lou?
Lazy? Poor teachers? Bad parents? Our problem is not how we speak, but that we can't read and write, neither patois nor English. Since knowledge is found on paper or the Internet, our path is dark. Like China, we need more private schools teaching English.

English

On my first return to Jamaica, I made a public speech and was reprimanded by the government (my employer) and abused by vested interests. I said there was a legal "class action" to be brought by poor parents whose children could not read and write after seven years in school. Parents work hard, pay fees, lunch money, buy uniforms and pay for extras each year - for seven years of school. The school never said that the child could not learn to read and write. It took their money every year and did not deliver, as at age 12 their child came out illiterate. I think as I did in 1972. There is an issue of justice for poor people and consumer protection; and the law should be invoked to get schools to deliver what they promise, and they should advise parents if the child is unteachable so alternatives can be crafted early in life.

It is not easy to understand English speakers like the Scots, Nigerians or Pakistanis because of their accent. But when they read and write, their English is impeccable. The Jamaican dialect is not an accent, it is improper English.
Patois is the only speech for most Jamaicans, yet we cannot read or write it. The educated people who advocate patois can slip smoothly from proper English to the creole. Teachers speak, read and write English and taught us to speak, read and write English from ages four to 12, for more than 100 years but we are still mostly illiterate. The same teachers will be teaching patois. I don't think so! Patois cannot help the poor. The UK, Canada and USA require "Use of English" for all migrants, and so poor people will be unable to work or study abroad. Here is my advice: until you see patois books in law, chemistry, plumbing, art and patois websites, and there are translators and interpreters employed in patois at the Seabed Authority in Kingston and at Caricom meetings, do not study patois! The same people taught you English and now they want to teach you patois. Don't be a fool twice!
Blood of Christ

The Gospel is taking a beating in Jamaica and elsewhere.
Our African brother, the Bishop of Somalia, is appealing for help from Christians to avoid being overtaken by Islam. Are there any Jamaicans who are going to help him? I don't think so! Meanwhile, in Jamaica it seems money is being selfishly taken to translate the Bible into patois because "the money would have gone to some other country anyway". Where is the brotherly love? This money would be of greater use to God's work in Somalia.

Why have a patois Bible when we can't read? Jamaicans already know the "word", even criminals can quote John 3,16. and the "word", my friend, is the power of God unto salvation. We do not need Bibles. We need to start living the Bible we already have. In the old days, wicked men about to be hanged said the Lord's prayer. They know the right thing! Some visitors went recently to Jamaica to carry out God's work and were made martyrs. They were gutted when they lost their iPods and other trivia, so they decided to go home. Let them go - their god is lightweight. Jamaica's God is mighty!

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

franklinjohnston@hotmail.com

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