ARE WE DRIFTING? Someone asked me that question during this week. Asked to explain this “drifting concept”, he said, in recent times he has got this feeling that Jamaica has become like a small boat which has broken from its moorings and is drifting, with no one at the helm. We’re lacking leadership in almost every phase of public life, he claims.

To compound the sense of alienation, he said, in our “little boat mentality”, we seem to be drifting into the path of big ocean liners or tankers, the kind of vessels which could run us over, not even conscious that we are in their path. How’s that for a metaphor? Could this be a matter for this gentleman and his therapist or is it one that we should all consider?

From time to time, you meet somebody who knows somebody who is getting ready to migrate. Nothing new. We’ve always been a people who are not afraid to move along when things are not working out. The last big migration was in the 70s, but the difference between Then and Now is, where would we like to move to? The gates are closing against us every day. Things sure ain’t what they used to be.

The announcement that the United Kingdom intends to tighten even further its regulations on who can be permitted to settle within its borders, has put a damper on any remaining hopes to find the good life in the former “Motherland”. No longer can we colonise England, in reverse

or otherwise.

We face a new winter tourist season battling the increased travel tax on trips to the Caribbean which Brits will have to pay, making vacations in this side of the world more expensive. We’ve joined the lobby to get the decree changed but the British government has made it plain that they’re acting in their self-interest, not ours.

Talking of the changing attitudes between the UK and us, isn’t it curious how little response we have given to the Privy Council telling us, as clearly as they can, even while maintaining the façade of civility, that it is time we took care of those pesky appeals in our own courts, especially the ones concerning capital punishment?

Former Attorney General AJ Nicholson, in questioning our response to the British law lords’ message, ruffled the usual feathers with his terse question: “Have we no shame?” Apparently not. We seem determined to cling to the ancient wigs of Her Majesty’s Privy Council, in the desperate hope of having them solve our home-grown problems. We’re making no move to budge. Shameless indeed.

The “blood and thunder” which we raise about capital punishment is currently low-key. The other day when the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA, put to death the man who changed the life course of young Lee Malvo of St Ann, Jamaica, by co-opting him as an assistant in the insane shooting rampage against persons whom they didn’t even know, it was easy to assume that the event would’ve triggered an upsurge in the death penalty debate here. We were strangely silent, however. Perhaps the reality was too hard to bear, especially when we contemplate the fact that the man in the death chamber could have been our own Jamaican youth who instead is serving a life sentence.

So, here we are in our little boat, out in the deep ocean channel, continuing to drift who knows where, while the big ships of challenge draw nearer. Look how helpless we seem, in the face of continuing atrocities done to our children. As always, we spend more time allotting blame – to the staff of child care agencies, working with scandalously scarce resources, to the police for not apprehending the abusers and to delinquent parents who now provide opportunity for endless scholarly theses and moralising.

In the meantime, little is being achieved. The atrocities continue. Children still go missing. Children still die violently or from neglect. It’s not only children who are victims of our criminal element. According to news reports, even the elderly are being set upon now. For what?

And so we drift, taking with us some of our ingrained bad habits, none so deeply embedded as the capacity for tribalism, indulged in by both sides of the political fence. As recently as last week, supporters of the governing party went on the offensive against Mr Burchell Whiteman being permitted by the government to occupy the office of High Commissioner to London. Mr Whiteman, a former executive of the PNP, was invited by Prime Minister Golding to take on the job two years ago.

In response to the outcry of the offended, Mr Karl Samuda, in his role as general secretary of the JLP, explained that the prime minister was satisfied that Mr Whiteman had done a good job, in fact, was well-pleased with him. If only Mr Samuda had stopped there. Instead, he went on to weaken whatever impression of goodwill he had intended to convey, by adding that there were other persons still ensconced in the government’s employ who would have to go before long. Why?

You fill in the blanks.

Persons who have long respected Mr Whiteman for his civility and his performance as gentleman rather than a “Benz-oid bootoo”, were appalled that he had been dragged down the partisan road, despite scrupulously carrying out his duties free of political taint. One suspects, however, that Mr Whiteman is urbane enough to remember that this is how we do business here at home.

Word from London is that while the diaspora family over there has been expressing its disgust at the insulting debate, having found no fault with Mr Whiteman, they wonder what all this is for. Insiders say there was never any doubt that he would return home when his contract ended. In fact, he is already in the process of moving.

In the Whiteman appointment, PM Golding tried to set an example of the ideal way we could live with each other. Unfortunately, the message didn’t trickle down far enough. So, the boat keeps drifting. Mercifully, not everyone is afraid of the storms. Like it or not, we sink or swim together.

JOURNALISM WEEK begins Sunday and will continue to next weekend with its usual programme of speeches, awards, etc. This year, even as we celebrate, there is the disturbing news of two major media houses in the shadow of threats said to have been made by persons claiming to be offended by commentaries, written and broadcast, in the continuing saga of “the don who would not be deported”.

This is not the first time that nameless “foes” have tried scare tactics against the media. These cowards should know that intimidation will not shut up genuine journalists. As mi granny seh: “The truth will float like oil.”

gloudonb@yahoo.com