For Jamaica 2010 has started as 2009 ended: a nation in fear and anxiety as the full implications of a loan with the IMF take centre stage; a nation on a collision course with a social tragedy of gargantuan proportions as our murderous ways continue, and a nation in the full grips of denial as we continue ahead doing business as usual and expecting spectacular results that we believe will lead to unbridled prosperity. It is time that we shake ourselves out of this denial and face the reality of what Jamaica really has become. In my last column I spoke of the need for soul-searching on the part of all sectors of the Jamaican society.

Despite its religious overtones, soul-searching is not just an appeal to a religious category that can be easily dismissed. It is essentially recognition of that thing deep inside of us that defines us as Jamaicans, as people who are to be respected for who we truly are; for a resurrection of the principle of human dignity that can be seen in each person that causes us to seek his best welfare, no matter his station in life. In pre-Independence Jamaica this principle was present. It is in fact this principle which gave birth to whatever remains of the legendary hospitality of the Jamaican people. But alas, it is fast fading away.

We have lost the capacity to confront the reality of our socially degraded human capital. Ian Boyne is the only journalist I have seen writing with any frequency on the perceived dangers to our national life of the social degradation of our human capital and the horrible incongruence between our calls for economic growth and our rotting social fabric. Ian is right in his insistence that this lopsided approach to the development of our national life cannot be sustained.

With all the vaunted calls for macroeconomic stability, the meeting of fiscal targets, and all the bright and erudite analyses that we hear from time to time, we cannot bring ourselves to recognise honestly that we are indeed living in two Jamaicas. This was eloquently defined in the social anthropological instincts of Edward Seaga as the division between the haves and the have-nots. It might be too much a simplification of an obviously complex matter to say that all our problems can be reduced to one common denominator, but the continuing degradation of our social capital has to rise high on the totem pole of our national problems. Common to the problems that have created this social divide is our basic lack of respect and love for the ordinary people of this country. If you do not respect people you will treat them as dirt; if you do not respect them you will treat them as pawns to be exploited in your political chess games; if there is no love and respect for the people there is no need to treat them as if they have anything important to contribute to national life. So keep them illiterate and broke, for to educate them is to give them power and freedom from serfdom. They must be essentially expendable and if they are there is nothing wrong with the poorest of them having to live in squalor in boarded-up shacks behind zinc fences.

Our politicians who have exploited people in these ways over the years should be downright ashamed of themselves, but then you get the impression that many of our political leaders have lost the capacity for shame. Judas Iscariot could be a good teacher to many of us in this respect. Both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition represent two of the poorest constituencies in the country. Nobody purports to love the poor more than they do. And yet the signs of social decay and rot are evidenced in these two constituencies, perhaps more than any other. Those who have been given power by the people to improve the lot of the people have failed dismally to promote the best interests of the people they serve.

This excerpt from an article by Kimone Thompson in the Sunday Observer puts the problem in some perspective: “From Rose lane go back dem (the MP) fixing di fence dem but dem not doing it roun’ here. What dem doing for we roun’ here? … We want dem stop deal wid people like dis. We ah people man, di whole a we ah people. We ah nuh Labourite nor PNP. All dem doing now is to divide and conquer and we don’t need that. We need to unite as black people.” Bruce and Portia, the people are not asking for much. Treat them with the respect and the dignity they deserve or cease parroting to us how much you love them and how much they need not be poor. We are tired of hot air. Let us see the evidence of your actions on their behalf.

When we have degraded our social capital as we have done in Jamaica, we throw our hands in the air and lament that crime is getting out of control. But we fail to see the correlation between murderous criminality and a degraded social capital. And let us not for one moment believe that the politicians are alone in creating this mess. The private sector, the church, the unions, and other civil organisations must be blamed for their sins of commission and omission in allowing Jamaica to become what it has. We have lost the stridency and vigilance needed to create a decent society. We have sat by and twiddled our thumbs waiting for manna to fall from heaven when all along God is urging us to get up off our rear ends and use the brains he has given us to work out our salvation. We have become too mired in the self-interest of our own little group to spare a thought for the interests of others. Indeed, we have failed to see how intertwined are our own interests with those of the very people we seem to despise. There is need for national shame and, yes, repentance for our culpability in what Jamaica has become. May 2010 be a turning point for we just cannot go on like this.

stead6655@aol.com