“Jamaica is now big in Washington!” I bragged to an American colleague, showing him a photo of then Prime Minister Edward Seaga and Mrs Seaga posing at the White House with President and Mrs Reagan a few months after the 1980 elections.

“Say what?” he replied, quite amused. “Little Jamaica has no clout in Washington.”

In the 30 years since then, Jamaica has become better known to the developed world as champion exporter of crime. Our posses and “yardies” have become the bane of the security forces in New York and London.

Those of us who lived in Jamaica in more peaceful times have watched some political leaders becoming more and more dependent on thuggery to marshal their votes. Our Electoral Office of Jamaica has ensured a fair and just electoral system. What happens before and after elections in certain neighbourhoods is beyond their power.

To this day, political tribalism divides many communities. “It is not politics, it is gang warfare,” our politicians are fond of saying. To which we respond, where is the political will to rid us of these gangs?

Despite repeated calls in this column, CAFFE can neither be heard nor seen after elections. Once a politician is elected, all scrutiny stops. This is when it should intensify. Why has CAFFE not joined Dr Herbert Gayle in his appeal to have the constituency development fund administered by an independent agency? Gayle, a lecturer in sociology at the UWI, has done extensive research on the causes of crime. In last year’s Ambassador Sue Cobb Lecture, he named this as an important measure to help tame the beast.

In the US, candidates go from door to door, winning over supporters, one vote at a time. But in Jamaica, some “clever” politicians have sullied the name of independent Jamaica by deciding on an easy, if not legal way, to lock up their votes. This door-to-door business is much too labour-intensive for them. And so, several political “stars” were born. These luminaries of the inner-city would never see the inside of Gordon House, but they would decide who would get a place there.

The politicians who may not have had direct contact with these “protectors” turned a blind eye, either out of fear or out of ambition. And we Jamaicans have whispered about such wrongs but did aught about it. The better-off ones among us, who could have used our money to insist on cleaner politics, did nothing and allowed two generations of Jamaicans to become brutalised by this selfish, cynical and short-sighted brand of politics. We are neck-deep in denial. Even the usually vocal JFJ has fallen silent.

Last Thursday, JIS unveiled their new campaign for “A Bold New Beginning” at Vale Royal and we were treated to a spirited song performed by talented singers and some of the most precious little ones. We applaud their efforts to remind us that yes, boldness is a possibility and we have those seeds in us. Whether or not we allow them to bear fruit depends on this decent majority that we say we are. This majority have been selective about our just causes even as our young men are drawn into gangs and our young girls are “sent for” by dons. As Edmund Burke warned, “Evil flourishes when good men do nothing.”

Happy Int’l Women’s Day!

Today, International Women’s Day, we can be encouraged that since the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995, we have seen a 75 per cent gain in the global average of women in Parliament – from 11.3 per cent to 18.8 per cent.

In Jamaica, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne and Olivia “Babsy” Grange head two government ministries, and there are state ministers, Senator Marlene Malahoo Forte and Shahine Robinson. Two other JLP senators are Hyacinth Bennett and Kamina Johnson, while the PNP has one woman senator, Sandrea Falconer.

Government MPs are Olivia Grange, Shahine Robinson, and Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert while Opposition MPs are Leader of the Opposition and Jamaica’s first woman prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, Lisa Hanna, Sharon Hay-Webster, Maxine Henry-Wilson, and Natalie Neita-Headley. We should also note that a former president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica, Syringa Marshall-Burnett, was a most dignified president of the Senate. Beverley Anderson Manley has been a beacon for women’s rights and remains a strong voice in the media.

In June 2007, Zaila McCalla was sworn in as chief justice, becoming the first woman to head our judiciary, and Paula Llewellyn became our first woman director of public prosecutions in March of the following year.

Jamaican women have also been steadily rising to positions of prominence in the private sector with RBTT head Minna Israel now president of the Bankers Association of Jamaica while Jacqueline Samuels-Brown heads the Jamaican Bar Association. Women business leaders include Amcham President Diana Stewart, former JMA President Doreen Frankson, former PSOJ President Bev Lopez, former JEA President Marjory Kennedy, former JEF President Audrey Hinchcliffe, former WBO presidents Shirley Carby, Dorothea Gordon-Smith, Lorna Green and Eleanor Jones; Donna Duncan-Scott, Audrey Marks and Thalia Lyn.

In security, there is Deputy Commissioner of Police Jevene Bent, Assistant Commissioner Novelette Grant, and Commissioner of Corrections June Spence-Jarrett, who we believe should hold fast despite those who would wish to heap on her all the accumulated shortcomings of our correctional system.

Today is also the birthday of a Jamaican heroine, the late Lady Gladys Bustamante. There will be a wreath-laying by the family this morning at Heroes’ Park and a concert in her memory at the Bustamante Museum at Tucker Avenue.

lowriechin@aim.com

www.lowrie-chin.blogspot.com