Dear Editor,

A national anthem is supposed to inspire one to be as patriotic as possible. However, when one listens to the Jamaican national anthem, can one really claim inspiration? I for one think that we need to change our current anthem into one that is more relevant to today’s realities.

Top of my list for changes – remove all references to God. Ours is perhaps the only anthem that is really a prayer, and like all prayers, it always falls on deaf ears. Let’s face it – there is really no one out there to grant us anything. We have to start facing reality and realise that we only have ourselves to save ourselves. There is nothing worse than looking for directions from a God that really isn’t there anyway.

Speaking of directions – that’s another theme that we need to get out of our anthem. Must we also beg when we sung our anthem? It is replete with begging phrases such as: “Bless our land”, “Guard us with”, “Keep us free”, “Teach us”, “Strengthen us” and “Give us”. Why on earth do we see the need to beg for these things? Are we that helpless? Can’t we come up with our own solutions?

What we need is an anthem that will inspire us to do great things for our country and the world – not one that seeks to reduce us to mindless beggars!

I would want to see an anthem that exalts our place in the world. How about one that urges us to be great in the sciences? One that tells us how we have and will continue to rise up despite the odds? Would it be so hard to come up with such an anthem?

There are a few anthems out there that are more inspirational than ours – true national anthems. I would like to suggest that the anthem of the former Soviet Union be looked at as a possible model to the change that we desperately need for ours. That one seeks to inspire the people to look to themselves for solutions. Plus, it has very good instrumentals.

The removal of this prayer that we call an anthem would go a far way to make us Jamaicans more patriotic. I long to see the day when we ditch this prayer-anthem of ours!

Michael A Dingwall

Kingston

michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com