LET me begin by giving thanks for the life of Anthony Abrahams, and to send my condolences to his family. Although we were not related by blood, our families were very close and in the true Jamaican tradition, Uncle Eric and Aunt Lucille, Andrew, Anthony, Hope, and Dawn, were our family also. I knew Andrew and Anthony as “Gramps”, a name that I gave them as I was by far the “baby” of our expanded family, and benefited greatly from the love that they gave me as an infant.

So I remember being rocked to sleep by Anthony on our front verandah, and following the footsteps of my brother Peter, Andrew, Anthony, and the late Clive Beckford to Jamaica College. I remember hearing “Gramps” as he broadcast from many countries for the BBC, and wondering exactly where he was, and if he would ever come home to play a game of backyard cricket. These are my most important memories, things that form a lasting impression for a small child, much more than the achievements of later life. That is how I will remember him, simply as “Gramps”. May his soul rest in peace and our memories of him never fade.

Last week two readers made comments and asked questions which spurred my thoughts for this week, and to them I express my gratitude. Generally, they wanted to know what my ideas for improving Jamaica were and why I was not an activist in the political arena in light of what I stood up for when I resigned from government boards last year. The answers are not too complicated.

First, I wish for constitutional changes that could accommodate public service without having to have political affiliation or favour. Not everyone is content to accept that the only contribution a person can give is through elected political representation. Each person brings his own attributes, and some of us are simply people who manage things well. This skill protects the country against waste, inefficiency, low productivity and corruption. But this cannot happen under the current system. It would, however, greatly assist our efforts to grow and reduce our indebtedness.

Second, we cannot grow without order and it seems unlikely that the voters of this country are going to hold anyone to blame and so we just keep switching. It seems that we don’t wish to realise that neither rotating political party has changed their stripes. If we wished to make a statement about change, then many other board members would have simply resigned like me and perhaps a message would have been sent loudly and clearly. It could at least have been a start. So I stepped forward, but in reality most people do not think it is wise or safe to push their necks out in a vindictive and violent society.

This type of inaction has brought me to a stage of reflection as a child of the protest generation of the 1960s and 70s. That generation was accustomed to marches and demonstrations against injustice, the violation of human rights, the atrocities of Apartheid, and racial segregation and discrimination. Jamaicans of that era demonstrated against the Sharpeville massacre, the Walter Rodney deportation eventually resulting in his murder in Guyana, the incarceration of Nelson Mandela, the banning of the books by Eldridge Cleaver and Malcolm X. The list could go on.

But those were very different times in Jamaica as neither the police force nor the citizens were heavily armed, and so confrontation was something that did not necessarily result in violence or looting. Later in what I call “the second wave” some protests were mounted against gasoline rising to $11 per gallon (today read $500+ per gallon). The essential difference between the two time periods was the tribal association of politics as the supreme cause over and above the basic theme for the protests.

Peaceful protests have lost the ability to be contained to the immediate concerns, and politicians are too eager to jump on the bandwagon. This is why I never wish to encourage protests and revolution, although I admit that it is in my very nature, but I have no wish to be an ageing Fidel Castro fearlessly brandishing a rifle with Che Guevara at my side (I don’t even think I can grow the required ponytail). Times have changed, and I believe that the ballot box can foment a change: for example, the election of a few independent people may force the two major parties to examine their modus operandi.

The sudden escalation of a peaceful protest into a widespread riot in England (a former bastion of freedom of speech), is an immediate case in point. In a first world country, the underlying feelings of either genuine discrimination, or simply the lawlessness of young people with a serious criminal intent gives me reason to stick to my ballot box approach. Our society must have more reason to feel disenfranchised than those of our friends in England. We have already reached the point of violent protest as represented by armed gangs that openly flout law and order, so we are sitting on a powder keg with a lit match.

Reflect on the words of Haile Selassie as sung by Bob Marley, “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war.” The “royal bloodline” of the PNP Manley family has been diluted by the proletariat while the JLP, having no bloodline from Bustamante, seek to declare themselves as royalty by default. Between them they have lost the respect of many people, in all probability the majority. But most of us are too afraid to tell them that the would-be “Emperors” have on no clothes.

So the tide of demonstration will take on new faces. One day it will be civil servants, the next taxi operators, the families of those slain indiscriminately, victims of other crimes, and the list goes on. Just which will have a spark large enough to start the conflagration is out there like a rogue tsunami developing quietly at sea heading in our direction. So take heed, as the tides change and the barometer falls that all is not well in our island home and it is good to be forewarned.

Next week I will reiterate some simple solutions already offered.

Remember to register to vote.