The mainline Christian churches in the west observe the season of advent for the four weeks before Christmas. The word “advent” means “arrival”, so it is the time when we recall “Maranatha” or “the Lord is coming”. Roman Catholics remember the sinful world in which Jesus Christ was born, which was the reason for his coming. It is a time when we recall our own sins and seek reconciliation with God. There are both sins of commission (what we have done) and sins of omission (what we have failed to do).

One of the sins of omission is the failure to deal with our problems and pretending that things began to deteriorate yesterday, instead of perhaps a century ago. And we do this by saying that things are getting bad instead of saying that things have got bad, to give the misleading impression that the problems just started so we have not yet worked out a solution. The Kendal crash of 1957 was caused by vandals who pulled out the brakes instead of the lights, in order to rob the passengers. A 20-year-old vandal on that train would be 75 today, if he is still alive.

How many of us are willing to be volunteers to instil values into children? Such volunteering can be done in many ways, and most prefer to do it through sports. Why aren’t there more Jamaicans who insist that pop music should instil values rather than contribute to the moral decadence in our society? While we cannot do much about the negative influences of the internet, we can teach children how to make the correct choices. And there are many other things that we can do instead of pretending that our problems are new.

In the 1960s, there was a never-ending discussion about the price of the cars of the ministers of government. It became so bad that by 1972, when the People’s National Party came to power, Michael Manley insisted that the ministers of government should drive small cars. But by 1980, it was no longer an issue, so when the Jamaica Labour Party came to power in that year, no one noticed the expensive cars which were purchased.

The world changed in the1980s and the Michael Manley-led People’s National Party shelved socialism. There was no issue about cars when the PNP returned to power in 1989, although there was the so-called furniture scandal. And there was no issue about cars during the four-year tenure of the previous Jamaica Labour Party administration although there was an issue about the house of one Cabinet minister. But in 2012 the price of cars driven by Cabinet ministers is an issue once again.

My view is that ministers of government should drive modest cars, and houses allotted to Cabinet elected officials should be furnished modestly, with the need to entertain foreign officials in mind. When will Jamaican politicians emulate the late Mahatma Gandhi of India, the late George Price of Belize or the late Norman Manley, who sold Drumblair to finance the cause he believed in? True, the money from the sale was used for campaign purposes, but he believed that his party was the only vehicle to bring about a new Jamaica. When Norman Manley was premier, a visitor asked whether we paid our elected officials well because Norman Manley wore old suits.

Indeed, the late Sir Arthur Lewis remarked that West Africa would not prosper until it produced honest politicians like Norman Manley. But having won the last election without mentioning Norman Manley’s ideals, the PNP might not think it necessary to do so now, which is unfortunate. In any case, they know that the car issue is only “nine days talk”. However, a change of government at the next election is no guarantee that the new government will not do the same in buying expensive cars, just because they are now complaining. Politics is about manoeuvres.

We complain that politicians tend to be tricky and that their campaign promises are not always fulfilled. But do we ever look at ourselves when we are making these criticisms of politicians, even if they are true? The Gleaner invited a high school for girls to discuss the topic “Women have failed Jamaica”, but the students turned it around to “Jamaica has failed its women”. That was a “cop-out”. Even if Jamaica has failed its women, the Gleaner should have insisted that they stick to the topic or decline the invitation.

Do applicants for jobs state everything about themselves, such as the likelihood that they will be late for work sometimes or fail to carry out instructions? Does a young man or a young woman when courting tell their would-be fiancées fiancés all of their faults at the outset? Do advertisements always tell the whole truth about the product? No, they do not, and realistically no one could expect that in the three examples mentioned. Yet we expect the politicians to do what we do not do ourselves.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye” (Matthew 7:3) The season of Advent is the time to reflect on this.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com