THIS is not a good time to be poor. The world used to romanticise poverty, but there are no tears for a nation that benefited from massive loans, billions in foreign direct investment; blessed with bauxite, remittances and a never-failing tourist industry. Have we forfeited God’s love? The sympathy of friends? We continually reap defeat when victory was a sure thing. Why? My dad, a patriot, died after Independence. When I get over yonder and tell him we are still not prosperous and faffin’ around like novices he will be spinning. Poor countries with our track record are likely to remain poor for a long time as they lack thinkers and doers. When your only reality is the present, your future is dark. Winners use the brain’s centrifuge to disaggregate the present, synthesise the desired, envision, and bring value to reality. The present is not a gift. It distracts the poor while the rich cultivate and reap the future, and even now they are developing the next generation of everything. In the old order, the curious were winners. They explored, subjugated others and ruled on a global scale. We display none of this creative curiosity nor did our forefathers. Even as we go to the gallows with song and dance we will not get serious about developing our country.

The cardinal points West and East were defined culturally by Europe. The West has been dominant in the modern age. What we wear, use, eat, live in, work at – except for air, sunshine, rain or snow – can be attributed to the West. They write history, claim our best myths and win all wars. The iron curtain fell and the bamboo curtain moves inexorably toward the West. Most people speak Mandarin, but all want to speak English. The West is desirable; not perfect, but kept honest by intense scrutiny. We chose the West, its ideals, goods, services. Meanwhile, while we “hug up” the West, being west was a liability to the West itself, and so their futurists decided it was time to change.

The sun rose in the East for eons; the West realised the East was a treasure and acted. The West was curious, the East was mystery. The West was innovative, defied nature, questioned God; the East was believing. The West explored, produced, marketed. Eastern spices, savouries, gems, metals were traded. Then came slavery. A replacement force of red-blooded sentient beings bought and sold; who accepted suffering as their lot and never used their mass force to take their freedom. A blessing? Slavery was the gift of the East to the West. But the group that sold their people is now being punished by their gods with poverty. The trade in spices, etc changed society, but trade in humans was crucial. Every act of the West after 1700 was defined by slavery. Some doors once open unleash forces of hell. The West Indian planter could not know that 300 years after sons of slaves would burn London and slavery would justify our failure to work hard and build. We must bend our efforts to prosper Jamaica in this generation.

For many black people there is no closure to slavery. We must forgive. I have debated slavery on three continents and there are unanswered questions. I found no closure in Africa. Why did Africa sell its people to strangers? “It was business” – no remorse, no reparations. Why did Europe buy Africans? “It was business” – some remorse, a public apology, but no reparations. It was legal to buy people, the sellers did so willingly, why employ? Why rent when you can buy? It’s not personal. Slavery was bad, so why did the mass of slaves not wipe out the few white people and free themselves? Hard questions! The East-West legacy is millions in the African Diaspora in sustainable poverty. We must work hard to be prosperous.

In history small nations prospered. Modern economics revels in scale and has lost sight of times when “small was good”. In the last century, large countries emerged but for millennia small units prospered. City states of Europe, the Levant, across the Americas enlarged their borders and prospered. The very word “citizen” is of the city. The trek between cities was simply “no man’s land”. Cities meant food, protection and civilisation. England ruled the world via London, Bristol, Sheffield; their population was like ours in size, but innovative.

We too can be a great little state. Let’s put resources into Kingston, Mobay, Mandeville and Port Antonio and allow them to drag their environs into a growth orbit. Kingston now robs other cities and consumes their best people. Let’s decentralise development.

The shift of the East-West paradigm was purposed at Bretton Woods; lost traction as the Soviets broke ranks, but repurposed as the Iron Curtain fell. The North and West still mould the world to their wishes. No one challenged the North and South shift. Up to Columbus and into the 19th century the magic coordinates were longtitude-east and west. With the 20th century the West imploded then exploded into war. When the strife was over, the paradigm shifted to latitude-North South and Australia and New Zealand were “honorary North”. This paradigm exists because the West wants it. The organs of the old West are now organs of the North — IMF, World Bank, UN, G8, etc. The North is now less white, more yellow and brown. The South is black. North of the Equator is the production engine. South is the market. North now has its cheap labour pool in China and India. South will be buying more and getting less work. The South is the North’s stockpile; land to grow food, mines, etc to support their way of life. You can get mangoes, avocados and bananas in the North all year round, but not in the South where these crops grow. The West has sanitised its image and rebranded. This has several effects. Slavery and black people are now problems of the South and ere long many in the North may be sent home, South.

Hunger and disadvantage; lack of water, famine, pestilence, disaster, poverty is a South problem and the forces of alleviation are up North. The responsibility of the black South is squarely on the backs of their black leaders. We are now responsible for ourselves; no more nurturing mother country and our uncaring fatherland will not become world-class in my lifetime. Let us arise and build our little island.

The new North-South paradigm is a coup for the West. A makeover from colonialism and imperialism, it voids the past of global oppression and now pillories the tyranny and corruption in the South. The equator is an effective marker segregating the productive North from the dependent South, mainly white and mainly black respectively. The poor have little interest in the future, star-gazing or blue sky thinking, yet this is our hope. The world dances to the tune of the powerful and the new paradigm is merely new coordinates, not new reality. I feel no South loyalty, no South enthusiasm; I do not get out of bed for the South. I am a winner and I want Jamaica to win. I am ready to work and sacrifice; what must I do? We must hang together or they will hang each of us separately. My cell is on 24/7 as I am expecting a call. Keep yours on too. Let’s build this nation now. Stay conscious, my friend!

Dr Franklin Johnston is a strategist and project manager. franklinjohnstontoo@gmail.com