Dear editor,

Some time ago, while listening to my 50-plus year old stereo, I heard a discussion programme about the effect that the supposedly “post-slavery syndrome” is having on our worsening crime situation. This position is supposed to have been advanced by some of our leading experts – you know, people with every letter of the alphabet after their names. Well, I am here to tell you that this post slavery syndrome sickness that we are supposed to be suffering from is nothing but poppycock, for several reasons.

First, those of us who are old enough will tell you that Jamaica was never the violent country that it now is. Sure, we may have one of the world’s highest murder rates today, but this was not always so. Indeed, based on all of the information that we have, Jamaica, until just a few decades ago, up until shortly after Independence, was a relatively peaceful country. Sure, we had always had our problems, but until recent decades, we have never seen crime rates like these.

The point I am making here is that if slavery was a major cause of us treating each other like animals, then we should have experienced much more serious crimes in the past — and less today. In other words, the effects of this supposed post slavery syndrome should be felt strongest near the end of slavery, many decades ago and less as time goes on. The effects of the post slavery syndrome should be waning. However, what we have seen is the very reverse.

Also, this talk of us suffering from post-slavery syndrome is very demeaning and insulting. Are the “bright sparks” who are proposing this folly trying to tell us that the slave masters of old were so good at controlling our slave ancestors that they (the slave masters) managed to perpetuate this kind of brain control right down to the present generation? Is it that the proponents of this post slavery syndrome are saying that we are intellectually inferior and very prone to mind control?

Other countries have had similar experiences, in respect of slavery and they don’t have the high murder rates that we Jamaicans have seemingly gotten used to now. Barbados had a very similar history to ours — where is the excessively high murder rate there on account of their post slavery syndrome? Israel, through the holocaust, has experienced even worse. If post slavery syndrome was true, then the people of that country should be cannibals. Why aren’t they?

Also, during the programme, one of the proponents of this syndrome was lamenting the sad situation of this improvable syndrome claim. If the link between this syndrome and our high murder rates could be established, as it was being wished for, then a stronger claim for slavery reparations could be made. I am still at a loss to understand why is it that these syndrome proponents cannot see that the reason why they cannot get their proof is because this post slavery syndrome, like the claim for reparations, is a total joke!

You know, as a people, it seems that we excel at always passing the buck. For some strange reason, we simply don’t want to accept responsibility for our own failures. We have managed to basically turn this once promising country up-side-down, and, instead of accepting responsibility, we want to blame the Europeans. When are we ever going to grow up?

Well, it is very clear to me — like God, heaven and the tooth fairy — this post slavery syndrome is nothing but a figment of the imagination of some very eccentric people!

Michael A Dingwall