To make any form of change one has to have the fixity of purpose to endure to the end, because some old habits die hard. Today I give a few examples, some of which have serious consequences, and others not anywhere as serious.

The first one I mention is the state of public emergency declared for Montego Bay last Thursday. As so many have already written, it can only be a temporary measure. There was a time when many North American tourists did not know that Montego Bay was in Jamaica. It was on entering Jamaica, with just some form of ordinary identification, they found out when they saw the ‘Welcome to Jamaica’ sign on the tarmac at the [Sir Donald] Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay. But today, people around the world know that Montego Bay is in Jamaica — and for the worst of reasons.

It is a pity that it has had to come to this at a time when Jamaica’s core business is tourism, and Montego Bay, the principal tourist town of Jamaica, is under a state of emergency. Many have written and spoken about social infrastructure and whatever else that needs to be done, but there is no point putting the correct things in place if the guns continue to come in.

Do we have the will to do what it takes to stop them from entering Jamaica? Some old habits die hard.

My next example is an international one, but one with a learning experience for Jamaica. The Russian revolution, which lasted 75 years, ended in 1992. Many were glad to see the end of it because the ideals of Marxist-Leninism were being abused. But with the return of capitalism to the former Soviet Union, the old racist practices in some parts of Russia returned, so we heard about “ethnic cleansing”. Some old habits die hard.

For the next example I return to Jamaica. In the 1970s, the socialist ideology of the Government of the People’s National Party, led by Michael Manley, had its supporters and its detractors. Racist statements towards the black majority in Jamaica became taboo, which might be said to be one of the benefits of the 1970s. There was a change of Government in 1980 that ushered in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) with a landslide, and there were many who believed that deliverance had come.

Whether deliverance came or not, the fact is that racist sentiments returned. Many misread the JLP’s victory to believe that they now had a licence to be as racist as they liked. All of a sudden the words “black” and “ugly” were once again used in the same sentence — a practice that had ceased for close to a decade. Opposition to the Afro hairdo returned. I am amazed that in recent times the subject of wearing the Afro hairstyle in schools came up again. In 1969, I was part of a three-student delegation that successfully got the Jamaica College administration to change the code of grooming to include hair worn at high levels. But we did not change the society — although we thought we had. After all of Marcus Garvey’s teaching, much of what he fought to change returned. Some old habits die hard.

The code of attire for lawyers in the Supreme Court changed in the 1970s making it optional for men to wear either suits or karebas. I regret losing a letter of congratulation from the late Ian Ramsay, QC, for writing my views in my then regular column in the now defunct Jamaica Herald on the retrogressive return to colonial attire in the Supreme Court. Michael Manley returned to power in 1989 and he had a need to show the international community that he had adjusted to the changed world order back to capitalism. So by 1996, when P J Patterson had already served four of his 14 years as prime minister, some in the legal profession evidently felt that the coast was clear to return to the tropics-unfriendly jacket and tie. Some old habits die hard.

In 1972, the Palisadoes International Airport underwent a name change to the Norman Manley International Airport. Yes, Palisadoes was a nice unusual name in the opinion of many. But how many remember that the name of the old Palisadoes Road was changed to the Norman Manley Highway around that time? There was much media coverage about the fiasco on that road on New Year’s Day, but every media house referred to “Palisadoes Road”. Even this newspaper last week ‘corrected’ — or to be more precise, changed — my reference to Norman Manley Highway to Palisadoes Road. I did not even know that Jamaicans under 40 years of age knew the word “Palisadoes”. Some old habits die hard.

For the benefit of all students doing general knowledge tests or examinations or television quizzes, the Norman Manley Highway stretches from the Norman Manley Airport to the Harbour View roundabout. Turning left to Kingston, you go on Florizel Glasspole Boulevard. This goes to the traffic lights before reaching the Jamaica Private Power Company. Taking the south coast road to downtown Kingston, you go on Michael Manley Boulevard, which becomes Port Royal Street (below Harbour Street) in downtown Kingston.

The Norman Manley Highway route to and from the airport in Kingston should not be confused with the Norman Manley Boulevard in Negril in extreme western Jamaica. Both are so named for good reasons. The Norman Manley Highway leads to the Norman Manley airport, which was built in 1961 while Norman Manley was premier. The previous one on the Port Royal main road (to the south of the Norman Manley Airport which ends in Port Royal) was built during the Second World War.

Norman Manley Boulevard in Negril is so named because the elder Manley saw to the filling of the Negril swamplands for the tourism industry while he was premier of Jamaica. Indeed, Norman Manley said that the seven miles of white sand at Negril was “Jamaica’s best kept secret”. He was criticised for it, as the then Opposition Leader Sir Alexander Bustamante deemed it a waste of money, just as he said about the National Stadium built by the then Premier Norman Manley’s regime.

I hope that I have been of some help here to students, even if some old habits die hard.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com