Dear Editor,

Jamaica has joined the estimated 80 per cent of the Earth’s inhabitants in having had lockdowns or something of the sort because of this 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic. However, any Government-sanctioned restriction on its law-abiding citizens must at least have a ‘facilitatory’ intention and effect behind it and, even better, undoubted social advancement of the said people.

There are few angles from which to judge whether Jamaica’s COVID-fighting restrictions and advisories are more facilitatory than inhibitory. The result, however, may not be easily arrived at.

One of the greatest men to have walked the Earth once asked his detractors whether it was better to do good or to do bad, when to ‘do’ either was unlawful. When former Education Minister Ronald Thwaites recommended that underemployed and unemployed teachers offer themselves up for volunteer services, he was mocked, especially by politically motivated detractors. The highly praised “stay home” or “tan a yuh yaad” campaign is, conversely, encouraging us to do nothing, and, for many, it shall remain so.

The indelible instinct of having learnt to ride the bicycle is often referred to in describing other acquired abilities. Jamaica is at risk of emerging from this crisis with a ‘washed-up’ populace, whether it be drivers on the road, schoolchildren, athletes, or civil servants, especially those who were more than ‘willing’ to stay home. We are, therefore, to expect disasters and critical failures in the form of accidents and incidents as normality is disrupted and after it has been restored.

Finally, it is ‘easier’ for a Government to run a country when lockdowns and curfews are being effected, but easier does not necessarily translate to better.

A psychologist once used studies to determine that there was a difference between being poor and feeling poor, and that the latter was a worse state to be in. One is less likely to be frustrated the more factors one has to blame, and the more legitimate those factors appear to be.

Grammy award-winning rapper Coolio has a song Is This Me? with the following lyrics: “I got bills to pay, kids to raise, and a whole generation of lost niggas to save.” The Jamaican Government has not really been doing any of these any better before the lockdowns compared to now. This is what happens when our political representatives have been, and are still, not seeking the truth, but are instead busily contesting, masking, and ‘cooking up’ the truth.

Andre O Sheppy

Norwood, St James

astrangely@outlook.com