Dear Editor,

If there is a word that encapsulates Jamaica, it is “ray-ray”.

From politics to carnival to dancehall and sensational evangelism – Jamaicans see these occasions as an opportunity to get “inna dem ackee an rice an peas”, where excitement and hysteria become the moment for us to fly our collective mouth “cause wi nuh have licence fi it”.

Really, it does appear that Jamaicans in general are an unserious set of people by nature, who live for each new shocking turn of event — sucking the juice dry from each one until it is displaced by something new and today’s news is lost to a new tomorrow.

This approach to life, perhaps, explains the occasional eruptions in crime and violence, since we are a people not too comfortable with peace and quietude for too long — something ha fi buss out.

Maybe it somehow also explains the hoggish nature of drivers on the roads, since disciplined behaviour may be a little too tame in the absence of the general helter-skelter.

And, to a considerable degree, it may also be responsible for the aggressive resistance to mask-wearing and social distancing protocol required to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, because these so-called rules of ‘senseless’ sophistications are too banal and blah-blah to live with.

We are a people of gut and fire, even where there is no heat; a people of brightness even if there is no light to guide. And, therefore, it is not hard to imagine how paradise and disaster can commingle if one is attracted by hype while being ruled by a free spirit.

It it is not difficult to see how one can become the servant of ebullience while under the rule of emotive juices.

Homer Sylvester

Mount Vernon

New York

h2sylvester@gmail.com