This is an unfashionable view, but I believe an accurate one: All isms cause and/or lead to economic, social, and political volatility and dislocation in society. Admittedly, some isms cause and/or lead to more volatility and dislocation. All told, I think capitalism is the least volatile of all the isms, because it is most aligned to the innate tendencies of human beings.

Left unregulated, all isms undermine the critical societal adhesive of ‘I am my brother’s keeper.’ Many have argued that capitalism, left unregulated, reduces human relationships to individual interests with an inevitable consequence — a society with a dwarf, if not a moribund sense of social responsibility.

I agree with that perspective. For this reason I argued in this space, prior to Prime Minister Andrew Holness reconfiguring his Cabinet earlier this month, that it was imperative that he establish a Ministry of Social Transformation, Youth and Culture, where all State assets which are earmarked to foster national social responsibility are placed under one umbrella, with a properly directed and unified focus.

I maintain that Holness made a dreadful error in not doing so.

The upside

The Holness-led Administration has not made many errors in the management of our financial affairs, though. Any application of objective measurements will show that the Jamaican economy is in a reasonably healthy state.

The objective evidence is copious. Our international credit rating has remained positive. Remittance inflows are healthy. The stock market continues to be one of the most buoyant globally. The business and consumer indexes continue to be energetic. Jamaicans are registering new companies in record numbers. Incentives for small and micro businesses are aplenty compared to former years.

Foreign currency investment holdings, as a proportion of total investment, increased to 33.0 per cent at the end of April 2021 from 30.4 per cent at the end of April 2020, according to Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) figures. At the time of writing, central bank data indicated that our gross international reserves totalled approximately US$4 billion. This is the best position we have been in since we gained political independence in 1962. Jamaica’s constitution requires that we pay our debts. Objective data indicate that this is happening on a timely basis.

Thankfully, too, there is no shortage of foreign currencies. Deleterious capital flight, that was prevalent in the 1970s and 90s, has been quietened. And the P J Patterson Administration’s “sapping up of liquidity” all over the world is now in our rear-view mirror.

Inflation has, however, started to rise in recent months. This is a serious concern at the gas pumps, small shop counters, pharmacies, supermarket cash registers, in the housing market, and indeed wherever goods and services are purchased by the majority of Jamaicans. But, compared to the high double-digit inflation levels of the 70s and 90s, the current inflation figure of 7.3 per cent is low. Today, we have an independent BOJ, an entity with the charge to, among other things, focus on inflation with laser-like precision. This is de rigueur in mature and maturing democracies. Capitalism is just what the doctor ordered, some may say. Well, yes and no.

The downside

Prosperity capitalism is not a panacea. No ism is a panacea.

I think that unmoderated and unregulated capitalism is one of the worst things that can ever happen to especially a developing economy. The only thing more dangerous is socialism — whatever the kind and/or origin, regulated or not.

Socialism is predicated on the means of production, distribution, and exchange in the control of the State. Madness!

I think in our quest to undo the damage of the cruel experiment of Michael Manley’s democratic socialism of the 1970s we have sought to overcorrect Manley-mania since the 1980s with a brand of prosperity capitalism that is helping to rapidly rip the social fabric of this country to bits.

The decay is all around us and obvious for those who want to see. Lewd, loud, loose, and crude behaviour is now paraded as mainstream culture. Traditional Jamaican values and attitudes are rapidly receding, and are being replaced with pronounced callous indifference to human suffering.

The traditional Jamaican home in which parents taught children that social graces were as important as pocket money have largely disappeared into oblivion. I wonder, seriously wonder, if in the main we really have homes anymore. A home and a dwelling are quite different places. I think that the Jamaican traditional home, for the most part, has been devalued to mere dwellings with cable TV and the accoutrements of elsewhere.

There is a general absence of civic pride that is disheartening. Raucousness is now more than just a theme in the majority of exchanges in public spaces. It is now a dominant theme.

Recently I was in three public spaces maybe for about 15 minutes apiece. In each space there was ‘music’ being blasted to near-deafening levels. I listened for a bit. Conclusion: There is a terrifying commercial exploitation of savagery in our music. It is frightening! The merchants of decay are reaping handsome rewards from a self-inflicted disease.

Doubtless, some bright person is going to say, ‘So what, let the market decide! Let supply and demand dictate who and what lives or dies.’ Really?!

I believe that unless social order undergirds our society the new Jamaica which Holness says he aims to build will remain but a pipe dream.

Recall this frightening headline: ‘112 murders recorded in 2 days in Jamaica’. If nothing else, this should alert all well-thinking Jamaicans that there is something extremely rotten in the State of Jamaica. Last Monday’s Jamaica Observer gave these and related chilling details: “This is 15 more homicides, or a 15.5 per cent increase when compared with the corresponding period in 2021.

“The St James Police Division leads the murder count with 21 cases, a 16.7 per cent increase compared to the 18 homicides reported in the division up to January 23 last year.

“However, Westmoreland had the highest percentage increase in murders, with a 500 per cent rise. There were 12 murders committed in the parish over the first 23 days in 2022, compared with two for the corresponding period in 2021.

“There was a 200 per cent increase in murders in Trelawny from January 1 to 23, with three murders compared to one for the same period last year.”

At the time of writing sections of the media had reported that murders were up 20 per cent in 2022 compared to the corresponding period in 2021.

Opportunity knocks

There is, however, a tremendous opportunity in this crisis. We have a critical choice to make. We can either fix this tragic deterioration in our society or we can throw our hands in the air and give up on Jamaica. Notwithstanding our mountains of problems, I think Jamaica is worth fighting for.

Physically, Jamaica is perhaps the most beautiful island in the Caribbean. We have some of the most ingenious people in the region. We have immense talent waiting to be harnessed and released. Our Achilles heel is our debilitating politics, which sucks the lifeblood of our collective potential like a merciless parasite.

If we are to overcome many of our long-standing challenges, among other things, we have to recognise that” “All things are connected” — this quote is from Chief Seattle’s famous letter to Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States. Seattle’s touching letter centres on the wholesale destruction of the physical environment.

All things are indeed connected. The near-absence of civic pride in public spaces is indeed connected to the abnormally high levels of crime and violence in our midst.

The devil take the hindmost mindset, which is now the dominant theme in our society, is connected to the putrid sore of gangsterism which is devouring especially our young men with alarming rapidity.

A recent report in sections of the media noted that there were some 300 gangs. Consider this, Jamaica is 146 miles (235 km) long and 35 miles (56 km) wide. In terms of area, 4,244 sq miles (10,991 sq km). A very small county in the global community.

I believe there is a very strong relationship between the inversion of many homes into mere dwellings, the attendant decimation of family life and production of recruits for these gangs.

Prosperity capitalism

Among our numerous failures, we have failed to tailor neo-liberal policies — what we in Jamaica commonly refer to as prosperity capitalism — to suit our peculiar needs. The result of that glaring omission continues to be disastrous. The evidence is copious. It is not too late to change course, though.

Some years ago, the late Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore, gave a lecture at Harvard University in which he set out how he and his team transformed Singapore (725.1 square kilometres), with its few natural resources, into a First World country in less than 40 years.

Singapore is a little smaller than our parish of St Thomas, which is 742.8 square kilometres. Jamaica’s per capita income was higher than that of Singapore in the early 1960s.

Anyway, Lee said in his lecture that at, the outset, they tried various models in the hope of kick-starting growth in Singapore. None worked in the way they wanted. So they sat and created one to meet the peculiar needs of the Singaporean people. We are yet to do a similar exercise in Jamaica.

The thesis

Isms invariably cause/lead to societal dislocation. They should not be accepted blindly and/or applied without meticulous consideration to the social, political, and economic environment in which they are implemented. It is obvious to me, and doubtless to many others, that we have largely omitted social transformation from the process of attempting to create a new Jamaica. We are reaping the whirlwind. It is full time we draw breaks, as we say in local parlance, and check “wiself before we totally wreck wiself”.

I believe that no matter how many more boots we put on the ground they will not reduce our abnormal murder rate until we begin to systematically address the omission of social transformation in our development equation. Sure, some zones of special operations in disadvantaged communities are helpful. Social interventions in inner-city communities are good. But, where is the cohesive and nationally coordinated programme to bring us back from the social precipice? It is time to act, Mr Prime Minister!

Comedy of errors

On the point of inaction, the People’s National Party (PNP) continues to neglect the main agenda of local politics and continues to infuriate issues voters who 89 Old Hope Road desperately need.

While Dr Peter Phillips was atop the political perch of the PNP I coined a phrase — Say something, anything, about everything — to describe the PNP’s nonsensical communication approach. This approach is not the same as a political communication strategy. I warned the PNP in this space that due to the folly of its approach, and several other reasons, it was destined to bite the political dust in the September 3, 2020 election. It did.

Mark Golding, having taken over the reins of Norman Manley’s party, has continued the political idiocy from five years ago. One of the unavoidables of say something, anything, about everything is that political functionaries and designated spokespersons invariably fall over themselves in message delivery.

Here is an illustration of the point: On April 23, 2018 this newspaper had this screaming headline: ‘PNP says ZOSO, SOE not arresting crime wave’. The Jamaica Observer news item said, among other things: “Fitz Jackson, the Opposition spokesman on national security, has criticised the effectiveness of the Government’s latest crime initiatives and is urging the authorities to take serious and urgent action in light of increasing murder rates across the country.”

On January 20, 2022 the general secretary of the PNP made a firm call on Power 106FM’s Morning Agenda for more ZOSOs to address the crime problem. Then last week, Golding called for the operational head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to resign if he does not bring crime under control in 60 days. Last week, PNP’s General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell also produced an illegal delivery with his “leader of the black section of the Jamaica Labour Party” comment directed at Robert Montague, chairman of the JLP. Do these all look and sound like tactical political ineptitude on steroids?

Previously I said in this space that to gain and retain political power, three ingredients were necessary — money, message, and momentum. The PNP at present is desperately short of all.

Garfield Higgins is an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.

PULL QUOTE

I believe that no matter how many more boots we put on the ground they will not reduce our abnormal murder rate until we begin to systematically address the omission of social transformation in our development equation. Sure, some zones of special operations in disadvantaged communities are helpful. Social interventions in inner-city communities are good. But, where is the cohesive and nationally coordinated programme to bring us back from the social precipice? It is time to act, Mr Prime Minister!