Dear Editor,

The Jamaica Observer issue of October 10 offers us all much food for thought in respect of the human aspiration for land, home, and livelihood — all connected for the ordinary Jamaican.

First, the editorial ‘Squatting is wrong…but so is the abuse of poor people’ gives a brief context of slavery and its insidious aftermath: no compensation to freed slaves or the wherewithal to live humanely. Is it any wonder that the poor will forever be wandering from pillar to post with no place to call home? This was, and still is, cruel and inhumane.

The letter ‘Demolition is not the answer’, while not encouraging squatting willy-nilly, ought to give the Government much food for thought, that until the housing and land problems are addressed, it will forever be faced with a problem that seeks a proper solution. Demolition without prior discussion with those whose houses were erected at great sacrifice is definitely not the answer. There is much egg on political faces to make a good meal. Both the governing political party and the Opposition should pay attention to what the writer, P Chin, says: “Every human being deserves to live in a decent space. Our surroundings affect our mental state and how we interact socially. If we live in filth, it affects us and we will be inclined to act and interact accordingly.” We don’t need rocket science to affirm that; it’s being acted out in our society right now. And this dilemma of space-home-and social repercussion requires not a political but a bipartisan understanding and solution. Until then, crime and violence and squatting will forever be under the radar, costing the State a tidy annual sum.

The third letter is correctly entitled ‘Has pie-in-the-sky religion retarded our progress?’ Whereas the politicians have a mammoth task of tackling the triangular space-home-social repercussion of our Jamaican reality, the churches are equally to blame if they continue to preach a Christianity that is not anchored in the here-and-now situation. The residue of slavery tends to perpetuate a dependency attitude on “massa” of bygone days and political “massa” of today.

The luminary Dr Martin Luther King rightly distanced himself from the pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die religion to address the injustices that lead to inhumane conditions. His perspective of religion, along with that entailed in liberation theology of the Latin American Catholic Church, will help to remind Christians that religion about the here and now has consequences for the hereafter.

Jamaica has more churches per square mile than any other jurisdiction and we can’t seem to effect changes for the good. How does our faith affect family life? Are businesses also concerned about the common good and not profit? Is our political life devoid of unhealthy partisanship and corruption? Do minimum wage and health care allow for simple, decent living?

We need a real moral conversion to shake off the shackles of individualism and selfishness and recapture, somewhat, the beauty of a healthy communitarian lifestyle, whereby we become our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. That’s the only way out of the quicksand of our present reality. Church and State must work in tandem to effect those changes with God’s help. Our national anthem reminds us of this!

Donald J Reece

don.j.reece@gmail.com