Jamaica’s Diaspora must do better.

We are no paragons of virtue and we must also listen to the angry voice of Jamaica as it relates to us. Those of us who live abroad, must also share some of the blame for the state our country is now in. Just as we are critical of a host of ills that hamper the Jamaican society, so must we also look inwards and move to correct the wrongs we have done.

Crime is Jamaica’s highest hurdle. The country is beset by a gun culture and love affair with ‘badness’. Guns proliferate the landscape. Murders are at a high as the years go by.

Jamaica does not manufacture guns. We are a land of reggae, ganja, sprinting, Rastafari and so much more.

A great portion of the illegal firearms and ammunition that litter Jamaica’s 144 mile long landscape was shipped into the country by Jamaicans who live abroad, who have acquired enough wealth to purchase illegal firearms and ammunition and find ingenious ways to filter the weapons of mass destruction into the arms of misguided youngsters.

Reports of containers filled with arms and ammunition being discovered at our ports of entry are too many and many times lead back to Jamaicans abroad who are heavily invested in keeping gang feuds raging in our streets.

The result is guns reaching to the wrong Jamaican hands and being used as instruments of death.

The Diaspora cannot afford to be self-righteous. If we love Jamaica as we claim then we must also admit that our role in nation building must be revamped and retrofitted.

Some Jamaicans who live abroad are the main reason why gun violence is so rampant in Jamaica. They support criminality and are the biggest supporters of gang wars and mayhem as any youngster in the streets of Jamaica who we think the security forces should exterminate.

The Diaspora must take its share of the blame.

Some Jamaicans get an opportunity to seek a better life abroad only to continue a life of criminality and ‘wutlessness’. The stories are many and most Jamaican families can tell of a relative who got the opportunity to travel abroad and are now either dead, deported or in prison.

Some of us are simply incorrigible, irredeemable and an embarrassment. Jamaicans in many cities across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are no worthy ambassadors. This is true.

Then there are some of us, who after three jobs, take our tax returns and splurge during our visits to Jamaica. We sport expensive clothes and spend wildly giving the impression that life abroad has many benefits and our Jamaican loved ones at home should roll out a red carpet. In Jamaican parlance, ‘we too showoff.’

This job of cleaning up the Jamaican mindset is a tantamount one. Jamaicans at home and abroad have not done well in some cases and those are the areas we need to zoom in on.

Let us in the Diaspora continue to contribute and hope that the good Jamaican people who hold true to the correct values and attitude prevail in this fight against the constant economic, social and political rape of our dearly beloved land.

Karyl Walker is a veteran journalist who served as the Jamaica Observer’s Crime/Court and Online News Editor. He now resides in Florida, USA.