We have traitors among us. These are menacing individuals working with evil determination to bring Jamaica to her knees. They are treacherous men and women who are prepared to see this country reduced to ashes, provided they can rule as kings over the rubble. Their only loyalty is to themselves and their cronies. They are exceedingly dangerous!

Those who devilishly manufacture and spread pernicious lies that make it harder for ordinary Jamaicans to earn an honest living are traitors. Those who smuggle illegal guns, ammunition, and other weapons of destruction into the country are traitors.

Hundreds of Jamaicans are murdered every year with these illegally imported firearms. Those who create and circulate bomb hoaxes that shut down or disrupt schools, businesses, government offices, and other vital services all of which are critical to our nation’s growth and development are traitors. And those who have benefited especially from publicly funded education, yet use that advantage to manipulate and encourage others to spread misinformation and disinformation, are among the worst traitors of all. They are scoundrels.

Some of these traitors wear well-tailored suits. Some use flowery language. Some are well-credentialled. Some hold high positions in the church and civic organisations. And, among other things, some masquerade as leaders of civil society.

The traitors I am talking about are not in hiding. They are easy to see for anyone looking. There is a characteristic sameness about them. Many are minstrels of ambiguity. Some are loyalists with little technical knowledge. Some invariably suffer from acute fact-aversion and fact-resistance. They are skilled in obstructions and sloganeering.

Many are very adept in the precipitous and murky dark arts of drive-by shootings of people’s reputations. They are adroit in the business of intellectual bouquet-swapping. Some present themselves as exemplars of moral rectitude. And some are trapped in a time warp. These behave as if they have not yet received the memo that they no longer have a monopoly on what ordinary Jamaicans, especially, think and how often we think it.

They are strenuously trying to preserve a Jamaica where they were veritable kings. But this is a different Jamaica, a better Jamaica than the one that these traitors are fighting tooth and nail to preserve. Today, the majority wants public policy which is outcome-determined, not intention-based. Politics functions best for the majority when the majority is practically uplifted, not when virtue signals are placed on a pedestal and flowery words are used as scaffolding to give people the false impression of personal and national advancement.

It bears repeating that, in a functioning democracy, those elected and selected to manage the affairs of the majority are given that privilege to make life better for the majority. They are not installed or elected to lord their own importance over the majority. They are not installed or elected to institute or preserve malignant bureaucracy, which invariably stifles efficacy. Efficacy is the lifeblood of democracy and all other systems of government.

Bureaucratic tyranny is a vestige of chattel slavery and colonialism. It is built on the rotten notion that the black man is innately crooked and so genetically shifty that stifling processes must be instituted and placed even above our lived experiences.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Some may genuinely, and others absent-mindedly, shout, “Higgins, please connect the dots for me.”

Think on this: “Approximately 84 institutions, including schools, one hospital, a courthouse, a commercial shopping centre in New Kingston, the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, and Kingston Wharves Limited reportedly received bomb threats.” [Jamaica Information Service (JIS), November 16, 2023]

Nearly three years on, the bomb threats have not stopped. Widespread bomb threats causing huge panic and mass evacuations are a relatively recent phenomenon in this country. I don’t believe for a single second that these dastardly activities are uncoordinated. I don’t believe these cruel and costly bomb threats are being carried out by a few wayward youngsters who are off on a lark.

Last May two Corporate Area high schools were conducting exams when school officials received bomb threats. Officials were forced to stop the exams. At one of the schools, students were relocated to a nearby institution, where they completed their papers. The negative impact on the students is obvious.

Many schools, especially over the last three years, have had to call parents to collect their children after receiving bomb threats. The authorities have verified that all these threats were hoaxes.

Imagine the mental distress a parent experiences upon receiving a message that their child’s school has received a bomb threat and the children must be collected immediately. If the milk of human kindness flows in your veins it is easy to grasp how nerve-wracking this experience is.

What happens when hundreds of parents are forced to leave work early to pick up their children? One does not need a degree in economics or transportation management to understand the massive loss in productive hours. People already living with health challenges, such as high blood pressure, acute anxiety, and other ailments, are subjected to additional strain. Consider the enormous emotional, social, and financial costs borne by all stakeholders when a school is disrupted in this way. Those who carry out bomb threats and other brutish acts against fellow Jamaicans are traitors.

Consider this: “Bomb threat hoax could cost Kingston Wharves millions in losses.” The Jamaica Observer news item of November 13, 2023 said, among other things: “When Kingston Wharves Limited (KWL) was forced to halt operations on Monday due to a bomb threat, the company may have suffered losses of about $50 million — the amount the entity normally earns per day.”

It is obvious to me that some among us are desperately doing their evil worst to bring Jamaica to a standstill. I am convinced that some among us want our country to carry a coffin on her back in perpetuity. Some want Jamaica to revert to the ignominious category of the Poor Man of the Caribbean. Others want a national ecosystem characterised by utter squalor. These people are traitors. They must be thoroughly defeated.

Court staff gather outside the building after a bomb threat. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

I anticipate that some, comfortably fastened in their cocoons of convenience and absent-mindedness, will scream: “Higgins, this is a gross exaggeration.”

Really?!

Ponder this: “Jamaican American who has been the subject of investigations locally is among five men indicted by the United States Department of Justice on firearms trafficking and related offences following a probe into an alleged transnational network involving the smuggling of stolen weapons from the US to destinations in the Caribbean.

“According to a Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) news release late Monday, the US-Jamaican dual citizen has long featured prominently in investigations being conducted by the JCF’s Firearms and Narcotics Investigation Division (FNID).” (Jamaica Observer, June 9, 2026)

Think about this: “Countree Hype (given name is Taugea Ubert Dayes) is among the most recognisable names in dancehall music. His record label was formed in 2017. Since then he’s worked with some of dancehall’s biggest names including, Intence, Alkaline, Konshens, and Kraff. But, according to law-enforcement sources, Countree Hype — a trained cook and nurse — has also been supplying gangs across Jamaica with illegal guns. Countree Hype ended up in court after a shipment of guns was intercepted in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 18, 2025.

“In a statement, the JCF said 24 handguns, six rifles, 32 magazines, and 102 rounds of ammunition were seized. US prosecutors say those guns were packaged and shipped by the producer.

“Countree Hype has pleaded guilty to one count of smuggling goods from the US and one count of delivering a firearm to a common carrier without written notice. In his guilty plea, Countree Hype confessed that on March 10 last year he sewed the guns into the cushions of five office chairs. He shipped them from a company in Miami under the name Jamie Roberts. Travel records indicate Countree Hype flew to Jamaica on the same day. Eight days later the package was seized in Jamaica.” (Nationwide News Network, May 17, 2026)

Some depraved person will doubtless say that these and other arms traffickers contribute a lot to some communities through Christmas treats, and that they help a lot of poor people that they are Robin Hoods. These are devilish criminals and traitors.

LIARS ON STILTS

Motorists have to brace for gridlock after a bomb scare. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Consider this: ‘Absolutely not true! Social media video upends false claims about Blue Lagoon access’. The Jamaica Observer item of June 8, 2026 said, among other things: “A long-running claim that Jamaicans are denied access to Blue Lagoon in Portland has been crushed by publication of a recently created video posted on social media showing locals enjoying the world-famous attraction.”

Believe it, there are some whose job it is to concoct and spread systematic lies about Jamaica. I remember two occasions in the last 10 years when we had heavy flood rains. Traitors used videos of flooding from places like Bangladesh and posted them on social media platforms as ‘evidence’ of flooding in Jamaica.

Like Judas Iscariot, these traitors are paid. I don’t imagine they are ‘employed’ by individuals who are scratching their heads wondering where their next breakfast, lunch, or dinner will come. Merchants of death and their sponsors, liars on stilts and their enablers, bomb threat hoaxers and their backers, are all traitors. All are reprobates!

DON’T BE FOOLED

Several readers have asked for my views on the resurrected lobby regarding patios and its discussion in Parliament. This kerfuffle is part and parcel of the spectacle of performative politics on steroids. It is further evidence of an out-of-touch Opposition People’s National Party (PNP).

There is a famine of practical ideas and a sharp contraction of political competence in the PNP. They confuse good governance with sound bites. Direction-less social media posting has become their refuge. Razzle-dazzle and fake news are their daily tonic.

Today’s PNP lacks seriousness. The farcical lobby for patois to be spoken in Parliament and/or taught in schools is a classic case of ‘6 for 9’ or trickery, as we say locally. This tomfoolery is, in many instances, being perpetrated by persons who have benefited from schooling at great public expense and who, therefore, have an obligation to use that advantage to edify the lives of Jamaicans. Some are schooled but not educated.

Many years ago, when lobbyists for patois to be taught in our schools raised their voices in an all-too-familiar scheme of deception, I noted on the radio that their lobbying was always presented in Standard English.

That irony is still very loud today. Don’t be fooled.

The primary global lingua franca is English. It is the universal language of international trade, diplomacy, science, aviation, and the Internet.

Schools have not been spared the hoax. (Photo: Jason Cross)

Some pretend not to understand this reality.

But, listen to how they speak. Check where they send their children to school and who their closest friends and associates are. There are some who wish to keep large segments of our population in a subservient position mentally and financially similar to what obtained especially on the slavery plantations. These charlatans must be exposed. Why? Their quisling-like systems of manipulation preserve their power, authority, and influence. These must be demolished.

Recall Bob Marley’s prescient words.

“Don’t let them fool ya

Or even try to school ya! Oh, no!

We’ve got a mind of our own

So go to hell if what you’re thinking is not right!”

Don’t ever be fooled!

Patois is a great language with myriad uses, but it is not the lingua franca.

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