THE EDITOR, Sir:
SOME TIME ago a visiting Dutch tourist commented on the fact that Jamaicans blow their car horns almost constantly. "In Holland", he said, "we only blow our horns when we are angry." My reply was "So do we".
And if this is not strictly true, who can deny that we are a nation of angry people? Young men are angry because there are no jobs and no future. Young women are angry because their men are irresponsible and unfaithful. Children are angry because the adults are angry, and because we teach them to be angry, inciting them to stage demonstrations and throw stones at police stations. Workers are angry at the size of their pay cheque. Policemen are angry at having a thankless job. And so they attempt to administer their own justice. And well-thinking Jamaicans create groups that call for justice. And we all seethe in frustration at the absence of justice.
And so we take it out on each other. And we blow our horns and we 'bad drive' each other and we yell at those we hate and at those we love. Our Members of Parliament lambaste each other in the House, and the citizens' groups lambaste the authorities and the talk show hosts lambaste everyone.
Little wonder, then, that so many have chosen to take the route of a one-way ticket to foreign lands. Aren't we all just tired of being angry?
As for the rest of us, many remain only because they have no means to leave. But there are some who are really not sure why we stay, except for the simple fact that we love Jamaica from our fingertips to our toes. It is like the lifeblood in our veins that we cannot escape. Inasmuch as each passing day gives us new reason to flee, we awake each morning to find ourselves still here. No matter how much the troubles of this little isle wring our hearts and grieve our spirits, despite the fact that we are almost always hovering on the brink of despair, still we continue to grapple against the hopelessness that would be our death.
Because from time to time we get a glimpse of something. Perhaps it is the fine achievement of a Jody-Anne Maxwell or a Courtney Walsh or the members of the Special Olympics team, that swell our bosoms as we take pride in them as if each one were our own child. Or perhaps it is the stranger who stops to help us change a tyre on a country road, or the unsolicited kindness that happen upon us like an occasional surprise.
Perhaps it is the fact that every morning brings a hot, bright day, instead of a cold, grey, bleak one. Or that a business trip can take us through some of the most beautiful natural scenery that God has created. Maybe we just love fish and festival and jerk chicken too much to stray too far from it. Perhaps we love having a colourful vernacular all our own, that only we can fully understand. Or maybe we like being only a short drive away from a swim in the sea or a glance away from a view of our grand, lush, green hills.
And when we see the Missionaries of the Poor dedicating their lives to alleviating the suffering of the most destitute and forgotten of our society, maybe it reminds us that we too have something to give, and the opportunity to do so. The very poverty that grieves us, never allows us to lose perspective. With so much basic need before our eyes, how can we forget how richly blessed we are?
These are the moments that remind us why we are still here; and we are able to stave off hopelessness for just one more day. Yes, we are indeed a nation of angry people, but we are angry only because we love our country so much. So let us cast no blame on those who have crossed that threshold to put down foreign roots. They left because the hopelessness finally caught up with them, and in their eyes, the darkness has overpowered the light. But we here still have a match or two to light, and we continue to do so. Love will allow us to do nothing else.
I am, etc.,
THERESA CHIN-GIVANS
Kingston
