THE EDITOR, Sir:
'SAVING THE World' used to be a veranda game. These days, it seems more and more to be an immediate necessity.
But saved from what and who stands most in need of being saved? These touchy points are skilfully skirted by most, especially those whose parents bought them a good education plus a start in the stock market. There were always enough non-governmental organisations to be nicknamed NGO's; but they were made up of a few pious do-gooders whose words brought no action from successive governments or their respective oppositions. In Jamaica of late, a striking change has come about. We see more and more new NGO's where educated uptowners join forces with self educated downtowners in demanding that Government and Opposition come together and agree in making some basic changes in the ways their armed henchmen impose law and order.
We see at the same time a massive fall-off in what used to be thought the citizen's first civic duty: to vote in every election for the leader or party of one's choice.
Why is this happening? Why do we have to keep scolding voters for their apathy? The answer, it seems, is two-pronged.
1) We have learned that the right to vote carries with it the right not to vote only in a dictatorship can voting be made compulsory.
2) We are fed up with the options put before us. We refuse to go on choosing between Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle D. nor are we inspired by the spectacle of our big uncle to the north two enormously wealthy oil men vying with each other to buy the US presidency, either with deeper pockets or greater guile.
But still, no matter how effective the new NGO's, there will and must remain the big G that stands for Government. Must we not find the means of saving the world and saving ourselves and doing it right now? We are absolutely obliged to find or create a new way forward that can make democracy work better for us than it is now doing.
I am, etc.,
JOHN SEARS
96 3/4 Old Hope Road
Kingston 6
