A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl took a jar of scotch bonnet peppers to sum-mer camp at the start of July - and thereby hangs a tale.For the jar of peppers was meant to be used as a weapon of self-defence, albeit a juvenile version of pepper spray.
The sequel, as told in the Lifestyle section of the Saturday Gleaner of July 20, was benign; and it was in keeping with the objective of the inter-community attempt to banish the volatile attitudes fed by political tension in West Central St. Andrew.
So sharp was the enmity that even a young girl of Tower Hill felt she had to attend the camp ready to "defend herself...if dem pickney from Cockburn Pen tink dem can trouble me..."
It is a sad capsule of our times that adult enmity can run so deep that even young children feel the pain. But it is correspondingly fortunate that under the rubric of "What's right with Jamaica" we can report that positive vibes are being actively cultivated.
Last week in Parliament there was some indication that change was also seeping upwards. In a subdued interplay between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, the House of Representatives passed legislation to establish a Political Ombudsman.
Both political leaders were in accord with the appointment of Bishop Herro Blair as the Ombudsman. Mr. Patterson alluded to some of the negatives of the past, to recent amendments of electoral laws, and to the signing of a political code of conduct as well as other pre-election arrangements - all setting the stage, he said, for a peaceful election.
Mr. Seaga made the point that the JLP would push for an electronic voting system for future elections, expressed comfort in the prospect of having international observers; and in the electoral advisory machinery being assembled.
Then he said: "So when all this is put together, I now come to the same conclusion as the Prime Minister that we are set to have what we hope to be the best election for some time..."
It was a rare confluence of hope and promise - without the pepper of hostility - as Jamaican politics nears another milestone of maturity.
