Martin Henry AT 40, JAMAICA certainly has much to be proud of. But let us not fool ourselves: we also have much to be ashamed of. The Jamaica 40 Committee says this 40th anniversary is a "milestone for reflection, celebration, and above all recommitment to the task of economic and social development."
Much reflection and celebration have been going on. After years out, I have gone back to Grand Gala at the National Stadium, the scene of so many of our greatest exploits a yard. We have just hosted the best ever World Junior Games there with a medal haul that would make any big country proud.
There was a time when both the nation and I were younger and more idealistic when I would not miss the Independence Grand Gala. The long Independence week-end was ritually for the Denbigh agricultural show and for Grand Gala. The Denbigh show this year, I hear, has been one of the best in many a year; but look where agriculture is today. It is a shadow of what it was 20, or even 10, or even five years ago.
In the midst of the political violence of the seventies and eighties, I and a vast many others felt safer going to big open public functions at the national stadium or arena or elsewhere and going about our lawful business generally. The concern for safety has grown with the years to become our fixed top-of-the chart national concern as general crime and violence has grown by leaps and bounds.
The Grand Gala was an opportunity to revel in the culture, to join in the happy mix of Jamaican people and feel that the motto was no mere dream. It was a time to see our leaders in the "royal box" and to honestly believe that, despite everything, they could guide us to a better, brighter future.
I was particularly glad to see the reports of the Kingston waterfront rocking to independence waves among the celebrations. The Harbour, one of the largest and finest in the world, is dying from pollution. The waterfront, which should have been the finest real estate in the country and a place of recreation as in so many other places, has been allowed to slide into decline along with the rest of downtown Kingston. Perceived security risks and the lack of facilities keep many people away from enjoying this naturally fabulous waterfront.
Forty years ago, and up to much later than that, the heart of the city was the heart of the city. I have already written about our progressive retreat as citizens in our own nation, surrendering both physical and psychological space to what can only be described as the forces of evil.
Right on the edge of the Emancipation and Independence holidays, the UNDP, rather bad timing, was telling us that Jamaica joins Madagascar in having per capita incomes lower than 1975 in constant dollar terms. Every English-speaking Caribbean state, with the exception of Guyana and St Vincent and the Grenadines, all of which came to independence after us, have a better human development ranking in the most recent Human Development Report of the UNDP. Barbados, The Bahamas, St Kitts and Nevis (yes!) and Trinidad and Tobago are ranked among countries with high human development.
So where do we go from here? PSOJ President Oliver Clarke told the people at the opening of the NHT-developed Emancipation Park that Jamaicans want and need to feel that their glory days are ahead of them. We must learn from history, he said, in order to successfully tackle the overwhelming challenges we face right now. To turn the promise of those glory days ahead into reality we must get rid of the slave masters of today, he went on. Mr. Clarke named the criminals, dons and extortionists but left out the others, perhaps all covered by the generic "extortionists".
One of the major problems of the past and present, perhaps the single most important problem, which seriously compromises any hope of future glory, is the supremacy of politics. This country has been impeded by tribal politics to an extraordinary and incalculable degree. Policies, programmes and talent have all been savaged, and with them development, by tribalism on the street and in the House. The politics of compromise, which is at the heart of the democratic process, has never taken proper root in our soil of independence. And our nasty politics pervades everything.
There is a rising cry for a change of the old order and this cry is heard in the unprecedented level of reflection at this our 40th anniversary. There are political movements afoot for change. How all this turns out will determine future glory or future shame.
There is a direct causal connection between the practice of tribal politics and the growth of general criminality, which is the second factor obstructing glory. The guns, the dons, the turf wars, the extortion, the battle mentality have their genesis in the tribal political struggles. An entire society cringes in self-protection before the monster of crime and violence. Energies and resources and perhaps most important of all psychological outlook - the brick and mortar of development are diverted to security concerns.
The dependency mentality, another by-product of the politics of scarce benefits, impedes efforts for development. We have become a nation of beggars, from the Prime Minister on the world stage seeking aid, to the little man who expects something for nothing as his right. The young men planted on walls and corners and the young women breeding their lives away are an unbearable development burden - parents and offspring as parasitic wards of a state in contraction. The parlous state of our family life is one of the major handicaps to any realisation of glory days. Too many are born fi dead or born fi siddung.
Outside of slavery there never has been enough "jobs" in this country, but we have never been short of work. People have not always been so idle and dependent on providers. And there is no one in political leadership with the courage to tell them that things can't go so. There are votes to be won or lost.
Diminishing respect for law and order and the corruption of institutions, with the drug trade now assuming major proportions, are major impediments to glory days. A country cannot prosper, certainly not for very long or for very many, without the rule of law and sound institutions and leadership.
Along with the celebrations at 40, there has been a remarkable outbreak of reflection. We cannot now know if reflection will become a springboard for action for glory days. But we can hope.
Martin Henry is a communications consultant.
