Stephen VasciannieMUTTHIAH MURALITHARAN flings many of his deliveries, but most people don't want to admit it. Both major political parties in Jamaica have been involved in violence and mayhem, and everybody knows it. The University of the West Indies can do more to enhance the quality of education at the secondary level in Jamaica. Many talk shows are becoming repetitious and tend to rely on the same set of contributors for discussions.
Bruce Golding betrayed the NDM, but would wish us to think otherwise. Rhodes Scholars cannot be proud about the source of their scholarships, and should tread softly on that score. The American intervention in Grenada twenty years ago, was contrary to international law, but most of us were happy that the intervention took place.
Many people who pontificate about globalisation, don't have the foggiest idea what they are talking about. Some people will tell you that your columns are too long, but then turn around and write even longer columns than yours. Women, in general, are no more nor no less efficient than men at the workplace. Sometimes, one of our newspapers seems keen to be small-minded. Sometimes, another newspaper seems keen to be close to the corridors of power.
The United States has no legal basis to attack Iraq and State Department lawyers must be saying this to those who will listen. Saddam Hussein's Iraq is building weapons of mass destruction, and some who are clamouring for more proof are being disingenuous. The Traffic Court in Jamaica should be reclassified (formally) as a part of the Tax Office. There are people who make a living out of victimology and so have a vested interest in keeping us among the victims.
Academic standards are declining generally, but at the top levels students are stronger today than they were in the past. Race remains a dominant force in international relations on all sides. Jamaica's human rights problems are increasing, and many Jamaicans are too quick to blame the messengers on human rights matters. The Jamaica Public Service cannot even begin to justify some of its recent charges for electricity, and their current advertisements on rates are a waste of money.
Many intellectuals, originally hard-core PNP, are now simply alienated from the political process. Many of us feel both helpless and bemused when we consider the Middle East. The Old Boys network is still a prominent feature of Jamaican corporate life, but the issues are usually more complex than portrayed in the media. The polls on both TVJ and CVM are unscientific, and but for their entertainment value, quite pointless. That telecommunications company is not really "careless and worthless", though it needs to do more to become more customer-oriented.
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Friends get contracts from the Government even when they cannot perform, everybody knows it, and it is a depressing feature of our political culture. The Schools' Challenge Quiz is the best programme on local television. The United States has every right to believe, following September 11, that it is widely misunderstood, but this does not give it licence to wage war unilaterally. In small societies, there is always a tendency to pay more attention to status than to achievement.
The pollution of Kingston Harbour (including the destruction of the Gunboat and Buccaneer Beaches) is an indictment of our environmental unconsciousness. Frasier, a comedy which is more subtle than most, suffers from a shortage of black people in front of the camera. Many of the political problems that we face reflect inadequacies of public management at all levels of the society. The West Indies cricket team has been bitten by the bug of arrogance.
Some of our politicians, including one with leadership aspirations, are much too friendly with senior drug men. We have not done enough to honour those who have contributed to the literature of the Caribbean. Bearing in mind notions of noblesse oblige, some of our large law firms appear to be stingy, though they may be hiding their light under a bushel. Today, in the stream of Western civilisation in which we happen to be, there is little justification, if any, for all-male clubs, for cricket, or other things.
Diplomats working in Jamaica sometimes have a hard time skirting the line between non-intervention and contributing to social welfare. We still haven't quite understood Carl Stone. Police Commissioner Forbes has grown beyond the shadow of his predecessor, but he still faces the serious issue of police killings, a problem which undermines the well-intentioned initiatives about giving information to the police. The society should be concerned that young men are becoming more and more alienated from society, struggling in the educational system, unemployed and growing increasingly desperate.
Brian Lara has become a victim of our tendency to "overpraise" stars early on, only to condemn them later down the road. Jamaican diplomats overseas sometimes have a hard time explaining our commitment to various human rights instruments, and reports such as those concerning the killing of the Braeton Seven. Traffic in New Kingston is a witch.
Those who are calling for Edward Seaga's resignation on grounds of age should not, simultaneously, sing praises for el Comandante. You can't support Church raffles and gate prizes, but oppose casino gambling in principle. The New World Order may be defined by what it is not, but we are still not certain what it is. CARICOM needs to be more visible in our daily lives if it is to be more than a distant bureaucracy. Many of us are all too quick to classify people as right-wing and left-wing, in order to mask our intellectual laziness.
Australia will win the World Cup of cricket.
Stephen Vasciannie is Professor of International Law at the University of the West Indies.
