THE ACCLAIMEDM Jamaican poet, H.D. Carberry, in one of his works calling us to face the challenge of nationhood, wrote: "My country grows/struggling towards the sun/Conscious of vast forces/Dimly understood /And unappreciated." Forty-two years after the attainment of Independence, under the title: "The falsehood of Jamaica's Independence," a Jamaican teenager writes: "Although we claim to have gained independence from Britain on August 6, 1962, all we have achieved is a national flag, pledge and an anthem. These do not allow us to refer to our country as independent."
Carberry was already an adult when he was moved to make a poetic plea for understanding of the road which a nation growing must tread. He ends the poem: "But it is still young/Be patient/And help my country grow."
Some cynics will concur with the teenager and indeed, it is more than likely that the young person may be reflecting a disaffected adult opinion of the state of our nation. Both concepts, Carberry's and the young writer's, are symbolic of the creative tension which exists in our society today. In the view of some of our citizens, continuing economic challenges, the scourge of crime and violence, the unsolvable puzzle of unemployment, the need for more effective social justice, these and more combine to foster a feeling that there is little to celebrate, hence, there is no value to Independence. On the other hand, there are those who hold fast to an optimism that the glass is not so much half-empty as half-full. Such persons are willing to find hope in even the smallest signs for positive change - indications of expansion in the tourism sector, improvements in the infra-structure, decreases, however minimal, in the crime statistics, the academic success gained by some students, offering hope for the many others who struggle to be educated.
It would be unrealistic, even dangerous, for one side of the equation alone to be regarded as the total reality of Jamaica today. The sum total of Jamaica is not the deviant and the dangerous. It is also the creative and the hard-working. It is not only about gunmen and drug dealers. It is about the farmers who still plant in defiance of natural disasters and dishonest human incursions. It is the business persons who still invest and expand, scorning extortion and foolish bureaucracy. It is the countless social activists, teachers, health professionals, members of the Security Forces, the NGOs, church workers and so many others, including the thousands of Jamaicans abroad who continue to make their contribution to the advancement of the native land we love, warts and all. Independence cannot be interpreted in the strict, narrow dictionary definition of "going alone."
To the young writer, we maintain that we ARE independent because we have the option to choose and we have hope. "Hardships there are but the land is green and the sun shines."
