Orville W. Taylor, Contributor
HERE COME the foreigners! For some this is good news as this usually conjures up images of 'dan dan' and other imported niceties.
Perhaps due to our colonial experience we have been socialised into thinking that if it is from abroad it must be good.
I recall a young lady who is so enthralled by 'foreign' men that her peers call her "Immigration."
However, for me, if it is imported it must be examined and taken with a grain of salt, and if it is fish give me the local parrot any day.
However, I am a bit worried about the various imports and wonder whether they do make a difference. After all we have imported 'Pizzaroni' and the positive impact on the World Cup trip is yet to be seen.
After Gus Logie led the 'Win dis' to the champions trophy recently we now hear that 'Ben-it' King has finally been fished from 'Down Under' (I don't like how this sounds).
It is not that I dislike things from 'farrin'. Indeed, I was partially educated abroad. I just like to see a guarantee of quality for my effort.
The new crime initiative is all over the news. As I said last week, I don't like the name of the new operation King Fish, since, despite fish being the only animal protein I consume, I understand that it is also an offensive nickname and some people already are maligning me.
SUBJECT TO SCRUTINY
Yet, inasmuch as I generally support the effort of the police and the Minister in their attempts to handle crime, I must submit the 'Fish' to scrutiny.
One interesting component is that the Government will be bringing in police personnel from abroad to 'mingle with' the locals.
There is an advantage to be gained from an imported set of cops since international expertise can only enhance the existing knowledge and pool of skills.
Furthermore, without obvious links to local members of the population it is assumed that they will be unbiased, more objective and thus more likely to detect corruption.
On the other hand, there might be such unfamiliarity with Jamaican culture and environment that it prevents them from fully accessing and understanding whatever they need to.
In any event, is there a link between corruption in the force and the level of murders? Perhaps, there is because the movement of drugs and guns into and within the country could easily be facilitated by corrupt cops.
This might be a 'catch 22' situation but will the expatriate cops work with the limited facilities and equipment our police have? If not, where will the additional 'hardware' come from?
If the visitors are coming with their own apparatuses this can be seen as technical assistance and I have no problem with that.
However, if we have to spend our meagre funds that we have to scrape from the bottom of the fiscal 'bun bun', then I have to ask how would our own hard-working cops perform with these new accoutrements, and why were they not equipped before. I think that these are fair questions.
Anyway I hope that this King Fish will help to reduce major crimes.
SEXUAL OFFENCES
Nevertheless, as alarming as the murder rate is, I am perturbed by the increase in the number of sexual offences. This week it was reported that a man revealed his genitals to a five-year-old and then claimed that he was 'nuts'.
Although there was no penetration this is no 'minor' offence. It must be understood that a crime against a child is an infraction on the future and affects behaviours of the victim and others that s/he associates with in the next generation.
Since we are talking about 'foreign,' most persons in the Caribbean are supporting Kerry or rather hoping for a Bush loss.
However, if the polls and the pattern from 2000 prevail then the only loss of Bush we will see is the de-forestation in the Jamaican interior.
Nonetheless, we must not be deluded into thinking that the victory of one over will mean a significant change in American foreign and immigration policy towards the English-speaking Caribbean.
Lest we forget, for all his 'jazz-loving', 'Red Stripe drinking,' womanising similarity to the stereotypical Afro-Caribbean male, it was the Democratic President Clinton who took the initiative to complain to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on behalf of Chiquita Banana for the three per cent of the world market occupied by West Indian bananas. This resulted in the destruction of the regional industry and the loss of thousands of jobs.
SETTING STANDARDS
On another note, there is an important event occurring all of next week. The University Council of Jamaica's (UCJ) Quality Assurance Week is taking place.
It is perhaps not recognised how important the UCJ is but it is the only institution in the country which stands between the trusting public, dying to become qualified and the flood of off-shore schools and their academic dumping.
Without a standard-setting agency which regulates the operations of diploma mills here any 'fly by night' 'cabbacabba' can set up shop here and offer sub-standard programmes that are not accredited and which only benefit the so-called institutions. Oh! There are some local ones too, but mi no ready fi dem yet.
By the way, thanks for the sympathies, I am on 'crutches' but it is not near what is sounds like. I was told that my troublesome columns would make them 'give me foot'. The 'sciance' suggestions for a cure are appreciated but I rather dislike monkeys.
Dr. Orville Taylor is lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the UWI, Mona campus.
