Richard Ho Lung
LIKE MOST of the world, Jamaica is in a state of confusion today. Since the liberal '60s, we have been lost like a nation without a vision of ourselves. We have tried British propriety in the past, after Independence we became the worst of what America is, today we are 'DJ-ing' to a poetry full of
hatred for anyone who is in a minority, anything Christian, particularly Roman Catholic, or anything requiring morality and law.
The confusion is symbolised in the violence rate in our island. It is terribly frightening to have had over 500 deaths by murder in just the short period of less than four months. It is even more frightening that there is such an increase over the months and the years despite attempts to stem the flow of blood.
Liberalism has allowed for the loss of identity. TV and all media forms have stepped up their commercialism. Nobody seems to be faithful to nobody. In fact, infidelity is the storyline of just about all TV and newspaper presentations. The rich and the powerful chase after profit and riches relentlessly, and the poor themselves exploit and destroy one another. The news media exploit the youth of today and present them as sex objects or purely material beings. The liberality of the press, which is most dictatorial in shaping values, has presented our island and our world as a place to extract the greatest excitement and pleasure no matter what it costs, including the livelihood of our families, or violence against others' lives, or the violation of every moral code. No wonder we are lost.
SOUL OF JAMAICA
Jamaica needs to find its soul. The soul of Jamaica is basically conservative and yet creative. The good manners, the joyful love of all creation and peoples, the hard work ethic, the laughter and the spirit of self-sacrifice are the basic foundation of Jamaican life. Christ is the centre of that, the heart of every Jamaican knows and loves that. He is the source of all our music and poetry; today however, there is a hostility to conforming ourselves to the Lord. A radical materialism and love of our anger and unruly desires, and the daring to "let everything hang out" have unleashed wild passions and feelings that have destroyed our culture, our sense of decency, our love of God and one another.
The modern culture is a death-culture. Immediate pleasure, excitement and scintillation (but no lasting goals) are the objects of most of our generation. Take what you can get, get what you can get whether by stealing, selling yourself, or bribery runs through in us. The carnal pleasures of our world is all that seems to matter to today's generation.
Am I negative? Not at all. I must break down the walls of evil around Jamaica, and build up on truly solid ground. "God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him" (John 3:17). Christ is eternal life, and as long as we walk through this "gate" which Christ calls Himself, the tightrope between eternal life and our temporal abode here on earth, He will lead us through the shadowy and immediate distractions of our present culture which will not last.
Those who want to just live for the moment are not true Jamaicans. Those who want to just seize the moment, who are hedonistic and pagan and "love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil" will not enter the kingdom of God. Whereas the Christ-centred Jamaicans who endure like Christ, the suffering and struggles required to build up Jamaica by hard work, simple but deep values, and a deep spiritual life as well as concern for the poor, will live forever.
If we built our Jamaican nation on a people who are giving, loving, and self-sacrificing rather than selfish and self-seeking, it would be beautiful even if we were poorer. I have seen rich nations and poor nations. It is not the rich who are most attractive but those who are deep and simple. And, I believe Jamaicans, as I know them, and I being a Jamaican, are deep and simple.
The music and poetry will flow. The language, the laughter, the colour, the delicious food and most of all the love and truth, which is at the heart of any civilization will once again be ours.
Father Ho Lung is founder and leader of the Missionaries of the Poor.
