Orville W. Taylor, Contributor
IT IS Halloween and I see images of Michael Jackson's Thriller as his 'true colours' showed, revealing that he wasn't the attractive guy who was romantically interested in his female date or any female for that matter.
I once got into trouble for asking my neighbour where she got the interesting Halloween mask, only to be thoroughly rebuffed because she was not wearing any. Although I have not seen her for years, I clearly remember her as being aesthetically unpleasant if not downright ugly.
Having been a voracious reader before I even went to school, I had learnt that Halloween was a time when Americans and Europeans dressed like ghastly ghouls, ghosts, goblins and gremlins, gaudily gilded in grotesque or gay garb.
Within the tradition, are little children in their own costumes going from door to door with little bags soliciting candy and asking 'Trick or Treat?', but hopefully avoiding Neverland. It is a masquerade where reality is contorted and eventually the tricksters are unmasked.
Celebrated on October 31, this alien holiday, thankfully, has never caught on with the average non-middle class Jamaicans, who are in the majority.
PAGAN TRADITION
Though of questionable origins, most historians agree that it began as a pagan Celtic tradition in Britain back in the fifth century B.C., 500 years before the birth of Jesus.
Samhain (pronounced sow-een), was the official end of summer when the dispossessed spirits of the dead were on the hunt.
By the first century AD, the Romans assimilated it into their culture as a festival of the dead and in the seventh, the Roman Catholic Church replaced the festival with 'All Saints Day', which eventually became celebrated on the November 1.
Literally translated, Halloween means, 'the eve of the saints (hallowed)'. It migrated to America with the Irish immigrants in the late 1840s.
FREAKY OCTOBER
Nonetheless, this is truly Halloween here in Jamaica because we are having a freakish year and a freaky October.
At the time of writing, we have had record October numbers including Alpha and Beta. The weather is so strange, it's all Greek to me.
There were reports of a tornado in Jamaica, completely out or place in this region and weeks of constant rain. Indeed, it is 'freaky' weather since many of us spend the time at home cuddled up in bed making mockery of the last 'cold front'.
But the Halloween month has shown that much is fake. Whatever might be the excuse, the roads were poorly constructed so they now are seriously 'e-roaded.'
Not to mention the revelation that Jamaican developers and contractors have discovered how to build aquatic housing.
Kennedy Grove and Windsor Lodge among other housing 'schemes', are under more water than New Orleans after Katrina.
In the case of the former, I wonder how the National Environment and Planning Agency dropped the ball.
Unfortunately, these are not alone. Many other submerged communities are going to 'surface' as the unusually wet weather patterns continue.
In the case of Greater Portmore, I am hoping and praying that the 14-foot long crocodile does not one day decide to crawl from out of one's nightmare up into someone's yard and snatch a child simply because the gullies were never completed.
When the croc arrives, it will be no treat but the trick will be unmasked. By the way, where were the environmental agencies when this largest community in the Caribbean was being approved for construction?
SACRIFICING LIFE
In its defence, the Government has declared that the strictest environmental standards were met when the plans for the Spaniards' hotels were approved.
While it is indisputable that poverty can lead to environmental degradation and abuse, the greatest threats to the global environment and the reason for the nightmarish Halloween weather is environmentally-insensitive developmental strategies, often when government (and complicit Opposition politicians) turn a blind eye.
Therefore. inasmuch as money ranks third beyond water and oxygen in national development, we cannot sacrifice the life chances of the future on the altar of the short-term objectives of politicians and entrepreneurs who are chasing the almighty dollar.
It makes absolutely no sense to have a pile of money and no land to walk on, no water to swim in and no clear air to breathe.
I am really getting tired of the allegations of impropriety and lack of transparency.
MORE CRONYISM
And, as the waters rise or remain and the storms threaten, we learn of the construction company with a subsidiary in The Bahamas getting a contract from the Government.
But the ever-present doctor must be 'board' with his responsibilities but the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party suggests that the deal is suspicious since he is a former director of the firm.
The Prime Minister gives him his full backing but, for the already beleaguered public, only 'Massa God' can tell them nothing is amiss.
The Jamaican public is overburdened with scandals and pseudo-scandals.
When it is not solid wastage, it is cronyism and all the time there is a gap between what is being said and what is true or perceived to be true.
Truly, the spirit of Halloween is alive and well. Let's take off the masks.
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
