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Stabroek News

Justin time?
published: Sunday | November 11, 2007


Orville Taylor

He might be called Justin, but he has actually arrived here around two months ago. His last name is Felice, sounding like the Spanish for happy, or the first part of Merry Christmas.

However, he is no Santa Claus and unlike that fabled character, he will not automatically know who has been good or bad. True, he is here just before the Yuletide season, but it is uncertain if he has come with a sack of presents it is sincerely hoped so.

There is a perception, as measured by Bill Johnson - who predicted a landslide for the humiliated losing incumbent St. Lucia Labour Party government last year - published in this newspaper in January, that 55 per cent of Jamaicans believed that the police were corrupt.

A less-than-prudent headline gave the callers on talk shows and social commentators a field day as they waxed eloquently over the poor state of the force. It took a mammoth effort and a lot of wasted energy to explain to my callers that Johnson was not gauging corruption levels at all. Rather, he was measuring the beliefs of people.

Perception is a hell of a thing and the study of the social significance of perception is called 'phenomenology' in sociology. According to phenomenologists, such as Husserl, Berger and Luckmann, human beings do not necessarily act upon reality but on what they perceive to be real. For example, there is little evidence that duppies exist or that the dead walk among us. But, bet your bottom dollar that most of us will reposition the beds of the deceased and sprinkle rum in the room before entering.

generalisations hurt

Our phenomenology often is based on limited observation of a few facts, which ultimately lead us into stereotypes. These generalisations ultimately come to form the template upon which all examples of a category are judged. Consequently, Sir Richard Branson came to Jamaica wearing a dreadlocks wig and sporting a fake marijuana spliff. The truth, is though, we all don't wear locks and the weed is not as widely smoked as is generally believed by outsiders.

Generalisations hurt and one empathised with security guards in the 1970s, when one of their colleagues was found in a very compromising and ungainly position, mounted on a jenny ass. Poor fellow it was not quite a horse, once discovered, he could not say 'nay!' Even the late Stanley Beckford and the Turbines immortalised the 'guardie' in song with Mr. Guardie the Donkey Man.

Who guards the guards? There is little to doubt that there are thieving policemen and women in the force. Corruption has also been evidenced by some of the supporters of the governing party and Opposition having firearm licences. These characters are shadier than a grove of trees, bedecked by large parasols and could only have been helped by crooked cops and politicians, who sometimes pressure or tempt them.

Other examples abound of the 'licky- licky' policeman who put his money where his mouth was and attempted to swallow the evidence. Unfortunately, it was local currency and as we all know, Jamaican money really cannot go far nowadays.

Nevertheless, there is no evidence that the constabulary is any worse than the rest of civic or civil society.

Corruption is endemic here, not that it is non-existent in the U.S.A. and other countries. Our politics are less than transparent, employers cheat workers, calling them contractors, when they are in fact employees, entertainers refuse to pay their taxes and their managers fail to watch their backs. Children cheat on CSEC examinations, and one out of every three men who test to determine their acknowledged paternity, have 'unDNAble' evidence of an awkward-fitting jacket.

is external help needed?

Are we going to get a foreign contractor general to monitor the activities of the politicians who award contracts to their cronies, who then do a ridiculously shoddy job of putting on layers of road surface that are thinner than a certain female politician's skin? Will energy Minister Clive Mullings need an expatriate to determine whether Kern Spencer is a 'bandooloo' and to investigate why Phillip Paulwell is hiding in the background and refusing to confront the matter? Will he need external help in assessing how the alumina companies dig out the bauxite ore?

There is a very dangerous view that we cannot manage our own affairs and perhaps that is true, because too often we elect ignoramuses and charlatans to run our country. However, that apart, we do not see our legislature suggesting imported prime ministers the case can really be made that many parliamentarians are slim shadies too. But then again, who bodyguards the bodyguards?

Assistant Commissioner Justin Felice comes highly recommended. Not as dapper or suave as Mark Shields, he speaks of his success in tackling corruption in Ireland. Suggesting that there are many similarities between Ireland and 'I and I land,' he fancies his chances of meeting similar success here. Great! Good luck! After all, since September 3, Jamaica has become a 'greener' island.

perception

But, how was his success measured in the Emerald Isle? By arrests and reduction in the level of visible acts of illegality? Actually no! By the rise in public confidence. In other words, perception, not data!

In a radio interview, Felice anticipated that he would be getting more equipment but using the personnel already in the force. But aren't they corrupt? or is it that they will suddenly have clean, white sheets instead of dirty blackboards?

Isn't more equipment and other resources what Assistant Commissioner Novelette Grant has begged for for years?

But then again, you would be surprised how an importee changes our perceptions.

Dr. Orville Taylor is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, Mona.


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