Hilary Robertson-Hickling
THE SPECTRE of the mass deportation of perhaps 12 million Mexican and other Hispanic citizens from the USA raises some important questions. Who determines which human beings are right and have rights and which ones have wrongs or have no rights? This intriguing process of what Louise Bennett describes as "colonisation in reverse" is being undertaken by the descendants of the native peoples of these continents who were overwhelmed by Europeans making a new life. Under this dispensation millions of Indians and their civilisations have been destroyed sometimes with the help of the civilising mission of the Church. One Indian life does not have the same value of one European life and the Americans have demonstrated that the only life which is worthwhile is that of the Euro-American.
NATIONS DESTROYED
On the european continent and elsewhere entire nations have been destroyed using the most efficient, ideologically pure methods. Scientists, theologians and business people contributed to and benefited from the destruction of Jews, gypsies, black people, homosexuals and those of "lesser races." The process of ethnic cleansing is the 21st century version, and we have the curious situation in which those who would have been destroyed by the atomic bombs now have the capacity to make them.
The Jews have been able to exact compensation from the Europeans who tried to destroy them but the Africans have had little success in getting compensation. The Africans themselves have been destroying each other in record numbers in Rwanda, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Sierra Leone. Most recently here in Jamaica we have become quite skilful at killing and destroying each other. The hardware is mainly imported but our own home-made weapons are becoming more powerful.
Who is to pay for the lives that are being taken by others in Jamaica? The death penalty needs to be applied to some of these killers. The human rights activists focus upon the wrongs of the state and that is an important role, but who is to protect the rights of the ordinary citizen? Who is to protect the well-behaved students and teachers from wrongdoing students? This country seems to have gone from the punitive colonial practices to a kind of laissez faire approach which punishes the law-abiding citizen while protecting the criminal and embracing the wrongdoer.
LAW-ABIDING CITIZEN
In this context the law-abiding citizen is increasingly forced to take the law into his or own hands with often dire consequences. I support the rule of law and if wronged by someone I do not intend to turn the other cheek; I intend to seek legal redress. The powerful British judicial system wishes to determine that capital punishment is cruel and inhuman while it has colluded with those who have robbed, raped and pillaged on every continent in history. Today again we look at the prospects of deportation with interest and look forward to the outcome. Then we will know who has rights and we will also know that no nation or people is inferior to another even if one is the most powerful and is able to shock and awe the world,
Hilary Robertson-Hickling is a lecturer in the Department of Management Studies, UWI, Mona
