THE ENTRENCHMENT of criminal behaviour is something that we cannot allow to spread, as seems to be happening, with the latest demise of one of our most notorious denizens. Jamaica can be easily overwhelmed with the support for criminality developing as a norm, since there is a lot of work to be done in building/re-building families and support structures, that cater to wholesome behaviour.
The public contrast between the deaths of someone like George Best (a famous footballer of the 1960s and 1970s), who dazzled the football world with his dribbling skills, as against a criminal enforcer, as the belated Bulbie is reputed to be, was stark.
While countries like Northern Ireland also had their criminal enforcers, emanating from the sectarian/religious divide between Catholics and Protestants, through the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Ulster Defensemen, it is noteworthy that they did not become more than cult heroes and were eventually rejected by the mass of the Irish people, who desire peace after decades of bloodshed.
FOREIGN ECONOMIC GROWTH
Recent discussions on the foreign economic growth model that Jamaica should adopt, have focussed on the Celtic tiger. But in the decades of civil war between the Irish sectarian groups, they have killed fewer people in all those years, than Jamaica has done in any year of the first five years of the twenty-first century, with no civil war declared here.
We have to be, therefore, very concerned that despite their eventual demise, notorious figures on both political sides seem to be becoming idols of emulation. Now Jamaica has long had a history of promoting cut-throats and thieves as persons of prominence. After all we had John Hawkins and Henry Morgan, with the latter elevated to Governor.
Jamaica's 'badman' syndrome therefore did not start from the infamous 'Rhygin' or the numerous others who have risen and fallen just as fast, but has strong historical roots. What is interesting is that there seems to have developed a reputation that these dons are Robin Hoods rather than rotten scoundrels. Now a psychologist could explain why it is easy to be a Robin Hood when it is stolen proceeds and not your own money you are giving away, but it is much harder to explain why they have developed a reputation for taking care of the poor and needy when the conditions surrounding the poor and needy do not change significantly, even when they dwell among them for years.
In this I think Jamaicans have been sold a 'bill of goods', because these rotten scoundrels do not even have the decency to build life-transforming institutions like schools or clinics. In the meanwhile they are elevated to the stature of area leaders through their links with the political machinery, by being able to procure jobs (on sites or projects around the constituency) and being able to provide the security for such projects. Meanwhile, like 'Friar Tuck' they get corpulent and flabby by gorging on the greater portion of these projects.
EXPENSIVE SCHOOLS
In seeking to de-mystify the reputation around these dons, we need to stress that many of them are unwilling to have their own children grow up and associate with the areas from whence they came unless they are trying to foster a son as a future don. They don't send their children to area schools but to the most expensive preparatory schools that they can get into, and if possible they even move their special loved ones to live elsewhere, so they don't get mixed up in the daily toil and troubles of the inner cities.
Being Robin Hood can be so very troublesome as in time, even dons also tire of their harsh reputation and seek to cover up their nefarious acts by pretending to be smart businessman and interested community activists. Some try to buy redemption, a similar practice to Mafia dons in Sicily , who are reputed to be major church contributors. We need to ensure, however, that we are not bamboozled with these kind acts, when they have hands dripping with blood from the past, from their direct and indirect drug dealing (here and aboard) that gets others addicted and some killed.
The adulation that is being placed on these criminal warlords, by virtue of them getting rich by any means necessary, cannot be what we want to promote. Not if it spawns further misery for others and degradation as commonplace events. In the end these criminal warlords may see themselves as Robin Hoods or even Father Christmases, but we should know the truth behind these myths, and reject their slimy embrace. Our people have suffered too much in the past to be bought for trinkets again.
