Roderick R. Hewitt, Contributor
Hewitt
NOW THAt the euphoria of Portia Simpson Miller's historic selection as president of the People's National Party is over, and in a matter of weeks, she will become the first female Prime Minister of Jamaica, I would like to remind the nation about the core issues that confront us as a people. They are issues that no one charismatic person or party can handle. Only the united effort of all Jamaicans will be able to overcome the awesome challenges that confront us as a nation.
In spite of significant socio-economic and technological advances made since independence, a large section of the Jamaican society is increasingly becoming more fragmented, less integrated and, therefore, becoming more suitable to crime and violence, division, anger, distrust, anxiety and unhappiness. All of these are directly linked to unmanageable stressful living in dysfunctional communities.
We have allowed social and economic injustice of the colonial era, to compound with post-independence injustices, to grind on perennially without seriously addressing them. We have not mustered sufficient national consensus to overcome the social decay in many of our inner-city communities in Kingston, Spanish Town and Montego Bay. Crime and violence have become the biggest threat to life, and reporting on the mayhem caused, has become a lucrative business. A few of our media houses have made it their policy to feed our people a daily diet of crime and violence. I wish to commend the Gleaner Company for its approach to the reporting of crime and violence.
TENSION AND ANGER
The growing tension and anger of our people are being expressed through depression, disrespectful loud noises, social unrest, roadblocks and at times, riots. Guns, drugs and some dancehall music that promotes sexual slackness and disrespect for the present moral, spiritual, social and political order are shaping the lifestyle of many young people.
Jamaica is experiencing deep stress. The more things are changing is the more people are becoming frustrated with their changing lives. The ongoing movement from an agrarian based society to service priority economy is creating much causality. Such changes have made people wealthier but less secure. Those who are benefiting from this structural adjustment are the few at the prestigious top and the insecure bottom, who will settle for anything to survive.
Respect for the hard working values of the poor has declined. The gambling industry is re-educating our people on the warped values of dependence on chance and not hard and honest work in order to build a better future. There is a worrying obsession with self 'stepping up inna life' by trying to live life in the fast lane of minimum input and maximum expectation! We are nurturing bored children with warped cartoon-like personalities shaped by Spongebob and video games that deprived them of the warmth of companionship and neighbourliness. The home is fast becoming a strange place for family to meet. The young child is more influenced by the spiritual and moral values of the helper, than with their absentee parents. Breakfast is no more a family affair and families hardly eat together. The home is fast becoming the last place to experience interacting with family members.
What, if any, is the role of the church and the wider civil society? What more is needed to strengthen social bonds?
Together we must work to halt the growing alienation of young people who are opting out of the current order of nation building. Every effort must be made by institutions to create opportunities for greater involvement of ordinary people and especially young people in governance. We need more institutions that are willing to put the needs of people first and not the profits of a few investors.
RESPECT AND RECOGNITION
Respect and recognition are nurtured by what people do together. The structures of respect that defined traditional society are disappearing fast, and effective contemporary models have not evolved to replace what we have lost. We are loosing a generation of young men whose mental health is fundamentally weakened. No more can they compete educationally. In almost every area of industry they are unable to compete because of being impaired psychologically. Many of them have lost hope and have surrendered their future to anti-social models of development through gun and drugs. It should be no surprise, why our young men are so predisposed to violence.
Neither cohesive laws nor religious denunciation will halt this growing anti-social behaviour. Only through joint action that facilitates people living together, introducing counter-cultural measures that equip people to speak more clearly and with less aggression towards 'the other'.
If a society and its people are discontented, then its religion will also express violence. Jamaica is inherently more of an Old Testament culture that embraces revenge as a way of dealing with enmity and to achieve justice. The churches, therefore, face an awesome task to become genuinely converted to the 'Jesus way' of bringing about transformation. It could be argued that a nation of 2.7 million people with over 600 denominations speaks volumes about the inherent contradictions within the Church and society. Could it be that it is the converter who needs conversion?
Rev Dr. Roderick R. Hewitt is a minister at the Hope United Church, Kingston.
