Stephen Vasciannie

If you read The Gleaner online, you will see the paper largely in the way it appears in hard copy; that is, on a day-by-day basis. If you read the Observer online, you will see in one place stories for last week or so. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. But here's my point: last week, when the Observer pulled its columnists' articles together, the first paragraph of no less than five columns contained a biblical quotation. Thus, Genesis 32, Psalm 41, Mark 14, Acts 12 and Philippians 9 were all called in aid to support this or that point of social analysis.

This suggests that, at least with respect to social commentary, Jamaican writers still rely on the Bible as the foundation for analysis. And, on the assumption that columnists want to be read, this also suggests that many Jamaican readers are inclined to pay considerable attention to biblical allusions. In a sense, this is part of a general picture: there is a religious centre in Jamaica that provides purpose and meaning to the lives of many Jamaicans, notwithstanding the challenges of daily life.

Yardie Culture

But though there is sincere, peaceful, belief - and public religiosity - throughout the country, this is not how we are perceived by others. Consider, for example, the newspaper reports emanating from Britain in recent days. To begin with, there has been a serious round of murders among Black Britons, and especially teenage boys within this group. Last week, a 13-year-old died in his mother's arms on the streets of London, bringing to seven the black youths who have suffered this fate in the last few months.

Whether or not these boys can trace their roots to Jamaica, there is at least the perception that some of the deaths have been related to the so-called 'yardie culture', which in turn is linked to us. Hence, one was not surprised to learn that late last week London police raided a house that has been described by the major media houses as 'a Rastafarian temple'. The killing of young black men and the 'Rastafarian temple' appear to me to be completely unconnected: Notice, though, that when you have an environment of violence in a community, law enforcement agents are inclined to find links even where they do not exist.

Still on the matter of perception, on the same day that the Daily Mail newspaper gave front-page coverage to the raid on the 'Rastafarian temple', that paper also featured, on the front page, a Jamaican man who had been found guilty of prompting violence and terrorism on jihadist grounds. This man had received seven years, and was reputedly a source of inspiration for at least one of those involved in the bombings that caused death andhavoc in London on 7/7. The issue in the latter story was whether the Jamaican should be deported to Jamaica following the end of his sentence. The message was not subliminal: Jamaican drug house, Jamaican terrorist leader, the only two stories on the front page of the paper.

Woolmer Investigation

All this, incidentally, was preceded by a long story in the Daily Mail of a recent date concerning the Bob Woolmer investigation. That story takes a somewhat sceptical look at DCP Shields, and comments out of context on Michael Holding's title of 'Whispering Death', but much of it is dedicated to condemning the Jamaican justice system. The argument, presented with the aid of tendentious critics of the Government, is that because the Jamaican justice system has problems, we should not be surprised if the Woolmer investigation has been mishandled: perhaps Woolmer died by accident.

Of course, none of this puts religious Jamaica in a positive light. Rather, it highlights our contradictions, and warns us to redouble our collective efforts to improve the country. And we can still draw appropriate inspiration from our own. In the same week that drug temples and hoodlums were highlighted by the British media, Professor Stuart Hall, JC Old Boy, Rhodes Scholar, was featured by one of the British broadsheets - the Independent - as one of the founders of sociology - up in the dizzying heights with Durkheim, Comte and Weber. Not bad; not bad at all.