Today, Jamaica marks its 45th anniversary as a nation at one of the most crucial times, not only in our lives but in the wider world. Wars and rumours of wars persist. There is concern for the very existence of planet Earth in the threat of global warming. Despite the many technological advances which have quickened communication between peoples, poverty, hunger and disease persist. Globally and locally, we seem mired in despair.

This is the first anniversary of our Independence being observed in the midst of a general election campaign. This is do-or-die time for both the contending parties. The JLP seeks to regain state power after 18 years in the wilderness. The PNP hunts a historic fifth term with its leader anxious "to gain her own mandate". In the charged atmosphere of campaign rhetoric and the ever-present undercurrent of violence, it is a challenge to fix the nation's attention on the importance of Independence and also Emancipation, that other significant milestone of our journey.

The rhetoric of campaigning, with both protagonists dangling before the electorate promises of a rosy future, tends to drown out the very necessary reflections on where we have come from and to where we are going. Our leaders are ignoring, at peril to all of us, the undercurrent of despair, the lack of hope in which so many Jamaicans live. Even those who have, want more and regard the nation as having failed for not being able to supply all needs. The marketplaces of the world use modern telecommunication to spark this age of hype, of instant idols and promises of streets of gold. When such dreams dissolve into reality, the young, especially, resort to despair. And in this our 45th year as inheritors of a vision of hope, many persons plan their escape.

Woefully absent at leadership level is the appeal to the better instincts of our people, the spirit of dedication and commitment which was the driving spirit of the pioneers who led us to survive the cruelty of slavery, the indignity of colonialism, the teething-pains of Independence. If we are to escape from the clutches of the national midlife crisis in which we seem to be mired, whoever leads thenation after August 27 will have to find the voice to bring our people back to reality, to make us advocates once again for such principles as family life, hard work, honesty, thrift and common decency, qualities which we seem to be losing along the way.

This concept may seem old-fashioned and boring to the young, who need to be awakened to the fact that sooner than they think, they will have to assume responsibility for the next stage of the national journey. It is significant that the chief guest at this 45th anniversary of the nation is a Jamaican-born young man, a mere 23-year-old who has excited people everywhere with his record-breaking solo flight around the world. It is to such as he and other young persons of our time to whom we must commend the message of hope in despair - the mantra which should be the rallying cry in this our 45th year of Independence.

To borrow from the words of the famed Jamaican anthropologist-poet M.G. Smith in his poem 'Testament':

- There is a limit to all human ways

- There is a limit to all human love

- And a great darkness in all human night

- Yet faith flows down the river, peace fills trees. There is a morning in all human night

- And life and birth and beauty beyond death.