Orville W. Taylor
"If you continue to burn out the herb, we gonna burn out the cane fields." I don't remember which artiste did this song of the late 1970s or early 1980s, but it has remained on my mind like a plague since then. Coupled with Marley's chilling warning, "I feel like bombing a church", one shudders at what happened in Big Woods in St Elizabeth last week. More than 240 acres of prime agricultural lands were burnt to a cinder, resulting in at least $26 million lost in crops and livestock. More than 80 farmers were affected
It came on the heels of a police raid in which the lawmen destroyed several acres of high-grade marijuana, leaving many a farmer with teary eyes and another set who smelled the smoke, very red-eyed. All sorts of accusations abound. The suffering cultivators of the legitimate produce allege that it was recriminating measures taken against them for being sympathetic towards the narco-planters. Thus, it is an example of another type of red eye. Although the police have not taken any responsibility for the inferno, the agriculturists are firm in the belief that it was a deliberate act. Denial or not, even if the burning in Big Woods was not arson, the consequences cannot be good. The matter needs swift investigation and the Government must not sit on it
Great impact
The impact is likely to be great and one can expect a sharp increase in the prices of local agricultural products. Coupled with the runaway prices precipitated by the increase in global fuel costs and fertilisers, it is not good news for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government, already grappling with an increasingly hungry population. To make matters worse, more police personnel were killed in the first 100 days of its administration than in any other period of our history. There appears to be a war smouldering between the police and criminal elements.
Nonetheless, we have become accustomed to the police and citizenry having different versions of 'the truth'. So, it is not surprising that some farmers stated that they saw a policeman, whom they believe set the fire, running from the scene. Even if he were not running away, clearly, they are running from responsibility. Most disturbing is that it was allegedly reported to his colleagues, but they were threatened with arrest. What is important here is that once again, there are allegations of police excesses against some of the most vulnerable persons in the society. Ironically, it is the cooperation of these that will make them win the undeclared war.
In the words of one of the ganja farmers, the decision to plant marijuana is nothing but the result of lack of opportunities. With great resolve, he declared that as long as nothing was happening for poor people in the area, then re-planting would take place and the police should prepare for battle.
This is the scary crisis that faces a nation in the throes of development pains and globalisation. As is the case with the opium farmers in Afghanistan, there is little else to do than to raise the illegal cash crop in a country with an economy that was devastated by the Russian occupation in the 1980s, the Taliban in the 1990s and the American-led invasion in 2001.
Alternative sources of income
Similarly, thousands of peasants grow coca in Colombia. This provides the raw material for a multibillion-dollar cocaine trade, fuelled by American consumption. University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer, Dr Christopher Tufton, who is pretending to be a politician, shares my own sentiments regarding alternative sources of incomes for the would-be ganja farmers. This observation is blindingly obvious, but it takes much more than words to make a difference.
Tufton and his colleague, Security Minister Derrick Smith, must recognise that not only do they need to provide other means of economic support for the citizens, but also importantly, they need not to have the police being at daggers drawn with the rural folk. It is bad enough that the urban poor do not like them.
Illegal drugs are addictive not just to the mostly American junkies who use them, but, also to the suppliers who get accustomed to the lucrative benefits. However, that is the least of our problems. The Jamaican south coast is, despite all the efforts of the coastguard and marine police, seriously underprotected.
Jamaicans, on the whole, do not consider the weed to be drugs. So they have no moral compunction to dealing in it, and large numbers of our citizens have used it at some stage. However, destroying this more stable crop, that shades gungo peas and other bona fide ground provisions, will not only take away from them their livelihood, but will make the morally repugnant cocaine trade that much more attractive.
Any increase in the transhipment of cocaine from Colombia should scare the residents of St Bess more than the prospect of the 'Kernel' going to prison. Colombian cocaine, 90 per cent of which goes to America, helps to fund terrorism. It has been estimated that about US$1 billion annually goes to the Colombian Farc guerrilla/terrorists. Imagine how much of that can fuel a war against the police here in Jamaica. Already, hundreds of guns pass through that stretch from Rocky Point to Alligator Pond to Treasure Beach.
Devastating consequences
Our authorities need to think long and hard in communities like Big Woods because their drop-in-the-bucket 'drug- eradication programme' is likely to worsen the situation, with devastating consequences. One understands that we have to appease the American by sending our drug kingpins to them. However, great care must be exercised in touching our 'cushumpeng.'
No more unregulated fires please. Not even a chalice!
Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, Mona.
