J50: Independence and Freedom, Responsibility and Discipline

This must be one of the hardest blog to write because most people believe that a blog about Jamaica’s 50th anniversary should be positive and upbeat, outlining all of our glories, achievements and greatness before the world and all mankind, a blog where all objectivity should be saved for another day. This blog started way before Jamaica 50 celebrations started but some how I found it very hard to push the publish button. I have been adding to it, so it represents different ideas over time and if you are reading this, then button press.

I love my country, there is no other country I love more than Jamaica and I love my people, I am comfortable with my people, I understand them. There are times when they make me proud, happy to be a part of this unique club called Jamaica. One of the things that I love doing is to go to my special place in Port Antonio and sit on the hill under the tree and look out onto the Caribbean sea in front of me and the Blue Mountain to the side of me, to feel the cool breeze, wind and sun on my face,  I love to smell the fresh sea air and listen to the water as it meets the shore.I have tried this in many other countries but it never seem to have the same effect, the sun don't feel right, the Breeze is either too cold or too hot and the smell is off, it does nothing for me.

There are times when you feel for a nice long walk by your self in Jamaica, some peace and quiet but end up having a good long chat with some stranger you met along the way, that Jamaican unique personality just hold you. Yeh Man, mi love me yard that is why I cannot understand or have any patience for those Use-To-Me-Neva-See-Come-See Jamaicans who does nothing but cuss Jamaica out of hate not love.

Yeh Man, mi love me yard... but sometimes Jamaica piss me off because the more you love something or someone the easier it for them to disappoint you. Burning inside me is this deep desire for change that I know we are capable of and I cannot understand why we have not achieved our full potentials. Every morning I open the paper I expect to see the big headlines that Jamaica overcame, have achieved, have changed, is heading in the right direction but I still have hope and in the mean time I will still continue to love mi little rock.   

Yeh Man, mi love me Country...and will always love it, it is my country right or wrong... BUT loving something or someone means you should always be honest, open and want the best for them.

Independence and Freedom means absolutely nothing without a strong sense Responsibility and Discipline. If we are not a responsible people, if we are not a discipline people able to make the right decisions for both ourselves, our families and the future of our country then Independence and Freedom is a wasted achievement and we will never realize our full potentials as a people and a country. The right decision is not always the decision that gives us instant gratification, it might be a decision we have to take that will cause great hardship in the short run but better for us or the country in the long run.

World history books hundreds of years in the future will record that Jamaica was a country with great potential to achieve great things but because of their lack of Discipline and Responsibility their achievements as Nation Builders was just marginal and mediocre. Our indiscipline served us well during Slavery and colonization, then it was seen as our strength, our ability to fight oppression, to achieve Emancipation from Slavery, to achieve Workers’ Rights, Universal Adult Suffrage and finally independence but in order to build a Nation State future generation will be proud of, requires a great sense of Responsibility and Discipline.

It has gotten to the point where I am playing with the idea that Jamaicans are ungovernable in their natural habitat. We have a political class that is afraid to make the hard right decisions, to say and do the right things regardless of its popularity and votes. So long as that condition exist nothing will really change, we will forever be taking 1 step forward and 2 steps backwards. We are a people that pays lip service to doing the right things, us Jamaicans know exactly what is wrong with Jamaica and we know what we must do to fix it but fixing it means the removal of certain freedom we have gotten accustomed to. The freedom to be indiscipline and irresponsible is a liberating and addictive feeling, that is why yard nice every time, most other successful countries are not as free as Jamaica. For the most part we do what we want, when we want to and how we want to, even when what we are doing is wrong, counter-productive and will do more harm than good.

We have achieved much as a people but we have also let so much go, we have lost the plot and we need to get back to the basic principles and values that are required by Nation Builders. We have become a superficial people with way too much emphasis on material things and we do not have the discipline to control ourselves as these things must be acquired at all cost, even at the expense of our future. Our leaders have also lost the plot because it is they who created and nurtured this state of irresponsibility and indiscipline behavior as a way to achieve power and glory. They do not govern base on right and wrong but on what is popular regardless of Right and Wrong, thus converting Jamaica to a "Jock-it-up Cock-it-up" kind off society. They I believe can no longer see the Forrest from the Trees, they are blind to the damage they have done and are doing.

Independence and Freedom coupled with Responsibility and Discipline guarantees that we will always make the right decision, the best decision for the collective good of all the people and the future of Jamaica, decisions must benefits the many above the few.