"By Eloquence, Inc." ...The Advantages of being Jamaican

Eloquence, Inc. is a regular reader of “Jamaican Till I Die” and makes some of the best comments on various issues. I especially love her comment on the blog "You Ungrateful Wretch! "  and think it should be a separate blog post for all to see and I would like to thank "Eloquence, Inc." for all the comments since I started this:

In response to: "You Ungrateful Wretch!"

EXCELLENT POST and PERFECT timing as we come to the end of Jamaica's 50th anniversary!

Add the Issa's and the Simonitsch's (founder of Half Moon and the all inclusive resort concept) to that list of big names!

No matter how long I have been away, I know if I could sort out a decent career opportunity down there, I would love to move back home. I am not one of the ones that ever thought anything as a child but that the sun rises and sets on Jamaica... Didn't even want to leave, parents made me. But I realize as I run into Jamaicans from other walks of life, that most think "likkle Jamaica caan do nutten fi mi" and in some cases it's true, because of the social standing they were born into and the lack of the right connections (mostly from not going to the right schools), they are achieving things in America that were not happening for them back home. BUT in some cases they apply themselves to their books and to their job opportunities in America in a way they were not doing when in Jamaica!

I met a great woman in Jamaica who yeah she mixed and red with long hair and lives in big house on Jacks Hill now, but she told her story of how she came from country bush where she use to walk with river water in bucket on her head when young, to now an entrepreneur that moved up in life!

And is not just the light and white doing it anymore. It does take links to get around the red tape but as a minority you have a better chance of respect and making the links in the first place in a place like Jamaica than somewhere like America where as you said, the same things that make you special in Jamaica make you exactly nobody here compared to the 300 million other people that might fit your racial or economic description.

My ability to get put 2 years ahead in US schools is directly due to the Jamaican education system that produced me. I thank Jamaica's culture and education all the time for making me the person that can adapt and survive and have admirable qualities as a person and make me distinctive to folks here, not just another black face. Without being Jamaican that would not be possible. And people don't realize down there that there is a GREAT power and influence on having your child grow up seeing black people in successful positions of every corner of society, in your bank, in your schools...not just out on the streets. America might be the land of opportunity but as a professional most of the black faces you see are at the bottom of the totem pole or out on the streets loafting, especially the men. In Jamaica positive black achievement is everywhere, in the classroom, bankroom, sports field... we don't grow up feeling less than everybody else or with the minority complex.

The culture and education and focus on relationships/links and not just paper contracts and money and the love of children in the society (read how many professional Americans complain of the terrible fight to live up to corporate demands which do not care about family obligations even when they say they do)...these all help people to have opportunities in Jamaica or at least a mentality that allows them to get ahead elsewhere. But I don't think even the poorest among us realize the pride and values and strength instilled in us AS JAMAICANS is what helps them no matter where they are when they get their opportunities.

Some of course are exceptions but for the most part the overall Jamaican culture produces very smart people who value relationships (part of why links end up so important to get anything done!) and family (even if the downside is people might have too many kids at times, but most of the people having them whether rich or poor genuinely love kids and having that family life!).

.... Eloquence, Inc.
eloquence-inc.blogspot
Eloquence, Inc. Career Services

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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.

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Heroes and Nation Builders of Jamaica

"He bared his chest and declared…If you are going to shoot, shoot me, but leave these defenceless, hungry people alone." ….Alexander Bustamante

I once saw a play in the early 80s at the little theater where the above was said by one of the actors and another actor shouted in response…..”A should a now!!” …to the laughter of the audience…

His implication was that today's police would have obliged Alexander Bustamante and open fire killing him and everyone dead. I however think that if it was now there would be no one to play the role of Bustamante because that is not how our current so called leaders roll, we would simply be on our own.

Market Woman early 1900

For me the best part of Jamaican history is the period from 1900 to 1962, I call this period the age of Nation Building Stage 2, the fight against hard life and suffering experienced at the hands of British Colonialism. A time when the working class, Educated Class, middle and upper middle class came together and took a stand, back then they had Back Bones made of steel, an intellectual mind coupled with a gritty personality, they were not afraid to risk liberty, life and limb while standing up for their Principles and defend their country and people.

This is not a period in Jamaica’s History to forget or dismiss since full knowledge of what happened and all the players involved is required to create a strong foundation for future Nation Builders, what they did, how they did it and why should be taught in every school across Jamaica, their names should flow of the tongues of old and young alike. These nation builders were strong, charismatic and educated, their ability to organize the masses and articulate their hopes, dreams and desires for the future even in the face of British Colonial might, is why they were so successful. These men and women could engage the British on so many levels, including an intellectual level and if that failed then they had the power to shut down the entire country with just one word, they could mobilize the population of Jamaica, having them take to the streets at a moment’s noticed, even when the colonial forces tried to stop them with a barrage of bullets. Yes they were scared and concern for themselves and their love ones but they considered what they were fighting for to be more important than life itself and their love ones were right beside them in the struggle.

Frank Hill, Ken Hill, Richard Hart, Arthur Henry

They were fighting for Liberty, Equality and Social-Justice, for the rights of man, the freedom of man and the Independence and birth of a Nation. They were not perfect, far from it but they were more of a man and woman than any man or woman claiming to be our leaders today. They were supposed to live for an eternity through us, we should have been an embodiment of their spirit and humanity but we failed them, we could not carry their achievements, their strength, their discipline and determination on our feeble, worthless, brittle poor excuse for a backbone.

Wherever they are now I am sure they must be saying to themselves what a waste of my time and life, what a complete waste of my efforts, to sacrifice so much only to see that my sacrifice was in vain. Look at them running around without any sense of collective purpose, consumed by their own self-importance, consumed by greed and selfishness, look at how they turn their backs on everything we fought so hard to achieve.

Then I can imagine Sam Sharpe and Paul Bogle turning to the others saying “might as well we kept our mouth shut, cut the masters cane and say yes sir may I have another when the whip cut across our backs, instead of having that rope around our broken necks, suspending our lifeless bodies and George William Gordon agreeing”. Because they had so much hope for us but look how we let them down.

I know when we think of the period from 1900 to 1962 only Manley and Bustamante comes to mind but there were so much more players involved and without these brave men and women, both Manley and Bustamante although being great men just would not have succeeded. It is a waste of time to compare our so called leaders today to these brave men and women, as it would be an insult to their memory. The fact is our current stock of educated and political class are nothing more than shallow over privilege selfish little pricks, consumed by their own self-importance and I have no respect for them, they are not men or women of substance and value, they are profiling little fluffs who exist in a fluff bubble and trying very hard to keep their bubble intact at the expense of their people and the future of their country. Their flawed concept of class is measured by money, too stupid to realize that all the stolen money in the world cannot buy an ounce of class, it does not matter how big your house is or how massive a car you drive, you are and will always be just a shallow prick living in a big house and a prick driving a big car, who enjoys the poverty around them simply because that is the only way for them to stand out and feel special, the look at me syndrome.

Colonial Britain Propaganda Newsreel : “Just a hundreds years ago Great Britain abolish Slavery, today the Jamaican Negro is a happy and law abiding citizen, loyal to his Government of which he is very proud. The reality for Jamaicans was very different from that portrait by newsreel at the time, unemployment was very high and wages very low.”

For the most part we as a people were engineered to collectively belittle ourselves, our achievements, our history and we belittle our past leaders because to understand these great men and women would belittle our lives and make us realize that in the scheme of things we are nothing. History will collectively define us as cowards, selfish, greedy, tribal and inhumane and history will not remember our names because it is not worth remembering. History will remember our post independence political class as corrupt, murdering, selfish little twats who purposely created hardship and suffering for their people, who armed Jamaicans and send them out to murder other Jamaicans and who stole from every Jamaican to satisfy their own greed.

Norman Washington Manley

I said before that some of our past leaders, even though they were visionaries and great men were not perfect, no one is, however long before we had political party violence in Jamaica, there was Trade Union violence which was like a drug gang turf war. The Unions set the stage for the political violence that was to come and what we experienced over the decades, the BITU gave birth to the JLP and from the NWU came the PNP but instead of Nation Building these Political Parties now practice Nation Destruction.

When we were fighting the British our mission was clear cut and well defined, it was US against THEM, after the British left, we did not know what to do, we searched high and low for someone else to fight but found only Jamaicans, so unable to find any other group to demonized, we quickly turned on ourselves. Jamaicans from all walk of life rallied around the Political Parties and shouted “old dutty Labourite”... and …”old dutty Socialist” at each other. We made up retarded party slogans…”Stand Firm!”…and…”Deliverance!” and shouted them at each other, we created Political Party Gang colours and signs and flashed them at each other,  some "Raised the Fist", others raised "The Victory Sign” and after we had fully demonized each other in every which way we could, filling our hearts with pure hate and contempt for our fellow man, we then proceeded to set upon our Jamaican brothers and sisters with great vengeance. We murdered Jamaican Men, Women and children with ease simply because they belong to the other party, all in the name of politics and our political overlords, ......such is our Legacy!

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• Independence and Freedom means absolutely nothing without a strong sense Responsibility and Discipline. 
• Equality, Social-Justice, Self-Reliance and Discipline are wonderful principles to live by and we should try to instil these principles back into our society.
• Political Tribalism will be the death of us, as we are way too small and too poor to survive this crab in a barrel mentality.
• Jamaica is a country with so much potentials, we could achieve so much as a people if we apply our selves but we do not think or operate as a collective.

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St. William Grant

Alexander Bustamante

Sir Florizel Glasspole

The Right to Vote

Workers Rights!!

Colonial Times

Life in Jamaica under British Rule as a Crown Colony can be defined as a place filled with poverty and inequality, many Jamaicans at the time was still working on the estates for below living wages.

Selling Sugar in the Market

Sugar Press

Winston Churchill in Spanish Town Jamaica, 1940s

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State of Flux

:A state of uncertainty about what should be done.

• I came upon a debate taking place on the messaging board of a popular Jamaican online news site in which one set of Jamaicans was correcting the spelling of another set of Jamaicans. The first set declared that the correct spelling of the word in question was the American English way and the second set was defending the Jamaican/Queens English way of spelling the word. I understand that different people have different versions of software on their computers and that the region and language settings may be different, so normally I am not too concerned with spelling but I have a problem with Jamaicans who turn their backs on the Jamaican way of life and then try to push their adopted way of life on their homeland.
• On that same news site a Jamaican wrote to the site reporters declaring that he was correcting a particular news item, he stated that Labour Day was not on May 23rd but in September, even though Jamaica’s Labour Day have always been celebrated on May 23rd.
  
  If I am on an American site and they reported about Labour Day, I would assume they were talking about Labour Day in America, the one in September. I know enough about the world to understand that things are done differently in different parts of the world and I respect that. I would expect the same outlook when someone is on a Jamaican site, even more so from a Jamaican, you enter the Jamaican mode. I just cannot imagine writing to the editors of the Huffington Post telling them to use the date for Jamaica’s Labour Day instead.
• This all goes hand in hand with the lady who wrote the Jamaica Gleaner complaining that the 911 emergency services were not working and a waste of time (in mid 90s when no such service existed)when in fact the number for Jamaica’s Emergency Service is 119, so no wonder it was not working.

As we get ready to celebrate Jamaica 50, it has become clear that the Jamaican society is truly in a state of uncertainty as we are being pulled every which way by various members of our society. There is no clear cut definition of what it means to be a Jamaican, no preservation of shared history and value system and as such we have become a chameleon like society as we disregard our "Jamaicanness" to adopt all things foreign.

The fabric of our society is being unravelled before our very eyes, the “Ja-Mericans” wants us to be more like America, to adopt American values complete with East Coast/West Coast gang signs and the Anglophile wants us to embrace “Britishness” while both sees no value in preserving our shared rich culture and history. One of the main problem is no one really knows what “Jamaicanness” is anymore, how it is defined, like a Croaking Lizard we change colour depending on colour of the surface or the country we adopt.

Anything that was truly Jamaican has been devalued and diluted as we have become a net importer of culture. Historically we are missing that big bang, that moment in time that seals in the flavour of “Jamaicanness”, that brings everyone together and on the same path and make us Jamaicans now and forever.

The United States of America have had their big bangs, moments in time that made them uniquely Americans. The United Kingdom of Great Britain has had centuries of big bangs from Brutus landing at Totnes (History of the Kings of Britain), to the events of 1066, to Winston Churchill rallying the British people during the Second World War. All these historical events is what gives the British people that Keep Calm and Carry on mentality, what don't kill you make you stronger and define you.

We have also had Big bangs in our history but the difference between our big bangs and that of other countries is that they preserve their history, they are proud of their history; they respect their history and value their achievements. It is used as a driving force to create a nation state they can be proud of. Their history is used to define who they are as a people while we are ashamed of ours.

Most Jamaicans devalue their history and belittle our big bangs, the things we are supposed to be proud of, we brush them aside as meaningless rubbish, when you hear a Jamaican proclaim that “anything too black, no too good”, then you are listening to a people who have devalued themselves, I have never heard whites declaring that "anything too white, no too good”. It is a saying that must have had its origin from slavery, I can imagine it being said for the first time on the plantation by the slave master just before the whip cuts across the slave’s back and picked up by both field and house slaves alike, they now started using it against each other.

Our failure to define our “Jamaicanness” is made even worst by the migration of Jamaicans overseas and the resultant importation of other countries culture and value system. This migration have lead to the destruction of the family unit and the creation of generations of abandoned orphaned barrel children left to find their own way in life.

It is so easy for other countries culture to infiltrate our society because most of us are looking for an alternate realm of existence, anywhere else but here. Before 1970 it was Britain, everyone wanted to be British and everyone wanted to go to the mother country, after 1970 everyone wanted to be Americans. With such poor perception of ourselves it is no wonder that we live in a deteriorating society.

In almost all other societies and cultures the people try to preserve certain historical buildings and structures that stand the test of time and survived against all odds, these buildings reflect a certain historical architectural beauty of the past. Both the Government and the people see no value in anything old, these great structures are left to rot. The government have never set out to educate the people on the value of these historical artefacts. I am convinced the Government does not want an educated society with values preferring instead the “Just-Eat-A-Food” mentality, since they are much easier to control and they are the first to say “Afta dat can nyam!” (it is of no value because it cannot be eaten).

Jamaica 50 should not be about parades, costumes, fireworks, street dances and various merriment. We have been doing that every year for as long as I can remember, that is about the only thing we are good at, that and spending money we have not earned.

Sick to my Stomach of these two circus clowns

I am amazed when ever I hear members of our political class go on and on about celebrating Jamaica 50. Our political class has not invested in the development of Jamaica as a Nation State, they are asking us to celebrate something they have not promoted and have destroyed for their own selfish, greedy lust for political power and wealth. There are people right now who are members of our political class who have armed Jamaicans and send them out to kill other Jamaicans. There are people right now who are members of our political class who have and continue to dip their greedy hands into the public purse stealing from the very people they are supposed to be serving. They are not guided by strength of character and moral devotion to duty nor are they there to build a Nation State for the good of the people and future generations. What are we celebrating, years since independence or achievements since independence?

Jamaica 50 is suppose to be something more, something special, a result of 50 years of hard work, achievements and Nation Building that highlights to the world our maturity and strength as a people to over come adversity, making the right decisions to build a nation state every Jamaican and the world can be proud of but sadly I am not feeling it. From slavery to emancipation, to workers rights, to universal adult suffrage and independence, our entire history should have been leading us to this point in space and time when we can look back on our achievements and bask in our own glory BUT we have failed as a people and as a society. Both myself and all my fellow Jamaicans regardless of geographic location have failed.

More about → State of Flux