Basil Jarrett | Of cockroaches and fowl fights

Aside from the ongoing spectacle of the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the entire world remains fixated on ongoing events in Europe and the Middle East with the kind of nervous stare people reserve for a man trying to light a cigarette while standing in a gas station.

In Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on with no clean end in sight to the point where Europe has been forced into a sweeping rethink of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and, generally, how it fights war. In the same breath, Reuters has reported that Russian hawks, rattled by deep Ukrainian strikes, have been publicly urging Moscow to escalate further, including calls for the use of tactical nuclear weapons. These developments reflect a dangerous new reality as the phrases “World War Three” and “nuclear option” get tossed around with frightening regularity. Then there is the Middle East, where the Strait of Hormuz continues to build its reputation as the world’s greatest traffic jam. Here, commercial-shipping traffic continues to trickle following the February 28 outbreak of war between the US and Iran despite allegations that a peace agreement between the two protagonists has been signed. The disruption from this conflict continues to have consequences as fuel, food, and transport costs balloon worldwide.

To most Jamaicans, of course, the spectre of a third world war, much less a nuclear one, remains largely academic as we try to focus on our own problems. Besides, as we have been reminded by our grandmothers over the years, “Cockroach nuh business inna fowl fight”.

But that view is historically inaccurate. One of the things that we seem to have lost sight of over the years is that little Jamaica, for all its size, has never been completely absent from global conflict. We have always had a voice, albeit a small one, in some of the most crowded rooms, and currently, two small but significant events serve as timely reminders of that fact.

The Royal Air
Forces Association (RAFA) Jamaica

The first is the celebration of the Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA) Jamaica for 80 years of service to the country’s ex-servicemen. The RAFA Jamaica was established in 1946 and is a division of the United Kingdom-based charitable organisation created in 1943. The branch was set up to support Jamaican ex-servicemen of the Royal Air Force, and over time, its care has extended to serving retired RAF members as well as retired members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Air Wing. In a country that often remembers war only through old photographs and old history books, RAFA’s survival is a living bridge to the generation of Jamaicans who quite literally went to war with the Evil Empire.

The National
Poppy Appeal

The second is the launch of the National Poppy Appeal drive via its 5K Run/Walk last Sunday, honouring the service and sacrifice of Jamaica’s veterans and their families. On the surface, a 5K and a commemorative campaign may seem small compared to drones over Kyiv and missiles near Hormuz, but the RAFA and the National Poppy Appeal remind us that Jamaica’s relationship with global conflict has never been purely a spectator sport.

Of course, small island states do not get to choose whether great-power conflicts affect them or not. We simply get the bill after the men with the bombs and missiles are finished flinging them at each other. But in both previous world wars, Jamaicans served in real numbers, fighting, bleeding and yes, dying.

This is not meant to glorify war or violence, but rather, to remind Jamaicans that this country has given more to the world than Bob Marley, Usain Bolt, and Elephant Man. It is precisely why the work of organisations like the RAFA Jamaica and the wider National Poppy Appeal matters now. More than simply sentimental exercises in nostalgia, they are civic reminders that war, even when fought far away, eventually reaches all shores whether through fuel prices, shipping costs, inflation, disrupted supply chains, migration pressures, and general uncertainty.

Jamaica’s voice in global affairs

In other words, foreign wars are not just somebody else’s business, and it is not only the American, Russian, Iranian, Israeli, and European fowls who should worry. And just because none of the missiles are aimed at Kingston Harbour, we can just sit back, grab a cold Red Stripe, and enjoy watching Brazil get booted from yet another World Cup.

In fact, our history says otherwise. Jamaica has always had a voice in global affairs, sometimes louder than our size should reasonably permit. We were, for instance, one of the earliest, loudest, and most outspoken opponents of apartheid in South Africa long before it became fashionable to do so. That moral leadership was so profound that when Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison in 1990, Jamaica was one of the first places he chose to visit.

In other words, Jamaica has sent men to fight and die during global conflicts, and we have the veterans and living witnesses to prove it.

This is why the RAFA’s 80th anniversary and this year’s National Poppy Appeal feel so different. With the possibility of war hovering as an ever-present threat these days, it is more important than ever to move from wreath-laying and speeches as a mark of gratitude for their service and start adopting civic practices that teach younger Jamaicans that service, sacrifice, and global citizenship are not foreign concepts.

At a time when people speak so casually about war, online, on radio, and in social media comment sections, most Jamaicans will continue to look at Ukraine and Hormuz and mutter that old proverb about said cockroach and said fowl fight. But history suggests that little Jamaica has never merely watched the fowls from the fence. We have always acted in a manner that belies our small size. For our own good, the memory of that fact had better remain just as large.