WHEN beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

Julius Caesar, Shakespeare

The binding, gagging and suffocation of Madame Rose Leon in her home at the age of 86 is a tragic mark of our depravity.

Yet the leaders of our political parties speak of her as though she died of natural causes. And talk show host Mutty Perkins utters desperate nonsense about her murder not being more important than either that of Tess Thomas, or Agana Barrett who suffocated in the Constant Spring lock-up.

The elderly Tess Thomas gave her life to public service and the defence of the rights of consumers in this country. We don't know what young Agana Barrett did, and cannot know what he might have done in future. All people are indeed equal, but they do not contribute equally. In its indecent haste to be unjudgemental and equalitarian, this country has lost a sense of degree and with it all standards.

Tragic though his death was, Agana Barrett's contribution to Jamaica can by no stretch of the imagination be compared to Tess Thomas', nor indeed Madam Rose's.

Not only a pioneer industrialist and a Cabinet minister for both political parties Madame Rose was the mother of poor people's housing in this country. Hurricane Charlie had devastated the island in 1951 and when she became Minister of Health and Housing a couple years later she initiated the first programme of public housing because devastation on such a scale should never be allowed to happen again. A decent lady, she hoped to raise the standard of decency in her country. Her murder is not only a tragic disgrace, but a far far greater one than usual.

A people cannot survive who show no deference to the personal achievement of others. Democracy and religion both teach that all people are created equal, but life proves that they are not all equally talented nor indeed equally honourable. Civilisation demands that we make that distinction, and keep it close at all times.

It was therefore singularly unhelpful of Michael Manley to make a great furor in the 1970s about the existence and plight of those whom he lionised as "Sufferers". Sufferers he claimed, were those abandoned and forgotten by society and deprived of its comforts through no fault of their own.

It is not possible to wish away poverty. What a Government can do is create opportunity for people to escape it with their own effort. Manley popularised quite another set of values. Everybody else now had responsibility for poverty except the poor themselves. Government, and particularly the owners of business, had exclusive responsibility for housing the poor, their feeding, schooling, health and burial.

A successful assault had been unleashed upon the spirit of society. The poor should have as many children as they want, because somebody else will always be obliged to care for them. As a result poor parents now spend most of their money on hairdos and dancehall outfits. When I was growing up poor parents bought slates, lead pencils, and were glad to send their children to school. Today there are many more schools, but consistent attendance is the economic priority of but a few.

At a time therefore when the majority now say "Respect" as a synonym for "Hello", they have no self-respect or respect for others, and no one seems to care. Those who have made something of themselves and contribute to society, are left having to justify their own existence to politicians and the audience of talk show hosts. Mediocrity is thus enshrined.

This makes us all poorer, and robs the country of its energy. When the third rate is not only tolerated but poverty lionised, the result is a barbarous Jamaica. From such a county it is no surprise that talent and goodness flee.