Bread and circuses

By H.K. Burke, Contributor

DURING THE time of Imperial Rome the poor citizens, who were of course in the majority, were often restive as they usually are anywhere in the world. The response of the Emperors and wealthy citizens who wanted to maintain the status quo, was to stage ever more extravagant and elaborate circuses in the Coliseum and other amphitheatres to please and distract the plebes from their problems. Bread was also given away to keep their stomachs from aching.

In the days of Marcus Garvey, entertainment for the masses in Jamaica was provided at Edelweiss Park much to the consternation of housewives who could not keep their helpers in employment because they could not resist the call of the Park.

At the risk of making some very unpopular remarks I must say that I have great misgivings about the popularity of cricket, football and other sports in Jamaica.

Some people are genuinely interested in the games and can afford the leisure and expense of pursuing them. That is fine for them. I must confess, however, that I have never been one of these. From school days I was opposed in principle to competitive sports. I am a strong advocate of co-operation not competition in most things. If people could co-operate on problems, from domestic ones, through business, to political, economic and international ones, the world would be a vastly better place, especially if this employed the re-directed effort, time and expenditure lavished (or as I would say, mis-directed) to sports.

In Jamaica today we cannot afford the luxury of supporting these lavish performances either by the state or by successful companies whose resources could be better directed.

With the high unemployment in Jamaica the youth coming up are devoting far more time and interest in these unproductive enterprises. Add to this dancehall and the barbaric performances which represent Jamaican Reggae culture and we find that the youth all want to be footballers or singers.

Some people will say that it is a good thing that these outlets exist but I am thoroughly against the pandering to this dreadful culture by TV, radio and newspapers and by Government itself.

The country is at last getting awake to the degradation of decency and bad behaviour which goes with this. When the youngsters cannot make the grade (as most of them cannot) in the above-mentioned areas, they often turn to crime, indiscipline and thoroughly obnoxious behaviour.

I question the value to Jamaica of success in sports internationally. I believe that it is greatly exaggerated and at the price at which it comes I must admit that every time we lose a test match or a qualifying football game, I quietly rejoice and hope that it is one more nail in the coffin of one of the greatest distractions we allow to stand in the way of true progress for this country.

What this country needs is sound education preferably along British lines. American education, at least below the college level, does not seem to have much to recommend it. Unfortunately, Jamaica lost a good opportunity of maintaining English standards as they were in the days before Independence. Granted they did not penetrate deeply below the thin upper middle class, but it was the business of Government to maintain and expand it. Instead we have largely turned our backs on it and looked to Africa and our culturally weak past for inspiration. Even the English language is now under attack.

Fools never know when they have a good thing and I am afraid we have had more than our share of them.

It was a shock to me to learn that Anancy was one of our unofficial national heroes in schools. Thank heavens I never had to suffer this! In my day Anancy stories were told on dark nights in deep rural areas for amusement.

With this information to hand I shall really have to look into what is on the curriculum in our schools today. It is clearly worse than I had thought.

There are so many useful things vying for attention in schools in this modern world that one wonders how time is found for the nonsense that prevails.

Now that the fowls are coming home to roost I sincerely hope that a good long look will be taken by everyone into the direction in which we are heading and that a complete change will be made.

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