THE EDITOR, Sir:
JAMAICA IS now almost a middle-aged lady and it is time to take stock of our past and future. A recent poll indicated that over 50 per cent of persons polled responded that it was better under colonialism. This response is rather perplexing and I would like to ask the question how can this be right if nearly half of our population is under age 40 and the ones under age 40 were not alive when we were a colony of Great Britain. My belief is that this question was posed to a much older age group who were much more privileged under the colonial regime and have yet to come to terms with a certain amount of equality.
Be that as it may though we are certainly not out of the woods. We have advanced in many areas and have retrogressed in others. Certainly there are more opportunities for the black Jamaican than there were in the colonial era. How many of us remember that in the good colonial days natives were encouraged to become nurses, civil servants, teachers, policemen.
The other professions were sancrosant to the privileged Jamaican with a lighter skin shade who could at any time become an airline stewardess, a bank clerk etc. Most young Jamaicans do not know this fact and they should be told in order for them to make a reasoned decision as to independence.
We have certainly retrogressed in the areas of basic 'good manners' discipline and crime. And most of these ills come from the fact of the increasing technology and the average Jamaican being able to access news from all over the world. Because of this we have thrown out of our lives the most important ingredient of being, a good human being, made in the image of Jesus. We now can only think of material things and this even takes priority over family life.
In most households both spouses work so as to give their children all the luxuries they want. But are these children getting the most important ingredients? Love and quality time spent with parents and the example of being your brother's keeper. We can never ever go back in time but we must take time to stop and think and to come to the understanding that money is not everything and to inculcate this into the youth.
A lot of the unemployed in our country are (a) not qualified to hold any job, but even though they are not qualified they are not prepared to take a small salary and start at the bottom and gradually moving to the top. They must have a salary that can give them a car, designer clothes, videos etc. They know nothing of creeping before walking; (b) most Jamaicans only dream of leaving the shores as they really believe that the streets of North America, Canada and Europe are lined with gold.
Despite increased information available to all telling us that these first world countries are also having problems and that people are expendable - machines can do it all and look at the corporate scandals. Our youth must look at all this and finally make up their minds to stay in this country, as it is really getting very difficult to secure permission to stay permanently in other countries, unless of course you have the skill that they need at the moment, namely nurses and teachers, and the really brilliant Jamaicans who can buy their tickets anywhere in the world.
Our most serious regressions are in the areas of discipline and crime. In the colonial days we certainly obeyed the rules but somehow find it most difficult to obey the rules now that we are independent. Crime has always been with us even in the colonial days, but the difference is there were no guns and if you heard someone trying to break into your house one scream and the thieves would run.
Of course we have to remember that in those days the only drug was ganja - there was no cocaine around to boggle the minds of our citizens. This is a scourge brought upon us by our own purely in the interest of money. This is what we must all join hands to eliminate from our society. When this major problem is solved then we can really go on to making this the 'Garden of Eden'.
I am, etc.,
BARBARA COVER
Glendon Circle
Kingston 6
