Ronald Thwaites | When choices are limited

My client Mr. X thought of himself as an electric linesman. He lived with a very miserable woman who he thought was the source of his many problems. One day he got entangled in some live high tension wires and both arms had to be amputated.

Immediately on regaining consciousness after the surgery he called me to his bedside to perform a marriage ceremony between himself and the said lady. “There is no choice”, he said.

I understood Prime Minister Holness’ balancing act regarding Cuba and the US last week. He might have said, like my Mr X, “I have no choice” in more full-throated acquiescence with Mr. Marco Rubio’s vision of the Caribbean than Kamla Persad-Bissessar had blurted out spiritedly.

As one who has supported the condemnation of the US-Cuban blockade year after year in the Jamaican parliament, Andrew expressed what most of us feel: sympathy and admiration for the Cuban people while being critical of the repressive elements of their political order. We reject the notion that supporting democracy for our nearest neighbours legitimises starving them.

There are implications of this nuanced position. Jamaica has carefully cultured principled relations with both protagonist and antagonist in this US-Cuba conflict. Bullying and intransigence aside, we are in a position to be the bridge for the diplomacy urgently required to defuse the crisis.

The stakes are high for us. One askance glance from Rubio and the likes of Congressman Carlos Giménez can derail our very fragile political economy. The signs are already near. There are visa restrictions affecting some CARICOM countries. Niggling threats to tax remittances can turn from whim to policy in a 2 a.m. post on social media. More damaging would be the requirement that those sending money home must show their legal status. What will our position be when Cuba is subject to an unfriendly “ friendly take-over” as Mr. Trump expects?

AVOIDING SELF-CREATED IMPOTENCE

“Tek sleep and mark death” as Prof Danielle Roper says, that it is only Kamla and Irfaan Ali who got invited to the Emperor’s palace. The spectrum between principle and expediency is very narrow for us.

As an import dependent nation in every sense, nevertheless we can expand and entrench our self-interest and self-respect by striving for consensus on major policy rather than lapsing into habitual divisiveness which others will be quick to exploit. Nothing stops us strengthening reverence for the spirit and letter of our constitution and treating each other with maximum respect and compassion.

On these principles, Horace Chang’s recent utterance about blood money funding human rights advocacy have shamed himself and all of us. I commend Pope Leo’s counsel to him.

The exercise of power or even “the practice of worship does not automatically lead to being compassionate. Before being a religious (or political) matter, compassion is a question of humanity”. Before any other ascription we are “called to be humans”.

Jamaica must not put itself in the same moral category of violators of human dignity whether in Cuba, the United States, El Salvador, Nicaragua or Haiti by repression of democratic rights, systemic criminal violence and extra-judicial responses. This would be worse than slavery because erstwhile victims would have become abusers. To quote Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer, Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, “we give hurt people permission to hurt”. What merit can there be in following this cruel but well-trodden path?

The most sacred and consequential choice of any human is to parent a child. There are many factors which make Jamaica’s current birth rate below replacement level or similarly will make the US Social Security System go bankrupt within the next decade.

There is the normalised brittleness of intimate relationships, the degradation of family stability by poverty and the consumption and career-obsession of the age. One young lady says she will avoid pregnancy because “it will spoil up my figure “. Well, since that is her concern it is probably best that she does not aspire to motherhood.

What is undeniable is that selfishness in childless young adulthood pays terrible dividends in the loneliness of old age.

Then there was avid discussion last week about decriminalisation of consensual sex between minors. Of course it serves only counter- productive purposes to lock up youths (always boys!) in such circumstances. But why not spend equal angst and resources to bend the warp of culture towards enthralling teenagers and sub-teens with better appreciation of the wonder and dignity of loving, committed sexual relations – the most profound, precious and satisfying expression of humanity? As a society we are choosing to promote the opposite by de-emphasising marriage and family.

Do you find it strange that given the obsession about wealth and the “good life” which defines the American (and Jamaican) life dreams, that so many of the world’s most privileged and wealthy men and nymphomaniacal women ended up in Jeffrey Epstein’s brothel of party, influence-peddling and advantage-taking? Now all of them (excepting numero uno) are “taking bush”, distancing themselves or falling on their own swords. Are we choosing to expect more worthwhile ethical standards from our leaders?

CALCULATING INFLATION

In the same week that the Bank of Jamaica announced moderate inflation prospects, the cost of a small lunch at my school is $600. The government’s contribution for the PATH students in primary school is $150. Meanwhile the school is ordered not to press parents for any contribution, so how is the gap of $450 a day for each child to be covered?

What choices are left to the school or the parent when the prices of everything which ordinary people have to buy (except mercifully and commendably some local produce) are increasing? Middle class parents are hurting proportionately too.

Despite experience to the contrary, I am hoping that MPs, meeting in Standing Finance Committee this coming week will consider carefully the choices which our international and domestic limitations press upon us all. They demand far-reaching reallocation of our resources.

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com