A THOUGHT FOR NOW - JAMAICA, WHOO. STILL AN ADOLESCENT NATION AFTER 54 YEARS? PART 1.

Who would have thought it possible, possible that, that mysterious and well-known country, Jamaica, the land of wood and water, of which its name speaks, would have become so notorious?

What has become of Jamaica, you might ask, that it should have become so famous and yet so despoiled? This island in the Sun, which can so easily evoke memories of Harry Belefonte's famous song, the island with great beaches, and with the Blue Mountains guarding over its capital, Kingston. With its exciting array of fauna and flora, and with its inspirational fountain which has given rise to Reggae music, other musical genre, and to well-known poets, singers, athletes, and revolutionary leaders during its slavocratic and colonial days. Jamaica, an island which has a reputation much bigger that it 2 million plus population and comparatively very small land mass.

How is it that this Jamaica, this 'land which we love', as is referred to in Jamaica's national anthem, become synonymous with parts of countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil and Venezuela, when one speaks of endemic violence by gangs and the local police?

Amnesty International has just released a report concerning Jamaica, entitled -
"Waiting in vain: Unlawful police killings and relatives’ long struggle for justice." 

In this report, Amnesty has taken Jamaica's Police authorities and the government to task for what it claimed is

 " the catalogue of illegal tactics used by police across Jamaica to ensure relatives of victims of unlawful killings by the police do not pursue justice, truth and reparation for their loved ones. This includes systematic intimidation, harassment and threats against relatives at home, work, hospitals, and even during funerals."

In short, it would suggest that, if the police has arrested or killed a member of your family, you could place yourself in deadly danger by going to the police to seek redress, or, indeed, seek the support of certain local government officials in doing so. This is what you would expect of a police state, of a dictatorship, or a right wing South American regime. But, some how, not of Jamaica, this post-Spanish and British colonial gem in the West Indies. Not something you might readily associate with Jamaica. 

It does not fit the idealistic image many people will have of this famous Caribbean Island. It seems both incredulous and incredible, all at the same time. And yet, this Island, as those of us who know something of its history, is clearly not as virtuous or virginal as many might believe and would have others believe. 

Jamaica, or rather the people of Jamaica, be they the East Indian Jamaicans, the Chinese Jamaicans, the African Jamaicans, or the white Jamaicans, are the products of a slave society, with all its history of cruelty, it degradation, and its corruption of the higher values of humankind. All of them, or the ghosts which they have apparently given birth to, still manifesting themselves in the Jamaica's pathology.  

To be continued.