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Getting our priorities straight
Each day Jamaica reads like a graphic novel that gets more violent chapter after chapter.
Every day, the news reports tell tales of of shootings, murders, accidents and general mayhem.
The thing is, while all this is happening, it becomes more apparent that the people entrusted with leading this country, seem incapable of, or perhaps unwilling to find solutions to the problems.
And, we the citizens seem not to care enough either. It's either that or we are not smart enough to know what to care about and as a result we are easily distracted by less important issues.
The other day Prime Minister Golding appeared on the BBC's Hard Talk responding to questions on a wide range of issues. And with all the pressing issues that he spoke on, we chose to jump onto his response to questions concerning gays in Jamaica. Ninety-nine percent of the nation was in agreement and one percent against but who's checking?
It's like we are refusing to face the reality that there is a monster among us and we need to deal with it because it will not go away by itself. Do you really think the gunmen who are killing us off in double figures each day care as they pull the trigger whether the man or woman they're killing is gay?
Frankly, I, like most Jamaicans, don't give a damn about gays. I care about where this ongoing chaos is going to end. I care about what is going to happen when I have to pay $300 for a litre of gas.
I care about who is going to die next and I care very deeply about why we seem unable to stop the masterminds behind the crime sweeping the nation.
<span style="font-weight: bold">A few years ago, then Commissioner of Police Francis Forbes, said he had evidence to suggest that there were some powerful men, politicians included, behind much of the crime happening in Jamaica. </span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Just Wednesday, the current Commissioner of Police Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin,</span> during a speech to members of the constabulary force at the Police Federation Conference in Trelawny, <span style="font-weight: bold">said there were powerful people who were benefiting from the crime wave we have been cowering from. </span>
I take it the commissioner does not say these things lightly and when bearing in mind what commissioner Forbes said back then, why then have we not seen any signs that efforts are being made to arrest these people?
Clearly the police know something, so why are they unable to act on what they know? And whatever happened to the evidence former Commissioner Forbes claimed the police were in possession of?
If that evidence was not a figment of former Commissioner Forbes's imagination where the hell is it and why has no one acted on it?
We can all agree that it takes money to get these shipments of weapons in and to keep them coming in.
We can also agree that some of these idiots with guns running around shooting people, have neither the brains nor the money, so who are the people pulling their strings and why are they so hard to catch?
Who are these people and who are the people protecting them?
These are the questions that the media need to be asking instead of placing emphasis on whether or not the Jamaican prime minister will ever come to accept gays in his Cabinet, a redundant exercise considering that the prime minister was only reflecting the views of the people who elected him to office.
Everyone has his or her little agenda and some will go far out of their way to see these agendas come to reality but at what cost - a few more thousand lives or the fate of an entire nation?
But we continue to remain blinded, blocking roads when police cut down some worthless gunman and going on about gays like they are the bane of our existence. When we protest we should be doing so against the criminals and the people who support and protect them.
It's time we started getting our priorities straight.
Send comments to:
[email protected]
Each day Jamaica reads like a graphic novel that gets more violent chapter after chapter.
Every day, the news reports tell tales of of shootings, murders, accidents and general mayhem.
The thing is, while all this is happening, it becomes more apparent that the people entrusted with leading this country, seem incapable of, or perhaps unwilling to find solutions to the problems.
And, we the citizens seem not to care enough either. It's either that or we are not smart enough to know what to care about and as a result we are easily distracted by less important issues.
The other day Prime Minister Golding appeared on the BBC's Hard Talk responding to questions on a wide range of issues. And with all the pressing issues that he spoke on, we chose to jump onto his response to questions concerning gays in Jamaica. Ninety-nine percent of the nation was in agreement and one percent against but who's checking?
It's like we are refusing to face the reality that there is a monster among us and we need to deal with it because it will not go away by itself. Do you really think the gunmen who are killing us off in double figures each day care as they pull the trigger whether the man or woman they're killing is gay?
Frankly, I, like most Jamaicans, don't give a damn about gays. I care about where this ongoing chaos is going to end. I care about what is going to happen when I have to pay $300 for a litre of gas.
I care about who is going to die next and I care very deeply about why we seem unable to stop the masterminds behind the crime sweeping the nation.
<span style="font-weight: bold">A few years ago, then Commissioner of Police Francis Forbes, said he had evidence to suggest that there were some powerful men, politicians included, behind much of the crime happening in Jamaica. </span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Just Wednesday, the current Commissioner of Police Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin,</span> during a speech to members of the constabulary force at the Police Federation Conference in Trelawny, <span style="font-weight: bold">said there were powerful people who were benefiting from the crime wave we have been cowering from. </span>
I take it the commissioner does not say these things lightly and when bearing in mind what commissioner Forbes said back then, why then have we not seen any signs that efforts are being made to arrest these people?
Clearly the police know something, so why are they unable to act on what they know? And whatever happened to the evidence former Commissioner Forbes claimed the police were in possession of?
If that evidence was not a figment of former Commissioner Forbes's imagination where the hell is it and why has no one acted on it?
We can all agree that it takes money to get these shipments of weapons in and to keep them coming in.
We can also agree that some of these idiots with guns running around shooting people, have neither the brains nor the money, so who are the people pulling their strings and why are they so hard to catch?
Who are these people and who are the people protecting them?
These are the questions that the media need to be asking instead of placing emphasis on whether or not the Jamaican prime minister will ever come to accept gays in his Cabinet, a redundant exercise considering that the prime minister was only reflecting the views of the people who elected him to office.
Everyone has his or her little agenda and some will go far out of their way to see these agendas come to reality but at what cost - a few more thousand lives or the fate of an entire nation?
But we continue to remain blinded, blocking roads when police cut down some worthless gunman and going on about gays like they are the bane of our existence. When we protest we should be doing so against the criminals and the people who support and protect them.
It's time we started getting our priorities straight.
Send comments to:
[email protected]
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