So I have got to thinking, How do I save Jamaica? Does Jamaica need saving? Can Jamaica be saved? What can one person do to make a difference? I love my country and one day I wish (like most Jamaicans abroad) to return home to live - as a matter of fact I have been actively investigating the idea over the last couple months - but what have I encountered repeatedly? Negativity!! From Jamaicans in Jamaica and from Jamaicans displaced throughout the diaspora. "Bwoy tings bad a yard yuh nuh." "You know how many people dem kill over di 07 period?" "It hard to make a bread a yard yuh nuh" and my personal favorite "do nuh pack up an go wey an sell you house, have someting to fall back on!" Sound advice from caring individuals but what will happen if we all just sit back and look?
Thus I'll answer my own questions in what I figure is the order of importance. DOES JAMAICA NEED SAVING? Emphatically yes!!! We can't just sit back and expect "DEM" to take care of their mess. Who is dem? I submit that we all are "DEM!!" As long as the Caribbean Ocean and fish and festival at Hellshire beach calls you, you are a DEM !! If you long to breathe the pristine air of the blue mountain range, you are a DEM. If yu naval string plant under a tree a Breadnut Hill or any hill, gully or lane, you are a DEM. If yu ever tek a bath a Milk river or eat Jerk Chicken anywhere from Boston di home of Jerkers to Flatbush in Brooklyn you are a DEM. If you still have fierce loyalty to one of those centenarian Jamaican High Schools or you lost a bredrin on one of those mean streets, you are a DEM. If you ever fell in love with a church brother or sister or felt the spirit come over you in a roadside evangelist tent you are a DEM. If the bones of your ancestors are laid to rest at Dovecot or you wish to introduce your children to the way things used to be you are a DEM and this concerns YOU!!!
Can Jamaica be saved? Again I say Emphatically yes!! But it will take commitment from anyone who cares on a personal level. This means no sitting back and arm chair quarterbacking while yard burns! One person can make a difference.
Well you might ask how can I make a difference, I am just one person with a computer. Get involved!! Lets start a movement. This movement needs comprised to be non-partisan, non-political, non-denominational Jamaicans or lovers of Jamaica, who want to claim Jamaica back from those who seek to destroy it!!
Whew!!! I'm getting off my soap box now but please stay tuned because I am coming back with solutions. Are you ready to get your hands wet people?
Ah gone.
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2 comments:
Yolan. thanks for this post. I intermittently work with people in the innercity -- the starting place for many vicious crimes. I have come to realize that any movement must learn to overcome class distinctions and work directly with our less advantaged brothers and sisters. We can't do for them, but must work with them, looking to their experiences, pain and street wisdom for solutions. Persons running social intervention programmes tell you that when they work in the innercity, people gratefully say something like this: 'thank you for coming down and working with us. We feel someone cares and that we are not forgotten'. We must learn to help them find their own voice and solutions, and build bridges of trust so that they partner with the rest of us to rid the communities of criminals in hiding. If we continue to marginalize the poor from the process of renewal, they will hide from the truth, from help and from partnerships, and resentfully watch the gunmen destroy our nation. That's what I have learned. I have learned that we who live in peace-filled communities cannot impose our experience and way of life on communities which have never lived the way we live. True solutions come from the bosom of the innercity, from the people living the issues we read about every single day. If your movement can find a way to connect with grasroots people not just as beneficiaries, but as active participants, then you are well on your way. God's blessings. I feel your energy!
sooooo true...
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