OK I HAVENT HIT YALLZ WID A VIDEO MIX IN A MIN... DECIDED TA DUST OFF THE RUST... PEEP DA RNB, HIP-HOP THROWBACK...
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Tivoli Gardens: Out of bad let good come - Editorials, Current Issues & Opinion Articles - JamaicaObserver.com
Tivoli Gardens: Out of bad let good come -
Editorials, Current Issues & Opinion Articles
- JamaicaObserver.com
Editorials, Current Issues & Opinion Articles
- JamaicaObserver.com
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
IF the security forces can consolidate their clean-up of the criminals among us -- and they must -- it will usher in a new Jamaica. Perhaps even the Jamaica that all decent, law-abiding Jamaicans have long yearned for and had begun to give up hope of ever achieving -- a place where we would all prefer to live, work and raise our families in peace, love and prosperity.
In this context, the question is already being asked whether the current prime minister, Mr Bruce Golding, is suitable to lead this new Jamaica. In other words, is he the leader to take us into the Promised Land?
We have not been shy in taking a strong position -- some have accused us of being strident -- on the abysmally poor handling of the Christopher 'Dudus' Coke/Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair by Mr Golding. From the moment that he declared he was prepared to pay the political price for his defence of Mr Coke, we urged him to put the matter into the hands of the local courts.
We foresaw that no good could come of a prime minister usurping the role of the court, in favour of, not a national hero, but a man the United States wanted on charges of trafficking in drugs and guns. Admittedly, we could not have foreseen the depth of the tragedy that was to follow so soon after.
But we are at June 2, 2010 and the future beckons. As a nation, we have to engage in deep introspection, honest debate and a willingness to face the hard and painful truths that will emerge about who was responsible for getting us where we are and how to go forward from here.
Some well-intentioned persons have called for a truth and reconciliation mechanism not unlike that established by Mr Nelson Mandela in South Africa after the overthrow of Apartheid. We don't oppose the idea, but our instinct is that it would take more than our people are prepared to give to get that going at this point.
We suggest, once again, that the best forum for unearthing these truths is in a Commission of Enquiry, which does not have to depend on hard-to-get forensic evidence, but allows for primary actors to give enlightening first-hand accounts and anecdotal evidence of atrocities that can provide leads for future legal action.
We further suggest that as we analyse Mr Golding's role in this entire debacle, we view it in the broad context of not just what took place but also the opportunity it has provided for a new beginning.
In this regard, we continue to be disappointed by Mr Edward Seaga's tirade against Mr Golding, Mr Joseph Matalon and Bishop Herro Blair, which appears to be blaming everyone but himself for what has taken place in Tivoli Gardens. It does seem at this juncture that Mr Seaga's vast experience as member of parliament for West Kingston for 43 years cannot be relied on for objectivity. What a pity.
Yet, as unfortunate as the events of the last 10 months and especially these past two weeks have been, we can argue that had they not occurred, we might not have been given this 'god-sent' opportunity to remake the Jamaican nation.
Mr Golding can atone for errors made by grasping with both hands the opportunity to craft a new legacy -- that of bringing crime in Jamaica to within tolerable levels. He must be unwavering and resolute in his pursuit of the criminals.
In that context, Jamaica may yet forgive him.
Outkast - 13th floor (Growing Old)
I thought this was the most appropriate time for ALL OF US to re-read, remember and NEVER FORGET, the speech given by Willie Lynch a slave owner who over 300 years ago devised a plan to help keep Black people divided...
Gentlemen:
I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of our lord, one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First , I shall thank you, the gentlemen of the of the colony of Virginia, for bringing me here. I am here to help you solve some of your problems with slaves. Your invitation reached me in my modest plantation in the West Indies where I have experimented with some of the newest and still the oldest method for control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program is implemented. As our boat sailed south on the James River, named for our illustrious KING JAMES, whose BIBLE we CHERISH, I saw enough to know that our problem is not unique. While Rome used cords or wood as crosses for standing human bodies along the old highways in great numbers, you are here using the tree and the rope on occasion.
I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree a couple of miles back. You are losing valuable stock by hangings, you are having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the fields too long for maximum profit, you suffer occasional fires, your animals are killed, Gentleman,...You know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them.
In my bag, I have a fool proof method for controlling your slaves. I guarantee everyone of you that if installed it will control the slaves for at least three hundred years. My method is simple, any member of your family or any OVERSEER can use it.
I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves, and I take these differences and make them bigger. I use FEAR, DISTRUST, andENVY for control purposes. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies, and it will work throughout the SOUTH. Take this simple little list of differences and think about them. On the top of my list is "AGE" but it is only there because it starts with an "A"; The second is"COLOR" or shade; there is INTELLIGENCE, SIZE, SEX, SIZE OF PLANTATION, ATTITUDE of owner, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, east or west, north, south, have fine or coarse hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action- but before that, I shall assure you that DISTRUST IS STRONGER THAN TRUST, AND ENVY IS STRONGER THAN ADULATION, RESPECT OR ADMIRATION.
The black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands.
Don't forget you must pitch the old black VS. the young black males, and the young black male against the old black male. You must use the dark skinned slaves VS. the light skin slaves. You must use the female VS the male, and the male VS, the female. You must always have your servants and OVERSEERS distrust all blacks, but it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us.
Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control, use them. Never miss an opportunity. My plan is guaranteed, and the good thing about this plan is that if used intensely for one year the slave will remain perpetually distrustful.
A once-in-a-lifetime chance to crush the gangs - Editorials, Current Issues & Opinion Articles - JamaicaObserver.com
A once-in-a-lifetime chance to crush the gangs
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Editorials, Current Issues & Opinion Articles
- JamaicaObserver.com
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Editorials, Current Issues & Opinion Articles
- JamaicaObserver.com
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
IT'S not that we didn't know all along. However, the comments of some residents of Tivoli Gardens reported in this week's Sunday Observer gave even greater confirmation of the life of bondage people in garrison constituencies suffer daily.
One man interviewed by our news team during the media tour of that community last Thursday informed us that in order to stay alive he does what he is told. He votes, he said, because he's told he has to.
One lady gave an indication of the threat hanging over the heads of all the community's residents, saying that the majority did not heed the police's appeal for people to leave before the security forces' operation simply because they couldn't. Any such attempt, she said, would have been met with death. In fact, the houses of the few who were brave enough to leave were vandalised.
The message sent in those acts of arson was that people had no freedom, no choice; live by the rule of the rabble or die.
The sad fact is that what obtained in Tivoli Gardens before the security forces repelled the gangsters who had captured that community is the stark reality in many other neighbourhoods across the country.
Men who regard it as their right to determine how people should live; men who revel in their power to say who is beyond salvage and which little girl they should sexually assault while her parents dare not object, hold these communities hostage.
These men, who disingenuously claim poverty as the driving force for their criminal behaviour, are really terrorists and should be treated as such by law-abiding citizens and, more important, by the authorities.
Our disapproval of the way these parasites choose to live, plus the fact that they have brought so much sorrow to thousands of families and contributed significantly to the limited growth in our country have given us cause to support the present thrust by the security forces to rout gangs and crush their criminal enterprises.
The Government, we submit, should not allow the ongoing operation in West Kingston to be derailed by baseless public or political pressure. For we see in it an opportunity to start reclaiming our country from the terrorists who, for too long, have caused us too much pain and shame.
In that regard, we hope the operation will be extended, strategically of course, to other centres of violence, as now that the terrorists are still shell-shocked by the might of the military and the constabulary, they should not be allowed to recover.
We caution, though, that the security forces must, in the course of their duties, demonstrate respect for the human rights of the Jamaican people. For it will take only one act of abuse to diminish, or worse erase what we sense is a high level of public support for the current initiative.
The country has already started paying a high price for last week's events. Lives have been lost, people are traumatised, businesses including the vital tourism industry on which hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans rely for a livelihood have suffered setbacks, and our image has taken a battering internationally.
Outside of the lives lost, if the damage done to businesses and our image will result in a greater good, we will have no quarrel. It is past time that this country be allowed to grow into a place where we all want to live.
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