Dear Editor,
Former Prime Minister P J Patterson is asking Jamaicans to show appreciation for politicians while they are alive and that we should cease to vilify our political leaders and not lump them together in a class of gang.
On the face of it this seems like a reasonable proposition, our political leaders make extraordinary sacrifices in serving our country and many times we seem unappreciative. But there is another side to this issue and we all would be dishonest if we didn't acknowledge the mistakes of the past which continues to haunt us.
As early as the late 60s our political leaders derived a formula to obtain power and to reward those that propelled them into office. This wasn't a feature of rural politics, where Patterson and Roger Clarke practised their craft, but it certainly permeated throughout urban politics. Not all politicians participated, but those that didn't sat silently by and kept their collective mouths closed.
Those of us who grew up in ghettos or inner-city communities were introduced to politics when politicians encouraged poor disadvantaged youth to rise up against each other while they retired uptown to havens and the comforts with their wives and children. We experienced our friends, brothers, sisters, and neighbours being wantonly slaughtered all in the name of political power. That, Mr Patterson, is why we seem unappreciative.
If our politicians had simply flooded our communities with social workers, if they had spent a fraction of the money they spend on arming the police, if they hadn't corruptly wasted our resources, I guarantee you, Sir, the love and affection you so crave would flow towards you with the ferocity of a river in spate.
Today, because of false promises, corrupt leadership and a dysfunctional society mainly created by politicians we find it difficult if not impossible to contain the outbreak of a virus less harmful than the dengue haemorrhagic fever or an Ebola outbreak in West Africa. In the 1970s, though, simply because the outbreak wasn't politicised and the country's infrastructure wasn't falling apart, we did just that with a tiny virology laboratory housed in the Department of Microbiology, small staff and one PAHO representative.
Our political legacy has left a trail of sadness and broken dreams and we are now relying on the International Monetary Fund to repair the damage.
Mark Clarke
Siloah, St Elizabeth
mark_clarke9@yahoo.com
We can't honour those who brought us to this low
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Former Prime Minister P J Patterson is asking Jamaicans to show appreciation for politicians while they are alive and that we should cease to vilify our political leaders and not lump them together in a class of gang.
On the face of it this seems like a reasonable proposition, our political leaders make extraordinary sacrifices in serving our country and many times we seem unappreciative. But there is another side to this issue and we all would be dishonest if we didn't acknowledge the mistakes of the past which continues to haunt us.
As early as the late 60s our political leaders derived a formula to obtain power and to reward those that propelled them into office. This wasn't a feature of rural politics, where Patterson and Roger Clarke practised their craft, but it certainly permeated throughout urban politics. Not all politicians participated, but those that didn't sat silently by and kept their collective mouths closed.
Those of us who grew up in ghettos or inner-city communities were introduced to politics when politicians encouraged poor disadvantaged youth to rise up against each other while they retired uptown to havens and the comforts with their wives and children. We experienced our friends, brothers, sisters, and neighbours being wantonly slaughtered all in the name of political power. That, Mr Patterson, is why we seem unappreciative.
If our politicians had simply flooded our communities with social workers, if they had spent a fraction of the money they spend on arming the police, if they hadn't corruptly wasted our resources, I guarantee you, Sir, the love and affection you so crave would flow towards you with the ferocity of a river in spate.
Today, because of false promises, corrupt leadership and a dysfunctional society mainly created by politicians we find it difficult if not impossible to contain the outbreak of a virus less harmful than the dengue haemorrhagic fever or an Ebola outbreak in West Africa. In the 1970s, though, simply because the outbreak wasn't politicised and the country's infrastructure wasn't falling apart, we did just that with a tiny virology laboratory housed in the Department of Microbiology, small staff and one PAHO representative.
Our political legacy has left a trail of sadness and broken dreams and we are now relying on the International Monetary Fund to repair the damage.
Mark Clarke
Siloah, St Elizabeth
mark_clarke9@yahoo.com
We can't honour those who brought us to this low
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