Dear Editor,
Jamaicans were buoyed when we heard of a significant trending down of serious violent crime toward the end of 2014. But a little after we had that last delicious slice of Christmas pudding, and made serious new year resolutions against such recklessness, we were brought back to reality with a notable spike in murder.
It matters not that this spike was largely confined to a particular police division this time. It is the reality that if it wasn't there, it could have been elsewhere. In other words, 'everyweh wi tu'n, macca jook wi'.
If there is going to be any hope of making Jamaica a place of peace, an essential component will have to be smart and firm policing, but this is not the whole picture.
Cleary, a way has to be found to improve "economic justice" to include everyone who is willing to give peace a chance. Right now, we have to bank on our policymakers and business leaders to step up their awareness of what needs to be done. Internecine feuds among politicians about who can put a thicker slice of bread on the table, or who will slick it with butter as against margarine will not cut it.
Democracy must work, and is not merely a display of which side can thump desks louder in Parliament. Capitalism must also work more conspicuously if we are not all, at some point, forced to live in a Wild West situation. Just being a rich businessman is neither here nor there; businessmen, as drivers of productivity, and hence prosperity, must have vision for local expansion, including aggression to corner export markets where three million alone cannot sustain their plans.
It is no use pointing to poor countries which have no such crime statistics as Jamaica. Such countries are ruled by iron-fisted, un-democratic regimes, and most of them are not next-door to America where expectations of citizens are modelled on what they have seen, and perhaps, even experienced.
Still, I love Jamaica, I am betting on Jamaica.
Cathy Brown
cathy291181@yahoo.com
Hope and despair amid Ja's crime figures
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Jamaicans were buoyed when we heard of a significant trending down of serious violent crime toward the end of 2014. But a little after we had that last delicious slice of Christmas pudding, and made serious new year resolutions against such recklessness, we were brought back to reality with a notable spike in murder.
It matters not that this spike was largely confined to a particular police division this time. It is the reality that if it wasn't there, it could have been elsewhere. In other words, 'everyweh wi tu'n, macca jook wi'.
If there is going to be any hope of making Jamaica a place of peace, an essential component will have to be smart and firm policing, but this is not the whole picture.
Cleary, a way has to be found to improve "economic justice" to include everyone who is willing to give peace a chance. Right now, we have to bank on our policymakers and business leaders to step up their awareness of what needs to be done. Internecine feuds among politicians about who can put a thicker slice of bread on the table, or who will slick it with butter as against margarine will not cut it.
Democracy must work, and is not merely a display of which side can thump desks louder in Parliament. Capitalism must also work more conspicuously if we are not all, at some point, forced to live in a Wild West situation. Just being a rich businessman is neither here nor there; businessmen, as drivers of productivity, and hence prosperity, must have vision for local expansion, including aggression to corner export markets where three million alone cannot sustain their plans.
It is no use pointing to poor countries which have no such crime statistics as Jamaica. Such countries are ruled by iron-fisted, un-democratic regimes, and most of them are not next-door to America where expectations of citizens are modelled on what they have seen, and perhaps, even experienced.
Still, I love Jamaica, I am betting on Jamaica.
Cathy Brown
cathy291181@yahoo.com
Hope and despair amid Ja's crime figures
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