Dear Editor,
For years the Jamaican society has endlessly experienced the proverbial elephant in the room which refers to the denigrated political system. This has, for years, raped and polarised the spirit of our people. We live in a country that is ruined by political stigma and victimisation. At election time you are critised for wearing a certain colour shirt.
In many ways our political climate resembles that of Africa. We must be careful that we are not so entrenched by and committed to a specific party that we'll do anything to keep that party in power. Lest we forget, Africa has been plagued by leaders who have been failures to their people.
I remember the interview that Cliff Hughes did some years ago on his weekly programme Impact in which he spoke to a young man who was a former child soldier in his homeland of Africa. This interview brought into sharp focus the socio-political climate that exists in Africa -- in societies in which young men 13, 14, 15 years old and onwards are recruited by agents affiliated with a party and trained to carry out various atrocities against their fellow people including but not limited to removing their right hands thereby seeking to prevent them from voting. All this being done to attain or retain the reins of government. I shudder to think this might be the reality of Jamaica a few years from now.
We should ask ourselves the question: Is this the way free-thinking and liberated Americans are treating each other even in their heated election climate?
I watched with utter disgust as a resident of Tivoli Gardens spewed political gibberish on the television recently. The resident's comments were somewhere along the lines of "wi a straight Labourite". Such comments lets us see closer a fundamental flaw. Granted, people in communities such as Cherry Gardens and Norbrook may share their individual allegiances. But I am quite sure they wouldn't callously express this. It's the ordinary citizen who has allowed himself to be brainwashed by ambitious politrikcians and are then left holding the blade. Let us think on these things.
Nick O Barrett
Montego Bay
St James
The elephant in the room
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For years the Jamaican society has endlessly experienced the proverbial elephant in the room which refers to the denigrated political system. This has, for years, raped and polarised the spirit of our people. We live in a country that is ruined by political stigma and victimisation. At election time you are critised for wearing a certain colour shirt.
In many ways our political climate resembles that of Africa. We must be careful that we are not so entrenched by and committed to a specific party that we'll do anything to keep that party in power. Lest we forget, Africa has been plagued by leaders who have been failures to their people.
I remember the interview that Cliff Hughes did some years ago on his weekly programme Impact in which he spoke to a young man who was a former child soldier in his homeland of Africa. This interview brought into sharp focus the socio-political climate that exists in Africa -- in societies in which young men 13, 14, 15 years old and onwards are recruited by agents affiliated with a party and trained to carry out various atrocities against their fellow people including but not limited to removing their right hands thereby seeking to prevent them from voting. All this being done to attain or retain the reins of government. I shudder to think this might be the reality of Jamaica a few years from now.
We should ask ourselves the question: Is this the way free-thinking and liberated Americans are treating each other even in their heated election climate?
I watched with utter disgust as a resident of Tivoli Gardens spewed political gibberish on the television recently. The resident's comments were somewhere along the lines of "wi a straight Labourite". Such comments lets us see closer a fundamental flaw. Granted, people in communities such as Cherry Gardens and Norbrook may share their individual allegiances. But I am quite sure they wouldn't callously express this. It's the ordinary citizen who has allowed himself to be brainwashed by ambitious politrikcians and are then left holding the blade. Let us think on these things.
Nick O Barrett
Montego Bay
St James
The elephant in the room
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