Pushing Ahead

"From the universities must come men, ideas, knowledge, experience, technical skills, and the deep humane understanding vital to fruitful relations among nations. Without these, world order, for which We have so long strived, cannot be established. From the universities, too, must come that ability which is the most valuable attribute of civilized men everywhere: the ability to transcend narrow passions and to engage in honest conversation; for civilization is by nature 'the victory of persuasion over force.'"

H.I.M. Haile Sellassie I

 Forgive me for the noticeable absence lately.  I have been a bit reticent of late contending with a few issues on the home-front, including the passing of an Elder cousin, but we must grind on.  I will say however that much in my life as of late, and that of several close friends, has put things into greater perspective and led to greater understanding.  As it is with life, change is inevitable and the greatest proof of growth is understanding and accepting change for change sake, even as we mediate the many variables. 

So I guess I may be a bit late in congratulating the new Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller of the People's National Party, on winning a decisive election campaign and on her recent inauguration.  I was actually very surprised when then PM Andrew Holness called for elections so quickly, and so early in the term he had assumed after the resignation of PM Bruce Golding.  Having no need to call for elections until the end of 2012, he really proved many people correct by showing this seemingly lack of experience.  I still believe and contend that he never really wanted the position and calling such prompt elections gave him a safe way out.  But that is just my opinion.

As for PM Simpson Miller, I do sincerely wish her all the best during this, her second stint as head of Jamaica stewardship.  I do not know which party I would favour forthrightly, but I do know however that the direction Jamaica must take, especially now during these most trying times globally, is a course that is best dealt with with careful yet sure tenor.  It has been far too long that I, growing from an African root stock most recently out of Jamaica, have heard the grumblings of a proletariat that is disproportionately undeserved and seemingly maligned as backwards 'quashie' segment of Jamaica's populace.

Maybe that description doesn't come from everyone.  But it certainly is spoken of often enough to make people look at Jamaica, and of the African therein, as not being capable of sorting herself out and of them not desiring more than the ramshackle politics and depraved living standards that are all too often left out of tourist brochures and the ubiquitous television commercial taunting "Come to Jamaica and feel alright."

One merely has to step outside the cozy enclave of the tourist trap resort settings to see, that while Jamaicans themselves are a fiercely proud and altogether happy people, the culture that is being spread of a happy-go-lucky livity is all too often met only by the very people exploiting the inhabitants, much in the same way plantation owners of yesteryear did when reparations were doled out in the last few decades of the 19th century.  I do not attempt to blanket categorize all as on this side or that of the gully, but it is apparent that some are doing way way better off than others.  And this doesn't seem to represent the stories I've heard of that fair island called Jamaica from my fore-bearers.  I mean it was never expressed that things were easy for all, but clearly there has been a shift towards the oligarchy and the bourgeoisie.  Not unlike elsewhere in the world.

But is yard mi love.  And a yard mi a defend.  At least in this context. 

Still, I pray that the PM can actually make fruitful the positions she has taken towards better bridging the divide.  At the same time, I pray that she too, does not get swept up by the vicious marauders and vipers who have always had there sights hell bent on the cheap labour and good nature of the Africans scattered throughout most of the African Diaspora.  We must be ever cognizant of 'freebies' and 'trojan horse' type gifts and expenditures on our soils, watching ever closely just exactly where the returns are being made.  I don't think I know any investors who are quick, especially as greed and selfishness has become the common mantra of the day thanks in no small part to the likes of Ayn Rand and others, to settle for diminished returns just for favourable political cache.

This is my lay and maybe naive analysis but I dare argue that it is desperately valid.  I will, and I hope many others will as well, hold and challenge the PM to stick to her guns when it comes to the social and financial welfare of her fellow countrymen.  Much is riding on and at stake in the end game.

Lastly, though for me significantly as if not more important, I hope the matter of those Africans, chiefly Rastafari adherents, and their calls for reparations and repatriation can be dealt with once and for all.  For too many years the governments of the world have not held in much high esteem the arguments and demands of the Nation of Rastafari and its adherents.  True indeed, there have been many calls for this and that; many seeming non-progressive missteps along the way.  Still they are not for lack of attempting to seriously engage government and academia alike to address some very simple truths, even if the facts may at times seem fuzzy.

While I might be able to see the point of contention that remittances would have to be addressed to all perpetrators of the brutish, vile, wicked and at the same time quite lucrative system of holocaust forever to be known as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Plantation Chattel Bondage, the common laissez-faire attitude amongst governments and the private sector has yet to this day, produce a forum for open and honest discussion of these issues.  Yes, academia deals with it well enough on the one hand, but to date, no decisive measures seem forthcoming as to how to mitigate the wrongs accorded these atrocities.

Similarly, the point of contention that Rastafari specifically and Africans generally, who had been affected most heinously by the systems of bondage and brutality, make as to the return of said peoples and their ascendants to African soil, to restore dignities and make whole in what part it can the spirit of a people so unfathomably wronged for centuries, gets little media and more importantly, less serious discussion amongst governments, who for their part are little apt to send potential wage earners and tax payers forever away from future tax rolls.

As I state always, my assessment may be naive; I may be speaking from a point of the same narrow passions the HIM Emperor Haile Selassie the 1st so eloquently outlined.  Still yet, they are reasonable questions to many and as yet have gone largely unanswered with any true conviction.  As Jamaica sets again once more to embark on a trajectory of finally making that ascension to true independence, I wonder if PM Portia, has the wherewithal and the guts to tackle such a salient issue to many of her citizens and many more members of the Diaspora who hold such truths to be self evident.  It seems we've been demanding these things before the Green, Gold and Black rose to replace the Union Jack, long before.

Do you, PM, have the strength and foresight to launch Jamaica far ahead of the pack, and settle the issues of repatriation and reparation for the millions of Africans now watching, and the countless more willing and waiting to return home, in dignity, to help both Africa and the rest of the Diaspora gain serious strength and foster once deeply held familial ties in this global market we find ourselves in today?  I have faith that you do Portia.  I have faith that you do.

I close with 7 words of peace and love, 'GOD IS LOVE, so let US LOVE."

Follow me on Twitter@JahKwasiAbahu