The events now taking place in Kingston, Jamaica is indeed most unsettling to the mind, but to someone who grew up on the Island and witnessed the political chaos that erupted there during the seventies and eighties it is not at all surprising. With so many guns now existing on the Island due to the influx of artillery that made its way there during what seemed to be a deliberate attempt to destabilize the country for the purpose of political maneuvering it now looks like the chicken has come home to roost.
To fully understand the why of what is currently taking place in Jamaica lets rewind to 1972. This was when Mr. Michael Manley, then leader of the People's National Party (
PNP) which was the opposing party at the time and was leaning in a direction regarded as having a communist agenda; the
PNP however won the election, making Mr. Manley Jamaica's fourth Prime Minister. This was also during the era of the cold war between the USA and Russia. I being a young teenager during these years, had not formed a political ideology at this point, but do recollect visiting for the first time to the (
JIS) Jamaica Information Service to conduct a research on current events for a church project I was involved in. There, I came across the concept of the
Nonaligned Movement of which Jamaica was a member, I found this to be intriguing and very informative.
Until 1972, Jamaica was a relatively peaceful Island. A place one would be happy to call home; where one was more than happy to return to after a long migration overseas; for the benefit of spending one's final days of an earthly sojourn in peace and tranquility. Alas, Jamaica would become a gun-toting battlefield due to political unrest fueled by the debate on communism which took traction on the Island .
There were guns of all makes and models making their way to the Island from various sectors of the globe. Finding hands for the use of these guns was in no way a challenge. Jamaica not too far removed from colonial rule; having gained it's so-called independence only ten years earlier, was and still is attempting to recover from what
Dr. Joy De Gruy Leary I think would describe as Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.
The high illiteracy rate, pockets of slums and economic impoverishment all contributed to the location of willing minds and capable hands to participate in the destruction of what was once considered a virtual paradise. Overnight it was transformed into a living hell, an aura of death could be felt in the atmosphere. The political rivalry between the People's National Party and the Jamaica Labor Party (
JLP) had become insanely violent. Like magnet, the youths were dragged into warfare and with police and soldiers roaming the street day and night ,the Island had the feel of a virtual combat zone; the sound of gunshots became a routine occurrence. The radio's daily news broadcast along with the newspaper was consumed with the stories of death and destruction; another day, another killing, another family in pain grieving for their son or daughter who had fallen victim to the political insanity that had taken hold of the 144 square miles patch of earth sitting in the midst of the Caribbean Sea.
By 1976 the band-wagon of political chaos and destruction was bursting at the seams. The ordinary citizenry had been forced to either become a part of the insanity or lose their lives as an opposing element of the fraction that had arrogated themselves; the area dons, bosses, leaders or whatever they considered themselves to be. No one was spared; men, women, children, it did not matter; if you were not willing to be a part of the madness, you had to escape without notice knowing that you will no longer have a home to return to, or show unwavering support to the political party to which these self-proclaimed foot soldiers had aligned themselves.
By 1980 the entire country was in total chaos, the violence had now found its way to some suburban areas of the country. There were electrical power shortages, sometimes several times per day. Food became a scarce commodity, and the prices had gone insanely high on what food items could be found, leaving the country desperate for change; a goal attained through rape, theft, arson and murders by ignorant, impressionable minds executing savagery with guns (some home-made) brought into the country for the purpose of the created state of destruction and fear.
F
ast forward to 2010 where Jamaica is trying to put behind her political violent past with hopes of once again luring her tourists on whom she is greatly dependent on (aided undoubtedly by it's now famous track star
Usain Bolt ). Jamaica is again forced to face another period of unrest with a month long curfew now in effect, stemming from America's demand of the extradition of one Christopher "Dudus" Coke for drug trafficking charges in the USA where he would be facing a possible life sentence to be spent on one of America's only remaining slave plantations. So said because according to the
13th amendment of the US Constitution, which in my humble opinion, kept in place that horrible concept of force labor which was so brutally dispensed on humanity (be it the outright barbarous practice that the African experienced or the water-wash version that was called indentured servitude).
Mr. Coke may indeed be guilty of the accusations levelled against him and the Prime Minister's nine month refusal to extradite because of what he feels were illegally obtained wiretap evidence may very well have some merit. However, taking all this into consideration, the reality remains that for the country to once again be dealing with gun toting civilians at odds with the security forces will be very detrimental to the tourist industry and a terrible experience for the youths of the country. The availability of guns on the Island I do believe if traced, will without doubt finds its origin back to the seventies and eighties when the violent political monster reared it's vicious head.
My hope is that the events that are now occurring in Jamaica will have a more peaceful conclusion abating the present unrest and bringing back a semblance of peace to the Island.
