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Holness’ Invitation To Walk The Garrisons.

Oné of the many down sides to com­ment­ing on Jamaica’s politi­cians is, one way or anoth­er you will most assured­ly, be accused of being a sup­port­er of the oth­er party.That is a risk we are pre­pared to take if it gen­er­ates the kind of dis­cus­sions we would like to see that will spark an intel­lec­tu­al rev­o­lu­tion amongst our peo­ple, one that will force change toward trans­paren­cy and account­abil­i­ty among pub­lic offi­cials, and Agencies​.How then do we get to spark that intel­lec­tu­al dis­course when the bat­tle lines are so stark between those who are edu­cat­ed, wants every­one to know it and are quite hap­py not to have oth­ers get a shot at the edu­ca­tion they got, leav­ing them no one to look down on. And on the oth­er side of the divide those who are painful­ly illit­er­ate that they glo­ri­fy some who are bare­ly able to read and write.

Recently sworn Prime Minister Andrew Holness, promised he would write to the leader of the Opposition Portia Simpson Miller invit­ing her to walk with him through Garrison com­mu­ni­ties, a sym­bol­ic move Holness feel, one that will set the tone toward his stat­ed goal of dis­man­tling gar­ri­son com­mu­ni­ties. The Jamaica dai­ly Gleaner of October 31st 2011 is report­ing that true to his word Holness sent a let­ter to Simpson Miller last Friday October 27th, but is yet to receive a response. I’m not that cyn­i­cal to believe that there is a sin­is­ter motive to what the Gleaner sto­ry seem to feel is a reluc­tance on Miller’s part to respond.

Holness

I am will­ing to give Miller the ben­e­fit of the doubt, I am will­ing to wait for some­one with­in the PNP to coin a response, give it to her and allow her to fig­ure out how she can ben­e­fit from that response polit­i­cal­ly. On that basis I can clear­ly see why she has­n’t yet responded.

I mean for cry­ing out loud, what is there to think about? Zones of polit­i­cal exclu­sions only serve to keep peo­ple impov­er­ished and down trod­den, how could any­one who claim to care for the most dis­pos­s­esed amongst us not want to tear these bar­ri­ers down? Barriers mean crime , pover­ty , lack of invest­ment, lack of jobs, lack of edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties, lack of prop­er health care , and I could go on ad-naeusum.Why would Portia find this objec­tion­able , despite the pol­i­tics involved, is ask­ing her to be gra­cious and mag­nan­i­mous too much to ask ? Miller is report­ed to have stat­ed that there are no walls in her con­stituen­cy, this response was her attempt to sug­gest her con­stituen­cy is not a gar­ri­son, because there are no lit­er­al walls keep­ing any­one in or pre­vent­ing any­one from entering.

This com­ment is both cyn­i­cal and insult­ing, on the one hand, one has to sur­mise that the esteemed leader of the oppo­si­tion is sug­gest­ing that the absence of a wall is proof pos­i­tive that she does not pre­side over a gar­ri­son. On the oth­er hand it could be rea­son­ably con­strued that she actu­al­ly believes that an actu­al wall is a nec­es­sary com­po­nent that makes up a gar­ri­son. So which are we to believe? One thing is cer­tain The leader of the Opposition has spent her entire car­rear hon­ing an image that monop­o­lizes the art of car­ing for the poor, she is mem­ber of par­lia­ment for the con­stituen­cy of South West Saint Andrew one of the most des­per­ate­ly impov­er­ished areas in the coun­try, added to the pover­ty, it is crime infest­ed. Through intim­i­da­tion, mur­der, rape, arson and oth­er means, Miller and oth­er gar­ri­son Members of par­lia­ment are returned to office time and time again. No one real­ly knows what the true polit­i­cal feel­ings of the peo­ple who live in those com­mu­ni­ties are, no one dare to go against the grain , too many have died. This type of des­per­ate 21st cen­tu­ry slav­ery is synana­mous to what Bob Marley so elo­quent­ly sang about , where they removed the chains from the ankles and placed them on the brain . This is not con­fined to the con­stituen­cy of Miller, or Holness, it is not just Arnett Gardens built and armed By the likes of Anthony Spaulding, or Tivoli Gardens the once leg­endary moth­er of all gar­risons, nur­tured fer­til­ized, pruned and cared for by Edward Seaga. The truth is most of the cor­po­rate area is carved up into ridicu­lous no go zones, once pris­tine areas of Willow Way and Standpipe in the heart of uptown are now over-run with crime and made impos­si­ble for decent peo­ple to live.

So the ques­tion aris­es, why would Miller want to see a dis­man­tling of gar­risons? Garrisons have kept her rel­e­vant , kept her paid , bestowed the title of Prime Minister on her, and Most Honorable on her and her hus­band. Does the priv­i­leged give up their priv­i­lege? No it has to be tak­en from them. It is up to the Jamaican peo­ple to tear down the gar­risons. Portia Lucretia Simpson Miller , and Andrew Michael Holness, despite the ges­tures of good-will can­not and will not dis­man­tle gar­risons, Garrisons are not geo­graph­i­cal, or phy­chi­cal they are men­tal, peo­ple will nec­es­sar­i­ly have to get to a point where they real­ize that the Holnesses and the Millers of this world are not in their cor­ner, they have to take their future and that of their chil­dren into their own hands , they have to decide that they will not be pit­ted against each oth­er so that one per­son , one fam­i­ly, can be ele­vat­ed above all else.

It was a won­der­ful thing to see the beau­ti­ful fam­i­ly of Andrew Holness , pic­ture-per­fect, hus­band , wife and two adorable lit­tle boys, those two boys will get a prop­er edu­ca­tion, they will get the best health care, they will get to live in the absolute best Government Housing and have all of the perks and trap­pings that are accord­ed the Prime Minister and his fam­i­ly. But for that one fam­i­ly that made it, how many lit­tle Jamaican boys do not have shoes, clothes, a prop­er bed to sleep in, or has no idea where their next meal is com­ing from?

The intel­lect that would cause the peo­ple to see that they deserve the same things Miller and Holness enjoys, is lack­ing and that defi­cien­cy will keep them enslaved in the gar­risons , held behind imag­i­nary walls that keeps them enslaved in south-west St Andrew to Portia Simpson Miller, and in West Central St. Andrew to Andrew Michael Holness. Holness may deny that his con­stituen­cy is a gar­ri­son all he wants , those of us who lived there, dodged bul­lets there and woke up to see the corpses know a gar­ri­son when we see one , Tower Hill/​Water House is a garrison.

What both­ers me is the total blind­ness and absolute idio­cy of Jamaican vot­ers who con­tin­ue to allow these mis­fits to use and abuse them , while they kill each oth­er to ele­vate them to god like sta­tus. People all over the world, in places where dic­ta­tor­ships ruled for decades , are ris­ing to the occa­sion, real­iz­ing that those who gov­erned are allowed to gov­ern by them the peo­ple, and as such they are tak­ing their future into their own hands , over­turn­ing even the most entrenched sys­tems in places like Egypt and Libya. We get the Government we deserve, the blind­ness of the elec­torate is their undo­ing, where there is no vision the peo­ple perish.