If You Believe Social Intervention Will Change This You Are Even More Stupid Than I Thought.

Those who view the killings and the gen­er­al sense of law­less­ness in Jamaica with con­ster­na­tion may be miss­ing a fun­da­men­tal fact.

Jamaica, like oth­er Caribbean Islands, comes from a colo­nial past.
The Independence procla­ma­tion of August 1962 and the hand­ing over of Jamaica to its dark­er skinned sec­ond-tiered caste for lead­er­ship did not result in the end of either racism or casteism.

Today mon­ey and for­mal edu­ca­tion dic­tate who sit atop the social peck­ing order. This does not nec­es­sar­i­ly mean that skin pig­men­ta­tion or the lack there­of does not go a long way in decid­ing status.

Average Jamaicans still embrace the con­cept of the big man. The “big-man “accord­ing to Jamaican ver­nac­u­lar is any­one they view as vest­ed with power.
Those of a lighter skin col­or, monied or edu­cat­ed or all of the fore­gone is cer­tain­ly not shy about being the big fish in the lit­tle pond.
A con­vo­lut­ed sys­tem of patron­age and elitism.

Then there is the impov­er­ished urban black youth who were once tools of the polit­i­cal class. As a mat­ter of sur­vival, many were forced to align them­selves to either of the two polit­i­cal parties.
Often times not nec­es­sar­i­ly out of choice but because of the zip code in which they come of age.

Over the years the lure of the big city the prospect of an eas­i­er life has act­ed as a mag­net to draw young men and women to Kingston and to some extent Montego Bay.
In very short order the vast major­i­ty of them are forced to rec­og­nize that the lure and lights of the city are like an unat­tain­able mirage.
Ultimately they too end up in the slums of the city, des­ti­tute, dis­en­chant­ed and disillusioned.
Politicians are ill-equipped to hand out good­ies today as they once were able to do in yes­ter­year. As such con­trol of the cities, urban youth have grad­u­al­ly slipped from their grasp.

Urban sprawl became a fac­tor, many of the dis­il­lu­sioned seek­ing a bet­ter life in the cities and towns end­ed up on lands they cap­ture in and around the met­ro­pol­i­tan areas. Shanty towns emerged in and around the met­ro­pol­i­tan areas of Kingston, Spanish Town, Montego Bay, May Pen and others.
Those Shanty-towns are now incu­ba­tors which pro­duce a nev­er end­ing line of gang­sters who engage in mur­der for hire, lot­to scam­ming, extor­tion, rob­bery, human traf­fick­ing and a pletho­ra of oth­er crimes.

From the zones of polit­i­cal exclu­sion(gar­risons)cre­at­ed by the politi­cians and the zinc and ply­board, shan­ty towns emerged young men and women hope­less, yet deter­mined to have a life of excess which they view as a life of success.

These young­sters can­not be count­ed on to till the soil or wait their turn for the shiny objects mon­ey can buy, they want it now.
The advent of the Internet and cable Television vast­ly com­pressed the world bring­ing into sharp focus the way the rich and famous live.
Jamaica’s young, men and women are not going to be told to work and wait when they can take it now they have the means.
Lotto-scam, mur­der for hire, rob­bery, pros­ti­tu­tion, human traf­fick­ing, drug-deal­ing, extor­tion and every oth­er vice is accept­able as long as it brings in the money.

God and Church are scoffed at, derid­ed as out­dat­ed relics of the past, rep­re­sen­ta­tive car­i­ca­tures of the fail­ings of pre­vi­ous generations.
As a result, the Church is no longer sacro­sanct, they are prime tar­gets to be robbed, the hal­lowed halls of church­es and tem­ples no longer engen­der rev­er­ence, not for the men and women of the cloth not even for a high­er pow­er God.
High pow­ered weapons have sup­plant­ed the mys­ti­cism of divine pow­er for­mer gen­er­a­tions rev­er­enced and sought.
The num­ber of dead bod­ies cre­at­ed by a thug now defines the respect he receives in the streets. Like scalp on a Braves belt, they gath­er bod­ies unmind­ful or uncon­cerned about the val­ue of life.

The hal­lowed halls of the church are just anoth­er place to take a life and where bet­ter to do so?
Doing so sends the mes­sage, the man behind the weapon is more pow­er­ful than the god of their victims.
“Not even God can save you”, fear in the hearts of oth­ers is what they crave.
It is ter­ror­ism plain and simple.

It is with­in that envi­ron­ment that a Bill to deal with crime is con­tem­plat­ed and passed yet the focus is not on the bar­barism of the killers but on the actions and strate­gies to be used to root them out. It is on that basis that it is doomed to fail and it will fail.
God help us comes to mind but then again God helps those who help themselves.
This prob­lem requires deci­sive action, unfor­tu­nate­ly, the peo­ple tasked with the solu­tion are the peo­ple who cre­at­ed the prob­lem in the first place.
If you believe social inter­ven­tion will change this you are even more stu­pid than I thought.