No We Can’t Low Di Yute Dem Fi Kill Nu More People

Among the destruc­tive things the People’s National Party has done to Jamaica out­side the destruc­tion of the econ­o­my, impov­er­ish­ment of the pop­u­la­tion, mak­ing our cur­ren­cy worth­less, and destroy­ing the pro­duc­tive sec­tor, is the destruc­tion of the Island’s moral compass.

Several days ago Dwayne Vaz the PNP mem­ber of par­lia­ment for cen­tral Westmoreland caused great con­cern to Jamaicans both at home and abroad when he invoked the mur­der lyrics of impris­oned con­vict­ed mur­der­er Vybz Kartel on stage , induc­ing his sup­port­ers to load up their guns to take the fight to mem­bers of the oppo­si­tion Jamaica Labor Party.
Since then Vaz has walked back the com­ments after Jamaicans react­ed strong­ly to the notion that an elect­ed offi­cial could reck­less attempt to do any­thing , much less sug­gest that the Island return to the dark days of polit­i­cal executions.
Vaz is rel­a­tive­ly young but he is no pup , if he is old enough to sit in Parliament as a mem­ber of that body he is not too young to know wrong from right and if he is that stu­pid then he needs to step aside.
Jamaica cer­tain­ly does not need that kind of leadership.

Absent any pepu­da­tion of Vaz on the mat­ter is the Prime Minister whom for all intents and pur­pos­es can­not be tak­en seriously.
However Portia does not need to speak out she does not know wrong from right and nei­ther does the Jamaica Gleaner a once proud paper now shame­less­ly the mouth-piece of the rul­ing PNP .
December 17^th 2015 The Paper pub­lished it’s dai­ly let­ter of the day, titled :

“Low Di Yout Dem”…

For my read­ers who are not famil­iar with the Jamaican ver­nac­u­lar, ” Low Di Yout Dem” is a col­lo­qui­al inter­pre­ta­tion of “leave the young peo­ple alone”.
The let­ter reads as follows.

THE EDITOR, Sir:

It is a wel­com­ing sight to see the increased num­ber of young peo­ple in pol­i­tics. Like in our youth­ful days, they will err. It is not our duty as elders to shut them up or try to destroy them in the name of trib­al pol­i­tics. First, we must acknowl­edge that this is not the gen­er­a­tion of the 1950s and 1960s. Second, they are more expres­sive and advanced cul­tur­al­ly and/​or intel­lec­tu­al­ly. They will make mis­takes; why hang them?

There is an inter­view with Bob Marley that was done on his return from a Caribbean des­ti­na­tion in the 1970s. He spoke about adults wrong­ful­ly judg­ing young peo­ple. He said (and I para­phrase) that all ‘dem big peo­ple gwaan like sey dem was nev­er young; dem a gwaan like dem did born big’. This line of rea­son­ing helps us to reflect on our­selves as we judge the young. Let us take the case of young Dwayne Vaz and that Kartel song. I will also look at young Dayton Campbell, too, because when he speaks, there is a kind of avalanche of con­dem­na­tion. It was this blitz of con­dem­na­tion and hang­man’s noose shak­ing at young Dwayne Vaz; and look who is talk­ing! Lef di yute! We were once young and we made errors. There were elders that were in place to help us to grow and to respect rea­son. What is miss­ing from all of this is reason.

There is the argu­ment that Vaz used lyrics of a “con­vict­ed mur­der­er”. Is the prob­lem the music or is it Vybz Kartel? I agree with the protest, but make it civ­il and intel­li­gent. Dwayne Vaz is a young man, and like any one of our sons, treat him like your child. On Tuesday, I saw the slew of orches­trat­ed con­dem­na­tions of young Vaz. It was like he com­mit­ted ISIS types of crime. Was there this lev­el of con­dem­na­tion of the so-called flag killing in Portmore? We have some young peo­ple in Jamaica who have a lot of poten­tial and they must not be destroyed, but be assist­ed as they evolve. Do you real­ly believe that Vaz would do some­thing delib­er­ate­ly on the big stage to call for ret­ri­bu­tion and vio­lence? Give the youth a break!

I see the same trend of com­ments and con­dem­na­tion of young Dayton Campbell. Let him speak. Intelligent peo­ple can­not remain silent in the face of igno­rance. When and where he com­mits an error, do not fail him, help him to over­come that prob­lem. Where is that vil­lage that is expect­ed to raise the youth? It is a pity that in this sea­son of polit­i­cal cam­paigns there is this empti­ness of knowl­edge and rea­son in the poor nar­ra­tives of 21-cen­tu­ry pol­i­tics in Jamaica. In times like these we real­ly miss the incom­pa­ra­ble Michael Manley. The truth buried will rise again.

Louis E.A. Moyston
http://​jamaica​glean​er​.com/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​/​l​e​t​t​e​r​s​/​2​0​1​5​1​2​1​7​/​l​e​t​t​e​r​-​d​a​y​-​l​o​w​-​d​i​-​y​o​u​t​-​dem.

As some­one who has more than once had the good for­tune of hav­ing an essay being des­ig­nat­ed Letter of the day I am dis­s­a­point­ed that the Gleaner thinks a let­ter which ask that the Jamaican peo­ple give a pass to a mem­ber of par­lia­ment because of his age is wor­thy of pub­li­ca­tion , much less let­ter of the day.
This let­ter is in and of itself the heart of what is wrong with Jamaica. No amount of quot­ing famous peo­ple changes that…
Vaz is not a youth he is a mem­ber of par­lia­ment and one who is in posi­tion to influ­ence real young people.
Making excus­es for him does noth­ing to help him, it shows the dement­ed state of men­tal retar­da­tion of those who excuse his behavior.
By the end of this year the very same youths will have mur­dered in excess of 1200 of their coun­try­men and women.
This writer and the Gleaner should be ashamed at want­i­ng to give a pass to some­one who have craved and pur­sued leadership.
Dwayne Vay is 34 years old , at his age I had com­plet­ed 10 years as a police offi­cer and had moved on and was 3 years into the sec­ond stage of my life.
Had any young police offi­cer wrong­ly killed or wound­ed a mem­ber of the pub­lic would the let­ter writer and the Gleaner be so benevolent?
Most police offi­cers are giv­en the enor­mous task of mak­ing life and death deci­sions at the ten­der age of 18 years-old.
Surgeons oper­ate dai­ly, some are younger than Dwayne Vaz, were one of them reck­less and end­ed up jeop­ar­diz­ing patien­t’s lives would he receive the same char­i­ta­ble pass?
I believe we all know the answer to these ques­tions, which brings us then to why should a sit­ting mem­ber of par­lia­ment be held to a less­er stan­dard of responsibility?

The let­ter writer is free to write what­ev­er he wants. As an opin­ion writer myself I write what I feel like . The prob­lem how­ev­er is when a news­pa­per which ought to know bet­ter ele­vates a let­ter with that kind of con­tent being ful­ly con­ver­sant of Jamaica’s bloody past as it relates to polit­i­cal vio­lence, it shows a cer­tain lev­el of reck­less­ness unwor­thy of the pub­lic’s trust.
Vaz made the sopho­moric com­ments on a stage in Montego Bay . Days lat­er six peo­ple were shot one killed in a dri­ve by shoot­ing in the very same city.
I am not sug­gest­ing there was a con­nec­tion between Vaz’s state­ments and the shoot­ings but it brings to the fore the volatile nature of the sit­u­a­tion with the pro­lif­er­a­tion and abun­dance of guns in the hands of peo­ple who are not smart enough to not use them in polit­i­cal killings.

Jamaica did “low di yute dem” , by the end of this year well over 1200 Jamaicans will have been killed by criminals.
Let that sink in for a bit.
The coun­try is a ver­i­ta­ble killing field , imag­ine 1200 bod­ies laid out side by side and imag­ine that car­nage in a nation 4411 square miles and a pop­u­la­tion of 2.7 million.
Then imag­ine just how ten­u­ous the sit­u­a­tion is.
No the youths can­not be allowed to do as they please the nation tried it and look where it got us.
Dwayne Vaz is no youth he is a grown man and he must be held account­able for his actions like every­one else.
I’m still await­ing a response from Jamaica house maybe ‚just maybe the Prime Minister will final­ly real­ize she is the Prime Minister of all Jamaicans and not just for the PNP.