We Devalue Ourselves, Then Blame Others Who Do The Same…

If pop­u­lar, rich and influ­en­tial peo­ple were exempt from the rule of law, only the poor­er peo­ple with no con­nec­tions to jus­tice and pow­er would be sub­ject to the rule of law.
I want you to think about that for a moment.
Why?
Because, to a large extent that is exact­ly where we are. Donald Trump com­mit­ted all kinds of crimes against his peo­ple who call him pres­i­dent, yet he will suf­fer no real con­se­quences for his role in solic­it­ing and con­spir­ing with Russian coun­ter­in­tel­li­gence in swing­ing the elec­tions his way.
It is not that Robert Muller the Republican Prosecutor has­n’t found evi­dence that Trump com­mit­ted crimes, not just in con­spir­a­cy but in obstruc­tion of jus­tice.
The fact remains, that counter to the American Constitution, the Justice Department’s Decision that a sit­ting President can­not be indict­ed, effec­tive­ly places Presidents above the law.
Donald Trump by virtue of the high office he holds, though ill-got­ten, will nev­er face justice.

But this isn’t about the hypocrisy of the American Justice sys­tem which tar­gets poor African-American peo­ple with dra­con­ian enforce­ment strate­gies while ignor­ing the crimes of the pow­er­ful, wealthy and well con­nect­ed.
It is about us Jamaicans, reg­u­lar peo­ple, who clam­or for and sup­port blind­ly, con­vict­ed drug deal­ers, mur­der­ers, and rapists.
Deep in those ten­den­cies, we con­vinced our­selves that we are jus­ti­fied, because those crim­i­nals we love have had their rights abro­gat­ed, our elites and our pol­i­cy­mak­ers believe it, and so the impres­sion­able peo­ple end up believ­ing it.
We have a his­to­ry of emu­lat­ing the wrong peo­ple, lion­iz­ing and can­on­iz­ing peo­ple who are pop­u­lar and peo­ple who have com­mit­ted seri­ous crimes, (not just some­one who was bust­ed with two sticks of weed), but those whose hands are drip­ping with the inno­cent blood of their coun­try­men.
I would like to see real­ly clear lines of demar­ca­tion in how we view these peo­ple.
Adijah Palmer is a con­vict­ed mur­der­er, [a con­vict­ed mur­der­er], let that sink in, yet he is one of the most pop­u­lar peo­ple in the coun­try.
What does that say about the peo­ple in our coun­try? What does that say about our moral com­pass?
What kind of coun­try are we cre­at­ing in which mur­der­ers are allowed to cre­ate music and enjoy the fruits of their labor after tak­ing the life of oth­ers?
What then do we expect the youth to emu­late, our decent hard work­ing pub­lic ser­vants or the mis­guid­ed gang­sters who are able to put some mur­der lyrics togeth­er?
On today, the day we are told was the day of Christ’s res­ur­rec­tion, the Jamaican peo­ple con­tin­ue to say “give us Barabas”.

Mark Myrie, (Buju Banton) a con­vict­ed felon returned to Jamaica to a wel­come befit­ting a nation­al hero.
No one both­ered to stop for a minute and think that this guy just walked out of Federal prison in the United States for deal­ing dope.
It mat­tered not that he was bust­ed mak­ing the deal.
If soci­eties are able to stop crimes before they are com­mit­ted, ain’t that good for stop­ping mur­ders rapes, and the addic­tion of our youth to dan­ger­ous drugs?
And now, Myrie cries foul that his hotel room was searched by Trinidadian author­i­ties after enter­ing that coun­try to per­form, hav­ing left an American Prison.
This writer can­not and will not con­done dis­crim­i­na­tion or abus­es of any­one’s human rights, but I am a firm believ­er in the rule of law.
Being allowed into a coun­try, (not your own) is a priv­i­lege, not a right, as some of our mis­in­formed are apt to believe.
No, being a CARICOM mem­ber state, does not give Jamaicans rights which super­sedes the Trinidadian con­sti­tu­tion, or any oth­er CARICOM mem­ber state for that mat­ter.
So when you enter their coun­try, you are sub­ject and dif­fer­en­tial to their laws, as they are to ours.
Mark Myrie can play the vic­tim if he choos­es to, and he is, because there are more than enough peo­ple will­ing to sac­ri­fice com­mon sense, decen­cy, and dig­ni­ty on the idol­a­trous altar of hero wor­ship.
The truth is that he is not the sec­ond com­ing of Jesus Christ, none of his shows are events designed to save human­i­ty.
They are events designed to make mon­ey for, and pro­mote his brand, noth­ing more noth­ing less.

Whether the search of Myrie’s hotel room is legit or not is not the issue.
If he believes that his rights were abridged he has rem­e­dy in the courts.
The fact of the mat­ter is that we con­tin­ue to delude our­selves into think­ing that oth­er peo­ple in the Caribbean hate us because we have mag­nif­i­cent track stars, reg­gae music, and some good Ganja.
Me, I am a lot more skep­ti­cal, I am old enough to remem­ber when every Caribbean nation­al would tell for­eign­ers they were from Jamaica.
They did so because they respect­ed us, they emu­lat­ed us, they looked up to us.
That hyper­bol­ic self-delud­ing non­sense that we feed our­selves, that they hate us because of our accom­plish­ments only fur­ther deep­ens the pit from which we will need to dig our­selves.
The truth is that they stop emu­lat­ing us when we stopped respect­ing our­selves. We can con­tin­ue with the delu­sion­al non­sense, or we can ask our­selves why is it that we are three times more like­ly to kill each oth­er as Jamaicans, than are the peo­ple in Latin America and the rest of the Caribbean, the most vio­lent region on plan­et earth?
They stopped want­i­ng to be us when we demon­strat­ed that we no longer val­ued the lives of our own.
They became afraid of us when we demon­strat­ed that we did not care who we slaugh­tered. Not only have we killed in our coun­try we have export­ed our degen­er­a­cy to their shores.
We will nev­er be respect­ed when we open­ly demon­strate that we do not respect our­selves.
This is not just a Jamaican prob­lem it is a black prob­lem which has had dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences for black peo­ple also in America and across the globe.
When we deval­ue our own lives, we have no right demand­ing that oth­ers respect or val­ue our lives.