Jamaica: "If mi Hungry again..."


http://www.africaspeaks.com
Today a young man is being buried as rain water washes away any debris that may have lingered after his tragic accident. Today, I pour a small libation to him because he belonged to a community and the community is the most tragic part of his demise.


The African man is known to whenever he is blessed with wealth, to share it in a “boasy” way: send the youth them to school, throw a treat Christmas time, give a youth bus fare to go on an interview, buy liquor at the dance and so on. This is the action of the real big man. And the real big man in a community does this as well not just for the joy of giving but the knowledge that reciprocation occurs, as his investment, his personage is likely to be protected because he is where their “food” comes from, hopefully. All is done in service of self and the community.


Motorbike accident on Clifton Boulevard
A few weeks ago, I watched a Rasta man ride his bike and crash in a very horrific manner, but what startled me was not the bike accident but the community. As at any sign of mayhem a crowd gathers to witness, to say they saw, I imagined to rally around to help the hurt.

Instead what ensued was sheer entertainment. People heard that the man was already dead, a passerby who saw the accident saw him lying there had shouted “him dead”. And maybe it was the definitive nature of the man’s declaration that caused the people to leave their Sunday washing, dinner, hair combing, ironing or relaxation to come and stare at a dead man. But he was not dead, he was unconscious and he was not without his legal fire arm neither was he without a cell phone or cash. But before he could he assisted, before he stirred to say he was alive, before the phone call to take him to the hospital he was robbed. The fact that he was an African man who had given to this community did not save him.

Years ago, a story unfolded in the news of a man who was in a car accident also hit off a bike and was taken the hospital by the people who caused his injuries and they were all killed later. Another story of a man who was in an accident in Old Harbour and he was take out the car robbed and beaten. When doing research I found that many people who meet in accidents in certain communities keep driving not because they don’t want to stop but simply because it is not safe. Many people who are in need of help are relieved of their material possessions, people use your phone to call your closest relative and simply never return it, empty your pockets because I am hungry and what where you are going you won’t need money, hospital or morgue you are ok.


http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Tragic-_15712457
This is how my heart breaks for a country that boasts to be the most hospitable, the people who will give you directions but smell money on you a mile away. A country whose citizen praise God that they found him because hunger could have made them notorious. A country where times hard is the statement of the day. The country where wants can be used to tame, control or let us forget that the man lying on the floor needs your help too…

And for our grandparents and parents what is missing is the same thing that causes a teenage boy to pass his mother's friend, is father's friend, his barber on the road without even a "good night." The thing  missing is also known as the ubuntu prinicple. I wonder if is during the cross over to Christianity that we forget what Ubuntu really means?

Once upon a time really different from nowadays...
Nelson Mandela explains Ubuntu

Comments

Post a Comment

Favourites

When an Untouchable Dies: Ode to Dexter 3D Pottinger

That night I lay in bed, my lover to my left as the kind of security that love creates wrapped itself around me in the warm yellow bed room. I, like most of us, brought my phone to bed, scrolling to unwind, or to catch up on the news or the gossip of the day; then the news hit me. It felt like an anvil fell from my phone into my chest leaving a heavy pressure there that even now I am unable to move. His face rested on my phone screen with the words RIP right above him. I tossed the phone to her mostly out of fright but also to share the news. She looked at the screen and said, “No.” She returned the phone to me quickly, “that’s not true,” she said. He was more her friend than mine. But in that moment, we both wanted the same thing; we both wanted it to be a hoax. After all, the internet is known to do even more cruel things than that. As I scrolled it became truth. Nothing was going to change it. He was dead. For me he was a symbol more than a friend. A symbol of something that is ...
Read more

THINGS ARE NOT THE SAME FOR...Freedom of Speech... A National Question

Image
Bird’s Eye View Years ago a promised march had set the island a blaze and many feared for the lives of the proposed marchers so much so that it was cancelled. PJ Patterson’s government was in power at the time and took a few name calling and labels as a result of the idea of a LGBTQ march. Buju Banton and Shabba Rankin careers seem to have suffered because of a statement of hate by the later. Bruce Golding’s not in my cabinet became a rhetoric and found its way into many social gatherings and in some way reaffirmed the idea that the nation was deeply homophobic as was already being propagated due to the lyrics of local deejays. Then a campaign emerged that saw the closing of shows as well as the cancelling of visas or popular reggae artistes who had homophobic lyrics. Even the incarceration of Buju Banton was being associated with LGBTQ lobbyist and organizations around the world. Tolerance Stand in on Hope Road And by the year 2013 many few shifts have occurred. Port...
Read more

Thinking about God

I have been thinking about God recently. Not God according to the Christianity, nor Islam, nor Buddhism, nor Hinduism, just God. And this is a big deal for me because many years ago, I was submerged in water and I dedicated my life to serve the Most High for the rest of my life. Dedicated my life. This is the phrase used by Jehovah’s Witnesses for the process before baptism, actually baptism is the fulfilment of that dedication, it is a promise to serve. But this can only happen after you have entrenched yourself in the belly of the religion and understood the tenets and principles of being a Jehovah’s Witness. I achieved that in 1998. I was sixteen years old and had not yet seen what life had up its sleeves for me. Now this dedication of my life seems to be real. Like a serious pledge that I can’t shake. Because no matter what path I walk it seems by hell or high water I am compelled to serve God. But now after been estranged from the religion and taking my own path I know a lo...
Read more