Posts from — January 2012

January  10^th

Dear Aunty:

With all the challenges Jamaica faces, this year of Golden Jubilee is also a call to arms.  As we are outnumbered by the naysayers internally, and the external global economic challenges, we will be required to engage in a guerilla war against the enemies of: self-doubt, crass partisanship, crab-in-the-barrelism and international laws made to favor the wellbeing of our former colonial masters.  We are a tallawah people – only the strongest and fittest survived the trek through the jungles, the Middle Passage and the back-brukking labor of the midday canefield sun.

Now that the election is behind us– we can turn our attention to the bashment for the Jubillee.  The Imagine Jamaica 50 Birthday Wish List is my contribution to the party planning process.  I believe that enough of us can step up and make bold and seemingly impossible claims about what we will do, we can change the direction of this nation.   Nanny showed us this power of the mind when she devised her strategies for battleground success.  Marcus Garvey showed us this power of the mind when he launched a movement and three ships a sailing.   Bob Marley showed us this power of the word with his message of self-emancipation and social justice which continues to reverberate throughout the world today.

Take the vision of  planting 50,000 Trees in Jamaica (Wish #7).  It is alive – because  the Visioneurs from Farmville Jamaica Live  have told me that they can taste the  ackee and breadfruit and mangoes that will bear from the 50,000 trees they want to help plant in yards across the nation.   Now  with all the mention of the diaspora in speeches during the swearing in and aftersince,  I am longing to see what  the  diaspora activists are planning on doing.   I am hoping that someone will take up my   Wish#4  –  Support the Development of 50 Community Based Development Corporations  or  Wish #9    Organize Hometown Development Summits to result in Five Year Development Plans for each Parish. My girl who run the Hanover Homecoming Foundation – must be have something in mind…I cant wait to hear what she planning.  And as a matter of fact,  so too the Elizabethans and I understand there is a Trelawny group.  What a thing if they could all come together and plan for each of them to come home between July 27^th and July 31^st and then on AUGUST 1^st across the nation – we could launch a Grand Emancipation Celebration with runners lighting the torch and running a relay around island from parish clock to parish clock.  My heart can’t stop quivering.   I longing to hear what they are planning.  Please  Let me know if you hear anything!

Walk Good,

Cousin

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January 8^th

Dear Aunty,

It is impossible to describe the sensations and thoughts that prompted the tears that flowed down my cheeks at the recent swearing in of the MOST Honourable Portia Lucretia Simpson Miller as the Prime Minister of Jamaica in this our year of Jubilee.   It is her’s… truly her’s I thought. The title ” Mother of the Nation” for truly at the ripe age of 69, she can well be a grandmother to many of our youth.  Being in Jamaica at election time, my first opportunity since the 1970s, has allowed my dreams of a thriving, happy and civil Jamaica to come to full bloom.  At the polling station I observed (Unofficially I must add — since the diaspora are not included in any Official observer Mission that I know of)  Outside Agents  in their orange and green, working diligently to ensure our democracy.  The day was calm. Civility reigned!  And as I stayed glue to the TV Coverage all day – it became clear – Jamaica was growing up.  The trigger may have been  the blaspheme of those who promised to die for Dudus (who is looking well fed courtesy of the NY Taxpayers).  Or maybe it was the prayers of the multitude who truly have had enough.  Whatever the trigger – this election signals a shift in our collective consciousness.  We are not afraid!  We know who we are!  We are empowered!  The decisive win of Sister P—now Mama P – has shown that the average Jamaican is a thinking Jamaican.  For even those who did not vote, and that numbers some 40%, were heard to say – they did not vote in order to send a message to both  parties that they are fed up with business as usual.  (The third Parties got less than 1% of the vote).

The solemn but festive mood of the inaugural festivities at Kings House yesterday – people being mindful to leave their pot covers and horns at home – showed that my people have come of age.  Political overtones were relegated to orange tones in shirts and ties and blouses and suits and hair styles. The pride was pungent.  As one lady said -  ‘Sister P mek we woman from the inner city know that we can mek it’.  Not since Marcus Garvey has the masses of Jamaicans had someone who proves that we can all make it.  No matter the valley, zinc roof, or zinc fence yard from which we come.  Allelulia! That is the gift of the ascension of Mama P at this juncture in our history. Who among us does not like a Come-Back Story?  The poise and elegance and grace of the redeemed Portia is a dream realized for many if not all Jamaicans.  She is the embodiment of our hopes for who we can become as a people.  Men and Women of Jamaica across class and color lines know that if Portia can make her dream come true with her demonstration of self-knowledge, self-confidence, and resilience, under stiff and unrelenting opposition -  SO CAN WE!   We have only to hold fast!  One old woman from her constituency gummed – ‘Sister P don’t mek no man – no one – hold her back or hold her down’.   They said – she marches to her own drum.  She dances to her own music!  Maybe she does carry Nanny as a familiar spirit.  That being the case, we must all pour a libation to Grandy Nanny who taught us the power of the dream – and the power of guerilla warfare.  In fact, I have gotten word that per my 50^th Birthday wishlist,  there is already a Monument to Grandy Nanny in Portland, but I understand as a Shrine, it is incomplete.  Annual Celebrations are held under tents and tarpaulins.  A proper Visitor’s Center complete with auditorium and library and gallery is needed. Maybe Maroons in the Diaspora will see to the construction of such a shrine. Is such a thing possible?  I think it surely is.  Honoring our heroes by telling their stories over and over and doing  our best to ensure that their struggles were not in vain, is certainly one way to ensure the dream of Jamaica—Land we Love.

Walk Good,

Cousin

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January 1, 2012

Dear Aunty:

Happy New Year!   I predict that 2012 will be a year to remember for Jamaicans at home and abroad.  Between the Olympics, The US Election, the End of the World according to the Mayan Calendar, and the 50^th Anniversary of the Independence of Jamaica and Trinidad, we will have more than enough on our plate.   Last independence, I told you to my 50^th Birthday wish list for Jamaica… and despite the fact that only 215 days remain in the countdown…I still believe we can pull off some miracles. Because the fact that Sister P horse run off with the Cash Pot is a miracle indeed. We in the Diaspora were in general on tenterhooks about which way it would go.  Some of the diehards travelled home to vote, while others like me remained firmly on the bench praying above all for a free and fair and violence absent election. Well God answers prayers because the calm and quiet of December 29, 2011 will certainly go down in history.  The high drama has played out and now that the election is over and the people have spoken about the need to balance people’s lives as well as the Bank book, I really hope that we can get down to the business of commemorating the 50^th in a really special way, I am praying we can go beyond events to using the occasion to plant the seeds for a transformational shift in the process of  Jamaica’s development with the partnership and participation of  the Jamaican diaspora.   Not one of the fifty things on my list is impossible. All it takes it will!

Take NUMBER 2 on my birthday wish list – 5,000 Diaspora Mentors for 5,000 Student Mentees –.  let’s call it for short – ‘The Mentors Project’  that is an easy-easy-easy sell off.   All it would take is an organization like the Jamaica Council of Churches to set up a relationship with all the Jamaican-dominated churches in the US, Canada and  UK which I guesstimate at a minimum of 100 … and ask them to nominate fifty people each to be mentors.  Likewise 100 churches in Jamaica would nominate 50 youth to be mentees.  The mechanics, rules and regulations of the mentorship program to be worked out will ensure a win-win for youth mentees and mentors alike and all participants would be asked to commit for one year.  Planning, development and registration would be effected between now and through the period of Lent.   On Easter Sunday – the program would be launched, consecrated and plans put in place in all participating Churches with partners linked by Skype or other such media.   The project would culminate in a convocation on Easter Sunday 2013 in Jamaica.  Can such a wish come true?  Will the Jamaica Council of Churches and some church leaders in Jamaica at home and abroad help make my birthday wish come true?  Would you like to help make my wish come true?

Fifty Wishes in 366 days!

Walk good,

Cousin

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