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The lesson that is Hurricane Dean
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Up to last Thursday, much of the electorate was taken up with the campaigning that, all being well, should climax on August 27 when the nation elects the administration that will run this country for the next five years at least.
However, Hurricane Dean's plans to pass through this country added yet another intriguing dimension to what, for many Jamaicans, will be an unforgettable run-up to the general elections.
Whether or not the storm hits with the intensity forecast by meteorological experts last week, its potential to change the course for which the nation has been preparing - namely the August 27 polls - should be an occasion for pause.
We should pause, not just to reflect on our mortality, the reality of which we often banish to the backburners of our psyche, but also on our morality which seems to have been coming up short in recent weeks.
Indeed it is time, as Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Opposition Leader Bruce Golding quite rightly pointed out on Friday, to put aside the electioneering and concentrate all energies on ensuring that no effort is spared in protecting the safety of all citizens.
Consequently, we welcome the prime minister's announced plan to establish a bi-partisan committee in the face of this impending national disaster.
Even if - as we are sure some cynics will argue - the move is an example of the electioneering that she is urging Jamaicans to put aside, it's a good illustration of the type of co-operation that is needed to propel this country past the narrow, partisan attitudes that have led to the death of some and abuse of others, in recent weeks.
Maybe, just maybe, Hurricane Dean will be the medium through which we will learn to conduct ourselves as a civilised nation through appropriate co-operation and dialogue.
And while we're on the subject, we cannot ignore Mr Peter Fakhourie's outburst on the campaign trail last week.
Apart from being downright nasty, the verbal assault that Mr Fakhourie, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party candidate for the South-East St Ann constituency, launched against his opponent, Ms Lisa Hanna, on national television last week, was very unfortunate.
For a country that has been battling the evils of domestic violence, can ill-afford to set vulgar public examples like the one which saw Mr Fakhourie calling his opponent a fool and a duppy.
We shudder to think how many impressionable men may have interpreted Mr Fakhourie's display as a licence to abuse the women with whom they cohabit and from whom they expect support.
And we wonder if Mr Fakhourie was mindful of the female demographic in his constituency when he went berserk on the campaign trail. Is it that he is not courting their vote? Or does he think that like many of the abused women in this society, the female voters in his constituency will empower the type of disrespect and abuse that he has chosen to symbolise?
Whatever his thinking, we believe he would be well-minded to be guided by the fifth chapter and 22nd verse of the Holy Bible's book of St Matthew which we quote here for his convenience:
"But I say to you, That whoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment: and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca', shall be in danger of the council: But whoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire."
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Up to last Thursday, much of the electorate was taken up with the campaigning that, all being well, should climax on August 27 when the nation elects the administration that will run this country for the next five years at least.
However, Hurricane Dean's plans to pass through this country added yet another intriguing dimension to what, for many Jamaicans, will be an unforgettable run-up to the general elections.
Whether or not the storm hits with the intensity forecast by meteorological experts last week, its potential to change the course for which the nation has been preparing - namely the August 27 polls - should be an occasion for pause.
We should pause, not just to reflect on our mortality, the reality of which we often banish to the backburners of our psyche, but also on our morality which seems to have been coming up short in recent weeks.
Indeed it is time, as Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Opposition Leader Bruce Golding quite rightly pointed out on Friday, to put aside the electioneering and concentrate all energies on ensuring that no effort is spared in protecting the safety of all citizens.
Consequently, we welcome the prime minister's announced plan to establish a bi-partisan committee in the face of this impending national disaster.
Even if - as we are sure some cynics will argue - the move is an example of the electioneering that she is urging Jamaicans to put aside, it's a good illustration of the type of co-operation that is needed to propel this country past the narrow, partisan attitudes that have led to the death of some and abuse of others, in recent weeks.
Maybe, just maybe, Hurricane Dean will be the medium through which we will learn to conduct ourselves as a civilised nation through appropriate co-operation and dialogue.
And while we're on the subject, we cannot ignore Mr Peter Fakhourie's outburst on the campaign trail last week.
Apart from being downright nasty, the verbal assault that Mr Fakhourie, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party candidate for the South-East St Ann constituency, launched against his opponent, Ms Lisa Hanna, on national television last week, was very unfortunate.
For a country that has been battling the evils of domestic violence, can ill-afford to set vulgar public examples like the one which saw Mr Fakhourie calling his opponent a fool and a duppy.
We shudder to think how many impressionable men may have interpreted Mr Fakhourie's display as a licence to abuse the women with whom they cohabit and from whom they expect support.
And we wonder if Mr Fakhourie was mindful of the female demographic in his constituency when he went berserk on the campaign trail. Is it that he is not courting their vote? Or does he think that like many of the abused women in this society, the female voters in his constituency will empower the type of disrespect and abuse that he has chosen to symbolise?
Whatever his thinking, we believe he would be well-minded to be guided by the fifth chapter and 22nd verse of the Holy Bible's book of St Matthew which we quote here for his convenience:
"But I say to you, That whoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment: and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca', shall be in danger of the council: But whoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire."
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