The state of the nation

We are still into emancipation month and this month, 169 years since the shackles were removed from our fore-parents, is as good a time as any to reflect once more on the state of our nation. Often when we speak of country, we focus on physical space as though this exists independently of the people who inhabit it. In fact we talk about the development or underdevelopment of a country looking at dry bone statistics as though people don’t matter.{{more}} The state of the nation, the development of a country is really about the people who populate that country. Emancipation to the slaves who were set free was to have been the beginning of creating efforts to forge a new life of their own. The new era brought its own dynamics as different forces were at play. Quite a lot has happened since that fateful August 1. The plantation system that was the crux of our enslavement is now something of the past. The colonial system that held all of this in place had breathed its last breadth at midnight on October 26, 1979, paving the way for the emergence of a new independent nation that was heralded by a new flag and a new national anthem, a classic case of Flag Independence as some sought to call it.

While we still cling to the colonial mother’s apron strings through the Privy Council, the symbols that drive and guide us come from our neighbour to the north, the home of thousands of our people who have gone to seek greener grass. The links and influences are many, driven by the thousands of dollars in remittances that come to us every month as a quick look at the crowds standing in line outside Money Gram and Western Union can attest. We have advanced materially and educationally. We aspire to and hold on to the symbols of Western civilisation. It is in fact difficult in a globalised world to draw sharp distinctions between so-called different worlds, except where Muslim peoples have sought to maintain their cultural distinctions. Sections of our community continue to preach the fact that to find our real identity we have to take a spiritual journey to Africa, but Africa is or has also succumbed to the same global influences. What set them apart from us was that their indigenous cultures have been strong enough to withstand some of the shocks that came with colonialism and globalisation, but for how long, is the question.

The state of play at home is ultimately what is important. One of our major shortcomings has to do with the failure to emancipate our minds. We have developed materially. We are now better educated but our minds are still imprisoned. Divisions of race and class are not as harsh as they used to be. One of the levellers has been education that has enabled the sons and daughters of poor peasants and working people generally to lift themselves up by their bootstraps. But the dynamics within a poor developing country that is seeking to find itself in a globalised world where a market economy dictates the state of play is what matters. When our colonial parents left those who replaced them sought to replicate their style. It was easy to do this since they left us a constitution to ensure that there would be business as usual.

We had undergone a long period of brainwashing by Church and School and so in our struggles to replace our colonial masters we tried to convince them that we had mastered the instruments and symbols that were supposed to signify that we had arrived. During our colonial journey conflicts frequently arose between the state and those who controlled the reins of the economy, first the planters and then the planters/ merchants. Who controls or what are the commanding heights of our economy are interesting questions. In a small post-colonial society such as we are, where the plantations have virtually disappeared and where the private sector is extremely weak, there is little threat to the power of the state. We take refuge and hope in something called people’s power and there were times throughout our history when this seemed real. But the post independent reality shows up the weakness of peoples’ power as increasingly we sell our loyalties to political players.

Survival is a human instinct. In today’s world we equate survival with the ability to acquire material symbols and this is where the real problem lies. The state is the major employer. It is also the major dispenser of patronage. The private sector itself in a small economy owes a lot to the favour of the state and so a whole ball game is set in motion, with the state determining the state of play. We still harbour a lot of rhetoric about the power of the people but that power or potential power was diffused when party politics took root in 1951 with the advent of adult suffrage. Theoretically the people have power every five years when they are summoned to the polls but there are so many forces at play that help to diffuse that potential. Once that freedom is exercised those we have given that power claim a mandate to do virtually anything on our behalf.

This country appears to be in a state of permanent hibernation with people experiencing a state of powerlessness. Talk Radio has given them some space to vent their spleen and so a lot of anger pours out. Happily there is this outlet but where do we go from here and how do we break down the barriers and restore hope? Our neighbours give us little hope. In St.Lucia the ill health of John Compton has raised huge concerns as Opposition and Government seem set to battle it out. In Grenada Keith Mitchell appears to be at war with just about everyone as allegations surface about mysterious financial happenings and citizenship status. In Trinidad and Tobago Patrick Manning wants to fulfil his greatest desire, to drive a truck. He seems tied to the concept of Ministry because there are hints from him that he wants to be a preacher when he leaves this other Ministry. With elections in Jamaica a little over two weeks away concerns continue to mount about increasing violence. Motorcades have even been banned in some areas.

The latest battle ground at home has surfaced in an area that appeared to have produced some hope for us to move on. But these might have been false hopes for it is clear that things cannot continue the way they are going. Something will have to give. Unfortunately most of us either join battle on one side or another or sit back and watch the game. Gordon Lewis’ darkened theatre audience is still very much a part of our modern political culture. We are in all of this struck by the worse kind of poverty, a poverty of the mind. Maybe in order to move on we will have to start eradicating this type of poverty, incidentally the hardest kind to delete but the most critical.