By John Rapley:



Is Jamaica a failing state? Or is it merely a state that has yet to succeed? I have been thinking a lot about this question lately. Obviously, the week's shattering events have focused my mind. But I have also been writing a book on a topic I have elsewhere called the new medievalism. And one could not have asked for a more graphic example of the new medievalism than the spectacle of gang leaders - the international press even calls them barons now - trying to defend their sovereign claims over their turf.

The battle that unfolded might be a sign that the Jamaican state is growing weaker. A natural metaphor seems inescapable, as we speak of the rot that has penetrated the body politic, turning it soft, like a termite-ridden tree.

But history abounds with examples of these kinds of civil war. They are not always signs a state is growing weaker. When kings crushed their nobilities, they were in the ascendant. It may be that the Jamaican state is not growing weaker, but rather stronger.

Success was not programmed into the genetic code of any independent country. When states in Africa, Asia and the Americas gained their independence, new elites occupied the shells of disappeared regimes, the retreating colonial empires. Any successes which followed were hard-fought. Many countries were swimming against a tide, and some states soon sank into civil wars, and even broke up. Some could not replicate an alien political structure, and fragmented into neo-medieval forms. A few did succeed, but the ride was not easy, and required rapid adaptation to an evolving world.

Initially, Jamaica seemed a success. Riding the post-war economic boom, in its first decade after independence, the country's economy grew at healthy annual rates, and its ability to host the Commonwealth Games and international title fights seemed to testify that the young nation had made it on to the world stage.

But all was not well in this supposed happy valley. In that boom decade, unemployment doubled. Meanwhile, a wave of migration to the city brought countless thousands of people looking for work, and finding none. Many became restless and unattached, a painful transition captured so eloquently in the classic film The Harder They Come.

criminal activity

Unlike that movie's hero, few of these migrants gravitated towards criminal activity to make ends meet. But a nexus was born. To satisfy some of the rising demands for housing and employment, the state began building houses and developing new communities. This laid the foundation for a political adaptation that time would reveal to be ill-judged, and ill-fated. Public housing soon leant itself to political manipulation, as we all know.

From there, it was a short step to using thugs to enforce political compliance. Enterprising young men sold their services to politicians, who were anxious to marshall the votes of the growing urban population. With housing allocated to party faithful - a form of gerrymandering we all came to know as 'garrisonisation' - thugs could both ensure the loyalty of local residents, and even try to depopulate rival neighbouring areas at election time. The tools of the job were guns at election time, jobs to keep idle hands busy after the party won power. Gang leaders set up legitimate enterprises to route patronage to their followers, thereby cementing the ties between them and the political class.

So the 'modern' Jamaican state did not fail; it just didn't succeed. One of the great mistakes of the post-independence generation of politicians is that in trying to build bridges to their electorates, they allowed - even, in some cases, encouraged - this class of latter-day barons to place themselves between the citizenry and the state.

In parts of Jamaica, the state thereby became neo-medieval. When we try to identify what marks the break between medievalism and modernity - when it was that kings were able to suppress barons and create sovereign states - one thing seems to emerge dominant: medieval systems ended when the central government gained a preponderance of taxing power.

This lens helps us to understand how Jamaica's neo-medieval systems got reinforced over time. Much has been made of the growth of the transnational drug trade, which enabled the drug dons to develop independent resources bases that put them beyond the government's control. While this is certainly an important element of Kingston's medievalisation, an even greater part lies elsewhere.

loyalty

Since the 1970s, the Jamaican government has sought to build a modern state, with its full range of services, and thereby win the loyalty of its citizens. In some respects, it has succeeded - delivering a poor country extraordinary levels of health care and education, for example. However, this edifice of modernity was built atop a failed economic model. Growth imploded in the '70s, as we know, and never rebounded permanently. The result was a recourse to borrowing that turned Jamaica into one of the world's most-indebted countries.

By last year, most government revenue went to paying off debt. The Jamaican government had ceded its revenue-collection power not to the drug dons, but to bondholders, who enjoyed a claim on most of the state's revenue. If international bankers are the new barons of the world political-economy, Jamaica's king had become one of its weakest sovereigns.

Faced with this historic loss of power to financiers, governments face one of three options: scale back their ambitions and cede ground to the barons of global finance; renounce debts and fight the barons; or try to make peace with them, by persuading them to accept a lesser role in a greater kingdom.

Wisely, and thanks in no small part to the vision of some of its bureaucrats and bankers, Jamaica opted for the last course. The debt-exchange earlier this year gave the government the fiscal breathing-room needed to restore its fiscal health. Were an attack on the dons to succeed, the country now faces the real prospect of returning to a growth path for the first time in nearly two generations.

Will Jamaica finally manage to establish a modern state? At least we have the benefit of hindsight. The lesson of the 1970s is that we must maintain growth; the lesson of the 1960s is that the growth must be inclusive.

The united front that appeared to form across civil society for this assault on a neo-medieval enclave; the participation of a wide cross-section of society in partnership talks; the expressed willingness of the country's well-to-do to make their own sacrifices via the JDX; all suggest that the omens are perhaps better than they have been in a long while.

We are not out of the woods. But we may, finally, have chosen the right path.

John Rapley is president of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI). Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.

May 30, 2010

jamaica-gleaner

Dudus is not the real enemy of Jamaica
By Mervin Stoddart



Deepest condolences to all Jamaicans now mourning the deaths of their loved ones, especially the security forces and citizens in Tivoli Gardens, Spanish Town, Portmore and elsewhere. On the face of it, these deaths are due to defiant citizens rising up against initiatives by the security forces, on orders of the government, to detain Christopher "Dudus" Coke to answer US extradition charges.

The spread of the killings and mayhem has been blamed on various factors, including payments to opposing gangsters and opportunism by local criminals. At the time of writing, Coke had not been captured. Kudos to the PM for resolving to use all means necessary to quell the uprising.

One can only pray for a speedy end to the bloodshed and burnings, but for the sake of whatever future Jamaicans must face when this crisis passes, continued analysis of these sad, tragic developments is vital. And the most obvious truth emanating from the Dudus saga, the related Manatt, Phelps and Phillips fiasco and their aftermath is that Dudus in not the real enemy of which Jamaicans should be wary. Dudus is a fall guy and the media hype surrounding his story is a smokescreen.


Perhaps some court of law might eventually give its final verdict concerning the guilt or innocence of Mr Coke. Such an outcome is desirable but not often achieved when certain developed countries are chief players and when political deceivers and their criminal henchmen are involved. Their modus operandi is to create the kind of havoc now raging in Jamaica, murder the main character, and cause horrible "collateral damage" while covering up the filth being perpetrated by the main players. Surely, private negotiations between Jamaica and the US could have resolved this impasse. It was blown up as if by scripting, and those calling for Golding to resign are supporting Jamaica's enemies. Tivoli was built by Labour, but not by Golding.

Numerous forces inimical to Jamaica show up in the Dudus saga. Conscious Jamaicans must consider the New World Order implications. Perhaps US destabilisation of Jamaica seems like child's play to Washington because Jamaicans worship President Barack Obama. Blessed Jamaica is perennially envied by "brute beast" (2 Peter 2:12) Euro-Americans, who recently got whipped in international sports by Jamaicans. Chaos created in Jamaica and other countries by evil globalists offers distraction from their own problems. There are dangerous insurgencies raging in the US, especially in the Tea Party Movement, with signs of impending civil war.

Moreover, the economies of capitalistic exploiters are in depression, so they need some sleight of hand to delay the big crash until the pieces are in place for their one-world government. One piece of the puzzle is for Jamaica to join the world in making treaties with Euro-America, the United Nations and other international wolves, giving them total control. Already their multinational corporations are raping all nations socio-economically. The Dudus set-up is to coerce Jamaica into submission. Seemingly, PM Golding is not for sale, although he leads the same JLP Judas party that betrayed Jamaica to Reagan's US in the 1980s. Golding angered Euro-America when he effectively told them, paraphrasing Terror Fabulous: "I man nuh play number two." As in the Roman Empire, playing number two is a priority for the globalists.


For some 6000 years, earth's evil Caucasians have been decimating people of colour. Their drug war, terror war and killings of Iraqis, Afghans, and practically all predominantly black nationals on earth are key pieces of their population reduction plan, as exposed by Jim Marrs in The Fourth Reich. Their endgame is in place whereby globalists are ready to decimate their own race to get rid of people who do not share their racist, globalist, satanic views. Some people, like Jamaicans, reject this evil globalism because it offends their faith in God, but many branches of Christianity are leaders in this march to the white supremacist one-world government. Jamaicans must use the spirit of discernment to identify those churches that are Satan's servants, especially churches headquartered in Euro-America.


The JLP and the PNP were tricked into joining the Euro-American plan to destabilise Jamaica and have sunken so deep into the pit that salvation seems impossible. Norman and Michael Manley must be turning in their graves because the Dudus saga details suggest that the PNP is now a puppet on Euro-American strings. Alas, Jamaica's major political parties are greater enemies of Jamaica than Dudus could ever be. Which PNP or JLP politician has the guts to put Jamaicans first, including Tivoli Garden residents?

Are there any politicians in the JLP or PNP who have not sold their souls to dons and gunmen and to the Euro-American terrorists that manipulate them? Let such PNP and JLP persons stand up and be counted, or forever shut up. Until they are ready to tear down their garrisons, Portia Simpson Miller and Dr Peter Phillips should be quiet and allow PM Golding to solve the Dudus distraction which metastasised on Golding's watch. In the Manley years there were Judas Jamaicans among the private sector, churches, media, and other island entities. Are they still there? Every Jamaican at home and abroad must analyse the Dudus tragedy and work for deliverance, but no one should excuse the real enemies of Jamaica.

INMerv@hotmail.com

May 29, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Camera-shy Dudus turns 'celeb'
jamaica-gleaner:


OMG! The Christopher 'Dudus' Coke extradition saga and the ensuing anarchy unleashed across parts of the island have done more than put people on edge; it has also got them tweeting, texting, facebook-ing and BlackBerry messaging like nobody's business.

"Oh no! What's happening in Jamaica? This place is looking more like Iraq than my island paradise!" wrote one confessed Facebook addict in Kingston, in a post made on Wednesday.

Helen Shirley, a 36-year-old business owner from St Andrew said she gets most of her updates on the situation in Kingston from Facebook and messages from friends on her BlackBerry.

"When I get up in the mornings there are already dozens of messages on my BlackBerry. That's how my friends and I keep in touch in this hard time. We send messages to each other to find out if each other is okay. Sometimes we get information about what's happening on Facebook and on BlackBerry before I even hear it on the news," she said.

A service called On the Ground News was recently launched on Facebook and already has more than 5,000 members. The aim of the service is for Facebook-ers across the island to share their thoughts on the extradition affair and for those close to the action to tell what they are witnessing.

And as the saga drags on, the word continues to spread across the Internet.

Christopher Coke, an accused Jamaican don who, it has been reported, hates the limelight, is now a bona fide Internet celebrity. A Google search for 'Christopher 'Dudus' Coke' on Wednesday produced 2,530,000 results, many from International media houses like The New York Times and the The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, a similar search for 'Bruce Golding' produced 274,000 results.

May 28, 2010

jamaica-gleaner

The garrison phenomenon
By Rev Earlmont Williams:


I sat at home a few evenings ago looking at the news broadcast on one of our local television stations when I heard a Tivoli resident say something rather disturbing but sobering about their area leader and strongman Christopher "Dudus" Coke. The woman said in effect that "Jesus died for us and we will die for Dudus". I was shocked and at the same time intrigued by such an admission of loyalty and commitment to their area leader.

Interestingly, many claim that this don is the antithesis of the Jesus of whom that woman spoke. I concluded that her declaration was reflective of three dimensions of garrison life - its spirituality, its politics, and its economics.

One of the dimensions of garrison life that intrigues me is garrison spirituality. It seems many people who live in garrisons like West Kingston, and especially Tivoli Gardens, embrace a conflation of Christianity and its Christology or messiah theology and their understanding of the strongman or don who is seen as a local messiah. It is obvious that the perception held of their leader by many residents of garrisons is built on their understanding of Jesus' life and mission. They embrace Jesus' role in delivering humanity from spiritual bankruptcy, but they move beyond that to fill a perceived void in the non-spiritual world for a socio-political messiah to deliver them from socio-political bondage. What bothers me is that their messiah theology is articulated in the reverse. It is reversed garrison Christology in that rather than the garrison "messiah" dying for his people, they are willing and ready to die for him.

A second dimension of garrison life that fascinates me is garrison politics. Beyond the fact that garrison spirituality is apparently married to garrison politics, it is obvious that garrison politics is complex and multifaceted. One does not have to look too far to see that many garrisons operate as "states" within the Jamaican state, or "countries" within the country of Jamaica. This is obvious in the utterances of the residents of these garrisons. One that I find rather interesting is their calling their benefactor "president". It smacks of defiance of the Westminster model with the prime minister as the ultimate leader of the country where this system operates. If indeed the don is revered as the "president", then garrison residents elevate him above the prime minister and vest in him more power and authority than the duly elected leader of the land. Not even Jesus was given such an esteemed place in Israel, although some tried to elevate him to such a position.

In addition to the spiritual and political dimensions of garrisons, there is the economic aspect. There is no doubt in many people's minds that an economic underpinning lies at the heart of the garrison structure. It reflects the failure of the State to adequately and decisively address the socio-economic challenges of persons living in these garrisons. Inevitably, someone would step up to the plate, as it were, and take charge of the situation, albeit exploitatively. This socio-economic "messiah" provides for and protects the residents, especially those who are willing to comply with the "laws" of the state within the state. The recent protest marches in Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town demonstrate this reality and reveal the people's determination to maintain the status quo because of the failure of the body politic.

It is obvious, therefore, that the answer does not lie in simply dismantling the garrisons. This is indeed desirable, even to some who are residents of these enclaves. The dismantling of garrisons poses a serious challenge: what are the alternatives to this religio-political-economic phenomenon? Such a system has spawned people who claim willingness to die for their leader because of what he does to perpetuate the system. It is amazing that many spiritual people in Jamaica are not ready and willing to die for their leader. Any credible government in Jamaica needs to grapple with and be willing and able to replace the three dimensions of garrison life (spirituality, politics, and economics) that make it such an attractive and compelling reality in Jamaica.

earlmontwilliams@flowja.com

May 26, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Casualties of war
BY LLOYD B SMITH:



FROM here on, Jamaica's checkered political history will be chronologically categorised as AD - Anno Dudus (in the year of Dudus), BD (before Dudus) and AD (after Dudus). And 2010 will forever be regarded as annus horribilis for all well-thinking, patriotic Jamaicans, both here and abroad. Yes, we are "in deep trouble".

National Hero Sir Alexander Bustamante, founder of the Jamaica Labour Party, must be weeping in his grave. His statue downtown Kingston which depicts when he bared his chest to the security forces, daring them to shoot him but spare the lives of his people, must now be viewed with bitter-sweet emotions when seen against the backdrop of what is happening in the Corporate Area with respect to the attempts to arrest West Kingston strongman Christopher "Dudus" Coke.


Today, one of his successors as leader of the JLP, Bruce Golding, who is also MP for West Kingston as well as Minister of Defence, has come across as seeking to say, "Shoot me (kill my political career) but leave Dudus alone." In a foolish, cowardly and ill-conceived manner, Mr Golding and those in his party and government who have followed him blindly into this current conundrum, would have us accept that it is okay for one man to hold this country to ransom. Constitutional rights do not stop at Liguanea, indeed!

But in all of this, I have much difficulty blaming Dudus per se for what has transpired. After all, we all know who Dudus is and what he stands for. He has carved out his own fiefdom and established a state within a state which he rules over as the "president". The people of Jamaica did not elect him; they elected Orette Bruce Golding who, by virtue of having convinced the governor general that he commands the majority of support from the 60 MPs, was appointed prime minister - first among equals. The oaths that he took would have served to convince us that as chief servant, he would be there to ensure that Jamaica remains a safe and potentially prosperous society.

In this context, how does one juxtapose collective responsibility with patriotism in order to ensure that the national interest supersedes narrow, partisan and personal interests? It takes statesmanship. Let me remind my readers that the definition of a statesman is a person who shows wisdom and skill in conducting state affairs and treating public issues, or one experienced or engaged in the business of government.

A politician, on the other hand, is described as a person actively engaged in politics, especially party politics, professionally or otherwise; often, a person holding or seeking political office: frequently used in a derogatory sense, with implications of seeking personal or partisan gain, scheming, opportunism, etc, as distinguished from statesman, which suggests able, far-seeing, principled conduct of public affairs. Bearing all of this in mind, can it be honestly said that there is one single statesman emerging from this wretched affair? Has our prime minister acted statesmanlike? You be the judge!

For all intents and purposes, there is a civil war unfolding in Jamaica. The dictionary definition of a civil war is a war between geographical sections or political factions of the same nation. This is a most peculiar civil war unprecedented in the history of modern man as there are so many grey areas and conflicts of interest. And what is most unfortunate is that Bruce Golding, who was seen by many Jamaicans both here and in the diaspora as the politician most likely to take a statesmanlike attitude towards governance, especially within the context of the nexus between politics and organised crime, has failed most miserably. To put it bluntly, he has lacked the testicular fortitude to take Jamaica to a higher level. So it is not that Jamaica has become or is becoming a failed state. It is that it has a failed government.

Bustamante, in defending himself against a Daily Gleaner columnist named G St C Scotter who questioned his motives in wanting to lead the Jamaican people, stated in a letter to the editor on August 31, 1938, entitled, "Why I want power", inter alia, "Yes, I want power, sufficient power to be able to defend those weaker than I am, those less fortunate, and that's what I have today - POWER..." The potent question then for Bruce Golding is, why do you want power? If you can answer this question as succinctly and sincerely as Bustamante did, then maybe we can begin to trust you again.

Before this civil war ends, there will be many casualties. One that bothers me is the future viability of the JLP. It would be unfortunate if the JLP becomes a spent force, thus leaving Jamaica to be PNP country indefinitely. Our democracy needs vibrant, viable political parties both in government and opposition. It cannot be good for this country if the JLP dies a long death. That is why the Bustamante Labourites must rise up and retake the party so as to ensure that it remains a credible entity seeking to retain or seek state power.

The PNP, in the meantime, must take sleep and mark death. It cannot be business as usual. Lest we forget, in war one of the first casualties is always the truth. This is a turning point in Jamaica's history. Now is the time for all good men and women to stand up and fight for Jamaica land we love, bearing in mind that cowards die many times before their death, but the brave taste of death but once.

lloydbsmith@hotmail.com

May 25, 2010

jamaicaobserver