Gloomy bits
Dr Kissinger’s foreign policy dictum.
Jamaica’s interests are best served by its demonstrated neutrality.
While we draw from our own reservoir in this respect, we can also learn a few valuable lessons from Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore.
Singapore, from the get-go, has been greatly valued by the US and China. She is a critical strategic feather in either’s cap. Singapore is located in south-eastern Asia. The island city-state (725.1 square kilometres) is a little smaller than our parish of St Thomas, which is 742.8 square kilometres. Singapore has a polyglot population of mostly Chinese, Indians, and Malaysians.
Recall that Singapore was much poorer than Jamaica in the 60s. After Singapore became independent in 1965, Lee Kuan Yew took this small spit of land with very little natural resources and transformed it into a developed nation in less than 40 years. He smartly allied with America, but also kept good relations with China.
In a recent interview on CNN, Singapore’s incumbent Prime Minister Lee Hsienloong made it clear that the foreign policy position on relations with the US and China remained unchanged since his father Lee Kuan Yew was prime minister. We best note this important lesson. It is not à la carte of prix fixe, Ambassador Tapia!
Vulnerable or the problem?
Invariably, nowadays, when we hear about “the vulnerable”, particularly in public fora, women and girls are referenced. It is blindingly obvious to me that men and boys, for reasons of political correctness, have been largely eliminated from the designation of vulnerable. This is a colossal mistake.
Has it occurred to some among us that most of the perpetrators of domestic abuse are male? Has it dawned on some among us that the vast majority of inmates in our penal institutions are men? The majority of their victims are males.
On January 1, 2021 Dr Horace Chang, the minister of national security, described the crime problem in Jamaica as “endemic and chronic”. Chang also noted saying, among other things: “There are many gunmen out there. You apprehend several dozens, but the others come behind.” (RJR News, January 1, 2021)
I have been saying in this space for a very, very long time that we have in this country a veritable assembly line of social conditions which feed the development of criminal behaviours. The vast majority of those who become members of criminal gangs, those who make the country’s most wanted list, those who swallow the suicidal credo of “Today we kill, tomorrow we die,” are male. This reality, though, seems oblivious to some in high and low places. Vulnerable evidently denotes and connotes anything but males to some people.
Consider this: ‘J’can men outnumber women 11 to 1 in suicides’ (The Gleaner, September 10, 2019). The news item noted, among other things: “According to police data, 61 people committed suicide in Jamaica last year. Of that number, 56 were males and five females. Forty of those males committed suicide by hanging. Ingesting poison was the second-highest method used.”
Check this: Data from the National Road Safety Council’s (NRSC) report, ‘Road fatalities from 1992-2015’, show that “8,476 persons lost their lives on Jamaica’s roads in the mentioned period. The NRSC’S data for the 23-year period show that, “Men are the more frequent victims of fatal road crashes. In fact, road fatalities among men are four times more likely than among women.” I am told by a source that the sex ratio for road deaths, in 2020, is very similar to the 1992-2015 averages.
The wide achievement gaps between males and females in our education system is an open secret. The chasm continues to grow wider, faster. Recently, I saw some employment data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) which pinpointed that vastly more females, compared to males, find work in our economy. We all know why.
Our male population is in deep, deep, trouble. Is it that all these crises afflicting and affecting males are insufficient