Lawlessness rooted in Jamaican culture

THE EDITOR, Sir:

FROM MORANT Point to Negril Point, Jamaica can rival any country with its beauty and splendour, but it is a shame to mention the lawless, defiant and indecent behaviour of some of its people.

While driving on the nation’s roadways on any given day, one can record multiple infractions, especially by bus and taxi operators. They drive on the soft shoulder, drive around stop lights, making U-turns at no U-turn signs, reverse on main roads, stop to pick up or let off passengers anywhere and everywhere, race other operators, and blast loud, lewd music without respect for their passengers.

FIRST DEGREE IN LITTERING

Jamaicans have a first degree in littering and know how to make any clean area dirty. Adults teach children diligently every day by example. They are taught how to eat and dispose of cane trash, bones or snack bags through car and bus windows piece by piece. They are taught that gullies are garbage and effluent disposal sites and that nastiness is a way of providing employment for others.

Jamaicans seek every way to not do things the right way. They skip lines, do not pay fare on public transportation, vend in the middle of sidewalks or roads, or wait until you have worked your hard-earned money to violate your assets. Things that are illegal or banned did not get the memo, because they are very much in operation in the public in broad daylight, such as smoking in public, selling illegal CDs.

Lawless behaviour has become rooted in Jamaica’s culture and is so passionately embraced by its people for decades, it is now almost impossible to change. The theory of life teaches that in order to achieve big, one has to start small, hence paying attention to the socalled small acts of wrongdoing in order to realise the proposed 2030 vision.

It is the same lawless behaviour that gets Jamaicans in trouble in other countries that take law and order seriously, and the deportees continue to file in. Jamaicans, change your culture. It will make your island a better place. HEZEKAN BOLTON h_e_z_e@hotmail.com