Meditating on my Jamaica

Have you ever really stopped to take in how Jamaicans behave on a regular basis? Growing up, one thing I always used to hear being said was, Jamaicans are different. Look how we dress, taste our food, listen to the way we talk. Now, when I look at those things all I can seem to think about is how much we have changed and are swirling in the pool of cultures. ‘Out of many one people’ is indeed still our motto, the Chinese, the Indians and other cultures make up our island BUT we are one JAMAICA. The way I see it we are forgetting that we are indeed one people, divisions can be seen in all aspects of life.

Jamaica isn’t developing as it should that is true. Finances may be the primary reason for that but I believe that one of the reasons why our country isn’t moving as it should is because our people have simply forgotten why we are Jamaicans in the first place and why we say we are proud to be Jamaicans. How much positive things do you say about Jamaica each day? Before you answer that think about it long and hard. We are baffled when other countries paint Jamaica in a negative light and we claim we are impacting the world so much in a positive way.

When Usain Bolt wins a gold medal or even breaks the world record he pushes Jamaica ten steps forwards when you share a picture or a video with our Jamaican women behaving in a less than flattering manner and skimpily attired you push Jamaica twenty steps back or even when you share videos that show violent acts of Jamaicans. Yes these acts take place but when a Jamaican shows these clips for the whole world to see it does nothing positive for our country.

Our island is indeed the land of wood and water yet people are homeless, we aren’t able to feed our people,we have communities without water and people are unemployed. We have lands from Hanover to Portland that aren’t being used for anything that could be used to cultivate and in turn provide Jamaicans with jobs and in doing so provide for the nation.

Factories can be built on some of these lands, using the sun as our form of energy which God has surely blessed us with. Our leaders have all these visions which can be heard here there and everywhere the time has passed for mere words the people have grown restless wanting to see change taking place. Every time panic sets in the cries ring out for young people to take charge and become creative.Our young people are more informed about the cultures of other nations than that of our own yet they are being propelled to move forward. They can’t jump on the ship to accomplish vision 2030 when they have no knowledge of where we are coming from as a country. It starts with me and it starts with you. Hold the hand of a young person you see on the  road and educate him or her about our nation don’t just leave it to the schools to educate our nation personal experience that you have had could be exactly what they need to give them that added push.

My hope for Jamaica is that each and everyone of us will be able to say proudly why we are proud to be Jamaicans and can show what we have done to make Jamaica better in some way or form. So next time before you share or say something negative think about how it will reflect on our nation. Lets not think of ourselves but lets think of our fellowmen. Because if we continue to be selfish in our thinking and in our plans for development we will not reach anywhere.

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