Ronald Thwaites | Xmas for some, Christmas for others

Every year at this season, our Judeo-Christian heritage bids us heed the story of a transcendent One, so besotted with love for His creation that He came among the least of us, with human identity, to reaffirm our respect, dignity and sacredness: our bodies to give praise by capacity to become Him; our spirits to become indestructible by His promise.

This weekly writing is often devoted to reflecting on how much happier Jamaican life would be if we were really serious about the common good of all; if we applied the tests of equity, mutual consideration and preference for those systemically neglected, in all public affairs – like the Budget, the police, the schools, the primary and public health systems.

The only great purpose of life, one that gives nobility to wealth and power; brings the satisfaction of justice, and dispels the insecurity of inequality, appears as Emmanuel – God among us, within us – fable for some, blazing truth for most.

Because of this event, my conviction is that the goal of a just and peaceful Jamaica, with equality of opportunity, is entirely possible within our time and resources. Redemption is at hand. The Christmas story and the life, death and Resurrection which follow embody the principles which underlie human rights, constitutionality, the content of a Budget, the primacy of replete education, healthcare and all the other attributes of the good – not extravagant – life.

BASE

That faith, that philosophy was at the base of one of the most creative, difficult and substantial periods of Jamaican history: the decades after Emancipation with the rise of the peasantry, the emergence of Creole culture around community family, Church, market and school.

The integrity, if not the form of this period of our past can be recovered if we could see beyond the classism, selfishness, greed and divisiveness which we have allowed to ‘dutty up Jamaica’.

Although we may not want it to be so, we are making a virtue of being architects of our own misfortune. Forging common cause around the critical issues of this year end is more than any single leader, any political party or special interest can achieve – be it crime, increasing poverty, environmental wastage, family breakdown or value-negative education.

Redemption, the essence of the Christmas story, is possible if only we would rise from the futility of pride and exceptionalism, and decide to cooperate with each other for the common good. To use power, like the Christmas Child, not to disable, but to enable.

If done within a generation, we might not even need the crutch of a precautionary facility from the IMF. We would see a national character far more robust, affordable and exciting than trying to become a mini-Florida; and yes, even the heaven of being able “to sleep with our doors and windows open” because we care and respect each other so fully.

The message of Christmas is that the flourishing of humankind is the essence of the kingdom of God.

Next week, I hope to encourage thought about the ideas, dispositions, policies and actions, personal and societal, which could make 2023 markedly better than 2022 for the majority of our uniquely blessed people.

How can one speak of us being uniquely blessed, I hear you thinking, when fundamental rights are in danger, murder is rampant, people can’t afford food and two-thirds of our children don’t get enough education and training to thrive in the world?

GRATEFUL

Despite all these warts of history and self-inflicted wounds, I am grateful to be a free Jamaican this year end. Apart from the beauties of nature and the unique allurement of our culture, some comparisons make the point.

They hanged a man in public in Iran for protesting government repression. An opposition politician in Turkey has been locked up for calling state leaders “dummies”. If an unbridled commentator or clergyman like me lived in distressful Haiti or Cuba, the likely fate would be imprisonment or death. There are no such threats here. For this freedom, we give thanks.

There is crushing hunger in Sudan and Somalia, war in Ethiopia and the cruel war in Ukraine, the latter disappointingly wrought by the same Russia whose system some of us hugged up during the Cold War. And despite our pointless and culpable tribalism, we are far better off than the chiasmic stalemate of ideology and racism which the United States has brought upon itself.

This winter, tens of thousands of black British, in the land which their forefathers helped to grow wealthy, will be unable to heat their homes and will have to rely on food banks as that country reels from the mistake of Brexit.

And where we wrangle over the minutiae of gender issues and consider it a divine right to debauch our sexuality, women in Afghanistan are flogged for not covering their faces in public; prevented from going to school; and, elsewhere in Africa, continue to have their clitoris cut out as a supposed talisman of purity.

Not here. Despite all the problems, we have a goodly inheritance, eminently redeemable, worthy of respect and vigilant safe-keeping from all the internal predators of this time – some on whom we bestowed national honours, gift of the very people who they are, at best, less-caring and at worst, oppressing.

Christmas-tide in Jamaica reminds us of the ideal of life – sharing, caring, sacrifice and self-restraint. Real life in our land tells too much of a different story. Therein lies both danger and hope for all of us, no matter how much we try to dope ourselves on the anaesthesia of boogie and boom.

The true Christmas spirit is the antidote to violence, greed and ignorance. With that hope and following His Way, Truth and Light, I am blessed to be Jamaican and privileged to share with all the wonder of Mary and the shepherds, the thrill of the Wise Men, and the fear of the Herods of our time.

Rev Ronald G.Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.