Garth Rattray | Freedom without responsibility is chaos

The transaatlantic slave trade was exceptionally egregious. It was exploitative, cruel, inhumane, and racist. Slavery has been practised within various cultures from time immemorial. Many people will be surprised to learn that it still exists today albeit covertly, in small pockets, and in isolated instances.

However, our history of being enslaved taught us many important lessons that remain relevant today, some 200 years after slavery was officially abolished. We learnt that the evil that men do can be boundless. Sometimes governments sanction wrongs, tacitly or overtly whenever there is some ulterior motive or if a ‘greater good’ is identified. Some of our ‘revered’ West African ancestors willingly participated in, and significantly benefited from the unholy, heinous, atrocious, and monstrous transaatlantic slave trade by capturing and selling their own countrymen as export. Sad to say that some of them still refer to us as ‘slave babies’. We are living proof that the long-term effects of evil can last for centuries.

Freedom was something that our enslaved forefathers dreamt of, prayed for, yearned for, fought for, suffered for, lived for, and died for. That, along with protests from objectors within the British empire, combined with the economy of the time eventually led to the passing of the Abolition Bill in 1807. With it, the transaatlantic slave trade was declared to be “utterly abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful” in 1808.

But it wasn’t until 1834 that the partial emancipation of slaves and the obligatory period of ‘apprenticeship’ (a euphemism for continued slavery with minimal so-called rights and a promise of eventual freedom) came into effect. Full freedom was granted in 1838 when the British Government passed the Emancipation Act.

TRANSITION

I remain in awe that freed slaves, although bereft of worldly possessions, education and totally unprepared for self-care and self-determination by design of the establishment were able to transition from a life where their every action, even intimacy, was managed by someone who legally owned them, to a life wherein they had to begin from scratch and learn to fend for themselves within a hostile society. It must have been a remarkable feat of inner strength, determination, and survival.

Jamaica officially celebrated Emancipation Day as a public holiday in 1893. But this was discontinued in 1962 in favour of celebrating our Independence Day on the first Monday in August. On August 1, 1997, the celebration of Emancipation Day was reinstituted as a national holiday by then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson. Nowadays, we all look forward to the ‘Emancipendence’ period from August 1 to 6.

Emancipation and Independence Days are listed as celebrations; but they should also be listed as commemorations to officially remember and pay homage to those great events. The pain, suffering and sacrifices made by the people who got us where we are should be foremost in our minds. Perhaps in doing so, our citizenry would begin to appreciate the significance of the freedoms that they currently enjoy and not dishonour our heroes by abusing them.

Thanks to those who laid the foundation for us, we are able to enjoy many freedoms; but they come with caveats. We are free to drive on our roads, but not without knowing the laws, not without a driver’s licence and not without respect and care for other road users. We must remain cognisant that everyone has freedoms, too, and we must share them.

BEND RULES

We are free to construct buildings but not without the requisite approvals, not without adhering to the building codes, zoning, building covenants, and not without respect and care for others. When people use their money, influence, and/or power to either ignore or bend the rules and invade [accustomed] uniformed residential communities by erecting towering edifices or commercial hubs in their midst, the freedoms of the existing residents who invested in those communities are dashed.

When some people feel free to pollute the atmosphere and/or environment with smoke, toxic chemicals or noise, our freedom to enjoy clean and safe surroundings is nullified. When trusted employees in financial institutions feel free to access our savings and/or investments, our freedom to secure our future is destroyed.

Our hard-won freedoms are trampled upon by those who deny us the freedom to enjoy our country, our communities, and our homes. Criminal elements feel free to take whatever they want from us, as if they were the ones who worked hard and sacrificed for them. They feel so entitled that they kill people before, during, or after robbing them of their possessions. It’s as if taking away their possessions wasn’t satisfying enough, so they take away their lives.

Nothing is truly free in this world. The vital oxygen that we breathe does not magically appear, many billions of plants are hard at work producing it through photosynthesis. The carbon dioxide that we produce in such vast amounts, that it is contributing to our demise, is removed by those same plants. Yet, we feel free to take them for granted by irresponsibly destroying them as we please.

We were emancipated from slavery but not from looking out for one another. We gained independence from Britain and interdependence on one another. We cannot enjoy our personal freedoms in isolation because we must coexist with everyone else. We must act responsibly and share the freedoms that those who went before us sacrificed so much to achieve. To do otherwise will lead to chaos.

- Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com