Andrew Isaacs | Jamaica at large: The Saharan giraffe

We see that the man whose success is merely personal — the actor, the sophist, the millionaire, the aesthete — is incurably vulgar. - Soliloquies In England, George Santayana

Amid scorching heat and arid sand, the Saharan giraffe thrives as much as any in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. In the desert environment, there are no trees large enough to sustain an actual giraffe, yet this conceptual animal has developed a new pscyho-social economy to grow, stay healthy, roam in a tower (or group of giraffes), and breed out vulgarity.

Actually, the habitat for a giraffe is found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, that reference to a Saharan giraffe is purely a metaphor for towering, adapting, socialising, and thriving under harsh conditions. Primarily, these characteristics are found within the giraffe’s society and are equally critical for the turnaround necessary in the Jamaican society as well, avoiding any further faux pas into the predator’s trap. So this is a blowing of the trumpet as an urgent invitation to wake up and manifest the mental giraffe within the rapidly expanding Sahara of the Jamaican psychology.

Known as the land of wood and water, Jamaica boasts a hot tropical climate and contains all the resources required to sustain a vibrant culture, radiating from the psychological habitat of its inner giraffe. Yet the inner dynamics reveal an arid land that suppresses Jamaica’s destiny, trapping it in an evil hand.

STANDING TALL

Struggling to tower over the mental landscape is an inner Saharan giraffe that has been confined because of neglect, fear, and intolerance — unable to roam freely on to new savannas of economic development and prosperity. With a constantly lowered head like a flag at half–staff, forced to dodge the bullets from poachers, this Jamaican psycho-creative giraffe has been abandoned, festering with disease from stress and poor nutrition.

In Qatar, its capital city Doha, hot desert climate notwithstanding, is the quintessential symbol of this Saharan giraffe, standing tall in a forbidding environment lifted by its booster rocket containing the Qatar National Vision 2030, a development plan launched in 2008. The aim of QNV 2030 is to “transform Qatar into an advanced society capable of achieving sustainable development” by 2030. The plan’s central development goals are distinguished into quaternary pillars: economic, social, human and environmental development.

Most importantly, this noble Saharan giraffe unleashes a creative spirit to unlock boundless possibilities, generate and refine ideas, formulate action plans, and manifest the richness of humanity. There can be no greater safari than to explore the inner Saharan giraffe.

In the Jamaica national anthem, there is the solemn call to truth as an invocation, simply condensed, “Eternal Father bless our land.” It is the cry for the awakening to peace among the people in which the dormant inner giraffe can be, at once, summoned to stand tall as a monument of a collective security and economic prosperity.

ADAPTATION

Being non-territorial, the giraffe is not confined to a specific range, making it open to a biodiverse habitat and adapting to the environment. The painful sounds of the homicidal killings in Jamaica have come mainly as a result of territorial rivalries of every imaginable scale. These involve guns, drugs, fraud, theft, and greed, built into the perverse national psyche wherein the Saharan giraffe has been buried like fossil evidence of our people’s long lost glory. Seething in tyranny, the overwhelmingly disparate subcultures in Jamaica are adverse to national unity, largely due to unwillingness to come together and adapt to a peaceful lifestyle.

As a matter of national urgency, the current concourse of perversions must be sequestered and defused otherwise Jamaica sits on an active volcano of its own making. Truly, a paradise lost! Yet the inner and powerful Saharan giraffe waits for the dawn of that day of psycho-archaeological exploration, individually and nationally, to rediscover and apply the potency of this latent power.

This requires a revolutionary approach to the national challenges where every citizen makes a pledge to move together to achieve a spark on the national psyche in order to set the stage for the dawning of a transformative period of rebirth. A contemplative utterance to reinforce that new ideal may well be: “Lest the anguish of an evil staff, come forth O glorious Saharan giraffe.”

This is a fitting tribute to the national anthem, calling to “keep us free from evil power,” since that fully realised Saharan giraffe is like the mighty hand to protect the nation from hoisting its flag at half–staff - a symbol of the collective evil.

There is no other way but to march to a new national rhythm. It exists deep within the national psyche and requires a new, bold leadership to unleash its amazing vision with subtle sounds and wondrous sights. It is the movement of the Saharan giraffe on the plains and savannas of the Jamaican psyche.

SOCIALISATION

The giraffe is a gregarious animal that flourishes in a social environment where each animal acts to support the well-being of the group members. In so doing, the giraffe has developed a sense of cooperation and strategic position against its predators.

Similarly, the inner Saharan giraffe rises upright to bring a spirit of nationhood and harmony. Formed in a union, far exceeding the perfunctory relationships of individuals, the Saharan giraffe roams with confidence in the strength of its unbreakable bond. There has to be a mandate — sounding an alarm against predators near and far — that practises duty to nation, family, work, friends, and others as a means for uplifting Jamaica from the downward draft of selfishness and intolerance. Acting like a magnet for national excellence, the Saharan giraffe will surely manifest the best values hidden within Jamaica’s psyche. It appears that this crossing of the Rubicon will free the citizenry of its lustful drives and baneful rages, setting Jamaica atop a great mountain as testimony to its great people.

The land and people of Jamaica are tired of exploitation by corrupt and capricious leadership, rendering Jamaicans to seek refuge in some form of gaudy behaviour. But the way forward is not a show of dress and abundance. It is the spreading of a light that encapsulates the Saharan giraffe. Profoundly, it is the deployment of an army of a different kind that is open for all to serve, one whose legions are filled with a brave ancestral spirit, whether by direct heritage or homage. In such an army, there is one directive to “love thy neighbour as thyself”.

PROLIFERATION

In all its conspicuous characteristics, the beauty of the African giraffe is an emblem of continuity, thriving in the proximity of dangerous predators. Indeed, its inner Saharan counterpart is ready to guide Jamaicans to lofty heights if only a humble approach and credible determination is undertaken.

In Jamaica, the inner Saharan giraffe is an endangered species and requires a national policy that is geared at its conservation and proliferation. Such an emergence can be the bullet from the chamber of the Jamaican psyche to emancipate the people from slavery enforced by the canons of evil.

Clearly, the challenges that test the nation are surmountable as long as we dare to mount the inner Saharan giraffe by cultivating a national migration away from the scourge of vulgarity. It is a task to which all Jamaicans must pledge their part. And, thereafter, the people will enter into a period of prosperity as the land regenerates and songs of joy fill the receding valley of death.

By connecting the people in a mosaic culture, the Saharan giraffe becomes a prolific national treasure that reverberates in the Jamaican national motto: “Out of many, one people.”

Andrew Isaacs has worked in traditional risk management, research, and finance roles, where he delivered market analysis on issues affecting cost and revenue management. aisaacs0127@gmail.com.