My resolution

Din Duggan, Contributor

I DON'T make New Year's resolutions. I don't understand why anyone does. They say a promise is a comfort to a fool. A New Year's resolution is simply a promise to one's self. It seems strange that at the beginning of each year, so many people take such tremendous pleasure in publicly declaring themselves fools. But I guess it's not so unusual. Just tune in to any sitting of Parliament to see for yourself. Perhaps the foolishness is contagious, though, since I'm actually feeling an urge to participate this year. In fact, I think I will. But first, I need a moment to reflect on 2010.

The euphemistically-labelled 'Jamaica debt exchange' - in reality a domestic debt default - the return to a borrowing relationship with the International Monetary Fund, the tragic Tivoli incursion and the subsequent extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, all shaped the domestic landscape in 2010. As far as I'm concerned, though - and please forgive my self-centredness - none of these things took place this year. This year, for me, began on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 with the publication of my first column.

The desire to pen a weekly column stems from the same foolish naïveté that leads people to make New Year's resolutions. It is almost delusional for us to imagine that we can suddenly change circumstances cemented over time by powerful forces of history, habit, tradition and culture. For the past several years, I've watched as New Year's Eve partygoers raise their glasses, lighters, and 'gun-fingers' in solidarity with the artiste Konshens as his words melodically pour through the speakers: "This year, mi haffi be the winner, cause mi nah go mi yard without my youth dem dinner." Wrong. What will be different this year? Odds are you won't be the winner just as you weren't when you mouthed the same lyrics a year ago.

Futile efforts

The same has held true for me since my new year began in September. In how many ways can one lambast corruption? How many times can the ink of one's pen bleed stories of 'bloody murder'? How many injustices need to be highlighted to spark a serious change in a justice system that favours the wealthy and well connected? How often can one lament the failure of our system of governance before sounding like a drunken fool engorged with cheap champagne and unrealistic dreams?

I've written of heroes and murderers. The heroes continue to fall - their legacies unfulfilled. The murderers still walk the streets. No resolution has come to the family of Dwayne Nelson, the young promoter killed in a Heroes-weekend attack. But that's just Jamaica, where unsolved murders are the norm. Family and friends of Mickey Hill, the unarmed and apparently blameless man allegedly killed by police, have valiantly attempted to change this norm. While we celebrate the conclusion of another year of life, they continue their fight for justice for the fallen.

Like many of you, I have experimented this year with numbers and formulas, mixing potions and concoctions - we are all mad scientists toiling in laboratories of confusion - trying, failing, surrendering, and resuming an impossible mission to change the world. Perhaps we are naïve. Maybe we are fools. But, really, what else can we do except try?

Joining the fools

So I'll join my fellow naïve fools in making a resolution. Forgive me if it doesn't make much sense, but I'm new to this.

I resolve to live by the words of Ecclesiastes 9 (NIV):

"Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favours what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun - all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labour under the sun. Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."

Or perhaps I'll just sing along with Konshens: "Da year ya serious. Mi nuh inna the joke thing this year!"

Din Duggan is an attorney and entrepreneur who now works as a consultant with a global legal search firm. Contact him at facebook.com/dinduggan, twitter.com/YoungDuggan, or dinduggan@gmail.com