Remembering Tivoli

"My fellow Jamaicans, I have spent the last several days in deep contemplation about the issues that have caused so much anxiety throughout the society ... . Accordingly, the minister of justice, in consideration of all the factors, will sign the authorisation for the extradition process to commence." - Prime Minister Bruce Golding (Monday, May 17, 2010).

Have you ever viewed a notable piece of abstract art and wondered how a work could earn so much acclaim with so little effort seemingly put into it? As you looked closer at what, on its surface, appeared as a plain black square or a bewildering collection of mumbo-jumbo, were you amazed when out of the ambiguity erupted a potent sensory experience that left your mind traversing innumerable paths? This is the power of abstract art - such little recognisable imagery is thrust upon your brain that your brain is forced to fill the void with intensely vivid details.

Bob Dylan's lyrics often arouse similar sentiments. As I searched for the appropriate words to recapture last year's devastation, reflect on the collective mindset that brought us to that awful point, and rebuke the public's failure to hold anyone accountable for the alleged atrocities that occurred on those fateful days, one particular song came to mind - Blowin' in the Wind, Dylan's 1963 folk hit that became somewhat of a protest anthem during the US civil rights and anti-war movements of that time.

"How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?/Yes, and how many seas must a white dove sail/before she sleeps in the sand?/Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly/before they are forever banned?"

I don't quite know the answers to Dylan's questions. I do know, though, that Constable Jason Davis was one of two Jamaica Constabulary Force members killed along Mountain View Avenue on the eve of last year's Tivoli Gardens incursion. His car remains parked at his parent's home. His parents continue to mourn. His father accepts that he's probably drinking too much - it's about the only way he can cope.

"How many years must a mountain exist/before it is washed to the sea? Yes, and how many years can some people exist/before they're allowed to be free? Yes, and how many times must a man turn his head/and pretend that he just doesn't see?"

I don't know those answers, either. What I do know is that next year, as Jamaicans take to the polls, residents of Tivoli Gardens will, without fail, vote en masse for the Jamaica Labour Party candidate for Parliament. In theory, they will possess the freedom of choice afforded citizens of any liberal democracy. In reality, they will vote green. I don't know much, but I know, with almost absolute certainty, that this will be the case.

"How many times must a man look up/ before he can really see the sky? Yes, and how many years must one man have/before he can hear people cry? Yes, and how many deaths will it take/'til he knows that too many people have died?"

violent confrontation

I don't know. But I know that if I had a child and I wanted him to choose a profession that, to the greatest extent possible, insulated him from the risk of violent confrontation, I would convince him to become an accountant. Keith Clarke was an accountant. He was killed, in the dead of night, in the comfort of his home, by members of the security apparatus hunting Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

I wouldn't typically quote the late 'objectivist' writer Ayn Rand, but her words seem particularly poignant here: "A government that initiates the employment of force against men who had forced no one, the employment of armed compulsion against disarmed victims, is a nightmare infernal machine designed to annihilate morality ... . Such a government substitutes for morality the following rule of social conduct: you may do whatever you please to your neighbour, provided your gang is bigger than his."

Keith Clarke's family - and countless others - seek answers.

What does this all mean? How did we get here? Where do we go from here? As Bob Dylan put it, "The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind; the answer is blowing in the wind." Good luck grasping it.

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