Take possession of national symbols

THE RECENT flurries over the incident involving our young athletes at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu once again brings into focus the issues surrounding our national anthem, Jamaica Land We Love.

First I must say that I believe that the issue of patriotism among our people is a separate one from that of our response to our national symbols.

I do not believe that young Blake and Bolt lack patriotism and that led them to behave in such a silly manner while in the view of millions from all over the world. Both young men are very egotistical, like so many of the world's top sprinters, and it is painfully obvious that they are both also very immature and this must have played a part in their spontaneous tomfoolery. But I baulk at calling them unpatriotic.

So why their disrespect of the anthem? Why do so many of us have scant regard for the anthem and the flag? Why do so many of us have absolutely no emotional response to our national flower or tree? How many adults even remember the words of the national pledge?

I think that the answer to these questions remind us of how young our nation is. Not only that, but how recent it is that we have even considered any of these symbols as ours. Someone recently marvelled at the fact that an English friend admitted to becoming teary-eyed whenever the God Save the Queen was played at an official ceremony. She marvelled because this was a particularly intelligent person and both the words and tune of that anthem should have been anathema! The same is true of The Star Spangled Banner. It is difficult to understand how a Christian Pacifist could respond positively to that war cry. But it is not the words to which these people respond. In fact, many Americans don't know all the words of their anthem and few Britons know the other verses of their anthem. In fact, one verse is deliberately suppressed!

A rallying cry

But it is what anthems represent that make them special. In times when a nation is called upon to stick together against a common foe, the anthem becomes a rallying cry and from thenceforth a symbol of their national identity. During World War II and the German blitz the British grew closer to their anthem. Conversely, an instrumental rendition of The Star Spangled Banner by Jimi Hendricks was one of the most poignant protests against US involvement in the Vietnam War. And there was the 'protest' rendition of the English anthem by a group called the Sex Pistols.

We have no such incidents in our past. In fact, for years after our negotiated Independence and 'birth' of our nation, many of our citizens still responded to government and government agencies as if they were a foreign power.

The first time I had heard Jamaica Land We Love sung with heartfelt passion by ordinary citizens was by a large group of men in a bar. It was after Hurricane Gilbert: curfews, no electricity, the era of bully beef, no ice. But the Olympics were on in Seoul. The bar had both a generator and a dish and we would gather there to watch the Olympics and try to forget the discomforts and frustrations. In the last race on the last day, the 4x400 metres, our men ran their hearts out and Bert Cameron dug deep and heroically resisted the challenge of the German who had medalled in the flat race. During the awards ceremony, every man in the bar rose with robust heart-soaring rendition of our anthem.

The only other time I have heard that type of emotion in the anthem was during that fateful game against Mexico when we qualified for the Football World Cup. It was on that day that the masses took possession of the anthem, down to the vocalisation of the timpani: "Jamaica, BOOM."

For a while, because it united us in a common cause, we took possession of that symbol. The flag came next. But yet the 'possession' is not complete or absolute. We will never go to war. So it will take much longer.

Keith Noel is an educator. Comments to columns@gleanerjm.com