Jamaica circus

By Garth A. Rattray

Just a few weeks ago, a circus visited Jamaica. However, when you think of it, metaphorically speaking, Jamaica already has what it takes to be called a circus.

Our streets are teeming with daredevil performers of all sorts. Some perform daredevil stunts by jaywalking or with bicycles. Others perform stunts every day all over our roads on motorised bikes.

Some perform dangerous feats with cars, trucks of all sizes and, especially, public passenger buses. They do death-defying and death-causing stunts around corners, into oncoming traffic, at blurring speeds and by ignoring any and all traffic regulations, markings, signs and lights. These imbecilic daredevil drivers, riders and jaywalkers play for keeps by gambling with their lives and everyone else's on the roads.

We have myriad magicians at all levels of society. They make our tax dollars disappear into their local and/or foreign bank accounts, into the bank accounts of business partners, relatives and friends and sometimes into thin air.

They and their co-conspirators are very well connected and adept at sniffing out money (from grants, foreign loans and huge contracts) and magically make many tens of millions of dollars vanish with a quiet 'poof' and without detection.

Wild Animal

The Jamaica circus has many wild animals - born into, and bred by, a society that disenfranchises them, leaves them up to unfit parents, and hardens them with the many vicissitudes found in poor communities. The society pays little attention to them until they are needed for votes, for menial work, or when they commit crimes.

Unloved, uncared for, underprivileged, undereducated, uneducated, unskilled, and underfed, our wild animals are nourished by hate and mature into vicious, cold-hearted, blood-thirsty creatures that steal, burn, rape, maim, murder, massacre, mutilate and even behead their prey.

The Jamaica circus has an entire subclass of stilt-walkers - the untouchable/ unreachable that stride above the plebs and look down disdainfully on the rest of society. The stilt-walkers usually exist on a plane that is foreign, and, dare I say, unimaginable to most Jamaicans. They often straddle two countries. They usually take from Jamaica and squirrel away their gains in foreign accounts. Sometimes we wonder if their 'contribution' to enterprise isn't taking more than it is giving.

Walking the tightrope

We have many tightrope walkers and trapeze artistes. They opt for a precarious existence by taking big economic, political and legal risks. They perform in the upper echelons of society, and while some survive, others fall in disgrace.

To remain aloft, they cling tightly to their balance poles or suspended bars constructed out of political favours, the social network, insider information, kowtowing, sucking up and compromising their integrities so badly that their moral compasses can no longer discern right from wrong. Their safety net is usually woven from loads of cash that they hope will break their fall and save them from destruction.

There is no shortage of midgets and acrobats in the Jamaica circus: the 'little people' and agile ones that scurry, hop, flip and tumble around desperately trying to make ends meet. They are often looked down on. They are small and individually weak, but their numbers are great, and in those numbers, they find strength.

They are the 'masses' that make up the bulk of the ones that keep the circus going. They are the ones that the managers must woo or cajole and even coerce or threaten or pay when seeking position and power. But they are the ones that are also treated like fools, quickly discarded and left to fend for themselves until they are once again needed to vote the managers in.

As for the clowns, considering where we once were and where we are today after 51 years of self-governance, I'm sure that you know where many of them can be found.

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