Give the yute a chance

Daniel Thwaites

I was keen to hear Andrew Holness beginning to articulate ideas about his party standing for an identifiable philosophy, and the political movements of the country as being more than mere 'transactional' election machines. I believe Mr Holness has alighted, after a long and winding road, upon a very important issue. There's no question that this contest has made him a better, more formidable candidate, regardless of the outcome.

So far, as between the candidates, for every point, there was a counterpoint, for every endorsement, a counter-endorsement. Morgan's Heritage was singing Shaw's praises, while General Secretary Chang was singing for Holness. Two solid men finally showed their cards: Ken Baugh for Holness, Delroy Chuck for Shaw.

Then there's the report of the Independent Strategic Review Commission that Holness had ordered following the last election losses. In a great scoop by The Sunday Gleaner, the report's contents were splashed over the front page, even while Holness continues to hide it. The burning question remains why Mr Holness chose to call the election in December 2011 when the Government was obviously battered by the Dudus affair and the commission of enquiry, and while being advised by the most experienced political elder in the JLP, Edward Seaga, that it was "suicidal".

CRASHED ECONOMY

I don't think Holness had a choice. My speculation is based on the ghostly look on Holness' face after he returned from his first overseas trip as prime minister. One saw that Mr Holness had been confronted by bigger concerns than ruining Christmas and New Year's. He looked devastated and very much chastened by what he had heard from the global financiers. Then there was the Bloomberg television interview where he acknowledged that the "financial markets" were demanding action from Jamaica, meaning they weren't going to put up with Audley's crap anymore. What a pity Mr Holness didn't return and talk it straight: that Audley had run the economy right into a wall. Mr Shaw, you will all recall, was too righteous to submit to International Monetary Fund (IMF) reviews and strictures, but not too righteous to take their money.

At the time, Holness would not have been in the mind to broadcast the unvarnished truth of what he had heard, but I suspect that now he wishes he had. What we did get was the admission that there was "bitter medicine" in the pipeline, but Holness knew then that it wasn't just a little 'eucalyptus oil' needed because of a chest cough. The economy had contracted AIDS. The most absurd aspect of this campaign has been the attempt to rewrite Mr Shaw's history as finance minister.

All the same, Mr Holness has said that if he wins, Shaw would retain his position as shadow finance minister. That's disappointing. On the other side, Mr Shaw has said that he will have Mr Holness and his wife to breakfast the next morning. Very gentlemanly! That's an improvement from 2011 when Dwight Nelson was promising to have Julian Robinson for supper. Having someone over to breakfast is a lot better than having someone for supper, and it is these subtle distinctions that make a political contest either enjoyable or completely unpalatable. Till this day I can't understand why someone would look at Julian and want to cook him for supper. It's very unchristian.

It was Golding, Shaw and Henry, the troika representing political, financial and governance mayhem, which really ran the last administration into the ground. It collapsed so dramatically that they gifted Mr Holness with leadership, but also with (as The Gleaner's editorial has put it) a party and a government that had essentially imploded. De ting did mash up. Let's see if delegates will give the young man a chance to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Give the girls a chance

Can you place too much blame on those Maggotty High School girls? The 'Contra Riddim' is blazing in the background and Kartel is seductively chanting:

Gyal! Yuh nuh deady-deady!

Yuh nuh ol' woman, yuh nuh deady-deady!

Yuh clean an' ready, yuh nuh deady-deady!

Yuh nuh stretch out like thready, thready!

It's as if Kartel's Sex and The City was tailor-cut for just this situation, a celebration of youth and vitality. Dem nuh mus' bruk out an' gwaan bad?

I certainly don't blame the young men either, at least not too much. There's little chance that any half-normal Jamaican male could see that kind of excitement going on and head in the other direction. In my schooldays, I know that I would have wanted to at least witness the major daggeration that was going on. I would probably be 'fraid, but braver souls would get involved.

This is why I believe in a certain amount of good ol'-fashioned censorship. It's madness to think that we won't be drawn in more or less negative directions if we always leave ourselves exposed to temptation. If you want to diet, you just can't bring cake and ice cream into the house. Willpower is a limited resource.

ANOTHER TAKE

There's another aspect to this, particularly when dealing with children. I don't want my children watching inappropriate things on the Web, but I would think there was something wrong with them if they didn't try to. Hence, I accept that part of my duty as a parent is to lock off access to that kind of material. Whether our society can learn to find a tolerable balance between amputating our beautiful music and giving the children some space to grow up without the burdens of intense sexual awareness is an open question.

We've since learned that only one of the video champions is still at the school. Wisely, the school board has decided to talk to the young woman rather than suspend or expel her. That's definitely the right approach. While it's true they were brukkin' out in their school uniforms, and that is unacceptable, justice must be tempered with mercy. Give the young girl a chance.

I like it that we seem to be collectively asking the question: What do we expect from the children when we engineer it so that they're hyper-exposed to all manner of outlandish behaviour? It's a healthy discussion to be having.

A word on soca, which is every bit as rude as our dancehall. My point of view is that we should attack and take over Trinidad and Barbados an' jus' gwaan run di ting. It would be great for our economy, solve a pile of social problems, plus we would acquire some oil, some pretty girls, and we could put a stop to the soca nonsense.

Daniel Thwaites is a partner of Thwaites Law Firm in Jamaica, and Thwaites, Lundgren & D'Arcy in New York. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.