Why are we lying to ourselves?

In Jamaica, we are living a lie. A lie about being happy. A lie about being fulfilled. A lie about our great hopes for the future. A lie about our respect for our leaders, for authority.

A lie about the prospects for our children. A lie about our confidence in justice and fair play. A lie about our commitment to brotherhood, peace. A lie about our tolerance for those things different or alternative to those which we are accustomed.

A lie about our sense of security. A lie about our mortality. A lie about our belief in kinship and friendship. A lie about our poverty. A lie about our wealth.

Yes, fellow Jamaicans, we appear to be living a lie about our quality of life.

What has happened to us as a country? Where did the rot set in? For how long did we see the pot boiling over and fail to shift the cover or ease the damn thing off the stove? What kind of lives are we living as adults when we are almost literally afraid of our own shadows?

How can we be walking around in a marketplace or plaza, eyeing suspiciously every person who walks too close to us? How honest are we about the tenuous nature of our existence when we have coached ourselves on how to react in the event a thug 'jook' us down as we walk or drive up to our gate?

What does it say about the kind of country we are living in if the National Water Commission agent can't even read our meter without us watching them closely to see whether they are 'mapping' out our place to come and rob us later?

What is wonderful about living here when our spouse is an hour or two late coming home and our heart starts galloping when all our calls to their phone goes straight to voicemail? What does it say about the country that you start monitoring the radio and the television to hear a report giving you the bad news that the worst has happened?

NO JUSTICE

Why should a farmer be forced to reap his crops early, sleep in his field or spend gazillions to secure his livestock out of fear he may wake up one morning and find only evidence of theft?

What kind of country is this when you can't be guaranteed basic courtesy by the police? Why will it not shock you to see a citizen, regardless of age or gender, being boxed, 'draped' or groped in the name of police exerting authority?

How fair is justice when no citizen will even bother to go to the courthouse to prosecute the police for telling them bad words? Is it that only civilians curse bad words to the police? Why are we having smaller social circles, restricting our trips to popular public spaces, paying through the teeth for security and surveillance, and yet use our mouth to lie that we are happy? Are we mad?

Why are we not sleeping soundly at nights instead of listening to hear if criminals are kicking down our door to exact revenge for something that some relative or acquaintance did? Why do we scrutinise anyone we encounter at the ABM in the night, man or woman, and brace ourselves for a possible attempt on our property or person?

Why do we get concerned if we are driving through a community for five minutes and the same car, the only other car on the road, is cruising behind us? Don't you see we are not as free as we want to be?

PARENTAL GUIDANCE

Why do we warn our girl and boy children to keep their play with the neighbours' kids outdoors, out of fear about what evil may befall them were they to go inside these homes and encounter predatory adult relatives or family members?

Vision 2030 says Jamaica will be the place to live, work and raise children in less than 17 years. So yes, Government, yes, fellow citizens. Band together. And lie to me. Then lie to yourselves about an outcome that only a miracle can induce.

Selah.

George Davis is a journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and george.s.davis@hotmail.com.