Andrew Isaacs | Ja at large: The Humpty Dumpty Syndrome

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.”

There is hardly a more fitting lampoon of the fool’s recalcitrance than is found in that nursery rhyme. The character of Humpty Dumpty provides a vivid sense of foolish repetition, stagnation, poor judgement, and destruction.

Repetition

Repetition as a positive mantra is powerful in its use for meditation, especially in its use to heighten concentration. The Indian mystics refer to such repetition as simran. But when repetition of mediocrity, as in Humpty Dumpty, occurs, there is a devaluation of creative genius. The name Humpty Dumpty itself suggests the presence of a hump and dump, respectively conveying a sense of unevenness and dirtiness that would stump progress.

The Jamaican dollar has undergone a precipitously monotone depreciation since the late 1970s through to the present. Within a repetitive cycle of failed structural adjustments, the currency is left to fall under the gravity of economic burden. Yet Humpty Dumpty persists! Maybe, chiropractors would be more fitting than economists for the next set of adjustments.

There has never been a single, transformative economic policy to dislodge the economic dirt that has buried the Jamaica dollar in an atmosphere of abject dystopia.

Stagnation

Athwart, the Jamaican landscape is failed expectation and derailed aspiration. Confucius spoke, “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” So it is easy to understand the achievements of China under their cultural revolution pioneered by chairman Mao.

Leadership identifies and advances the path on which to move ideas that can manifest to benefit any circumstance. The leadership of Moses in the biblical narrative explains that he parted the Red Sea, as opposed to inaction and acceptance of imminent destruction of his people by their rapidly advancing enemy.

The leadership vacuum in Jamaica has always been underscored by disloyal administrators who seek their own personal gain over the progress of the people. There is a disconnection from the spirit of Paul Bogle, who rose up to fight valiantly against oppression and paid the ultimate sacrifice. His leadership was no different than Moses’ – they both stuck to their task with unswerving commitment.

But, in Jamaica, there is the prevailing sense that leadership is a crown of comfort. These purported leaders and officials, bereft of a strong sense of duty to the people, fill their ego baskets with the lust of greedy desires on their ego trip, sucking up all the water and leaving the landscape dry and stagnant.

Poor judgment

Being wrong is human, but enjoying it is the scourge of a monster. Caligula was Roman emperor from AD 37 to 41, who brought tyranny upon his subjects, while lavishly setting the standard of debauchery that persists to this day.

Time and again, the ruling instruments in Jamaica have sabotaged worthy ideals and brought suffering upon the people. This is a seemingly unending crisis that, unabated, will result in a land of desolation. Taking into account the high murder rate, it should be a relatively easy step to see that social indifference and apathy have crowded out wisdom, leading to poor judgement, criminal activity and brutish killing.

Without any further delay, Jamaica must develop think tanks, or otherwise noble institutions, to trace the steps of the Jamaican version of Caligula, deeply embedded in the society. Caligula thrives in Jamaica where monsters rise up in disguise to feign leadership. Perhaps, Caligula thinks he is still in Rome.

Destruction

Ultimately, the result of disharmony is destruction, reflecting a ravaged cistern whose run-off has been opened wide for excessive indulgence and unconscionable decadence.

The failure in Jamaica to build bridges and walk together like peaceful neighbors presents The Mummy’s Curse: King Tutankhamun’s tomb had a stone inscribed with ‘Death Shall Come on Swift Wings to Him Who Disturbs the Peace of the King.’ Upon deaf ears and personal platitudes, death befell some who dared to enter the tomb.

However, from the point of view of failing to follow instruction, death is taken here to suggest a broader meaning of confinement to one’s stubborn ignorance – an act of self-destruction.

The king in the nursery rhyme is all-pervasive truth that has long been hijacked and ransomed by corrupt leadership, igniting the fuse of destruction and desecrating the bridge that binds the Jamaican people.

Intolerant behaviour has covered the Jamaican landscape in a coup d’état, resembling the invasion of parasites on the skin of an elephant.

After the fall of Humpty Dumpty, the king’s horses and men were unable to make him whole again. Such fall posits a point of utter collapse beyond the best technology or human intervention.

Within the framework of this nursery rhyme, the determination must be made whether Jamaica is on the wall, falling, or already shattered.

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