Jamaica not a very happy country

T HE EDITOR, Madam:

“ We can be out here selling and lose our life same way. We as a people too vicious against one another and just sit down and plot how to take each other life. There is more to life.”

Those are the reflections of a vendor in the aftermath of the shooting at the Washington Boulevard/Molynes Road intersection on Monday, March 24. This shooting resulted in death to one man, serious injury to another and damage to three cars. I share the sentiments of that vendor. What in heaven’s name could lead descendants of slaves to want to eliminate other descendants of slaves? We rejoice over 47 murders in February because that figure is lower than the figure for February 2024.

And l reflect on the World Happiness Report for 2025. I am not amused at Jamaica’s 73rd rank.

We don’t trust each other in this country. We don’t trust government. We don’t trust politicians. We don’t trust institutions in general. We don’t vote and the political parties seem not unhappy with the status quo.

In the countries which regularly finish near the top of the rankings, people don’t view strangers as threats, but as friends whom they’ve not yet met. And we were there in the 1960s. An indelible memory is that of my mother referring to someone in a restaurant at the Denbigh Showground as “a stranger”. The gentleman declared, “We are not strangers. It’s just that we’ve never met.”

Finns are very proud of their country. It’s not surprising that they’ve held down first place for eight consecutive years. Alexandra Perth, a managing director, opined, “People trust each other in Finland and l think on many levels in the society, we support each other.”

What makes Finland such a happy country? A belief in others, optimism for the future, trust in institutions and support from family and friends.

We need to foster a society where that can be realised.

NORMAN W. M. THOMPSON