A politics that means something

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I wonder if there is an escape from the depressingly mundane scope of the electioneering that, as usual, typifies Jamaican politics. Sure, there are people here who sorely need better public services, better facilities and opportunities all round, more equity, more justice.

Yet back in the ‘70s, there was still space to support the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, and indeed Cuba’s revolutionary experiment. Today, the government not only abuses our suffering neighbours (the Haitians), but cannot bring itself to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza. Far away issues? Far from it. It signals a complete absence of moral substance without which societies can only sour. By turning a blind eye, we are complicit, as our grandchildren will surely be telling us in years to come. Sometimes, the best way to get out of our own heads is to focus on someone else.

PAUL WARD

pgward72@gmail.com