In the midst of a charade
Published:Saturday | June 26, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Editor, Sir:
As the Dudus Coke feeding frenzy moves away from Jamaica, I wonder how much longer Jamaica will treat its own with scant regard or brutal indifference. The number of Jamaicans who were not given their day in court because they succumbed to bullets will go down terribly in our history.
Our country is experiencing a continued crisis of leadership. The less-affluent and the dirt-poor will always be part of our politicians' ungodly experiments - the most convenient sacrificial lambs. As a nation, we talk a lot but almost never act.
Now that Mr Coke has landed in White Plains, he has crossed the great vinculum. North of Interstate highway 287 guarantees him an all-white jury. If his alleged crimes involved New York City, then why not New York City?
He has been tried and convicted the moment he touched US soil. Ironically, he is now subjected to the same justice so many people in Tivoli Gardens recently experienced. Another Jamaican, in spite of his alleged transgressions, has found himself in the middle of a charade. Jamaica is now irrelevant and has no say in the matter.
As long as we continue to select leadership the way we do, our country will always be seen and treated as a 'Banana Republic'.
With Mr Coke, the cycle will continue. A plea bargain will be his only salvation. He should let the State provide him with a free lawyer and go for the usual caviar and give his money to the poor of Tivoli and not to greedy, hypocritical lawyers. I am sure he is now in a position to call names, and he should. Let us see who they will come for next.
Few Jamaicans remember the bombing of the Cubana Airline which exploded in mid-air on a flight between Venezuela and Cuba. Luis Posada Carriles, the confessed mastermind and perpetrator, is living a free man in the United States. In spite of volumes of extradition request from Cuba and Venezuela, the United States is mute. The double standard of the United States is everywhere, but always overlooked by gullible and ill-informed Jamaicans.
As Jamaicans continue to genuflect at the altar of this great power, our politicians continue to be brain-dead chatterboxes who cannot be jolted out of their reverie. Jamaica pays the price.
I am, etc.,
CLIVE CHIN
Brown's Town PO, St Ann