SUNDAY SAUCE - Emancipation? Ah ... for whom?
Published:Sunday | August 8, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Oxy Moron, Contributor
Our Ameridian forebears once roamed this lush and fruitful land, bathing in crystal-clear rivers and streams, eating fish from the unpolluted sea, and breathing fresh air. Their halcyon lifestyles were free of the stresses of modern-day living and demands.
They had to fend for themselves, without a doubt, but there were no telephone, water, cable, electricity, Internet or padded credit-card bills to gripe over. Nor were there rent, mortgages, car loans, school fees, and the whole notion of keeping up with the Joneses.
How liberating it must have been to spend the days in your birthday suit under sparkling waterfalls without worrying about JPS and its digital meters, and what unspeakable comfort it was to lie in a cozy hut, listening to the rain beating the thatch roof, and not wondering whether your name is on the extradition list.
Yes, there were 'dons', such as the Caciques, their political leaders, but no barking guns and suffocating garrisons. That was emancipation! Unbridled freedom, if you will.
Then, the Europeans came, killed off the brown people, imported black ones from Africa, enslaved and abused them for centuries, and then told them in 1838 that they were free. We, the descendants of slaves, are today commemorating their emancipation, and I, Oxy Moron, am asking, when are we going to start celebrating our own freedom from oppression? Well, we have to get it first.
An act of Parliament
We need an act of Parliament to ban grilles and burglar bars from the prisons that we call homes. One that protects us from the money-grabbing clutches of utility companies and the tax department. One that allows us to go anywhere in the country, any time at night, any time of day. One that shields us from trigger-happy policemen. One that prevents banks from charging customers to deposit and withdraw their savings. One that bars our spouses from getting 50 per cent of our hard-earned assets after five years of pretending to be in love with us.
We also need to extricate ourselves from the notions that politicians are messiahs who will deliver us from the very garrisons where they have deposited us. Let us see that educators don't have a monopoly on knowledge; that we must go back to saving our money under mattresses again, and stop the daily buying of lottery tickets, the passports to permanent resident status in parish infirmaries or Kingston's St William Grant Park in our later years.
So, while we are waiting until Hell freezes over, let us emancipate our palates and titillate our taste buds with cassava and lionfish. Ackee and salt fish, move over!