Where are the Jamaican Sentimentalist?
I established in my post at thejamaicaninspirator.com that Jamaicans like most contemporary individuals I know can add a price to everything but a value to nothing.
Let's alternate and expound on that perspective.
Taxi Drivers in Jamaica are some of the most callous individuals. You rarely find a taxi driver that one could consider cool in rural Jamaica. I saw a taxi driver recently "cussed" out an elderly lady who could barely walk with her cane because she was short on cash for her fare. The same driver was reluctant to take her to her gate in the torrential downpour. I went into my purse and asked the driver how much it would cost to take her there and paid it.
I knew I had strikes a chord with him. He kept looking at me through his rear view mirror and I stared through the passenger back seat window as the rain pelted on the glass. People no longer believed in random acts of kindness. That old lady could have been my grandmother for chrissakes and would not want her to be standing in the pouring rain.
It is not that we are not sentimental. We have lost empathy. This notion of raising children to only consider themselves and think that they are better than people has a created a culture of young people who are cynical and unfeeling.
We have raised our children to be self seeking and self serving. We encourage them to think that the accumulation of money is the route to happiness and every other notion is not a worthy value or aspiration.
Why do we suppose crime and scamming is so widespread in Jamaica?
We have a society of young people who were socialized to seek wealth above all else and to believe that everyone outside of family is an obstacle to their success. We have raised a society of adults who are largely distrustful of each other and narcissistic.
I like old people. I admire their experience. I often wish I could experience what they witness before I was born. I often wonder what their world was like when they were my age.
I learn a lot from them too. Both my grandmothers don't talk about what they regret doing but express remorse over the several things they should of done with their life and didn't do our of fear or foolish advice. They try to encourage me not to make those mistakes and I listen because I have not seen or experience what they have. It's a somewhat different world but I get the impression that the struggle is particularly similar.
Why?
Because young women making the same mistakes their mothers and grandmothers did. Young men dying before they are thirty like their fathers. The more times change, the more things remain the same.
I believe good people are in the majority but they appear like scarce resources because evil
People have a way of overwhelming others with their viciousness. People think being wicked is something to brag about. I keep wondering where the hell did that come from?
When did we become so cynical about life? My grandmother complains that I don't come to church. Not because I don't love god but because I don't particularly like being around the people representing god. I believe what they are purporting about God is merely painting god as a persona with human qualities. They think god is like them. They use this hell notion to gloat and wish ill will on those that they think fall short of the glory of their god.
I was observing a little girl recently who went to church every Sunday and wondered what the pastor was teaching at that church. Her behavior is anything but Godly. If that's what they are teaching at church,my kid ain't going to Sunday school anytime soon.
I have nothing against Christianity. I particularly like the tenets of Christianity. I believe Christian values are human values. If we were more loving and peaceful people we would have better communities, nations and a better world.
Where is the respect, love and appreciation. People don't show gratitude anymore. We are not thankful for acts of kindness or loving gestures. We are just glad this was done and it did not cost us any anything.
We treat the sentimentalist with disdain. We hate those who show up the selfishness in us that we try to hide beneath a mask of "articalness". We need to get back to being one big family. We should not only come together and pool money for the Bobsled team to go to Sochi but to build a proper forensic modern lab so we can effectively fight crime or give back to our alumni schools that helped shaped the adults that we are today.
No comments:
Post a Comment