Earlier this year there was a case in the circuit court involving Jodian Pantry whose estranged lover paid Gun Men to kill her. Her being pregnant at the time and her child's father a very popular radio broadcaster. Who would not deem this man a "law abiding citizen". There are many law abiding citizens in Jamaica, who do not stick up people with Guns but they stick up people with their mouth. There are people , our law abiding neighbours, family members and friends who hire these young men and offer them money to get rid of some us. Few if any of them are ever persecuted. The ones who pulled the trigger are punished but the trigger mouths almost always get away.
Some people think that anyone who defends poor people are basically complicit with and are purveyors of their lumpen culture.
I do not go around attaching labels to people base on where they were born. I quickly realize that if I was not as smart as I was then certain people would not even bother to deal with me. Simply because I had the misfortune to be borne a certain place and spawned from a certain type of people.
Someone has to live within the realms of poverty to understand that people don't necessarily have time to rationalize when them hungry . A hungry man is an angry man and not just by maxim.
Just the other day a very well meaning attorney at law said to me that " do you know that many of these people you trying to empower and defend may not want to get out of their situation?"
This crusade you are on may be futile. These very same people without notice, at any moment can hurt you or kill you because of the values that they embrace and encourage"
He may be right.
But I often think about the white people who were lynched among with the blacks for being a "nigger lover". I learnt that your very own will hate you if you can no longer support their myopic perspectives.
Unity is a fallacy in any society. It's about conformity and choosing sides. You are either on our side or you are not. There is no neutrality, you cannot be the mediator between the soldier and the warrior. You are either lumpen or bourgeoise, there's no in between, no plateau, no high ground.
Read through this conversation and inbox me your perspectives
"So I was reasoning with Gussy younger brother last night using Dudus Coke as analogy to emphasize the lessons about our society. With all the money that Dudus had, he was still considered a liability to society and deemed removable by the powers that may be.
If high society thinks you are a threat to traditional values or the statusquo of this nation then you become a liability to society. Your very existence is seen as detrimental...you become dispensable..."
Observer: What values are you defending? It it the one that supports the lifestyle and practice of criminal who strive on the fear of every individual in society. And then subject then and their families to extreme brutality?
"Purveyor": No. I was not defending Dudus Coke. I was merely pointing out to this twenty year old boy who is extremely vulnerable to the same fate of his older brother that he should strive to become an asset to his society. He should never live his life in such a way that people would rather see him dead than alive. I was merely showing him that even money does not make you immune to prosecution or even death if you are deemed a threat to civil society.
Observer: I believe all criminals should die. No chances. Switzerland has the second lowest crime rate jn the world. You kno why? Becaz even the possession of illegal fire arms and the attempted use of same is punishable by death. That is a society that defend it's citizens. It's not criminal who are the drivers of driver but the law and by extension the people. This is arrogant but I prefer a known criminal to be shot down by the police than a single citizen be subjected to the brutal deaths as committed by a "gun man".
Purveyor: i heard a similar perspective from several people of late. I do not know if I give anyone the impression that i defend or support "criminality". I have been disavowing crime and violence from before it landed on my doorstep. There are many types of criminals in this society, some just a lethal as the man who stick you up with him gun cuz them stick you up with them mouth. Think about the law abiding citizens who hire hitmen to kill people... Most of this criminals are never prosecuted or gunned down as you put it. Haven't the police been doing that here terry? Haven’t they been shooting down gun men from way back when and then ten more rise up again... It signals that there are deeper social factors behind crime than people simply having an inclination to be diabolic.
Well as Dr Aadesh Cunningham told me last night at our vigil that there are many who will misperceived your message and that is only natural. I was encourage and I am committed now to make my messages more lucid. Perception is a hell of a thing cuz you, Tyrese ferrari, Andrew get that impression while most ghetto people think I despise their culture and lifestyle. They actually think I believe that I am better than them and here you are telling me that I am a supporter deviant culture of Donship ...Smh...can't win eeen???
Right side think you defending the anomalies of the Left side not knowing that the left side don't even subscribe to your ideologies because they see them as bourgeoisie.
Ghetto People get offensive, my in laws, my mother and even child's father gladly curse me if i ever said anything negative which in many cases are facts about lower class people and the ideologies that they hold. I now realise why people uptown will never understand people down town and it is because they both fail to understand the dynamics of those separate culture.
When i defend poor people's plight, the law abiding citizen of our country interpret that as an endorsement of the lumpen culture. When I try to proselytize and convert lower class people to seek social empowerment or even to illustrates some of the ills of culture of the lumpen class, I am met with quarrels, disrespect. People down town are often offended by what I say...They often respond in umbrage intonations that "me must galang lef yah". They are not interested in change, they are only interested in not being seen as inferior.
My intellectual friends see my writings as a defence of the criminal culture of poor people and most poor people see my stance as a criticism not of the social elements of the ghetto but a critique, a disparage of circumstances that they have little or no control over. They think I am ridiculing them, most if not all believe that I think I am superior to them yet I clamour everyday for their cause. Some of them do not even like me because of what I represent, the way I think,my ideologies reflect those of the people that they believe are oppressing them and keeping them in their indigent state. I am seen as a traitor.
People treat you differently because of where you come from. I know that. Many people I went to school with don't even fart pon me because I have failed to detach myself away of the circumstances I was born into. I often ask them that if Gussy had lived uptown and came from a good family that police would come kill him and drive away with him.
Most of my peers and family would start quarrel how GUssy woulda dead same way. They do not think they can be safe anywhere else than where they are. They do not like rules. They would prefer to play loud music at any time of night. They basically love slackness and in certain communities, slackness is not the norm and they hate having people police their behaviour.
