January 10th
Dear Aunty:
With all the challenges Jamaica faces, this year of Golden Jubilee is also a call to arms. As we are outnumbered by the naysayers internally, and the external global economic challenges, we will be required to engage in a guerilla war against the enemies of: self-doubt, crass partisanship, crab-in-the-barrelism and international laws made to favor the wellbeing of our former colonial masters. We are a tallawah people – only the strongest and fittest survived the trek through the jungles, the Middle Passage and the back-brukking labor of the midday canefield sun.
Now that the election is behind us– we can turn our attention to the bashment for the Jubillee. The Imagine Jamaica 50 Birthday Wish List is my contribution to the party planning process. I believe that enough of us can step up and make bold and seemingly impossible claims about what we will do, we can change the direction of this nation. Nanny showed us this power of the mind when she devised her strategies for battleground success. Marcus Garvey showed us this power of the mind when he launched a movement and three ships a sailing. Bob Marley showed us this power of the word with his message of self-emancipation and social justice which continues to reverberate throughout the world today.
Take the vision of planting 50,000 Trees in Jamaica (Wish #7). It is alive – because the Visioneurs from Farmville Jamaica Live have told me that they can taste the ackee and breadfruit and mangoes that will bear from the 50,000 trees they want to help plant in yards across the nation. Now with all the mention of the diaspora in speeches during the swearing in and aftersince, I am longing to see what the diaspora activists are planning on doing. I am hoping that someone will take up my Wish#4 — Support the Development of 50 Community Based Development Corporations or Wish #9 Organize Hometown Development Summits to result in Five Year Development Plans for each Parish. My girl who run the Hanover Homecoming Foundation – must be have something in mind…I cant wait to hear what she planning. And as a matter of fact, so too the Elizabethans and I understand there is a Trelawny group. What a thing if they could all come together and plan for each of them to come home between July 27th and July 31st and then on AUGUST 1st across the nation – we could launch a Grand Emancipation Celebration with runners lighting the torch and running a relay around island from parish clock to parish clock. My heart can’t stop quivering. I longing to hear what they are planning. Please Let me know if you hear anything!
Walk Good,
Cousin
