The escalation of the Golding problem has caused increasing alarm in and outside of Jamaica.   Note carefully that I said the ‘Golding problem’, not the ‘Dudus problem’.  There is only one place to lay the blame for this and only one outcome… the present prime minister must resign or be forced out.

In my last column, I posited that a deal most likely has been worked out between Golding, Dudus and the US government. I still hold to that because it is the only logical solution for both Dudus and Golding.

So far, the violence has not been directly linked to Dudus, as much as we all know that it is linked to his situation.   Surely he knows this is a war he cannot win and the longer it lasts and the more casualties there are, is the greater the blame on him. I would not be surprised if he suddenly decides to turn himself in ‘for the good of the community and the country’.

I would be even less surprised if Golding met with him and ‘eureka’, “all is well again”.  This is the only way for Golding to salvage something.

But to me, the die should already be cast.  Golding should be finished as prime minister.  He has no moral authority to lead and anyone who supports him, loses any authority also.  He has invested so much into this that now that the cards have turned against him, he must get up from the table.

For more than nine months he has blocked the extradition, putting not just himself, his government and party, but also Jamaica on the line for Dudus.  Whatever Dudus has on him, cannot now be greater than the lives of so many.

What did he think would happen while he was on this so-called Don Quixote quest?   Didn’t he think that criminal gangs would continue arming themselves in preparation?  Hasn’t he just set up the police and Jamaica Defence Force soldiers by making their work more deadly?

If he refuses to resign and his party decides to support him, then civil authority should shut down.  Shut down the marketplace, shut down the schools, shut down all negotiations taking place, disconnect all lines of communications between the private sector and the government.

The unions (at least those not affiliated with the JLP) should call a general strike of ‘no confidence’.  The press should refuse all releases from the government unless its about an issue of extreme health and safety.  Government workers should take sick days en masse.  Dock workers should sit, customs officers should be sick, same for flight controllers. Let the immortal words of Eddie ‘Past’ come to haunt this government… shut down the country tighter than a sardine can’.

This is an opportunity to start the process of change, to dismantle garrison politics and the relationship between politics and violence, between the used and abused for votes, by their users and abusers.  Lets start cleaning the slate, here and now.

If Golding gets away with this, then the immoral authority of both the politicians and the dons will be forever cemented in Jamaica’s body politic.  The people will have no say, the politicians will never fear the voice of the people.

This is not about party politics because after Golding, Portia Simpson must be next, “Clean up the garrisons immediately or resign!”.

If there is no accountability, there is no integrity.  When the politicians know what will happen to them in quick order, then they might stop and Jamaica will be better for it.

***

A few years ago when under a different government, we heard the shrill voices of many JLP supporters talking about Tivoli being a nice place and was only under attack because it was a labourite enclave.  Where are those foolish voices now?

With bodies piling up in the Kingston Public Hospital, policemen attacked and killed, Coronation market set afire, police stations ransacked and set ablaze, what is the primary link?  Tivoli and west Kingston.

Now before anyone thinks that I am casting a very broad bush, think again.  Not everyone living in these areas is bad.  But badness as a way of life exists as the norm there.  I don’t accept that the good must suffer for the bad, but the line of demarcation is blurred if you are an accessory before or after the fact, if you aid and abet criminality.  The silence must stop.

But this silence can only be breached if the nation seeks better for these communities.  They cannot be ravaged and left to die.  And we cannot be reliving this situation time after time.

And there must be justice.  Violence must be stopped and that includes state violence.  Police excesses must be curbed and punished, because like poverty and exploitation of said poverty, these are some of the greatest grievances in poor communities. Wealthier Jamaicans cannot shut their minds any longer to the cry of the impoverished.  Neither can they sit back and look at ‘them’.  Your future unless you are leaving Jamaica, is tied to theirs.  Their deaths will inevitably lead to yours.

To paraphrase Bob Marley and Haile Selassie, “… until the basic human rights are EQUALLY guaranteed to all, without regards to race, class or religion… dis a war”.

***

While over here in the land of the polluted, the ongoing drama is the oil spill.

Now all fools should see where unfettered capitalism is carrying them.  But then, if they are fools, nothing will show them the way.  Take newly elected Rand Paul for example.

Fresh off his election victory with teaparty support, he couldn’t wait to keep his big fat foot out of his mouth.  Perhaps he should have been a dentist instead.

He is the male Sarah Palin.  First was his big flop over the civil rights act, then over Americans with Disabilities to be quickly followed by his accusation that Obama’s criticism of BP is ‘un-American’.  Say what?

As is usual, people like him care more about those who can fund his campaign than the common man.  He seems to have little concern for the fishermen, and the hotel workers who will lose their ability to feed their family when the full extent of the damage is reached. Note to self:  Don’t go into the sea any time soon.

BP must be criticized and in fact, their major leaders should be sent to jail.  This is pure negligence.   You don’t go into this type of environmental risk without factoring in, and having the ability to fix worst-case scenarios.  Instead, all they saw was profits.

And of course, there are those who bawl for less government.  What are they asking for now?  More government to clean up BP’s toilet, but not to regulate their activities? Really?  Is stupidity in endless supply in America?  Obviously.

Even when BP’s negligence, lies and crocodile tears have been exposed, we have idiots rushing to their defense.  Me, I would fine BP into bankruptcy and beyond.  Fine the entire system of supporters and enablers, if possible.  Because we know that the taxpayers will eventually have to pick up a major cost of the clean-up.

But moreso, take a page out of China’s justice system.  Execute the top executives and board members.  Where there is no accountability, there is no democracy… only anarchy of the few.

This blog encourages responses.  Feel free to jump in anytime.  The world can hardly be made worse for it.