Jamaican Crime (Ugh)

Jamaicans all have one thing in common: they are all yearning for ananswer to the ever rising crime rate in Jamaica. I just finished reading an article by Ian Boyne which was published in "the Gleaner" recently. Ian Boyne is a veteran writer and this article once again strikes my heart. It reads:

"New minister, old problems
Published: Sunday | May 17, 2009
Ian Boyne, Contributor

A new minister of national security, new broadcast to the nation, new expectations, but the same old intractable crime problems. The national security ministry has been the burial ground for many a hopeful minister. Why would it be any different for Dwight Nelson?

Jamaica's crime problem has proven impervious to the threatened 'onslaught' of successive security ministers. And Dwight Nelson has taken over at a most inauspicious time: a time when resources are scarce and frustrations high. One thing we know: there is no need for the new minister to commission a new study. Crime has been the most-studied problem in Jamaica. I would suggest that he does not leave out of his required reading the 2009 GraceKennedy Foundation Lecture by the country's premier scholar on the issue, Professor Anthony Harriott.

Main security issues

In a lecture titled 'Controlling Violent Crime: Models and Policy Options', Harriott set out clearly and without obfuscation the country's main security issues and the main policy prescriptions on the table. He has tackled the issues with a keen sense of nuance, sophistication, balance and deep knowledge. Anthony Harriott is no ivory tower intellectual: his deep grass-roots grounding is evident in the published lecture, and those of us who know him from the 1970s know of his strong social activism and attachment to the working class. He admirably combines scholarship with praxis, and he has clearly been listening to the people. Nelson needs to listen to him.

Already Nelson's stated intention to go after the gangs and the organised crime network - a focus also of former National Security Minister Peter Phillips - finds support in Harriott's thesis that organised crime is Jamaica's greatest security challenge. And organised crime is facilitated and bolstered by garrison politics and the politics-gangs network. Politicians have been acknowledging this but doing very little about it. If the power of the dons is not broken and if gangs can still find safe havens in the garrisons, then we can forget the fight against crime.

"Organised crime groups are able to use their criminally acquired wealth to corrupt some of the key institutions of the country, including the police force, elements in the state bureaucracy and the political parties," said Professor Harriott in his highly engaging lecture. "The garrison communities and constituencies are the most toxic expressions of this nexus. They are safe havens for organised crime and safe seats for the political parties. Both sets of actors, therefore, have an interest in preserving the garrisons."

How free will people be?

The minister's decision to go into troubled communities is fine and good, but when some of these communities are tightly controlled by criminal dons and shottas, how free will the people be to speak their minds and to counsel the minister on what really needs to be done? The minister spoke in his broadcast on Sunday about these consultations providing him with "a unique opportunity for direct dialogue," to "listen to the views of the people" and "evaluate their recommendations". But those people know that they have to go back home and so they can't speak outside of what the criminal dictators will allow them to say.

We talk about democracy, but in many of our inner-city communities citizens are not free to speak their minds. In many of our communities the people have to choose life over free speech. That's the cruel choice they have. Until we find effective ways of crushing the garrisons, we will not only not solve crime we will not be a truly liberal democracy.

Tolerant of criminality

But the problem of crime is not just a problem of politics and politicians. Because of what the late Professor Carl Stone called "the dominance of money", we have large numbers of people who are tolerant of certain criminal activities as long as 'money is running'.

The Jamaica National Victimisation Survey (2006) found that 43 per cent of those respondents who live in communities with area dons claimed they had done "positive things" for the communities. So often we see on television people blocking roads and creating mayhem because some notorious criminals are shot or arrested. While some are forced to act outraged, others genuinely appreciate the blood money. Now you say if politicians were providing enough opportunities people would not have to turn to the dons. And that leads us to another deeply troubling issue which Harriott dealt with - the fact that any success in destabilising criminal gangs will have an negative economic costs.

The underground economy contributes to our gross domestic product. If we hit the drug trade, especially in these tough times, our economy will also take a hit and we will risk more robberies and property crimes. Reduced funds from the drug trade could affect our exchange rate. When drug money stops flowing in inner-city communities, there is likely to be more intra- and inter-community violence, more theft and increased antisocial behaviour (more sexually transmitted diseases, as more young girls and women trade sex).

Issue of values

This is why I have maintained that the issue of values is the most significant one which we face in tackling crime and other social challenges in Jamaica. Hard-nosed, 'pragmatic' and 'sophisticated' thinkers and analysts tend to dismiss those issues as soft, even Pollyannaish, but they don't think deeply enough. If the people in the garrisons and other poor communities come to value peace, harmony and love above money, then when the blood money is cut off they would pay the price. If we had a culture in which people would literally die for principles - death before dishonour to their values - then the power of the dons and the politicians would not be as strong.

Repeatedly, Harriott bemoaned the tolerance for certain types of behaviour but did not go as far as in making the social-capital-deficit argument that Don Robotham and I would. Harriott implicitly recognised the centrality of values by saying "the violence problem can no longer be explained only in terms of lack," and that "the explanation must include the presence of alternative socialisation, alternative validation of behaviour".

Success in disrupting the gangs - a major plank in Minister Nelson's anti-crime strategy - will have a serious political cost that he must contemplate. Said Harriott in his GraceKennedy Foundation Lecture (which the company has done poorly in publicising - oh for the days of Corina Meeks!): "Any administration that successfully weakens and controls organised crime and as a consequence weakens its links with gunmen who are still able to retain their power and influence in the communities, must also consider its impact on their electoral prospects.

"They would no longer have the services of the gunmen and could not rely on the police for reliable protection against gunmen in service of their opponents. The successful administration would thus be exposed and vulnerable to these developments, unless both sides agree not to exploit whatever political opportunities and advantages might be created." The parties have always claimed agreement on this, and have put it on paper, but on the ground it's a different story.

Add pressure

This is where civil society has to add the pressure on the politicians. They will only change when sufficient pressure is brought to bear on them and when it becomes too costly for them to continue the garrison politics and the politics-criminality link.

One of the most useful and engaging part of the 2009 GraceKennedy Foundation Lecture was the comparison between the two dominant models of crime control: The crime fighting, 'tough policing' approach and the human rights, social justice (social interventionist) approach. In the lecture, Harriott made a strong critique of the crime-fighting strategy, the one I have favoured in the short term.

Harriott said bluntly, "There is an undemocratic impulse in crime fighting." What I found laudable about Anthony Harriott, my being an ardent advocate of the crime-fighting strategy which he knocked, was that he did so with a keen understanding of my perspective (without the usual misrepresentations) combined with a rationally plausible critique. It is not a skill many of our Jamaican debaters have.

Harriott admitted that "increased arrests, increased incarceration all tend to have short-term deterrent effects". But that is precisely what is needed in a context of galloping crime, Anthony. You want some breathing space. That is why the crime bills which the Government has proposed should be passed without delay. We are in a security crisis. Does the Opposition disagree? We understand the problem of trust and how that makes it difficult to support any bill which gives increased powers to the police. But until we disband the police force, they are what we have to work with.

"The crime-fighting model has been a general failure," Harriott said. Yes. But is the social justice model any better for our circumstances in the short term?

Key admission

Harriott made a key admission which all the human rights advocates have always missed. Confessed Harriott: "The big challenge for this (social justice) model in the present context would be to demonstrate its relevance and power in dealing with the contemporary challenges of organised crime and the subculture of violence."

Excellent point - if the human rights advocates would only address it. Harriott pointed out that the roots of our crime problem are not just in social marginalisation and lack of legitimate opportunities. (I hope Wilmot Perkins is listening), "but the existence of an elaborate illegitimate opportunity structure and the emergence of a subculture of violence. The latter means that even if the socio-economic problems are addressed, high rates of violence are likely to continue for some time. Attending to root socio-economic causes is unlikely to yield much short-to-medium-term effects on the homicide rates."

For years I have been trying to get the social justice model advocates to understand that one simple point as they talk incessantly about 'social intervention', tackling poverty, etc.

The model ignores our context and is bankrupt in terms of short-term strategies. In light of the global economic crisis, the social justice model is even more severely limited and irrelevant.

For us to have a serious discourse on crime, we have to read Anthony Harriott."


*Sigh*
Jamaica is constantly under crime's chokehold...it is exhaustingly annoying how it can't be yeilded or fixed. Ofcourse everyone has theories to do so yet no one tries. The lay man beggs for justice but refuses to give up a name or appear in court on justice's behalf...i don't know what is going to HAPPEN TO JAMAICA IF THIS SITUATION CONTINUES. All i know is if it doesn't stop soon, this peice of paradise will no longer exist.

Style.com is cooooool!!!!

I'm in love with fashion!!! I recently found vogue.com(btw Vogue is my fav magazine) and with it style.com both the sites are fun. On vogue i can go back and forth through the seasons and years, they have tonns of designers, unfortuanely i can't find Heatherette :(, lol, but it is still great. I will be putting up alot of stuff from my fav designers and i can put stuff up from there. I hope it doesn't go against the terms of blogger though. Im so excited!

My New Project

(originally done January 1, 2009)


So for years now I’ve been hearing about this blogging thingy and I’ve always wanted to try it, actually there was only one thing that was stopping me…I didn’t know what a blog was! I mean after watching Doogie Houser and Sex and the City you’d think one would have a darn good idea of what a blog is and what it does. Actually all I got from there was that a blog was an online journal or a way of telling the entire world your personal life without having to worry about the ridicule. What ever anyone else’s definition is my blog serves to let me state my thought about stuff so that if I ever become important they’ll write a book about me and use these thoughts as a guide….maybe even a movie might come forth, lol! What! One can dream cant they?
So this my story, my memoirs, as they come….I am Onella Lue, right now I’m 18 years old and I live in Three Chains, Mandeville, Manchester, Jamaica………the Island……….I Love fashion, photography, art, rock music, horror movies and vampires.  I currently go to Manchester High school in Jamaica and am failing every subject I do….that’s not a good thing but I think its good to note, u know for the future book writer/ movie producer lol….I’ve been a Christian for 3 years come February 6 and I’ve jus recently (as in just last week) started to live my life wholly for Christ.
Let me start on that point. I love God, always have, the problem was, I wasn’t sure the religion was real, u know since Roman Catholics translated it and discarded bits of it. My interpretations were that the bible was a story book not a guide, God is omnipotent and exists in all places and to everyone not jus to Christians. I didn’t like Christianity for a time because the preaching I heard then was of condemnation to other religions. But how can u condemn other people from what is right to them? I mean as Christian we think Christianity is right, right? As a Buddhist we figure that way is right, as a Hindu we figure that is right, as a Muslim we figure that way is right! And I don’t believe in terrorism. If a man believes that this is his way of serving god I don’t want to condemn him…even though people might die. But honestly the whole bombing and terrorism thing was what many of us needed to open our eyes from the fantasies we live in you know! Many of us went about our daily lives not even caring about our brothers and sisters. At least now people live more neighborly….the only down side to it is that instead of the petty thief being condemned now an entire race most of which aren’t even from the same part of the world or even of the same religion are being penalized. But then again they are standing up for themselves and taking their places as members of society….no longer coasting under the radar. I mean if you have to stand up to other people it means you have backbone and you aren’t one to be messed with. At least this way people will remember you.

Labor Day

It is Labor Day in Jamaica, an all i wanna do is SLEEP!! i have my last major exam tomorow and I CAN'T STUDY!! and i haven't done any yet so ya'll kno i'm soooo screwed!

Christian Lacroix

a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjixA1B9zd0e3u8AJ1SARnqmW10lyxA2w9liZ1fvk1f8kInWmzyZXlXTJrnayaT3bC7pfdTpRyLPzJ1XwrKGQWRs0m5BQJZFkjxVvXgfGdIIvl03DLHiFakWQhVSnz0Aaw09mY3hKQQc4jr/s1600-h/00010f.jpg">
When I think Chriatian Lacroix I usually think perfume or something of that sort but I was looking up Haute Couture trends and came across Christian Lecroix Haute Couture 2007 line. it reminded me of a victorian meets sixties masquarade. But looking further on his sight http://www.christian-lacroix.fr/ I came across his Pret-a-Porter Show and the coats and styles were gorgeous!
I'll put some up:

Lacroix describes his line as that of a "Wintry renaissance influences translated into futuristic folk silhoettes".

This is how he elaborates:

"This is a little bit the story of an Infanta from the Spanish rennaisance returning from the newly discovered Americas with the riches of the Rio del Plata. This is translated by a very short, cury or elliptic silhouette inspired by Haute Couture, like the predominatly black materials in a variety of textures. Sleeve effects, piping and braiding also come from the 17th century, translated in a more abstract manner in tone on tone shades and in these stud and stone embroideries which serve as the collection's leitmotiv on dickeys, on slightly "musketeer" gaucho boots and new shoulder bags. All of these alternates with spangled flowers from old post cards that embellish a "Bird Catcher's ball" printed scarf as well as a giant orchid pattern that evokes the opulence of the New World in mid-winter, as do the bright and shimmering taffetas in gem tones and a "silver mist" brocade, spangled with "jewels" embroidery."

The knittwear takes on new new porportions with large volumes structured in weft and warp, with dickeys and even with big link chain jewelry, bronze leather and furs that all give the finishing touch to this seasons opulence from the Golden Age revisted by the spare lines of today."

Overall it is a beautiful collection and if u read this you should go on to check out the line. of course he has newer things but i was very facinated with this one. It's cute! I'd wear any peice on that line. Gorgeous clothing!

ok...SO I HAVE A BLOG...NOW WHAT?

LOL
This is absolutely hilarious!!!
I have started a blog and now I dunno what to pt in it!
I love a bunch of things and I want to talk about all of them!
Is that ok? Are there even rules to follow?
LOL
This is really funny though, does anyone have any clues to what I should do?

A six year old steers a Chevy Avalanche to safety after his dad passes out!

So, I’m reading the MSN homepage this morning and the story flashes in front of my eyes:
Police: 6-year-old grabs wheel after dad passes out.
And I immediately click the link to go read it. In North Platte, Nebraska yesterday, a little boy named Tustin Mains saw his dad pass out. He jumped in his dad’s lap and steered his dads Avalanche to safety! His father apparently suffered from low blood sugar (poor guy) and his little six year old jumped out the back seat into his lap and steered the car, which was doing about 10-15 miles per hour (his dad’s foot wasn’t on the accelerator) and steered it around town, he even turned around when he entered a neighborhood he wasn’t familiar with! He maneuvered the pickup till a police officer, Freeze, could hop in the van and push the gear lever in park.
This just goes to show how magnificent the minds our children today are. I’m sure his dad had let him sit in his lap and steer around the neighborhood, as most fathers do when their kids are young. But the fact that this little boy realized that something was wrong and took the steps he learnt to save his dad and little brother (a three year old) from possibly being in a dangerous accident was amazing! I mean when I was six I’d never think to do that!
I wish the little boy and his dad all the best. To all the fathers out there, it goes to show that letting your child sit on your lap and steer around the neighborhood can pay of eventually! And to Tustin’s dad, Yo ass needs to start eating sum damn good food and not let any passing out happen ever again! You know how lucky your ass is that that boy was there! The amount of people that could have been hurt! Listen to me! Screw the diets! Eat!