SEP
26
2012
Jamaica Mad to Raas!
By Super Heavy
Image courtesy of www.ridoutphoto.com
When did it come to this? Where do we begin to look for answers? Turns out that these are deep rooted psychological problems. And what the good Professor Hickling has concluded, might in fact be right. Jamaicans are mad people.

When did it come to this? It’s been this way for quite some time I’m often told. Watching that bloodsport called the nightly news has become as frightening as watching a horror flick. Policeman kills pregnant woman. 5 women raped in one house. Careless bus driver mows down innocent bystanders. Angry mob hacks man to death. And on and on. Where do we begin to look for answers? Turns out that these are deep rooted psychological problems. And what the good Professor Hickling has concluded, might in fact be right. Jamaicans are mad people.

Think about it. Only mad people could commit these kinds of crimes. And only mad people could watch the news, get up the next day and go about their daily lives and pretend as if nothing happened. Only mad people can watch their government massacre dozens of people, and not say anything about it, because they think the mad people who live in Tivoli don’t deserve to live. Only mad people drive public transportation, break every single road law, and when you call them out, they tell you ‘guh suck yu madda’. Then again, only mad people choose to take daredevil public transportation.

Only mad people condone music that talks about Demon worship and killing people in broad daylight, and when the singer comes out in public saying his main target audience are our children, no one gets up and says, ‘this is madness!’ Only mad people support the modern day slavery taking place in the Downtown commercial district, while speaking highly of the slaveowners because we got a good deal on some flip-flops. You have to be mad to hoard your wealth, lock yourself up in an uptown enclave, then ride around behind tinted windows, and still expect people to respect you. You must be mad to employ people you loathe and treat like dirt, then get angry when they steal your stuff. And you have to be mad to bleach your skin and still believe you are beautiful.

A society that loves Bob but hates Rasta, a society that adores Miss Lou, but takes exception to Jamaican language being used in public, a society that elevates ‘shade-ism’ and denigrates Marcus Garvey – must be mad. An education system that dooms most students to failure – madness. Churches that preach more than they practice- madness. A justice system that produces more criminals than it rehabilitates – madness. Dancehall sessions that are drunken public orgies – madness. Boardrooms which have become pretentious private havens for liars, thieves, and tax cheats – madness. Our politicians – ‘mad like shad’. One even refers to herself in the third person. We are violent, ignorant, and savage, not only in the way we treat each other, but how we treat our environment. And like mad people do, we continue to delude ourselves into believing everything irie.

Yet in spite all of this madness, one cannot help but be hopeful. Because uncontrollable optimism is yet another feature of insanity. It’s hard not to feel pride in our athletes, in our children who do well academically. In our creative artists who continue to amaze the world. It’s hard not to feel good about our young entrepreneurs. About our women who are taking on higher education. It’s hard not to feel hopeful when Father Ramkinsoon, and Father Ho-Lung, and countless other NGOS and non profits continue to do such yeoman work on behalf our less fortunate. It’s hard not to feel optimistic about the self-starters, the all-nighters, the heavy-lifters, the hard-working nurses and doctors, and the business owners who take a pay cut to keep everybody employed. Because in a country like this, such dedication and patriotism requires a level of optimism, that only a ‘mad smaddy’ can possess. So I can only conclude like the Professor, that Jamaica really mad to raas.

Superheavy.
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