Peter Espeut | A year to remember

Those in the future who will write history have several reasons to remember 2022.

In February, Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded the Ukraine in what many felt was going to be a walkover, but which has dragged on until now. The determination of the Ukrainian people has impressed the world, and the military might of Russia has suffered a public relations catastrophe.

In the meantime, the dependence of much of the world on the food grown in both Russia and the Ukraine has been exposed; food has become more expensive (driving up inflation, and may push many countries into recession), and the shortages have begun; here in Jamaica we see it in animal feed (scarce grain is being prioritised to feed humans); we will see in 2023 if other countries will be able to step up their grain production to avoid deepening hunger.

Will this crisis galvanise Jamaican farmers into action, and Jamaican consumers into reducing their appetite for foreign foods? Unlikely!

The war has also exposed how Europe has become dependent on Russian sources of energy. The European Union would like to sanction Russia by refusing to buy its oil and gas, but it can’t! Realpolitik is when you have to depend upon your enemies for essentials like energy (and food). Maybe this will accelerate research to commercialise sources of energy other than fossil fuels, which would be a boon for the natural environment.

If many were surprised that the racist United States would elect Barack Obama as president – twice – how do they respond to the party of Enoch Powell selecting (unopposed) Rishi Sunak – the son of Indian immigrants – as prime minister of the United Kingdom! Enoch “Rivers of Blood” Powell must be turning in his grave!

As the United States lurched from the left (Barack Obama) to the right (Donald Trump), the United Kingdom lurched from the right (Boris Johnson) to the left. After Boris (BoJo the Clown) was forced to resign after being associated with breaches of COVID-19 protocols (the Westminster system worked! Jamaica take note!), the British Conservative Party chose its third female prime minister in Liz Truss. With the appointment of Kwasi Kwarteng (parents from Ghana) as chancellor of the exchequer, James Cleverly (mother from Sierra Leone) as foreign secretary, and Suella Braverman (parents of Indian origin) as home secretary, for the first time in British political history, no white men held positions in the Great Offices of State. How the world turns!

TRUE COLOURS

But the British Conservative Party exposed its true colours by announcing a mini-budget with large-scale borrowing and tax cuts for the rich, which led to widespread criticism and a party revolt (Westminster worked again! Maybe our back-bench is too small and too red-eye to have any meaningful revolt).

On her fiftieth day in office, Truss stepped down, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in the history of the United Kingdom. Even so, she served under two monarchs.

A memorable year was 2022!

Locally, 2022 will be remembered as the year that states of emergency (SOEs) became normalised; and time will tell how this will turn out. Crime is definitely out of control, and corruption is not far behind; they may be related. Extreme measures are being employed to deal with the former, while almost nothing is being done to check the latter. Jamaica’s undernourished anti-corruption agencies continue to expose malfeasance (Westminster niceties like resignations are usually disregarded), yet the perpetrators escape criminal sanction.

Meanwhile, back-to-back states of emergency have been declared without resort to parliament, to give the security forces the power to detain without charge persons they suspect of being violence-producers, even though they do not have concrete evidence. This political sleight of hand – which amounts to preventative detention – will make 2022 a memorable year for all the wrong reasons.

The church communities I serve in Denham Town, Hannah Town, and Greenwich Town have experienced multiple murders during recently declared states of emergency. The Government’s claim is that even though SOEs do not prevent murders and shootings, they reduce them, saving lives. Although plausible, this is not a verifiable claim; and it may be overstated: the violence may simply migrate elsewhere.

SERIOUS MEASURES

One shudders to think what even more serious measures may be ahead if/when back-to-back SOEs do not produce the desired effect.

It is impatient of debate that the negative effects of plantation racism and colonialism are still with us, embodied in our education system, which does not work for the majority of Jamaicans, yet seems to suit some employers by keeping wages low. Action on the 2021 Patterson Report on Education Transformation has been slower than a snail’s pace, yet the Government is lunging ahead with the Sixth Form Pathways Programme which is not one of the strategies recommended (the Patterson Task Force knew of the plan, but chose not to recommend it), a slap in the face for the Patterson team.

Jamaica is not the place of choice for the lower classes to live, work and raise families, and part of the reason is Jamaica’s underperforming education system. This year will not be remembered for any efforts at education transformation.

Many Jamaicans are not included in the labour force because they have few skills; unemployment figures are at record lows, while some employers say workers are hard to find; meanwhile, street-corner idlers abound. This year the Government announced that Jamaica will have to import thousands of persons to service the economy; 2022 will be a memorable year!

The Government abandoned its pretended balancing act between lives and livelihoods by shutting down the COVID-19 measures in 2022. We will soon learn whether this was wise.

Local Government elections due in a few weeks will be a referendum on the Jamaica Labour Party. Turnout will be low, and if the People’s National Party (which is in disarray) make a strong showing, this could be a portent of things to come at the next general election.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com