In a country bedevilled by civil war, Haiti has suffered 60 deaths in just about a month. Today, in a time of peace in Jamaica, we suffer more deaths per month and our population is only a third of the population of Haiti. Haiti’s situation has alarmed the world and brought about a sense of horror. In Jamaica, we live with the killings, no problem.

There is a sickness of the soul in Jamaica. The problem is called immorality. We want what we can’t get or shouldn’t have, and we have liberalised every law. We pretend. We lie. We hate. We kill – anything for money and goods.

Jamaica is an extraordinarily beautiful country made up of extraordinary people. Awe-inspiring contours adorn the landscape, with insurmountable peaks that soar into the sky. Our rivers and streams are everywhere, rushing between green hills all frilled with ferns and flowers. The sky is always alight with the sun or the moon and the stars. Our weather is green and soft with breezes and warm sun.

I sound like a man in love with my island, and so it is. Not only with our natural geography but also with our people: the vivacity, the boldness, the passion, the anger and yet the kind and compassionate nature, the depth of spirit makes for a Jamaican people with strong character that leads to excessiveness, if not self-destruction.

Self-destruction is what we are about at the moment. Why is it that in my travels I meet Jamaicans all so terribly in love with our country, yet here we are murdering each other? Why is it that millions of Jamaicans are abroad when we are strongly patriotic? How can we be a people who are so deeply religious and Christian – wherever we are – yet so cruel, ever wicked to one another?

True Selves

At the heart of the problem is the alienation of our true selves. The cause of money, profit, consumerism, and pleasure at all costs. We have entered the marketplace of the modern world without any sort of meaningful principles. . The Christian churches in Jamaica try very hard with the principalities and powers that be – the media, the greed, and the politics of our time; constantly pursuing power, money and popularity without  integrity or morals. The rest of us tremble in fear feeling helpless in the face of it all.

In the name of liberalism, we have removed the underpinnings of our country and our nation. We are by nature a decent, strong-charactered, poetic and moral community. For the sake of popularity, we have introduced new principles of life: by turning a blind eye to evil or by promulgating evil as good. Whether it be the flexi-week, abortion, drugs, rape, stealing, gambling, drunkenness, prostitution, loud and offensive music – it doesn’t matter; it is permitted. In a land where popularity, free choice, money at all costs rule, the Jamaican personality which is so daring will bring things to an extreme.

Here we have it now: death. Ganja will soon be legalised – I have no doubt.

But what is legal is not necessarily what’s right. As St. Paul says, “All things are good, but not all things are useful”. If money is at the centre of the ganja debate, we can be sure that there will be short-term gain and long-term destruction.  

Is it too much trouble to deal with? If so, we’re in trouble – both our children and ourselves. 

Resistance

The path of least resistance is not the best. But we seem to be taking that course in Jamaica. In allowing for human instincts to dictate what is right versus what is wrong; we are heading for national suicide. Our Christian faith is needed more than ever today. We must fight in our own souls, which is the real battlefield. . We must overcome much of our national instincts and passions and so become the new Adam, overcoming the old Adam which will lead us to hell. Creating what we now see around: a place no longer beautiful where brothers and sisters dwell in unity.

Nevertheless, Jamaica is my home. I was born here not by accident but for a purpose. I know what our true selves are, and I will keep insisting. Maybe a few will hear the true Jamaican music and poetry, and the true Jamaican spirit will eventually issue out of the Christ-like soul that characterises us as different from the old world.

I pray that we will not be like Europe which has lost its soul, and Haiti which is a stillborn baby nation, that has not come to be.

Father Richard Ho Lung is the founder and leader of the Missionaries of the Poor.