The 1963 Coral Gardens Rastafarian Uprising and Proposed Settlement by Donovan Reynolds, Blogger and Independent Writer.

Jamaica is world renowned for its Reggae music gifted to the world by legendary Rastafarians such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. The edgy looking Jamaican Rastafarian locks have come to represent the emblem of a rapidly growing rebellion against the status quo so much that it has become normative behaviour and a widely accepted lifestyle choice for many. The Rastafarian movement now has an estimated one million persons scattered across the globe and the movement is still gaining momentum.   Yet the movement emerged from a people on the island of Jamaica who have suffered a history of structural, physical, emotional oppression.

Rastafarians are a set of people rooted in a cultural specific way of life who are indigenous to Jamaica. They clamour for specific rights based on their historical, ancestral and spiritual ties to Africa. Their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other populations is that that are often wear their hair uncombed (a statement of resentment against the status-quo and to assert their common identity) and they uphold Pan-African social and political desires. Most Rastafarians spiritual divinity is rooted in a belief of Haile Selassie as God personified. Their political aspiration is an emotional and, in some cases, physical repatriation to Ethiopia. There are three main pillars of Rastafari: the Bobo Ashanti, the Niyabinghi and the Twelve Tribes of Israel. There are two components of Rastafarianism: the lifestyle and the doctrine. The lifestyle includes wearing a dreadlock hairstyle, eating natural food devoid of sugar, salt and other processed chemical additives; the doctrinal tenet draws in part on the Abrahamic faith. Rastafarians also believe Haile Selassie is God incarnate and that he will return to Africa members of the black community scattered abroad who are living in exile as the result of colonisation and the slave trade.

 In Jamaica, Rastafarians are often despised for their culture.  They are often ridiculed and marginalized, abused, and denied the right to self-determination and to practice their spiritual and cultural beliefs. The state apparatus in Jamaica has long ignored the recognition of Rastafarians in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Jamaican government has shown some sympathy toward the Rastafarian movement yet most of the state’s engagement has been historically patronising. Up until recently there was a lack of political will to protect and promote their full and effective participation in important Human Rights matters that concern them.

While rights organisations in the US and Western Europe have continuously garnered statistical data  about police brutality and stop and search episodes of black and ethnic minorities, the routine stop and search by the Jamaican police of Rastafarians in Jamaica bear no statistical importance. Thus aggrieved Rastafarians are left only to ‘forget their troubles and dance’ according to the Late Robert Nesta Marley. We know that Black Monday refers to Monday October 19th 1987, when stock markets around the world crashed shedding a huge value in a very short time but who the heck cares about ‘Bad Friday’ in 1963 in Coral Gardens?

‘Bad Friday’, 11^th of April 1963, was a very gloomy day in the historic struggles of Rastafarians in Jamaica. The then Prime Minister of Jamaica Sir Alexander Bustamante made an order to the security force to ‘Bring in all Rasta’s, dead or alive!’ Six Rastafarians died and hundreds of others were rounded up, wrongfully arrested tortured and imprisoned. It was a grave crime against humanity that Rastafarians have not forgotten. There has been a long and protracted lobbying of Rastafarians for state reparation and an  official apology by the Government of Jamaica for this atrocity.

Earlier this year in Jamaica, I had the distinguished honour to be introduced by the late Clive “Kuba” to Ras Iyah  V, the President of the Westmoreland Ganja Farmers association.  Ras Iyah  V is  a fervent campaigner for reparation for Rastafarians and the victims of the Coral Gardens atrocities. At the meeting he became very emotive about the JLPs’ involvement with the Coral Garden massacre and the Back O Wall displacement of Rastafarians.  He was unhappy that the victims of both incidents were not offered apologies and reparation. I, too, felt that these incidents were the Achilles heel for the JLP, creating a wedge between the Party and the wider Rastafarian movement. A redeeming feature of those conversations was Ras Iyah V acknowledgement of the JLPs Mike Henry’s contribution to a debate in Montego Bay in 2007 that a Coral Gardens Committee Commission was appointed by the Jamaican government in March 2009.

Ras Iya V and Dub poet Mutabaruka have been at the forefront of social advocacy, actively lobbying Government officials and seeking reparation for victims and survivors of the Coral Garden massacre. The incident was triggered by a land dispute where a Rastafarian was shot, injured and imprisoned unjustly by the criminal justice system at the time. As revenge on his release from prison he started a riot fire by burning a gas station that eventually ended up with a number of fatalities. Eight persons were killed; this included two police men and the rebellion leader.  Incensed by the scale of the riot- the then prime minister ordered the police to restore order by shooting Rastas as on sight. A strong detachment of police from neighbouring parishes was dispatched to Coral Gardens and surrounding areas where more than 150 Rastafarians were rounded up and arrested, beaten and tortured. At the heart of the uprising was social injustice, lands rights, social inequality and the unfair distribution of justice.

Fifty three years later, on the back of constant lobbying, a documentary screening about the Coral Gardens incident premiered at the Smithsonian Institute, resulted in several protesting voices and a public march staged by Rastafarians in Mandela Park. Resulting from a 2009 Government led public enquiry Rastafarian’s voices are only now being heard.

I have voiced my opinion in private with my JLP colleagues about these two incidents and the deportation of Walter Rodney. I am deeply dissatisfied by the manner in which Rodney, a Rastafarian aficionado, was banned from Jamaica when he returned to the island after he attended a black writers' conference in Montreal, Canada in October 1968. The Hugh Shearer led JLP cited, among other things, trips to Cuba and the USSR as justification.  It was an open secret that his growing popularity among the Rastafarian community made the Government very uncomfortable. Speaking through the Political side of my mouth my viewpoint is that, as a party, the JLP need to redeem its credibility with Rastafarians by also offering an unreserved apology.

There is still a failure by the state institutions in Jamaica to ensure the Rastafarian’s right to remain distinct and to pursue their own priorities in economic, social, spiritual and cultural development is protected. Attitudes have begun to shift; Senator Mark Golding, Jamaican Justice Minister, has shown remarkable sensitivity on the rights of Rastafarians. It was at his behest on Monday 2nd June, Cabinet approved certain changes to the law relating to ganja that will in part benefit Rastafarians. Under his watch, approval was given also to a proposal for the decriminalization of the use of small quantities of ganja for religious purposes. This was done on the recommendation of the 2003 Chavannes Report. This will go far in ridding Rastafarians of unwarranted police harassment and criminal convictions that prevent them from access to work, social exclusion and the prevention from overseas travel.

So you all can imagine how the graves of elder scribes of the Rastafarian movement, such as Leonard Howell, Mortimo Planner and Samuel Brown Graves, must have jolted with the news of a final settlement broken by my beloved mentor, Adrian Frater of the Gleaner Western Beuro.   This settlement proposed reparation for the victims and survival of the callous Coral Garden Massacre of 1963. It was reported at a meeting of the St James Parish Council in Montego Bay Jamaica that the Public Defender, Arlene Harrison, presented a member of the Coral Gardens committee with a copy of the enquiry Report. The Public defender stated in her findings that a great discourtesy had been done to many Rastafarians at the time. She outlined a raft of recommendations to be acted upon by the Government of Jamaica, such as an apology from the Government to the injured party. She called for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to take the lead for developing a culturally specific centre for the preservation of Rastafarian culture. Most important, the report, according to Adrian Frater, includes a suggested reparation component of ten million Jamaican dollars to the families and victims of and survivors affected by this historical atrocity. This figure, in my opinion, falls way below the value of compensation that deserves and should be revisited .The matter is now squarely placed in the lap of the Jamaican government to implement these recommendations.

The right of state compensation to the victims and survivors of Coral Gardens are enshrined in Resolution 60/147 of 16 December 2005 of the UN General assembly. The resolution lays out basic principles and guidelines on how the state should act on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law.

The preamble of this UN resolution reaffirms the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. This includes that victims should be treated with compassion and respect for their dignity, have their right to access to justice and redress mechanisms fully respected, and that the establishment, strengthening and expansion of national funds for compensation to victims should be encouraged, together with the expeditious development of appropriate rights and remedies for victims of such atrocities.

Those who know me well will attest to the fact that I have an unswerving bias to the principles of the Jamaica Labour Party. However in terms of human rights I hold principle above my political leanings. The Coral Gardens incident presents a pivotal moment for political convergence for bi-partisan confluence on such an important and sensitive issue. Rastafarians in Jamaica have long been alienated from the political system based upon the way in which they are falsely perceived; they have contributed so much to our rich cultural heritage. The means by which we tackle class prejudice is not by offering comforting political platitudes but by swift and concrete actions that enable a fair distribution of justice. I see within every Rastafarian what I see in myself despite my secular leanings. Out common humanity it what unites us: not how we speak, look and worship. The victory of the Rastafarians in their struggle for equality and the right to self-determination raises the level of our cultural cohesiveness as Jamaicans. It can also reaffirm and adds value to our common heritage. Blessed Love Iyah V.

This article was written by Donovan Reynolds CEO and edited by Ann Smith Managing Editor of Kingston-Mouth .com.  Donovan Reynolds is an Independent Blogger and Human Rights Activists who is of a Jamaican descent and a legal academic that has an interest in Human Rights, Culture and International Development Issues.

Understanding ISIL in the Aftermath of the French Attacks: By Donovan Reynolds Blogger and Independent Writer.

Subsequent to the attacks that killed 130 people in Paris, the French Government decided to deepen its military air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria. French President Francois Hollande took the bearish stance of a war leader and avowed to exact revenge on behalf of the French casualties. Many are of the view that in order to respond appropriately and effectively to the perverse version of Islamic revolution and the fathomless level of wickedness that they commit-we have to first to begin to understand their underlying motives.

ISIL is an intractable insurgent group born under the leadership of Jordan-born Abu Musab al Zarqawi during Iraq's insurgency as of 2003, which was defeated by Arab Sunni tribes in Iraq in 2008, but which then gained momentum when it withdrew to Syria as its state collapsed in 2011. The group is so belligerent that al-Qaeda cut all ties with ISIL in 2014, accusing the group of its failure to consult and "notorious intransigence”. It is estimated that over 20,000 foreign fighters have travelled to Iraq and Syria since fighting broke out in 2011. Muslim leaders around the world have condemned ISIL's ideology and actions, arguing that the group has strayed prodigiously from the path of true Islam and that its engagements do not reflect the religion's true teachings or virtues.

ISIL earns revenue primarily from a number of different sources. illicit proceeds from activities such as bank looting, extortion, control of oil fields and refineries, and robberies of economic assets and illicit taxation of goods and cash that transit its territory where ISIL. It also funds its activities from the proceeds of ransoms gained from numerous kidnappings, donations and its trading of oil to Turkish businessmen.

 Historians and political analysts often attribute the spontaneous factor in the rise of ISIL, as a reaction to the "ancient Shia-Sunni conflict". Some writers has even o exaggerated it as resurrection of the medieval caliphate. ISIL has also confirmed this belief locating its violence as a continuation of the middle ages religious crusades. Others sight American exceptionalism instigating and fuelling civil wars throughout the Islamic world and for the installation of tyrant client regimes in the region. Some political theorist attributes the rise of Islamic fundamentalist such as ISIS to the” Clash of Civilization hypothesis” postulated by the late Samuel Huntingdon. Huntingdon proposed that the new world order will be typified by fault lines between cultures and different civilizational groupings. Extreme interpretation of the current state of Suicidal bombings carried out by young male extremist as a crisis in masculinity. The assumption is that these cruel acts of aggression are perpetuated by lonely male Muslim outsiders translating feelings of rejection into desperate bids for notoriety.

What makes ISIL so frightening to accept, is the extent of its unlimited wickedness and how in a short span of time it functions on both national and transnational levels. Mainly because of its vast networks of cells along with the ability to recruit and manipulate vulnerable young Muslim in the west to join its organisation using the internet as a recruiting tool. The recent past does more to explain the rise of ISIL than the deep past. ISIL is a complex, hybrid 21st-century organisation that poses challenges conceptually as a political unit in the international system.  It is indeed this hybridity that constitutes a transmittable and violent challenge to the West, moderate Muslims and none Muslims around the world.

In the aftermath of ISIL incursion in France and the bombing of a Russian passenger plane over the Sini Desert alleged to have been planted by ISIL operatives. French President Francois Hollande told Russia's Vladimir Putin at a recent meeting in France those world powers must build a "grand coalition" to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants who control swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq. At the recent G20 Summit in Belek, Turkey -US President Obama although jolted by ISIL shootings in France urged a cautious reaction.   When pressed by journalist for “a take-out these bastards approach”. He argued against a shoot first and aim later response. Pressure has been mounting among American right wing politicians for a more robust military intervention to ISIL that should include boots on the ground. The British Prime Minister David Cameron is preparing to take the biggest gamble of his premiership by staging a parliamentary vote on British military action against Isis in Syria this week – despite deep uncertainty over how many Labour MPs will back him in parliament and fears among Syrian citizens about loss of civilian lives.

 Jeremy Corby the British leader of opposition and the Labour party is involved in bitter internal row over whether to vote for airstrikes against Isis in Syria. The rift has expanded as MPs in favour of military action accused Jeremy Corbyn of trying to sidestep his shadow cabinet by appealing to grassroots supporters for their views.

Many pacifists have taken to social media to float the idea that: Western bombing attacks on Syria are not likely to achieve any significant reduction to the chances of terrorist’s attacks by ISIL supporters. They believed that it did not prevent France from being attacked. If anything, they may help to recruit more terrorists. Furthermore there is a US-led 62 coalition partners already in place against Isil and their contribution is already hefty and fraught with confusion and decoupling of roles.

Yet the threat by ISIL is real and the evil brand of ideology that they brandish is aimed at creating divisions among people of the civilised world. It is difficult to fight an idea especially one that is willing to make its perpetrators turn-on themselves to prove their point. The idea of ISIL laying its hands on long range missiles and nuclear weapons is rather cringe worthy and nerve wrecking for intelligence services across the globe.

The days and months ahead will be rather interesting as we sit on the edge of our sofa with a cringing eye on the TV and the other on the sick bucket. We should never forget that history has a way of creating a vacuum for the diffusion of wicked ideologies. If we can recall: Nazism and Fascism threatened our collective security less than a hundred years ago. Today those twin evils are but a faint memory. Let’s fight the scourge of ISIL with self-defence public education and diplomacy. As we look ahead with great uncertainty. Please be comforted by the fact that history has proven that the human race is a resilient specie in the face of pure evil.

This article was written by Donovan Reynolds CEO and edited by Ann Smith Managing Editor of Kingston-Mouth .com.  Donovan Reynolds is an Independent Blogger and Human Rights Activists who is of a Jamaican descent and a legal academic that has an interest in Human Rights, Culture and International Development Issues.

Examining the Rise of Jamaican Dance Hall Genre by Donovan Reynolds, independent writer.

Surely, dance is one of the oldest forms of cultural expression for human beings that can be applied to a variety of settings:  Voltaire said that it could do no harm to the world, Shel Silverstein, in the poem  A Light in the Attic, implores us to do a looney- gloomy dance that has not been done before across the kitchen floor, literary icon Rumi stretched the reason that we should dance to the margins with an audacious set of instructions. He opined , . . . dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free. Our own Jamaican reggae icon Bob Marley left us with the most straightforward of narrative, Forget your troubles and Dance.  Contemporary academic Donna P. Hope writes that dancehall culture is a space for the cultural creation and dissemination of symbols and ideologies that reflect the lived realities of its adherents, particularly those from the inner cities of Jamaica.

How then can we continue to slate the Jamaican Dancehall genre as purely a cultural aberration and a transmitter of debauchery? To what extent does Dancehall music eclipse the success of the Bob Marley influenced Roots Rock Reggae?

Dancehall has made no pretence to be the transmitter of good moral values; it is a hedonistic movement. This short discourse examines the historical trajectory of the genre, mired in controversy yet it constantly defies its critics and rebounds frequently from its low moments. Dancehall music and lifestyle are becoming a mainstay of world popular culture. This discourse examines the characters, controversies, casualties, ambiguities and alliances forged in the Dancehall movement who are the contributors to its success.

This music genre is a Jamaican current popular music form that evolved from reggae in the late 1970s. It has spawned a number of creative and rapidly changing dance moves that has merged with youth popular movement globally. The music itself has generated a number of other varieties of dancehall flavoured influences globally, on the back of its crossover success outside of Jamaica during the mid-to-late 1990. It is inextricably linked to the social and cultural processes by which the Jamaica society reproduces itself internally and externally. Young people in the Jamaican urban centres and across the ethnic enclaves of North America and Europe have grafted the dance hall lifestyle to their persona as they compete for a prime socio cultural space that is often highly competitive lifestyle marketplace. To be a young Dance hall fan bear nuances with being a rocker, a punk or a hippie. To be able to master the art form on the dance floors holds valid social currency and cements your dance hall credo. What once started as seedy underground movement in Kingston Jamaica in the 1970s then extended to a underground movement in North America and Europe and has now been elevated to world cult status across the major dance venues of the world.

Dancehall music and dance movements are inextricably bound; both movements bubbled to the international surface in the 1990s but it was a reasonably long time in the making. It has spawned about three or four generation of Jamaican reggae musicians and dancers in the mid-1980s. It was made famous among the sound systems followers by Lincoln Sugar Minot and Wayne Smiths digital version of Sleng Thing produced by the legendary King Jammy’s.  The 1990 saw a shift in style and context of the genre and Shabba Ranks took the Dance Hall movement to dizzy heights internationally.  Towards the end of the 1990s the genre received bad press when it descended into verbal clashes laced with violent innuendoes and homophobic name-dropping.  Initially, there was friendly competition between DJs and Sound-systems which then descended into an orgy of misogyny, glorification of guns and violent tirades. Towards the end of the 1990s Shabba Ranks and Buju Banton successes had waned as a result of a backlash from the gay right’s lobby across Europe and North America. This period was one of Dancehall’s lowest moments and many commentators predicted that the genre could lose its’ international podium. 

By 2000 the genre emerged from its dogmatic slumber with artists such as Elephant Man and Sean Paul achieving massive crossover success in Europe, North America and Africa. A new generation of young music lovers had arisen and the dancehall movement was conveyed to them culturally by music videos and the internet; the hard-hitting bassline and the dances proved irresistible.  Once again, dancehall was the music of choice for a whole new generation in love with its raunchiness and rebellion as an art form.  Meanwhile, in Jamaica, a debate began to fester that the music had become commercial and intellectually shallow and a host of young cultural and talented reggae artists were being stifled.  It was generally felt that roots rock reggae was becoming a dying vocation. In the early 1990s Tony Rebel inspired a resurgence of cultural reggae music that was accepted by Dancehall aficionados. A number of hard-core Dancehall artists experienced a cultural epiphany and converted to the Rastafarian movement.  It was felt at the time that Dancehall music was inspiring violence and material fetishism; a new moral direction was needed.  As a result, artists such as Garnett Silk, Luciano, Buju Banton and Sizzla enjoyed both international and local notoriety during this period.  Their success may well have extended to the new millennium but it was restricted by the continual opposition to accusations of homophobia from the anti-gay lobby in Europe and North America.  Thus the international spotlight was thrust upon artists who toed the line and stuck to a feel good brand of Dancehall that could merge seamlessly with global popular culture. 

One of the reasons why reggae music in its purest form (roots rock reggae) has lost its international hold to Dancehall music is as a result of Dancehall being a more flexible and liberal art form.  Cultural reggae music is puritanical and in some cases, laced with conservative values and narratives.  In contrast, Dancehall is a more dynamic genre that can fuse with numerous music genres such as Pop, R & B, Latino beats, Garage, Drum ‘ Bass, Jazz and Grime.  Dancehall‘s commercial success is stymied by narratives of hegemonic masculinity  and by the same token it offers the female protagonist a social space to escape and rebel . Women gyrate their hips, dress, and dance outrageously in an ever expanding  corpus that fits neatly into the capitalist wold view of commodity fetishism.

The future of Dancehall is very promising as the new millennium has seen the development of professional reggae dancers earning a living from live videos and teaching the dance moves to a global audience. Many professional Jamaican dancers point to Gerald Bogle Levy as the first internationally acclaimed superstar who brought choreography, ingenuity, excitement and a creative and catchy inflection to the dancehall movement. Mr Wacky as he was often called was the Dancehall Master.  He had the ability to create dances without exertion and his dances became exceedingly popular and catchy. He created dance styles such as Willie Bounce, Wacky Dip, and Bogle Dance and these dance moves still hold sway over the dance floors globally; they are a timeless rhapsody that has contributed immensely to the magnetic pull of the ever expanding genre. Unfortunately, on 20 January 2005, forty- year old Bogle and four others were in his car at a petrol station when two men on a motorcycle rode by, shooting into the vehicle.  Bogle died from the bullet wounds. Dance hall like Hip Hop music has its fair share of tragedy sparked by rivalry. In 1990 two reggae icons Pan Head and Dirtsman died by the gun in separate tragic incidents in Kingston Jamaica. Contemporary Dancehall artist Vybs  Kartel is now serving life imprisonment for the murder of Clive 'Lizard' William at his home in Havendale, a suburb north of Kingston.  He was sentenced on 3 April 2014 and will not be eligible for parole for 35 years. Vybs Kartel is a hugely talented Dancehall artist who is revered internationally for an impressive catalogue of hits that generated a huge fan base. His trial was the longest in the history of Jamaica and his conviction plunged the Dancehall genre in a reputation freefall.

Nevertheless, the reputation of dance hall has emerged from the Vybs Kartell saga unscathed with Tessanne Chin,  one of the latest reggae fusion artists.  She rapidly achieved international fame following her win on The Voice, a U.S. television singing competition. A positive development in Dancehall is the collaboration of the art-form with other music genres; every Pop, R&B and Hip- hop artist in in North America and Europe that’s worth their grain of salt has sampled reggae tracks. It’s the current trend. Searching for the next Bob Marley to emerge is a romantic idea that is not entirely impossible but difficult to realise at this time. The world dance music market is receptive to hedonistic feel good vibes although this news might be an anathema to the left leaning music loving liberal. Conversely, Dancehall has brought joy and electricity to the feet and hips of a young generation who are politically apathetic to message music.

This article was written jointly by Donovan Reynolds CEO and edited by Ann Smith Managing Editor of Kingston-Mouth .com.  Donovan Reynolds is an Independent Blogger and Human Rights Activists who is of a Jamaican descent and a legal academic that has an interest in Human Rights,Culture and International Development Issues.

 

Damion Crawford and the Jamaica Version of the Leviathan by Donovan Reynolds Blogger and independent writer.

Damion Crawford, the current Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment, was a few weeks ago defeated by businessman Peter Blake in a delegate’s election to represent the governing People's National Party (PNP) in a rural constituency in the next Jamaican general election.  Crawford is a Rastafarian with Christian beliefs. In a past article I reprimanded him for launching a scathing attack on the emerging secular movement in Jamaica. However, on balance, I believe that he is one of the best and well-meaning political representative the country has ever seen, mainly because of his emphasis on education and his aberration of pork barrel politicking.

According to a recent editorial (The Jamaica Observer), parliamentarians and those aspiring to sit in the Legislature, are seen more as benefactors than facilitators. They are required to offer scarce benefits: cash, lunch money, liquor, building materials, school books, uniforms, bags and other supplies as well as contracts. Crawford’s political demise mainly stemmed from his attempts to change the entrenched culture of patronage too quickly. Crawford focused the spending of his meagre constituency development funds on investments in education for children and young people.

The lifelong unending and edgy desire for power is a fundamental quality shared by all humans within a state. Along with that power acquisition is fear that peoples corrupt political power acts as a counterbalance to the appetite for progressive reforms within a state, often for selfish reasons. This sometimes prevents well-meaning political representatives from benefitting from a second term in political office. Such tensions and ambivalence in politics often give rise to the question, are ordinary citizens capable of making good decisions using the democratic process or should they be ruled by an absolute monarch or dictator? There has been a long running discussion in Jamaica that the Westminster system of politics and government has not served the country well. There is a glaring need for capacity building and strengthening of political intuitions. Not only does the country need the best Political talented individuals but also the best quality political delegates who choose and support these candidates.

Jamaica is highly regarded as the sporting and cultural mecca of the global south, with an array of talented persons covering a wide range of disciplines at international standards. However, a third of the Jamaican population are functionally illiterate. Corruption of public and private individuals is rife and it has an appalling debt to GDP ratio of132.72 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product according to recent World Bank statistics.

 Thomas Hobbs, the 17th Century Philosopher, while arguing in favour of an absolute monarchy, advised that for self-preservation men should enter a contract by which they agree to surrender part of their natural freedom to an absolute ruler.  He asserted that men by nature are brutish, wild and ungovernable. He asserted that this contract should be entered into as the nature of men is to seek nothing but selfish pleasures; such individualism naturally leads to a war in which every man's hand is against his neighbour. He advises that men should be governed by an unelected yet intelligent central authoritative figure. These opinions were framed against the backdrop of the English civil war.

This advice holds true in some ways for Jamaica, being embroiled in an almost economic civil war since its independence from British Colonial rule since 1962. There are long protracted feelings that the Westminster model of political democracy is high unsuitable for fledgling democracies such as Jamaica as they are riddled with institutional corrupt practices.  Many ideas have been floated to include a coalition arrangement with the two major political parties: the JLP and the PNP. Neither of them has bothered to promote a reform agenda as they both benefit from the current system. Former Jamaican Prime Minister, P.J Patterson, described the state of this Political and economic civil war as, "the fight for scarce benefits and spoils carried on by hostile tribes that sem to be perpetually at war".  

Development plays a central role in reducing corruption and resolving political conflict in third world countries such as Jamaica. Hostile political tribes often emerge from a lack of political will to engender a credible value system that can unify and transform those who are vulnerable to either poverty or greed. With money in short supply, Members of Parliament such as Damion Crawford are faced with the dilemma of whether to feed or to educate in order to remain in power. Many politicians in Jamaica owe their careers and status to corrupt delegates and few of them, if any, will take a stand against it, either for fear of upsetting their own careers or the political status quo.

The way forward to stamping out corruption in Jamaican political institutions is not a linear one. A feasible solution to retaining well-meaning and bright Politicians like Damion Crawford and Christopher Tufton in Jamaica is to not employ a Leviathan political dictatorship approach; culling the delegates list of the two main political organisations will help to strengthen and improve political integrity. Currently the link between political aspirants and delegate’s power is having a direct and uneasy relationship that needs fixing.

 I therefore suggest a reform of the political delegate process using national laws aimed at improving overall efficiency capacity and institutional integrity. I also propose that, as part of a broad raft of electoral reforms, both parties sit with the political ombudsman and agree on a legal framework of standards to apply when selecting party delegates. At the moment, both political parties are saddled with delegate lists that have dubious, incompetent and corrupt delegates who have their own self-interest at heart. Yes I have said it! A majority of the current delegates are ignorant, selfish and unscrupulous money makers. The great Greek philosopher Plato, in The Republic stated: money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.”  Let’s get rid of them.

This article was written jointly by Donovan Reynolds CEO and edited by Ann Smith Managing Editor of Kingston-Mouth .com.  Donovan Reynolds is an Independent Blogger and Human Rights Activists who is of a Jamaican descent and a legal academic that has an interest in Human Rights and International Development Issues.

The Call for a Global Approach to the Current European Refugee Crisis: by Donovan Reynolds Blogger and Independent Writer.

The body, a Syrian toddler dead on a Turkish beach after the boat in which his family was attempting to flee to Europe capsized at sea, drew international sympathy on a massive scale. It forced many European leaders to begin to rethink their approach to the current wave of refugees seeking a safe haven from armed conflicts in the Middle East.

There is currently an overlapping web of conflicts occurring in the Middle East sub-Saharan Africa and Croatia that is creating a humanitarian crisis. A recent UN report estimates that 19 million persons have been displaced as a result of these armed conflicts and every day an expected 42,500 are expected to make the risky journey via Eastern Europe in search of a safe haven in Western European countries. The scale of the crisis is most evident in Syria, currently embroiled in a three way civil war.  We know for example that Syria had a population of 22 million people back in 2011;  there’s a very different picture emerging now. After four years, half of the population has fled and the mass departure continues in a frantic scamper to Western Europe: “Europe is now witnessing the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War”, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is leading at the forefront of this moral crisis, despite domestic criticism.

David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, has promised to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees over the coming five years, with priority given to orphans. This is a welcome gesture and a marked shift of tone, given his initial demonization of the six thousand refugees who turned up at the port of Calais in late August. Moved by the Syrian boy whose body was washed up on a Turkish beach, together with domestic pressure to act, Mr Cameron promised to fulfil British moral obligation under international humanitarian law towards the refugees.

 The German chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded a Europe-wide solution to the distribution of refugees: Germany alone expects to process 800,000 asylum applications in total during 2015 and the European Commission has unveiled plans to redistribute 160,000 refugees from Italy, Greece and Hungary − where many first arrive − because they are struggling to cope.

But how many refugees are countries promising to take in the world over and what are President Obama, the US and China's contribution to the crisis? The statistics compiled by the UK Guardian tell a compelling story that calls for an international response beyond the borders of Europe. In the first quarter of 2015 (the most current data obtainable at the time of issuing) 185,000 first-time asylum applications were made in the EU. Half were in Germany (73,100 or 40% of the total) and Hungary (32,800 or 18%). Then, according to the EU statistics, came Italy (15,200, or 8%), France (14,800, or 8%), Sweden (11,400, or 6%), Austria (9,700, or 5%) and the UK (7,300 or 4%).

With Western Europe bursting its seams from what is emerging as one of the largest refugee crises of our generation, it is a moral duty for the rest of the world to join in and show the milk of human kindness by shouldering the burden of this urgent refugee predicament. Framing a common European asylum policy is urgent but not sufficient, given the scale of the resources needed to back it up and the urgency of the crisis.  Europe is slowly rising from an economic depression. The US cannot afford to be silent on this matter, given the fact that the Washington and Russia’s meddling foreign policy has in part contributed to this crisis. China is steeped in its global resource grabbing so much that the cry from the refugees has fallen on deaf ears and its lowest instinct on the matter must be confronted. The sight of hungry women, young men and children been tear-gassed and doused with water cannon by border guards in Croatia and Hungary is indeed a stain on the world's conscience.

According to Kofi Anan, “No walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations”. Tackling this current refugee crisis on a global scale will be more than a charitable act, it’s a necessary act of human justice. By offering food and shelter to a refugee we are sharing the global burden of international morality.

Donovan Reynolds is a British Based Social Worker and Human Rights Activist.Readers may provide feedback at dannygerm63@hotmail.co.uk.