Ronald Thwaites | At Christmas

There is no story in human history more generous and gracious than the Christmas story. That God, the transcendent One, is so besotted in love with all His creation, but especially human beings, that he would come in our poor likeness to show us how to live abundantly, order society justly and, almost unspeakably, how to die with the promise of rising.

For most Jamaicans, and particularly for those whose faith affirms the Christmas story to be real and true – not fable or wishful thinking – the hope and trust it contains is vital for survival and recovery in this season of compounded trauma – Melissa-imposed and self-imposed.

For the half of the country battered by the storm, hunger and pain have been assuaged by the food and care brought by friends and family from foreign, as well as the gifts of so many kith and kin from eastern Jamaica. That support is dwindling now. The ‘Angels of Mercy’, World Food Kitchen and others who multiplied loaves and fishes into thousands of meals daily will soon be gone.

Government aid is fitful – helpful but not always trustworthy, despite the big money loans which appear more mirage than salvation to those facing a roofless Christmas.

MISERY

The misery index is bound to rise. The people who my church interacts with know from experience that the material help they desperately need will never reach them. Accustomed to suffering and want, they are grateful for everything but resigned to squalour and indignity while they seek their own redemption – much as Joseph and Mary did. The government may be able to persuade the moneylenders that our loss is only 40 per cent of GDP. The losers know better.

Right now, the most urgent cry is for affordable shelter. Apart from the soon-come container homes, what is the plan for upwards of 200,000 houses to be built? And while that is the obvious priority, building back better requires tenure rectification and soft-loan availability. Firm proposals and timelines on these matters would restore hope to thousands who have lost all the material things they have laboured for in their entire lives.

How do you keep a family together without a roof over their heads? Relationships become fraught with desperation. Despair leads to frustration, loss of dignity, anger and erratic behaviour. Who else saw and heard on last Thursday’s television news the eight-months pregnant ‘lady of the night’ pleading for a customer on Montego Bay’s Hip Strip? It is our version of the Jesus-and-Mary nativity scene. Destroying the human spirit is the worst casualty of Melissa’s wrath and our systemic carelessness.

IS THERE A PLAN?

Surely the rich poor people’s savings bank, the National Housing Trust, must have had a disaster contingency plan. Why isn’t it working? How much money do they have available for reconstruction; how many sturdy 600 square foot units can that money build? Roughly how much will these units cost? Tentative answers to these questions engender hope.

PLEASE REOPEN ALL SCHOOLS

Every community where a school is located must obligate itself to finding a way for full-day classes to resume in January. However makeshift, make space for face-to-face learning. Spread Starlink, subsidise taxis and feed students at least once a day. This is one national priority about which there ought to be no compromise. The incalculable destruction of young minds and psyches by prolonged absence from class is blighting us now.

GOOD THINGS TO TRY

Now that some of the big repair money is about to drop, can we agree to publish the award of all public sector contracts, not just the emergency ones? That would elevate currently dismal trust levels and bolster confidence. I am told that routinely 10-20 per cent of many project costs is reserved for kickbacks. Sunlight is the best antiseptic against corruption.

FOOD

The agricultural planting season is in full swing. The weather is conducive. Inevitable import licences ought to be given, not to the usual political hacks (please don’t bother denying) but, wherever possible, to primary producers like the egg farmers, so that the greed of the well-connected few does not create another soul-sapping economic disaster, worse than Melissa, for farmers and, ultimately, consumers.

GARBAGE

If the principle of subsidiarity and local agency are to have any meaning and when it is clear that centralised waste management can’t manage, why not use this opportunity to give municipal corporations responsibility for garbage clearance. Enable them, then hold them accountable. Let the NSWMA monitor rather than execute.

REVEALING SILENCE

Are we to understand that JPSCo rates will rise by 45 per cent over the next six months and that the seven per cent this month is just the first dose of hemlock? And isn’t the avoidance by the minister and chief executive of the electric monopoly to identify the source of the balance of the recovery money a clear signal that it will be our bill to pay?

RIGHT TO LIFE?

History (ours too) is littered with instances of contempt for human life. No one is safe or virtuous when any life is devalued. Hannah Arendt recounted how Nazi Germany normalised with blunted consciences the extermination of Jews and gypsies. A nation was numbed and scared into believing that killing them was justified.

At the end of 2025 when we celebrate the coming of the Lord of life into human history, we Jamaicans are infecting ourselves with similar poison. Consider close to 700 murders (mercifully reduced from previous annual tallies), almost 300 police killings and another 300 mostly preventable road deaths. This is our version of holocaust!

We have much to repent of, even as we celebrate the birth of Him who taught us that mercy triumphs over judgment.

“Peace will be the fruit of justice, right will produce calm and security”. (Isaiah 32: 17)

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com