LAST WEEK Thursday - in a little shop and bar in Charles Town, Portland, surrounded by whooping, cheering Maroons - I watched Usain St Leo Bolt demolish the opposition to win the 200m gold medal in Berlin. The proprietor announced that Bolt's victory made her proud to be Jamaican, and these sentiments were echoed by others.
She then singled me out (probably I was the only stranger) and asked me if I was proud to be Jamaican. Maybe I took too long to answer, for she then questioned whether I was Jamaican at all! Fortunately, another bar patron (who I had not seen since I taught him rural sociology at the Passley Gardens College of Agriculture many years ago) vouched that I was 100 per cent Jamaican.
And, of course, I am swept up in the euphoria of our world sprint dominance as much as anyone else, but as I looked around at the rural poverty and deprivation of Charles Town and the rest of the Buff Bay Valley all the way through Tranquility, Coolshade, Balcarres, Mullet Hall, Silver Hill, Spring Hill, Birnamwood, Middlesex, Wakefield, Cedar Valley, Regale and Cascade, I wished I had more to be proud of as a Jamaican. As I looked at the green and orange flags flagrantly flying from the light poles in breach of the Electoral Code of Conduct, I decidedly was not proud.
Why now?
In The Sunday Gleaner of August 23, Prime Minister Golding is quoted as saying: "The performance of our athletes at the Berlin games and the victories they have brought to our country almost on a daily basis confirm that this country is destined for greatness. We are blessed, our people are blessed and we now need to translate this energy, this determination, discipline and drive into all spheres of our lives. The athletes have outdone themselves, bringing with them a nation that is bursting with pride and joy, beyond words."
Does the fact that a small number of dedicated Jamaicans can work hard and train hard - and beat the best the developed world has to offer - mean that Jamaica is destined for greatness? Were we any more or less destined for greatness before Berlin or Beijing? Why has Usain or Shelly-Ann or Brigitte burning up the Berlin track led us now to say that Jamaica is destined for greatness? Will their victory mean rural development for Coxheath/ Sherwood Content and Macca Tree, or urban development for the garrison that is Waterhouse? Will Jamaica achieve greatness if we continue the way we are going?
I want to agree with Don Robotham's sentiments expressed in his column last Sunday: that the real problems in Jamaican society are not located at the middle or the bottom, but at the top. 'The top' - the public sector and private sector leadership of Jamaica, including church leadership - has let Jamaica down. Hope for Jamaica lies in the grass roots, the victims of the backward social, economic and political systems put in place by 'the top' since Independence.
More 'greats' in urban areas
What our athletes have achieved is remarkable, but what is even more remarkable is what they have overcome on the road to their achievement. It raises the question: How many more Usains and Shelley-Anns are out there not achieving their full potential in track and field?
An even more disturbing question is how many potential Bill Gates and Ted Turners inhabit Jamaica's rural and urban areas? So far, since independence, our politicians and planners have acted as if the main hope for growing Jamaica lies in the privileged classes, in the political classes, with the others providing the manual labour. Where might Jamaica be today if, once we held the reins of our own destiny, we had invested in decent education for all our citizens? Both the opposition People's National Party and the ruling Jamaica Labour Party have let Jamaica down. We need to change the focus of our development planning, to put more confidence in those at the bottom.
Jamaica may indeed be destined for greatness, but not because of anything our leaders and planners have done. Prime Minister Golding is right: "We now need to translate this energy, this determination, discipline and drive into all spheres of our lives" - starting with our elitist leaders and planners!
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon.