This past weekend, a popular talk-show host, in response to the
alarming reports of a rapidly increasing murder rate in our Second City,
Montego Bay, shared her thoughts of frustration and alarm in a series
of tweets. She suggested some crime-fighting strategies the State could
adopt and she called upon students in our tertiary institutions to
protest and march, as a stand, I suppose, against what was happening and
as a call to change: "Where are the students of University of the West
Indies, University of Technology Jamaica, University College of the
Caribbean, etc, ... you should be staging islandwide demonstration to
force the government to act NOW on crime."
The millennials on my timeline responded. And they appeared, for the
most part, to reject in full the talk-show host's rallying cry.
Others on my timeline, closer to my age (not millennials), bemoaned the
apparent apathy of the younger generation and were quick to call them
self-absorbed, shallow and apathetic.
I think it is important, though, to go beyond mere labels and seek to
understand why this younger generation appears to have no fire in their
bellies.
First of all, our millennials are products of Jamaica. What they are
today is informed by what they have seen around them for several years
now.
One millennial rejected the call to march, stating very definitively
that she is not interested in "empty symbolism". Why empty? Why merely
symbolic?
LACK OF LEGITIMACY
The State lacks legitimacy. Our young people see chaos and loss of life
when the State, when it suits it, reneges on international agreements
on extradition. They see the State failing to fill the void created with
the extraction of the don from the community and the resulting upswing
in crime. Justice looks different depending on who you are, who you know
and where you come from. They see this. They see laws being passed in
record time when pressure is applied from alien nations to which we are
beholden.
They see governments applying fiscal discipline only when a foreign
third-party holds the handle. They hear about kickbacks on national
capital projects and then hear nothing more about investigations and
repercussions. Coupled with this, they see a reluctance on the part of
the powerful and those who want to be powerful to speedily enact
campaign-financing legislation.
Our millennials face high unemployment. They see a glorious picture of
their country in the document that is Vision 2030, and no further
reference to the vision going forward. They hear talk, talk and more
talk, but see preservation of the status quo, which excludes them and excludes real improvement unless those with power stand to benefit.
Their apparent apathy is possibly simply a rejection of our
preoccupation as a nation with form and appearance at the expense of
real substance.
Jamaica reached where we are under our watch. Why do we, therefore,
expect our young people to rise up and push back now? They are simply
modelling our own behaviour.
Do all Jamaican citizens have an equal voice? Is enforcement of the law
predictable? Are our authorities seen to be fair? To answer any of
these questions in the negative is to support the argument that the
State lacks legitimacy.
Our young people will continue to demonstrate this so-called apathy,
being true to our own example in allowing governance lacking legitimacy.