Mark Wignall | When cultural flaws define us

According to a July 2022 Time magazine article, “Japan, a country of more than 125 million people, experiences significantly less gun violence and other forms of violent crime than the global rate. Annual gun-death rates in Japan typically amount to single figures. In 2019, there were only nine deaths from firearms, according to the World Health Organization.”

Recently, Japanese fans at a World Cup match in Qatar went on a garbage clean-up exercise in the stands after they had played a match.

According to a Voice of America online article, “For Japanese people, this is just the normal thing to do,” Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu said. “When you leave, you have to leave a place cleaner than it was before. That’s the education we have been taught. That’s the basic culture we have. For us, it’s nothing special.”

Japan’s homicide rate is about 0.2 per 100,000 while in Jamaica, we have painfully attached ourselves to a long stay among the most murderous countries across the globe.

The cynical Jamaican nationalist may say that as bad as things may be in Jamaica socially and economically, at our worst, we don’t kill our ex-political leaders. In spite of that it is plain that the Japanese people have learned from their mistakes. They also understand that cultural practices must mirror the very best of what the nation stands for.

It is well known that the Japanese road network is in A1 shape, and unlike in Jamaica, road users are very courteous.

NO EASY FIX

I can appreciate that even as a multiplicity of cultural attributes form the main behaviour of a people, in Jamaica it is no easy fix to bring adjustment to that which damages us. So civic pride is limited to complaints of poor garbage collection while our people ditch piles of garbage in the public space.

Our driving habits make daily driving a major risk to life and limb. And, of course, our high murder rate no longer shocks us. Sure it increases the fear factor, but somehow we roll with it and have cast aside the use of the panic button.

Most of us are confused as to whether we should trust the police less or assist them while they try to take down the dangerously high temperature of Jamaica’s lawless streets.

We know of course that adopting a rigid cynicism is quite foolish. It solves nothing outside of matching our low expectations. At some stage we know it is better to trust the words and directions of the security minister and the commissioner of police than it is to wholesaledly doubt them.

Most Jamaicans find themselves in the middle, struggling to find one position better than the other. And of course even that creates a closed loop, which maintains the cynicism.

The Japanese people are developed in just about every aspect of their lives. I suppose it would be too much trouble to even ape a little bit of what makes them so.

MORE ON THE AGE OF CONSENT

A few decades ago, I was on a ganja farm in the hills of St Catherine in discussion with the dreadlocked caretaker.

According to him, he was walking through some bushes one day when he came upon a friend having sex with a young girl from the community.

He hid and waited until they were finished. As far as he was concerned, it would not be unreasonable for the girl to “give him a piece”.

He expressed surprised at my criticism of his stance. I tried to explain that the 19-year-old girl had no obligation to give him anything just because he had seen them in the act.

Against the girl’s protestations, both men held down the girl, and she was forced to give him what he wanted. When I told him that he had raped her he laughed and could not understand even the very concept of rape under those circumstances.

In any discussions about increasing the age of consent from 16 to 18, a whole grab-bag of dangerous cultural behaviour is attached.

In last week’s article, I suggested that PNP Senator Damion Crawford’s proposal to increase the age of consent may be worth considering.

A lawyer friend of mine found reason to disagree with me.

“Sixteen is the age of consent in about another 170 countries. What Mr Crawford and others like himself who just push their “righteous” hubris don’t know or glibly forget, is that it’s mainly young men (although the law is gender neutral) of near age are charged for having sex with a person below the age of 16. Before they spew their righteous indignation from whatever soap box they preach, they should have dialogue with stakeholders first.

“I rather prefer your submission that we should change our sex culture.”

DR NIGEL CLARKE RATTLED?

Our finance minister at times tends to talk the talk of those holding three degrees. I get the sense that he uses that ruse to ‘intellectually’ swat away those who would dare doubt his position or the series of words outlining it.

Early last week, while being interviewed on Nationwide radio, he came across as suppressing a state of vexation at being questioned repeatedly over many complicated (if not complex) issues on the new compensation package for government workers.

Frankly, at times it sounded to me that even as he was being interviewed, he was still in the process of formulating certain aspects of the package.

Dr Clarke knows of his ‘rock star’ status in the JLP Cabinet. And of course rock stars are only accepting of loud cheers and wild applause.

Dr Clarke, it is OK to admit that the grand opus may not be fully formed. Not yet.

- Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.