Love better than ‘no problem’

THE EDITOR, Sir:

One of Jamaica’s renowned expressions is ‘Jamaica no problem, mon’, and yet, though the message may be positive in its overture, so often, this atmosphere of joy and high spirits is accompanied by crime and murder on unprecedented levels. Almost as if the horror helps to sweeten the bubbly pot of a country free of problems, mon.

It is quite skewed that an ambience of joy and a jubilant mood can be so linked to violent crime and murder of heart-rending magnitude such as occur at parties and other entertainment events.

‘No problem, mon’ may seem a rather cool and non-combative advertisement, yet it offers no progressive move, no spark of generating love within a people, which, alone, can overcome evil.

It surely may seem ‘fool-fool’ to speak about love within a context where the explosive swell of animosity and revenge is brewing, and yet it is by virtue of its ‘fool-fool’ nature that love alone is able to defuse and render confrontation useless. Because love offers nothing to fight back, no resistance, but even more, it offers reconciliation and not the veneer of a bipolar approach that undermines trust. As Romans 12: 21 says, “Do not be overcome with evil, but keep overcoming the evil with the good.”

Homer Sylvester