Over the past few months I have come to a conclusion that I am almost ashamed to share with the readers of this journal. It has come not through hastily made conclusions, or through sweeping generalizations, but instead through careful observations and deep thought. That conclusion is as the title states that Jamaica, land we love is essentially quite a backwards society. We are backwards because while the rest of the world (with very few exceptions) seems to be making advancements in the positive, for some strange reason despite the obvious fact that what we are doing will in no way benefit Jamaica socially, economically, politically... as a matter of fact any '-ally' you can think of. So I have to ask the question why are we moving backwards while everybody else seems to be going... well forward. But before I really go into that segment I think I need to look at the ways in which Jamaica is going backwards. This is the first of a multi-part post on just how backwards a society Jamaica really is.

First I'll look at the issues that I believe can be listed as social.

First our Language. The official language employed by Jamaica is of course the English language. However there are a select few people who are of the belief that Jamaica needs to not recognize English as our official language, but instead our native patois (pronounced pat-wah). Some primary schools have even gone so far as to have patois classes.... can you believe that, a class for a language that we basically learn just by being alive and communicating with people. But next to that, my question is this, why exactly are we pushing for our dialect to be recognized as our official language when honestly, outside of Jamaica patois isn't worth its weight in feces.

I may sound a little harsh, but hear me out. It is quite good and fine to be proud of our language, I personally love patois, and I know that it is the surest sign for Jamaicans to recognize other Jamaicans when abroad. Next to that, patois does sound nice and I really do love hearing people speak patois as to be honest it can sound pretty poetic. However why would you want to teach children to speak a language that they will probably never have a purpose for in the professional world? Currently the English language is the official language that almost everybody has to learn, it is certainly not the most used language in the world, but with the majority of the worlds trade taking place in English speaking countries it only makes sense to have children learn... you know English. Or if you want to better equip these children for the future of the modern world, then we need to be teaching them Chinese, or Portuguese or any other language from the other rising world powers. Teaching Patois is not helping any Jamaican to be prepared for the world that is to come. Its archaic and we are not getting with the program.

On the same topic of education there is also the recent removal of the government subsidies on tertiary education. First of all yes I know that the IMF said that its necessary for us to get the loan, but I have to ask why would you take a loan that requires you to sacrifice the future of your country? But I'll get back to the IMF loan later when I look at economics. The world as we know right now is one where ignorance gets you nowhere. The best way forward for Jamaica is through educating everybody, with education we can fix all our other problems if its health we can train more doctors, if its finance we can train more economists, if its education we can train more teachers, roads and bridges we can train engineers, everything we need and want can be solved by educating people. Now I will not say we need free education (though I think free education is worth more than free healthcare), however if it cannot be provided the subsidy is the only thing that is keeping the youth from gaining education.

With the current costs of tertiary education the only people who will get any form of decent education are the current rich minority who can afford it. This puts Jamaica in a position where we cannot be competitive in a world where everybody is getting smarter. Currently in the world view a first degree does not hold the same weight that it used to, because everybody is getting masters degrees and Phd's. Therefore just to be competitive in this world we need to at least get people prepared for a world that is becoming more competitive. We dont need to remove the subsidy, we need to add more subsidies, there is no justification for getting people dumber when we need to get smarter, everywhere else in the world education is subsidized, but we are trying to get rid of ours... what sense does that make?

The final social issue of backwardness that I'll touch on is the gross acceptance of lawlessness in our society. Now I had already written on the activities of the people of tivoli gardens the before the government operation. In case you dont remember, they marched in full white stating that they “will die for dudus”. What kind of society are we living in where people are defending these men who are breaking the law? I am not saying that he broke the law by being a drug pusher because this has not been proven in any capacity. I am saying he broke the law by avoiding arrest even though there was a warrant for his arrest. These people are also helping him to break the law, and breaking the law themselves by refusing to give him up and also by blocking the roads and preventing the police from doing their job.

Since when has breaking the law become an acceptable move by anyone? How backward are we that suddenly breaking the law is cool? Is it that we dont believe in the rule of law? Or is it just that we like to bend it a little too much.

I have more issues but I will have to continue with them later.