Commentary

Jamaicans bad good

TODAY THE STAR confirms with names, figures and faces what we who inhabit this spectacular piece of rock have always known.

We Jamaicans are 'bad good'. Scotland Yard knows it, the FBI knows it, Interpol knows it.

The paradox in that phrase 'bad good' captures not only our nature, but the somewhat perverse way in which many of us take pride in our notoriety. With close to 20 Jamaicans on the 'Most Wanted' lists of the world's top security agencies, one being second only to Osama bin-Laden himself, our names have certainly gone abroad in a big way.

We should be at least concerned, but many of us will instead feel a sense of if not pride, then at least certainly something that makes us shake our heads and smile and say yes, 'we bad good'.

Jamaicans excel at whatever they do, on either side of the law. What we must ask, though, is why so many of us excel at 'badness'. We must ask ourselves, what is it that propels so many of us to excel at doing wrong, often with more effort - and certainly more danger - than it would take for us to excel at legitimate endeavour.

There is a certain culture of lawlessness that pervades this country and which is transmitted to the youths of the nation. They have a choice, which is often not consciously made, to go good or bad. Far too often they look at the country and can see no 'out' for the good, but lots of riches and honours for the bad.

Those who have made the lists of the security agents come from a long, long history of lawlessness, a culture which delights in being 'bad good'.