joyousjam4me

Just another day!

2007-03-09T13:18:00.000-05:00

Mostly I am trying to catch up with work I should have finished last month!

2007-02-18T00:01:00.001-05:00

'I share your disgust but not your argument, for you seem to make Christianity responsible

When you find the time to share all the wonderful accomplishments of Jamaicans you hinted at you will find Christianity more responsible that any other factor you may come up with.'

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This post consists of my response to one of my email contacts who felt I was putting the blame for our situation on Christianity - which of course I do to an extent considering the gospel the churches proclaim, but I feel we are all to blame in various ways - my generation was too often guilty of not speaking out against things we knew to be wrong, Socialist ideologues betrayed the fundamental bases of their ideology, believers in 'Democracy' have allowed it to deteriorate into a mockery of the term; there is also a need to examine 'la trahison des clercs', the treason of those intellectuals who have abdicated their responsibilities for contributing to the enlightenment and advancement of their community, pursuing instead ideological and personal agendas.

May be someone will actually read some of this stuff and make some comments!

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Hi!
I don't make Christianity 'responsible' though given the claims made, some responsibility must be borne by Christians; I criticise the Christian church in Jamaica (and not only here), today and in the past, for not take anything like a strong enough stand against violence and bigotry; I grew up in the Church of England with a father who was a Church of England parson, who was in favour of the ordination of women, but did not live to see his Church come round to that enlightened view; he was always opposed to the death penalty, unlike too many clergy in Jamaica today, and was one of the most generous spirited people I have known, so I do have some background in this field! If you do actually read my pieces about Christian clergy and other Christians I think you will find I give every credit to people whose fine lives were inspired by their religious beliefs, even though I have not shared those beliefs for more than a quarter century. But I think it is very hard to argue that the mainstream churches have always been faithful exemplars of Christ's teachings, and in many instances churches have been, and still are, complicit in the infliction of physical and psychological suffering on millions. There is only one Christian 'denomination' that seems to me to have been almost entirely consistent in its Christian witness, and that is the Society of Friends - a Christadelphian friend would certainly challenge me on that, and I am sure you would too!

If you feel that the churches in Jamaica today really are taking a high profile and insistent stand against violence, against the many different forms of abuse of human rights that are commonplace, it would be excellent to see names and activities highlighted in some forum, in the press for instance. I know of the work of Father Albert, and in other areas of Father Ho Lung; Barry Wade is involved with the work of JFJ; I respect the work of Ashley Smith. But where are the insistent prophetic voices taking a stand for honesty, integrity, peace, co-operation, respect for the rights of all, including women, children, criminals, gays, AIDS sufferers, men and women in prison - I know there are many who go quietly about the good work that they do, but we also need the powerful voices in the public sphere.

Are you really content with the state of Jamaica today, after 200+ years of activity by Christian churches?

Please check http://jamaicanhistorymonth2007.moonfruit.com/ for the lives of Henry Beckford, Henry Laird Phillips, Walter Vivian Moses, Robert Josias Morgan/Father Raphael, Harold Moody, Lucy Stewart, Cecily Williams, Robert Robinson (some are not yet completed, but they will be there!)
and http://www.joyousjam.info/jamaicanhistoryfebruary2004/ for the lives of Matthew Joseph, T B Stephenson, A L Walcott, Isabel Burris, E E Brown, I N D Gordon, Augustus Cole, and of course Robert Love.

I haven't 'hinted' at these people's accomplishments - I have tried to make them available again to anyone who is interested. Enjoy! as they say.

May I say that none of this is just an 'argument' to me; it is a matter of deeply held convictions about human equality, which I must sadly say I have not always found as deeply held by some 'Christians'. I don't suppose I have been any more successful in living always by those convictions, but, just the same, belief in the equality of all human beings regardless of gender, sexual orientation, 'race'/ethnicity, class, condition, age, political affiliation, religious affiliation, education, and any other possible source of discrimination, - is for me the absolutely essential foundation for creating a truly human society. And Jamaica has been failing increasingly in this respect.

Responses

2007-02-17T11:26:00.000-05:00

I have had a number of positive responses to the email I sent out, and I have had further thoughts

- if anyone had told me 50 years ago when I came here that I would see Jamaica turn into what it has become today, I would not have believed them. I feel very guilty that my generation here have been complicit in many different ways in creating the truly frightening situation we find ourselves in today.
Unfortunately the police are a major part of many of the problems, including treatment of gays. Try Googling - jamaica gay - and you will find much more on the topic.

- I'm not sure I'm giving up, but may be reassessing my priorities.
Why do we not have any religious or political leadership which is prepared to stand up and keep on calling loud and long for a rejection of the culture of violence which they seem to accept as the Jamaican norm; it certainly wasn't when I came here 50 years ago! I hate to hear people saying 'we are a violent people' - we are no more violent that anyone else and we should be in the forefront of resisting increasing violence in the world, instead of just letting ourselves be carried along on the tide.
I find myself saying 'a luta continua' fairly often these days.

- When clergy and politicians say things which, while not actually encouraging violence, certainly reinforce aggressively homophobic attitudes, it is difficult to know where to turn for rational discussion. Many of the people JFJ works with are right in the middle of the conflict. I am not surprised that ordinary people can so easily be worked up to violence because there is no authentic leadership keeping on calling loud and long for the rejection of the use of violence, at every level - in the family, in communities, in political parties, in the police force and on and on - because not only gays but potentially anyone is at risk. What happened in Rwanda is the horrific warning about where tolerance of this type of violence can take us.

Re the NBA matter in the States - I am very interested in the work that John Amaechi is getting involved with; we need something like his campaign here: check out his web site - http://www.hrc.org/ .

Apart from the anti-gay propaganda from some evangelical groups, and some of the dance hall performers, I really do not understand why Jamaican men feel so threatened by the mere thought of homosexuality. Talking with students the women are almost always ready at least to talk about the issue - the young men just seem to go into a total tizzy at the mere mention of the word. The whole mind-set has to change.

I think I may start putting stuff on one of the many blogs [ and I am doing it!!!] I've got set up, then I can direct people there instead of inflicting emails on them!

A luta continua - as we used to say back in the '70s - only we didn't realise that the real struggle is with ourselves!

Homophobia and mob violence in Jamaica

2007-02-17T11:20:00.000-05:00

After a very pleasant luncheon with a group of people to whom I gave a talk about the 1907 Earthquake, I came home today [Thursday, February 15th] ready to continue work on my current web site. I was brought to a total standstill in that work by a long phone conversation about the horrendous event that took place yesterday evening at Tropical Plaza. A mob of hundreds of Jamaicans bent on beating up, and presumably killing, four young men suspected of being gay, were only prevented from doing so by the eventual intervention of the police, who had to use tear gas to control the mob. I trust that we all realize that anyone living in Jamaica, or visiting Jamaica for that matter, is in the same danger as those young men. Lynch mobs in Jamaica are now able to set on anyone suspected of anything, of a crime as petty as picking pockets, and beat and chop them to death, and nothing is done. And being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, wearing the wrong clothes, could expose anybody, regardless of colour, ethnicity or class, to the same terror faced by those young men yesterday evening. It is a level of luck that we don't deserve that we are not facing today the reality of four murders, of young men 'suspected' of being gay.

I am feeling at the moment so sick, so angry, so disgusted, - so despairing for this island, that I am not sure I see any point in continuing with my small attempt to illustrate the enormous achievements of Jamaicans of all classes and origins over three and a half centuries. There is so much to be proud of, so much to celebrate, and to emulate – but this is where we have got to in 2007? Some of you know my disillusionment with almost all organized religion; that disillusionment is only reinforced by the thought that over 200 years of Christianity in Jamaica have brought us to this! When are all right thinking people going stand up and say this has to stop; our judicial system must be made to work, our laws must be dragged out of their 19^th century 'colonial' past, our police must be reformed; so that mob violence and vigilante 'justice' can be ended totally. I could also go on about how a perversion of Socialism, a perversion of Democracy, a perversion of academic freedom have fed into the situation we are now confronted with – a situation almost entirely of Jamaicans' own making.

I so often ask myself what I and all the rest of my generation should have done, but did not do. Now I shall think about going on with my web sites, if it seems they serve any useful purpose at all, but in any case I have to do vastly more to support the work in which my sons and daughter are so deeply involved with Jamaicans for Justice, and to support in whatever small way possible the work of the other Human Rights groups in Jamaica.

There is a point at which one cannot be merely an observer of a society destroying itself relentlessly from the inside.

If you share any of my feeling on this – at least as a first step express in any way you can support for Human Rights Defenders in Jamaica.

Joy Lumsden

my next web site

2006-09-19T22:47:00.000-05:00

I'm working on a new site for February 2007 Jamaican History Month, which will give brief biographies of 28 Jamaicans from the 18th to the 20th centuries who went out into the world and did interesting things. This is a kind of follow up to the site I did in 2004 -

http://www.joyousjam.info/jamaicanhistoryfebruary2004/

That site needs a bit of work now, but it is still worth checking out.
I figure that every Jamaican family has interesting stories to tell, and they should be told!

A brave new world!

2006-08-15T01:10:00.000-05:00

Well, we will see about that! Anyway let's hope for the best and give it a try.