Theme: One People, One Spirit, One Justice.
Briefly explain your understanding of the above theme and discuss what you
think can be done to achieve or maintain this in Jamaica.
By Shemar Williams
In this essay I will explore how the theme “One Spirit, One People, One Justice” can help
to bring about a society worthy of good and honourable people. One that exhumes a culture that
was once dormant to one of harmony, peace and unity. Our intriguing cultural heritage defines
the spirited people of Jamaica. In speaking of “one spirit”, our language, culture, music and
religion would have to be taken into consideration. The island's language is a great way to see
how much each different culture has affected the island's own. Although the official language is
English, dialects with African, Spanish, and European cheerfully showcase the merging of
languages from around the world.
Jamaicans are a multi-racial group of people. They are mixed from several different
cultures. The Jamaican people are naturally kind, warm, amusing and friendly and they are well
loved by people from other countries. They are fun-loving, extremely emotional and love to
laugh. The majority of Jamaicans are always willing to assist in times of need.
Music is a hugely important part of our Jamaican culture and the heart beat of the people.
The words of Hugh Sherlock in our National Anthem “Teach us true respect for all” should be
embedded in our hearts to help bring about brotherly love among our people. In bringing about
one spirit we could try to stem crime and violence which paints a negative picture of Jamaica
throughout the world.
We must encourage people to obtain good education and training, and
not just with words. If people try hard they will be able to do better. This means we must
have real jobs for people. Try to avoid helping to force manufacturers to move their factories out
of the Jamaica. Make sure there is a place they can afford and where they are welcome. A
trained and knowledgeable public cannot be achieved simply by legislating it. There must be
incentive for the young and poor to obtain skills and knowledge. We must control our population
growth. We especially need to encourage fewer births among the poor and to those who don't
want children or don't know what it means to raise children. We need to align our population
growth with our economical growth to improve the employment situation.
In reflecting on the word “One People” we should think of our Jamaican national motto
‘Out of Many One People’, which is based on our multi-racial roots. The motto represented on
the Coat of Arms, showing a male and female member of the Taino tribe standing on either side
of a shield which bears a red cross with five golden pineapples. The crest shows a Jamaican
crocodile mounted on the Royal Helmet of the British Monarchy and mantling. Jamaica is a
constitutional monarchy with the Queen as Sovereign. As a constitutional monarch, the Queen of
Jamaica acts entirely on the advice of Jamaican Government ministers. Although we are from
multi-racial roots we are also one people in the eyes of God. There should be no discrimination
among people because of their race and skin colour. We do not need to bleach our skin to gain
status or attain a job in our society. If one has the ability to go forward and be of some value to
society they should be given a chance to do so.
Winston Churchill once said “All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a
single word freedom; justice; honour; duty; mercy and hope”.
According to a reliable source,
justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion,
or equity. It is also the act of being just and/or fair. What does justice mean for the Jamaican
people? Are they treated fairly and are they given the type of justice that they deserve? Justice
encompasses a very wide area i.e both the economic and social aspect of our lives.
Prior to the
20th century persons usually speak about the joy of walking within their community unmolested
and without fear of being attacked by some merciless stranger.
Generally, most persons look
forward to a crime free society wherein they can walk freely once more. Some look forward to
more speedy redress in their court cases through our judicial system and one in which the matters
are not thrown into file 13 after a period of time. Everyone has a right to a fair trial. We could
adopt a system like the USA wherein matters are researched carefully and resolved even when
they seemed very hard to solve.
Man is resourceful. He can solve any problem if he truly puts his mind to it. If he also
opens to the spirit in that process, it will be unfailing, in fact, solutions will arrive
instantaneously. The power of intention to solve a problem will tend to attract solutions without
prolonged thought.
Social justice is the main goal. We shall need a robust social justice framework to make
sure this idea is not just big, but fair and sustainable. By ‘social justice’ we mean the fair and
equitable distribution of social, environmental and economic resources between people, places
and generations. Social justice framework therefore means a shared understanding of how plans
for developing our society will help to achieve social justice, with rules of engagement that make
sure these goals are consistently pursued.
We ought to ensure also that matters which come before the courts are dealt with
expeditiously and fairly.
Also ensure that legal aid is given to those who need it most and
witnesses are adequately protected. By implementing these solutions we would bring about “one
spirit, one people, and one justice” and then we would have one Jamaica that is a nation united,
not segregated by colour, class, creed, religion and political views.
980 words
Bibliography
www.guns and crime.org
Neweconomics.org
www.jamaica-culture