No such thing as a "Jamaican Halloween"

Today is the 31^ST of October and this say is known by many different names, Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Samhain among several others. The Halloween festival is known for several things including trick or treat, a tradition normally carried out by children and in some cases the young at heart,  lighting of bonfires, playing of pranks, visiting of haunted houses, dressing up in all manner of costumes, some of them rather bizarre, the hosting of Halloween theme parties and of course the most famous of Halloween  traditions, the Jack-O-Lanterns carved out from hollow pumpkins.

                              

 The Origins of this festival remains rather obscure, some say that it is an all Christian festival that is celebrated the day before the traditional Catholic Festival known as all souls day, November 1, others however reject this idea, pointing out its pagan origin, such people decry all Halloween celebrations as being part of a satanic culture, with the view that nobody who calls himself a Christian should take part in Halloween. Regardless of your view on the matter, it is certainly not the intention Jamaican Tory to express his own view on the matter one way or another, as that is not the subject of the debate here.

                     

I have my own reason for not taking any part in any such Halloween celebrations, simply put it is totally nontraditional. Some of you might be puzzled as to where I’m going with this, after all Halloween has been celebrated for hundreds of years, how can it not be traditional?,  Answer: It’s not Jamaican tradition to celebrate Halloween. How is this possible? Let me explain, Jamaica was ruled by the British for 307 years, over that time period we inherited many aspects of British life and culture and incorporated with our own local culture which was also influenced by African, Amerindian and Asian aspects, one thing the British did not bequeath to us however was the celebration of Halloween. Sure we have our own myths, legends and horror stories (or as we like to call them Duppy Stories) which included figures Annie Palmer, Rolling Calf,  River Mumma and the like  but none of them have never been associated with Halloween in any shape or form, hence there is no historical or cultural justification for the celebration of Halloween in Jamaica.

                       

There has been somewhat of a cultural shift however where for the last few years Halloween is now becoming more popular in Jamaica. As a child growing up, the only time I was ever made aware of Halloween was through the influence of television programmes (especially horror movies) which were all imported from the United States, besides that there was no other mention of Halloween and most certainly nothing that was ever connected to Jamaican folklore. That however is changing as more and more people seem to be getting inot the Halloween spirit around this time of year, dressing up in Halloween costumes and going to Halloween-themed parties on the weekend closest to October 31, If we’re not careful we’ll soon see Jamaican children engaging in trick-or –treat to mimic those children from other countries as often seen on television.

                      

To be frank, I have nothing against those who wish to celebrate it, especially in countries where that is the norm after all  they have a right to participate in all aspects of their national cultural life and maintain the traditions of their forefathers, however being a traditionalist I am wary of the erosion of our own local culture to give rise to something that is foreign and alien to us, tradition must be preserved and in the case of Jamaica, our own customs does not include Halloween celebrations, it’s high time to stop wanting to copy everything that  foreigners (particularly Americans) like to do and stick to our way of doing things. This is by no means meant to decry or announce American culture really after all other countries celebrate Halloween too and  some  might even ask so why pick on them?, the answer is quite simple,  It's not a matter of picking on them per se  but  let's be honest here, while other countries have Halloween as well, it is the imposition of American culture through the mass media that has caused so many Jamaicans to become more in tuned to Halloween, the mentality that causes so many to be brainwashed into thinking that it’s better to follow fashion than stay original. The fact that many Jamaicans now choose to celebrate Halloween is only a symptom of a bigger problem: that of cultural erosion and the damaging effect that this new cultural shift is having on our people.  

Race Heats Up

With just two weeks before the annual conference of Jamaica Labour Party, things seems to be heating up in  race to the top between incumbent Andrew Holness and challenger Audley  “Man-a-yard” Shaw and right now the competition is still anyone’s game  with both leaders still managing to pull very strong support from the grass roots base of the party. However the Jamaican Tory is deeply concerned with the turn of events with the campaign becoming more and more hostile , this leadership challenge is tearing the party apart, as we’re now seeing Labourite against Labourite, when what we’re more used to seeing over the years is Labourite against Comrade (PNP). Perhaps this is what Olivia Grange meant when she declared that whoever seeks to challenge the leadership at this time might not have the best interest of the country and the party at heart.

                  

               

To be frank blame can be thrown at both sides, since the announcement of the leadership challenge every issue has turned into a major squabble from the selection to the delegates list to disputes over who has the most parliamentary support and which side has more to spend on the campaign trail. This race is getting way too petty, with both sides airing their dirty laundry in public as it were, this is not doing either side any good rather it is hurting the entire party.

I’m rather shocked at the amount of tribalism that is being displayed within the ranks of the JLP itself, just last week as senior JLP MP, that is a known supporter of the incumbent evicted a counselor from his constituency office simply because she supported the challenger, this was irrespective of the fact that the counselor was still a loyal member of the party . Other statements and actions by the leader's supporters are also calls for concern, such as Everald Warmington decrying Shaw’s leadership of his area council as the worst in the island, effectively branding him as incompetent. Then of course there is the leader himself who was also found making uncalled for comments about his opponent , he accused his challengers of being traitors deliberately undermine his authority to the detriment of the party, which is why it where it is today,.

               

The Shaw camp is not spared either, regardless of  calls by the self-styled Man-a-Yard to  “bring back the love” , it is quite clear that this party is anything but united, it is quite telling that many of those who lost their seats in the last general elections are supporting Shaw, and even placed blame at the Holness feet for their election  losses, this criticism however seems rather unfair considering that Holness managed to retain his seat while they loss thiers, he must have doing something right that they were doing wrong, they also further state that since that time until now, Holness has yet to meet with them. And then of course there is Shaw himself who made a huge fuss, criticizing the leadership style of Holness  by discussing several internal party matters on a public platform and complained about Holness being weak and indecisive, allowing the PNP to get away with too much and promising that should he win, he will be the PNP’s worst nightmare, much like the present Prime Minister threatened when she lost the election back in 2007.

                       

Being a High Tory I still believe that a government that subscribes to conservative principles is best to lead a country, which is why I prefer to support the conservative JLP over the liberal PNP, but this race is tearing the party apart so much that it’s heartbreaking. The more I watch, is the more that I’m of the view that regardless of who get most of the delegates votes, the real winner in this whole saga will be neither Holness nor Shaw but rather the People’s National Party, while Labourites are busy infighting the  comrades of the PNP are having a joy ride ruining the country with no serious challenges to their incompetence and mismanagement .  I would not  be surprised if Prime Minister Simpson Miller did exactly what Holness feared she would and call an early general election soon after the leadership race is over just to spite the JLP. So the question here is: if she does, can the JLP  recover in time to take on the PNP and hopefully retake the reins government or will they miss the mark and end up spending another 18 years as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition?.

The Real Cause of the Deadlock

Without a doubt, the biggest story in the news for all of last week, has to do with the shutdown of the United States Congress and the ultimately the entire United States Government due to differences between the President and  both houses of  Congress over the budget for the upcoming fiscal year which normally begins on the first of October. Since that time there have many theories as to who is to blame for this whole fiasco as this as the first such incident in seventeen years, some persons blame the president, others blame the Democrats and still others blame the Republicans and each have their own theories as to why, some say it’s  the Republicans fault for being so stubborn, others say the President shouldn't be pushing his own agenda on to congress, I even heard one ridiculous theory that claims that it’s a personal attempt to sabotage Obama due to his race (a preposterous notion, how someone could even fathom that is beyond me).

                    

The truth of the matter is that all of these are side arguments, any blame for the shutdown should be placed squarely at the feet of the Constitution of the United States, a document written over two hundred years ago by rebel colonist who led a revolution to overthrow their rightful monarch and set up a republican form of government. It is said that if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it as truth, that is exactly what has happened here, the lie that has been spun over and over again that says that the US constitution is the best model in the world, that falsehood continues to permeate despite evidence to the contrary. The truth of the matter is that the political constitution of the United States is riddled with errors, in their effort to divide government function between three separate branches, while putting in measures to avoid any one branch from becoming too powerful, they have ultimately failed to putting in safeguards to deal with inefficiencies that may occur from a government shutdown of this nature, after all this is most certainly not the first time something like this has happened.

                   

The first and biggest failure was of course the lack of a monarch, the United States Constitution clearly states that the Union shall guarantee to every state a republican form of government, thus clearly stating their rejection of monarchy once and for all, this was a most ill-advised and short sighted move on the part of the founding fathers. With a monarch at the helm of the nation this crisis would have been much easier to solve as he would have the authority to dissolve the legislature and call new elections, since unlike a President he would not be aligned to any political party and as such can be a totally neutral figure acting in the best interest of the nation on a whole rather than in a partisan manner   the president  who is himself a politician cannot do this as the constitution has placed limits on his domestic power in relations to his dealings with congress, a move originally meant to intend that the President can never exercise too much control over the legislature has turned into one where he is instead so hampered by it so much that he becomes politically impotent , the founders probably never  thought about that when they wrote the constitution. Ironically enough, the American revolution was never meant to be a republican experiment from the outset, until the declaration of Independence the Colonial Army were fighting only to be free of control from the British Parliament and not from King George III, it was actually the declaration of Independence that later falsely and unjustly fingered the King as the main villain of the story. And even after they had won, many in the new country would have crowned George Washington as the new King had he wanted it, he refused and decided to run for president instead thus ending all hopes of a monarchy,A wiser man would have taken the Crown when it was offered to him but Washington did no such thing.

                            

The second constitutional flaw that is ultimately responsible for this foul up, is this whole business of separation of powers where the executive and legislature are totally independent of each other , in a Parliamentary democracy, the Prime Minister cannot remain in office if he cannot command the support of the lower house, in the US the President can stay in office whether he has the support of congress or not leading to a great political deficit, if the chief executive cannot even get congress to support his proposals how can he get laws passed? Especially since he himself does not even have a seat in the house (which is of itself another shortsighted move). Clearly there must eventually be some political fallout from such a system. It grieves me every time I hear some idiotic Neo-Marxist claim that we in Jamaica should adopt a similar model by claiming that such a separation is more democratic as it allows for greater balance of power between both sides rather than Prime Ministerial dominance of parliament. Nothing however could be further from the truth, that kind of separation of executive and legislative only makes it easier for a dictatorship to come about, while it is true that the US itself has never become a dictatorship, many other countries that adopt the Presidential model cannot same the same.  The simple fact is that the Westminster Model with its constitutional monarchy and its parliamentary structure has been proven as the most efficient of all forms of democracy that have been tried so far.

                      

To illustrate take a look at the 1975 crisis in Australia where a similar situation was occurring, seeing that talks between the government and opposition was getting nowhere and that the Prime  Minister was willing to use underhanded methods to get his way, the Governor-General  dismissed the Prime Minister and appointed someone else in the interim until new elections were called soon after , while he eventually paid a high political price for his interference at least he had the good sense to know that the situation was untenable as is and was willing to use whatever means at his disposal the break the deadlock, unfortunately for the US no such thing can occur as they chose to play their game  by a different set of rules altogether.

The deadlock is still on in earnest with no end in sight as yet , while it is expected that all parties involved will eventually come to a compromise that will end this crisis, that does not change that fact that someday in the future this might very well happen again unless they make some drastic changes to their constitution.