turey had a thought about the celebrating of some of the highlights of the developing scenario of our Indi-pendence citing "free speech, free press, sport and cultural/musical superpower, growing art, craft and drama, growing awareness of our natural treasures, awakening of transparency and an intact legal and voting system".

As the list of achievements are ticked off, at some point do we not arrive at a tipping point where we devolve into some "growth and development" issues requiring frontal focused attention?...was pondering the "genteel poverty" that Bunny Wailer was singing about the everymon having his breakfast from the trees and collecting honey from the bees...an edenic overview which veils real suffering underneath.
Thank the virtues, values and vanities of extra-family & "community standards", co-operation at the ready, however they have been derived, to set a stage for sharing that will bless the giver and those who receive...and vice versa.

In the words of this Island's great oracular artist-poet, Lorna Goodison, from Heartease III:

If we mix a solution
from some wild bees' honey
and some search-mi-heart extract
better than red conscience money
and we boil it in a bun-pan
over a sweet wood fire
make the soft smell of healing
melt hard hearts and bare wire.
if we take it and share it
so everyone get a taste
and it reach till
it purge evil from this place
till we start again clean
from the birthplace
of the stream,
while above us arches
the mercy span
a high onyx beam;
reaching from the sea
to the cobalt
blue mountain ridge
the azure forgiving
of the wide mercy bridge...


Gleaner Link: Celebrating Achievements Since 1962
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120802/cleisure/cleisure2.html

Clovis Cartoon:
www.jamaicaobserver.com/tools/cartoons/ed-cartoon-aug-03-2012

Tomorrow we're 50, and it's time for sober reflections. What have been the achievements, failures, setbacks?

...our country has sustained a stable and functional parliamentary democracy, which is not exactly a minor achievement in the postcolonial world. But this has not been without the blot of garrisons, political tribalism, and political violence which has cost the lives of tens of thousands of citizens, directly or indirectly, has internally displaced multiple thousands more and hampered development.

We should, at the Grand Gala tomorrow, observe a minute's silence for the thousands dead from our nation's Independence politics.

We have closed 50 years of Independence with a comparatively robust democracy and a great deal of personal freedom as a people.

State failing citizens:
• On the downside is the critical failure of the State to protect citizens from trespasses upon their rights. From noise to squatting, from vending to building, from waste disposal to the use of public thoroughfares...

• Unemployment, which seldom dips into single digits, with a lot more underemployment, is another critical measure, as is remittances outperforming export earnings from most productive sectors...

• Over the 50 years, agriculture has declined, with output on every traditional export crop declining. Manufacturing has risen and fallen. The lifeline Tourism Sector says it can only survive if Government provides it with lifeline subsidies.

• Despite some progress in modernisation and diversification, there is the continued entrapment of too much capital and too many people in low-end economic activity. The vast majority of 'working' Jamaicans are still 'hustlers', living on the margins.

Education ups and downs:
• Access to education has vastly increased over 50 years of Independence, with virtually every child having access to secondary education and some 30 per cent having access to some form of post-secondary education, all heavily subsidised or fully paid for by the State.
But an inequitable system has been built which weeds out 85 per cent of children by the end of the secondary level, if success is measured as passing five CSEC subjects, including English and math, which qualify the student for tertiary matriculation.
Some 85 per cent of those graduating from tertiary education leave the country with their skills.

• While work-ready training has also expanded, some 70 per cent of the 'official' labour force has no certification. Education has not served as well as it could the imperative of national development...

• The Jamaican Environment has come under increasing pressure. A number of problems like overfishing, deforestation and the preservation of endangered species have reached crisis proportions.

• The country has significantly increased access to potable water, particularly through small rural systems, but is set to face a severe water crisis because of the failure to increase storage capacity for major urban centres to match population growth.

• One of the greatest and most far-reaching failures is the failure of the State to radically reverse historical injustices and drive land reform and housing.
A third of the population is living as squatters. More than 80 per cent of contributors to the NHT do not qualify for benefits. There has been a massive destruction of housing stock in the old inner-city areas during the political scorched-earth wars.
The majority of parcels of land in the country remain untitled and is dead capital in the hands of the owners.

Read More of Martin Henry's Gleaner Commentary:: Jamaica 50: Achievements, Failures, Setbacks
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120805/focus/focus4.html

Sweet, Sweet Jamaica...Land of My Birth by Chris Burns

...As it is with many of us, so is it also with nations; 50 is the new 25; and this is not to be confused with recklessness or irresponsibility. Jamaica is young enough at 50 to take control of her own destiny.
This is not the time to proclaim obituaries of hope for a brighter tomorrow, or offer requiems of fear that we are eternally stuck in the current economic maladies. It is the time for all of us to get up, proclaim and reclaim the true Jamaican spirit - it is the same spirit that lives in our athletes, artists, artisans, academicians, farmers, tradesmen, professionals, teachers, doctors, nurses, bakers, dressmakers, carpenters, police and students that make us successful and proud.

Fifty is indeed the new 25, and we must demonstrate this every day by redoubling our resolve to start making political Independence work for us. It starts with us beginning to take our politics seriously by entrusting our legislature and the executive branch to men and women who are capable, deserving and credible.

It starts with us making that important shift from being low-information voters toward becoming high information.

It starts with us becoming braver politically and financially. We "round up" our mouths a lot about how defiant and determined we are to get the best from those who represent our interest; yet we recoil faster that it takes a mongoose to sneeze when situations demand obvious defiance and toughness of character.

We fuss and fight every day about the lack of economic development and bemoan lacklustre economic growth, and rightly so, because achieving and maintaining healthy personal economies could translate to us achieving a strong national economy. However, enough of us have not elected to empower ourselves financially. We do not take calculated risks; neither do we take the requisite steps to educate ourselves financially so we can become stock owners, manufacturers, or movers and shakers in the financial markets.

Mark you, some of it is cultural, but we have to begin to appreciate the changes that are happening around us and get on board. This is a great way to celebrate our 50th and to welcome the next.

In the meantime, I say, Happy 50th, sweet, sweet Jamaica, land of my birth.

Observer Link:
www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Sweet--sweet-Jamaica--land-of-my-birth_12166763