THE SUNDAY GLEANER, MARCH 6, 2022 | IN FOCUS F6 THE NARROW strip of roadway leading to Hopie’s bar spot in the depressed community takes you to a ramshackle settlement on a hill. It is semi-rural St Andrew. The road has never been paved. and I am forced to slow to a crawl as I gingerly drive my way through stone and rubble. Hopie orders a special and then her mood takes on the likeness of the tough surroundings. “Who? Andrew Holness. Not him! None a dem will get my vote again!” Her main concern was the adjustment in the minimum wage. Hopie was insisting it was only $1,000. A young man probably in his 40s told her it was just a little more. “If it nuh move to $20,000 wi nuh wah si no politician round ya so.” The young man leaned in towards her and said, “If it move to $20,000, how teacher and police and nurse going to afford that?” Hopie ordered another special – rum and a healthy splash of energy drink. A male cousin of Hopie’s, a small-time building contractor, was singing a different tune. Seventy-three-year-old Jimbo said: “You know sey me always a fight fi worker. Right now wi know whe di trade recommend, but nuff time wi mek rate right at the site gate. “Few year ago labourer a get $1,500, $2,000. Now is $3,000, $4,000. Steel man can claim $75,000 per tonne. A plumber getting bout $35,000 per room (bathroom, kitchen). If sufficient lumber is on the site a carpenter can make $35,000 per day.” “So tings a gwan,” I said. He animatedly admitted it. “Go to a ghetto community where nuff tradesman live. Whole heap a dem a add on a room or a build a shop.” NUH GO BACK Hopie is seated nearby on a rickety old PVC chair. “Mi do some work fi a rich man bout six week ago. Di man owe mi $40,000. Mi go fi it, and di man seh him only have $7,500. Mi tell him sey mi nuh want it because is a good likkle while him owe mi. Yu know whe di man do. Him roll up di $7,500 and throw it gi mi.” The look on her face is one of sadness tinged with anger. She gives me the name of the infamous small town where she used to live. “Mi have three brother and three a dem a [alleged] murderer. Mi nuh like dem. One time dem used to trail me fi si if mi talk to police. So the last time mi leave, mi nuh go back. “Mi modder used to be a domestic helper. Biggest mistake mi ever mek a follow har.” There are three other women with her. Well one is not really a woman. She is 16 and tells me that she was expelled from (an excellent rural school). She painted a tattoo on her lower leg. She will be going to a ‘private academy’ where she is expected to study nursing. She tells me that she is weak in chemistry, loves biology. All the other women believe it was unreasonable for the school to have given her the boot. I start to talk, but I am outnumbered. PAINFUL UNCERTAINTIES OF WAR In July 1944, a senior officer in the German army, Klaus von Stauffenberg, failed in an attempt to kill Hitler by setting explosives near to where he sat. Miraculously, he lived. Now I draw your attention to the Russian president seated at the head of a 40-foot table in meetings. His senior advisers are all bunched up at the other end – 40 feet away. Is a little bit of his reading of history too closely interwoven with his paranoia? Guidance counsellors giving pep talks with new arrivals in sixth form usually tell them that ‘one person can make a difference’. They probably had in mind those with highly inventive skills and excellent entrepreneurship. Like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or social and racial justice giants like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. And Marcus Garvey. At no time could it have meant Vladimir Putin. But yet, that evil man has caused the shivers among brave men and women globally. It would be a safe bet to believe that not even Putin knows what his next moves will be. He has yet to release the full might of the Russian Air Force on key cities in the Ukraine. At the time of writing (Wednesday), he still has that long menacing column (between 15 and 40 miles long) of tanks heading for the country’s capital. Impending siege? As in all wars, the first casualty is truth. Is Putin really prepared to use nuclear-tipped battlefield rockets? And if he had really landed paratroopers in sections of Ukraine, how will that square with him probably exposing his own soldiers to immediate and unknown nuclear effects? At present, it would suit all political watchers at home and abroad to recognise that there is a huge gulf between what President Biden and powerful NATO members say they can do in response and how far they are willing to go in giving reality to their words. The despotic, evil Putin wants a straight, unbroken path to victory, and that arrogant man expects the world to fall flat and provide him with a carpet to walk over while he sacks most of Ukraine. War psychologists know that in light of Putin’s early missteps, he needs what is being called an off ramp. The country with the clout to provide him with this is China. For us here in Jamaica, it was a harrowing tale getting our students to a safer place. But we must bear in mind that old men, women, and children in Ukraine are even now sheltering from the fire above as the bitter cold wraps itself around them. Global watchers know that the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. We know, of course, that winning peace is usually more complex than winning a war. And finding an off ramp for a crazy autocrat who wants to save face is part of that complexity. n Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Email feedback to columns@ gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com. FILE JLP supporters celebrate after their party won in the General Elections in September 2020. Mark Wignall Hopie will never vote for JLP
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