http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20031113/cleisure/cleisure4.html

Kevin O'Brien Chang

THE SUNNY Jamaican countryside dispels thoughts of crime and debt. In such bright moods I accept that our official figures cannot reflect reality and that this country is an exception to all rules. In most places economic stagnation and rising violence breed unrest. But over 10 years of negligible GDP growth, a decimated dollar and a soaring murder rate have been accompanied here not by angry mass protests but a car, cellular and building boom. Nor does this, in theory, broke and crime-ridden country seem to lack for nightlife, with partygoers ramming Negril and Ocho Rios every long weekend.

The moaning is as endless as the US embassy lines, but noone here seems to want real change. When the Dominican Republic's currency plummeted earlier this year there were huge demonstrations. Tens of thousands recently marched against crime in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro. Last month mass protests drove out the Bolivian president. Yet far from being fed-up, voters here have thrice re-elected the ruling party. And while local roadblocks are very common, our only recent mass gatherings were the jubilant hundreds of thousands at last year's election rallies. JA cool man!

FOOL'S PARADISE

But bumping gloomily through rainy potholes you wonder if we're not in a fool's paradise. Many other economies have collapsed under far lower debt burdens than Jamaica's. Post 9-11 American terrorist laws might soon shrink our remittance flows. The recent US Senate vote to end their Cuban travel embargo ­ which only a presidential veto can now maintain ­ makes me glumly ponder how much our visitor arrivals will fall when Cuba opens up: 10 per cent, 20 per cent, 50 per cent? But then Jamaica has the world's most damaged coral reefs, so we might not even have beaches to attract anyone in a few years.

And if we have one of earth's highest murder rates with things going fairly well, what would happen if the GDP dropped 5% or 10%? Could Jamaica's social fabric weather an Argentine-style crisis? More particularly, would 'out of many one people' survive?

Now I cannot tolerate those who judge humanity by skin colour. Race is scientifically meaningless ­ we all originated in Africa and are genetically 99.99 per cent identical. And Jesus Christ proclaimed all children of God equal in the Lord's sight.

Yet perhaps my dislike of racism stems partly from being a crossbreed mongrel. Although a born Jamaican, with grandfathers from China and grandmothers a mix of British, German and African I will always be a minority here and everywhere else. A serious 'back to ancestral home' movement would, as the old calypso says, cut me into pieces. For the likes of me racial tolerance is a matter of real self-interest.

In 'A World on the Edge' Amy Chua defines 'market-dominant minorities' as 'ethnic minorities who economically dominate the 'indigenous' majorities around them to an often startling extent'. In Indonesia for instance, Chinese make up only three per cent of the population but control 70 per cent of the economy, and a similar situation prevails in most of southeast Asia.

Why this is so is a bigger question than can be answered here. To be sure all human situations are subject to change. Bloodthirsty Vikings mutated into peaceful Scandinavians. Meek Jews have become warrior Israelis. Imperial Britain is once again a small island. But as Chua says, 'market-dominant minorities' are an undeniable present reality.

MARKET-DOMINANT MINORITY

'Markets concentrate wealth, often spectacularly, in the hands of the market-dominant minority, while democracy increases the political power of the impoverished majority. In these circumstances, the pursuit of free-market democracy becomes an engine of potentially catastrophic ethno-nationalism, pitting a frustrated 'indigenous' majority, easily aroused by opportunistic, vote-seeking politicians, against a resented, wealthy ethnic minority. This conflict is playing out in country after country today, from Indonesia to Sierra Leone, from Zimbabwe to Venezuela, from Russia to the Middle East'.

In Migrations and Cultures Thomas Sowell points out that what he calls 'middleman minorities' vary in race and culture. They include Ibos in Nigeria, Lebanese in the Middle East, Parsees in India, and Jews and overseas Indians and Chinese all over the world. In troubled times the majority populace often treats such minorities as scapegoats. The Ibos in Nigeria, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Tamils in Sri Lanka, Jews in Europe and Chinese in Southeast Asia have all suffered vindictive mob brutality.

Of course 'middleman minorities' often stoke such conflagrations by selfish and racist behaviour. The high-handed arrogance of Indian merchants in pre-Idi Amin Uganda made their expulsion wildly popular, yet the consequent disruption ruined the economy. Racial explosions hurt everyone.

'But Jamaica is out of many one people' comes the chorus 'and we've never had any racial problems'. Indeed Sowell, while noting the 1965 Chinese riots here, comments that 'the anti-Chinese hostility of the Caribbean has apparently been far less than in Southeast Asia. This may be due the more relaxed racial feelings in the region'. But he also says:

'The special hatred directed at middleman minorities says something about the irrational side of human beings. However vicious these attacks on middlemen minorities, those attacks seldom arise spontaneously. Such groups often live at peace with the surrounding society for generations or centuries, until some special events or movements make them targets. Very often the instigators of such disorders are business competitors, though sometimes they are simply political demagogues'.

Kevin O'Brien Chang may be reached at: changkob@hotmail.com.