‘Things fall apart / The centre can not hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’. W.B. Yeats lines, some say, aptly describe Jamaica’s current situation. At times it is difficult not to agree. The nightly news is a regular litany of murders, riots, bankruptcies, and layoffs. Many of our increasingly illiterate young men seem interested only in drugs and crime. Our rate of deforestation is the highest in the world, our coral reefs are nearly dead, and our beaches may be next.

Blame it on our wonderful weather and seductive scenery, but Jamaica has never had a strong work ethic. Our ‘miracle economy’ GDP growth between 1952 and 1972 was fuelled by bauxite and tourism. Our governments since then have simply borrowed and spent, with the electorate’s full approval. While we have produced a few world class businesses, many enterprises here have thrived not because they were run efficiently, but because they were well connected and protected from foreign competition.

Murder, bankruptcy, unemployment, debt, illiteracy  - the news in Jamaica is increasingly depressing. Some say this unending litany of gloom is creating a feeling of hopelessness, and the media should concentrate on the positive - talk about what’s right with the country and not what’s wrong. But journalists are only telling it like it is, and shooting the messenger never solved anything. Indeed perhaps the most heartening aspect of Jamaican life is the fact that the media is able to and willing to tell us all what we are doing wrong.

Jamaica faces a linguistic paradox. We realize that language is a vital part of our culture, and that Jamaican patois, or patwah, must not be stigmatized as inferior. Yet many students leave school unable to speak standard English, severely compromising their employment opportunities and social mobility. Language, like dress, has to vary with the occasion.

Over 200 years ago Samuel Johnson remarked that “Men know that women are an over-match for them… If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.” And time has certainly proved that women can do anything men can do. (The converse is of course not true. An old joke has a woman ask a man “What’s the difference between us?”  “I can’t conceive” he answers.)

'I want to know and you tell me true, What the hell the police can do'

So charged a big dancehall hit of yesteryear. And a lot of people agree. They argue that our soaring crime rate is the direct result of a deeply flawed society - endemic poverty, poor education, massive income disparity, a vicious cycle of ghetto violence from parent to child, an 85% illegitimate birth rate and consequent lack of male role models. Until these are remedied, they say, nothing we do can improve matters.

According to famed anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, the principle of legitimacy is not a European or Christian prejudice but amounts to a universal sociological law. The general societal rule is that no child should be brought into the world without an acknowledging father  to act as the custodial male link between the child and the community. The crucial determinant of legitimacy is not legality, a widely varying concept, but the male’s public commitment to his child’s mother. Virtually every known culture favours children born of such unions.

Jamaica’s homicide rate of 36 per 100,000 is not as high as that of world leaders El Salvador, Colombia or South Africa, but it is over three times that of Trinidad, over five times that of the USA and over twenty times that of Britain.

Skyrocketing crime, daily roadblocks, corrupt elections, incompetent politicians - Jamaica is simply a disaster. The system just doesn't work, so let's throw it out. Anything must be better than what we have. Things are so bad, they can't get any worse.

The last national hero was chosen over 20 years ago. A new addition is long overdue, and what better time to debate the question than black history month? Many say former Prime Minister Michael Manley should be the next official hero, while others argue for reggae legend Bob Marley. Both made great contributions to their country and neither would be a bad choice. But there is someone with far greater claims than either - the person who almost single-handedly gave Jamaicans pride in their cultural heritage and is at the same time the most universally loved personality this nation has produced – Louise “Miss Lou” Bennett.