AS IT is in Barbados, so it continues to be in Jamaica—a flaunting vexation of spirit by citizens over prevailing national, social and economic woes and a passion to engage in verbal bashing. For Jamaica it is all the more troubling as this is the season of nation-wide celebratory activities to mark its Golden Jubilee of political independence that will be ceremonially observed tomorrow with expected prominent guests from across the Caribbean and beyond.
Later this month, on August 31, it will be the occasion for Trinidad and Tobago to officially mark its 50th anniversary of political independence.
In this country, which, like Jamaica, is a founding member of our Caribbean Community, and is  blessed with an energy-based economy, the bitter complaints are more focused on the ongoing chilling criminal rampage with recurring embarrassing fall-outs, often involving the police high command; Police Service Commission, Minister of National Security and the media.
But it is in Jamaica, the Caricom state which has been quite outstanding over the years in the quality of intellectual, academic, political, cultural, entrepreneurial, religious  and journalistic leadership provided, that sharp public criticisms seem to have reached a most perplexing and disturbing level.
For example, as recently as last week, when the “Jamaica Observer” was  editorially urging Jamaicans to “start believing in ourselves”—itself a surprising call in this second decade of the 21st century—a religious leader (Baptist pastor, Jonathan Hemmings)  was lamenting at an Independence “thanksgiving service” in Kingston that the country was now “pervaded by hustlers”—at all levels (including government, business sector, religious and education institutions).

Learning from others
Perhaps Jamaicans, disillusioned and distressed by the prevailing social and economic climate at home,  would not wish to take any comfort in knowing that Barbadians are  now also caught up in open, revealing hurt and even despair over economic decline and widening social problems.
Basking for years in the glory of a CARICOM state with recurring, admirable  economic performance ratings, and often at the high end of human development indices, it is understandably disturbing for Barbadians, as well as other Community nationals who live there, that Barbados  has now been downgraded by the by the credit-rating agency, Standard and Poors, to a shocking “junk bond” status.
Yet, in their reflections of the good years, Barbadians  could also try to appreciate the yearnings of Jamaicans for years past when successive governments in Kingston struggled, against the odds, to survive internal and external political pressures to maintain the sovereignty and dignity of a proud, though poor nation.
Also of the brave spirit of successive administrations in Kingston to cope with quite burdensome restraints imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the continuing success of Jamaicans in fostering the richness of their performing arts and general cultural contributions that continue to provide positive vibrations for the rest of this Region.
For all its own past and lingering social/political challenges, Guyana also stands as a shining example of the indomitable spirit of a people of this Region to overcome severe social and economic problems–not to mention the consequences of long years of institutionalised electoral fraud that had made a  mockery of “parliamentary democracy” for over two decades! It is now the CARICOM state with the enviable record of a successive five percent economic growth rate over the past four years.
My intention is not to generate a false ‘feel-good’ mood among Jamaicans and Barbadians at this tough, unflattering period of social and economic woes.
It is rather, to encourage wider perspectives on how others of our regional family, spread across CARICOM, are coping with their respective socio-economic and political challenges.
In Barbados’ year of likely new general election—though I am inclined to think it could be within the first three months of 2013–even a renowned Barbadian cultural icon like the calypsonian ‘Mighty Gabby’ could have allowed himself to mistakenly warn that this nation may be “ripe for riots”, reminiscent of the dread, historic 1937 colonial period.
True, the comparative upsurge in serious crime; the continuing craze to adopt or, worse, uncritically embrace foreign, and quite costly life-styles; as well as the bullying of children at schools and the more degrading social sickness of child-sex abuse at home and school, are problems from which Barbados, Jamaica and so many of our CARICOM countries must speedily free themselves.

The reality
In its last Wednesday’s editorial, the ‘Jamaica Observer’ editorial thought it necessary to remind Jamaicans that as they marked another “Emancipation Day” anniversary, they “must endeavour to look deeply at the areas of national life in which we cannot claim full emancipation and in which we have not fulfilled the hopes and aspirations of the descendants of the newly freed slaves…”
Truth is, while Jamaica, Barbados and other CARICOM states have burdensome problems, of varying degrees, NONE can honestly claim success in fulfilling “the hopes and aspirations” of the descendants of the emancipated slaves.
This remains a challenging work in  progress which would largely depend on the fostering of a new political culture of inclusiveness rather than the old confrontational politics of “them” and “us”—whether in terms of race and class, ideology and ideology.
A difficult challenge? Of course it is. But perhaps Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, the first two independent nations of CARICOM and the most populous are reasonably well placed–despite their own prevailing negative features– to begin charting patterns in inclusive politics that could result in a new and desirable governance culture in our Community.