Good for you girl! I’m happy to hear that you decided to work with the EOJ in the capacity you did. Riverton was obviously an eye-opening experience.

As to Rootzpoet’s and your enticing offer of 1 vote each…:-) My mother always tell me that ‘cock mout kill cock’. I’m not afraid of that though. I just think that there are many persons, ‘we’ who are fed up and are yet to connect in order to make the necessary change.

I really, perhaps foolishly, believe that the Jamaica Baptist Union has within it the stuff that ‘movements’ are made of. It’s an exciting prospect which at the moment resides mostly in my imagination. Or does it…?

What do you say?

Seriously though i was so excited about this election as it marked my coming of age, i could finally vote! It was kind of an anticlimax though when i looked at what i had to choose from:-(
So i figured apart from voting, i could make a more meaningful mark by working to ensure that we had ‘free and fair elections’ so i signed up to be a specialist officer for the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ). That basically means that apart from being trained to use the electronic voter identification system the EOJ could send me to a constituency of their choice. Thus on election day i sent to Riverton Meadows, a PNP garrison. It was there where one could see the saddest aspect of our politics unravel. Here were people living literally amoung the garbage of our capital, using every means they could possibly get away with to ensure the reelection of their political party candidate who had done little to ameliorate their conditions. Yes i know things arent that black and white and not all the people who behaved in this way may have done so on their own free will but even that fact makes the senario more dismal.

Mi fed up like the rest of “we”. But what if rootzpoet is right and the “we” are in the minority? If that is the case it will be some time before our voices and actions are acknowledged and there is a move from the same ole, same ole.

How i longed for an independent candidate in my constituency who would be a good alternative. Come home Marvia an mi will vote for yuh! Church has its role to play in politics too and its not from the backseat…

Bless
Derri

And thanks for that vote. LOL. Wow. I have to warn you though.. I’ve got revolutionary Jamaica Baptist DNA that I cannot and will not deny. I’d have to be an independent candidate. I can’t stand being a part of an organization that sees the need for change, and stay stuck in the rut to gain cheap popularity.

Some Jamaica Baptist pastors in early Post-Emancipation Jamaica were involved in Jamaica’s political life. Rev. William Menzie Webb comes readily to mind. When the Jamaica Baptists started to “fit in with the status quo” we had no more need to agitate for the masses. Our theological position then changed to ‘advising from the behind the scenes’. I think that’s where we are still located…”behind the scenes”.

Marvia

Personally the mudslinging “kass kass” really is something that needs to be buried. Because like you say its entertaining but it gets us nowhere. I think the unfortunate thing is that most people vote on hype as opposed to issues. I have no figures on this but that seems to be the trend even after forty plus years of independence . The candidate with the best rally and most gifts seems to always triumph.
This political scene is like a stuck record. Same ole, same ole…. Reeducation sounds like a good idea but will probably take a lot of doing .
There need to be more folks like you who can think outside the box… as a matter of fact what box.

I will vote for you anyday LOL.