Absolute hypocrisy after Oscar Allen’s death

By Dylan N. Jacobs

Hypocrisy (noun): – the practice of claiming to have moral standard or belief to which one’s behaviour does not conform; pretence.

It’s a sad day when someone who lived their life according to the principles of God and our African ancestry is called to eternal rest on the ever of the month of emancipation. With the passing of Brother A (Oscar Allen), the hypocrisy of our leaders and community at large is blindingly (uncritically, unthinkingly, mindlessly, indiscriminately) evident.

Now, the Unity Labour Party is in the administration of our country for the past 16 years, yet the leadership never saw the need to rename the Diamonds Government School in Oscar’s honour while he was alive and making a tremendous contribution to the socio-economic and socio-political landscape of nation building.

But, upon his death, they saw the wisdom in renaming the school after Brother A. Now, let us take off our political blinkers and look at the situation with some degree of honesty and an open-minded approach. Let us, for a while, think about the priceless contribution and development of our young people and communities from the priceless and unselfish contribution this man made throughout his life. So why 15 years ago, during the introduction of the so-called “education revolution”, wasn’t the thought of giving this honour to Brother A mentioned?

Think about how many of our populace would have come to know the beliefs, doctrine, principles and way of life of this man we affectionately referred to as Brother A.

Why only upon the man’s burial was the road leading to the cemetery and other parts of the village able to get some long-overdue attention?

The people of that village continue to support blindingly the ULP with all their socio-political and socio-economic shortcomings. I also heard talk that a lot of university graduates come out of the village but besides academics, what benefits have we derive from all this higher learning? For the community is in a pool of socioeconomic, moral, spiritual and psychological stagnation. Meaningful, adequate employment is in short supply. The private sector is under attack by this administration, while the climate of fear to be critical of the actions and misbehaviour of these ULP leaders and supporters are evident. Everyone seems to be beholden to a man or woman because of a favour or promise of a job, scholarship, contract or duty-free concessions.

With a striving private sector, more of our people would have had an independence of mind and thoughts. The government has destroyed the main productive sectors of our economy (agriculture), which is the main income earner for persons in this rural district. Today, more and more of our people seem to be satisfied a with a kind of plantation mentality, where a selected few enjoy the best of the “hog”, while the others are just expected to “wash yo’ foot and come”. How much longer can we take this approach to governance before the “belly” of the economy falls out?

With all this higher learning, how come our community leaders have not advanced into a mind set of critical thinkers, honest, principle minded individuals? Why has hypocrisy overtaken our sense of communities, love and practice of Christianity? If we truly want the principle, beliefs and philosophy of Brother A to be part and parcel of our society and a way of life for our children to emulate, then we must be willing to put aside partisan politics, hypocrisy, malice and ill will towards persons who do not share our political and social persuasion. Our actions and principles must be reflective of the Christian values and beliefs we speak of on a daily basis. Nuff said.

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The opinions presented in this content belong to the author and may not necessarily reflect the perspectives or editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].