Get up stand up stand up for yuh rights!!

You know I asked the people to piss in my pocket...and believe that they did, lol!

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Barbadians-tighten-the-screws---More-Jamaicans-beaten--locked-up--kicked-out_8607625

and these are the previous articles in this latest regional integration/disintegration-self hate fiasco:

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Barbadians-are-the-ones-lying_8588601
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Finger-raped-in-Barbados_8573453
http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/jamaican-myrie-plans-to-sue/
http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/no-record-of-body-search/

There are more but I'm getting bad energy from them so...moving on.

For the last few days I have been browsing a lot of internet blogs and forum discussions, actively taking part in some, but mostly just looking on. This was so that I could get a sense of what people were/are thinking and how their thoughts could/would develop into anything, if they did develop into anything at all.

Well here is the thing, most people are emotional, very emotional, coming to conclusions in an instant and making what would seem like rash judgment calls. This is a bad thing because of the mentality it develops in the social psyche of a nation and in this particular case, a region. This is even more disturbing in a region where there are supposed to be mechanisms and schemes in place to develop regional integration. When there is so much emotionally driven talk about boycotts, and reciprocal actions and disbandment of CARICOM and expulsion of countries from CARICOM, one has to get worried, if one is interested in an integrated and homogeneous region that is. If, however, you are seeking to be like the proverbial cheese and stand alone, then the recently highlighted events in the regional media and the emotional and irrational comments must be making you smile :D . They say that Kamla say she wants no part of CCJ, Bajans allegedly showing their xenophobic colours, Jamaicans calling for boycotts of Bajan products (btw BIM doan mek one shite) and it goes on and on and on and down and down.

The regional dis-integration movement was not the purpose of this particular blog though. As I was wandering the internet and going from blog to blog, newspaper to newspaper, forum to forum, I realised something, a lot of people had a lot to say, lots of it emotional, some of it clearly thought out and rationally put forward, some of it just plain ignorant, but there were a lot of things said by a lot of people. As I read the online papers today and the days following the Jamaican/Barbadian immigration saga I notice that there is something missing from the news...action. Where were the stories about the petitions, the photos of people picketing, people rallying? No where, there were none. People call for boycotts, no one ever does it, people call for action, no one ever acts. "Action" should be added to George Orwell's list of imaginary or meaningless words in his essay "Politics and the English Language", because this word as used in political rhetoric and when used in speaking about political elements is meaningless, the meaning is not defined but usually left to be contextually defined by the listener, meaning that everyone can get leave with a different interpretation of what was said the person saying it can leave without having to feel inadequate or offensive or whatever they would feel had they taken the time to tell the people what hey meant by "action", this is, of course, following the assumption that the speaker/the summoner to action has an idea of what action they were instigating :s.

In France people are called to action and respond to the calls fairly regularly, ever since they chopped off the heads of the royalty the leaders of that country tend to listen to the population. Here in the Caribbean, and Barbados seems to be most guilty, we are very inactive on a socio-political level. "Irie mon", "shit happens", "same shit different day", all of these phrases seem to be the social and political battle cry of the Caribbean populations. "Inaction over In Action!" our motto, manifested in our lives and daily goings about. Talk talk talk talk talk talk, seems like we just love to hear our beautiful accents in UPPER CASE and hushed tones commenting of the latest injustice and/or ignorant political move by our governments, but could not be bothered to make our words and opinions manifest with tangible actions and visible solidarity. (well for something other than a damn movie everybody watched online anyway)

Get up stand up, stand up for your rights!
Get up stand up, don't forget to fight!

Bob had a nice tune, but we forgetting to get up and stand up, and we sure as hell ain't bout no fighting.

I bout some action, even if it just a picket demonstration. Time for some action...here is to hoping that I do not join the ranks of the "Inaction over In Action!" brigade.