April 8 and 9 2015 will go down in the annals of Jamaican history as the approximately 1313 minutes that the so called “Leader of the Free World”, the incomparable Barack Hussein Obama had the honour of visiting THE Rock. Personally, it was an ambivalent or “multivalent” experience. I sat in awe of the symbolism of the first black US President visiting my little but tallawah homeland whilst simultaneously being slightly annoyed at the dislocation the visit caused as well as contemplating the extent to which as US President some of the policies undertaken under his watch have not been music to the ears of the developing world. Rather than get into the debate on the significance of President Obama, what I will do is highlight the lessons I have learned from the visit and the reactions of us the inhabitants of the rock.
- Jamaica is crying out for inspirational and unifying leadership – from the days of candidate Senator Obama people the world over and Jamaica included have been drawn to the ability of this man to communicate messages of hope and possibility. This visit, and particularly the town hall session, solidified how awe inspiring a speaker Mr. Obama is and how just the aura that he possesses was able to draw persons together of disparate political inclinations and social classes in just a general excitement. It also made it patently clear that in our current political landscape there is not one peer or even a close resemblance of a peer that commands this level of excitement or at least across political and social lines. It is clear that we are dying for a visionary leader that alongside having a vision is able to galvanise wide support for this vision through an ability to properly communicate it to us. Let us just hope that our leaders, current and future were taking notes beyond his formal wear style and the specs of Air Force One and the Beast.
- We as Jamaicans love a smooth talker – this is a related point to the above so I won’t spend as much time on it. The charismatic orator who is able to wax lyrical is like king in our society. Maybe it is our disdain for parochial dialects I don’t know but when a (wo)man is able to fluently and passionately and skillfully communicate sometimes I feel like we could be led down the slippery slope to hades quite willingly. By no means suggesting that Sir Bama had any such intentions but I must confess, when someone has the gift of gab and this is tinged with grasp of subject matter I too sometimes become transfixed.
- Jamaican state agencies actually have the ability to be efficient if the right inspiration hits them – this was a BIG lesson as well. In a country where there are roads that HAVE never been fixed and we are steadily fed a diet of “resource constraints” as soon as THE BEAST ( not the one with long finger nails) needed good road to drive on like magic so was it done. And not only done, but done in quick time. Some have complained why it took abama for these things to be done and lateron I will address this too, the clear positive we can take from this is that “dem bwoy deh cyan tek wi fi fool agen” because we now know what they are capable of and now we should hold them feet to the fire when we and our cars suffer.
- Jamaica is card carrying member of the global TMZ-ation movement – President Obama came here for primarily for the purpose of a bilateral state discussion, a multilateral meeting with Caribbean Heads of Government and a more personal interface with young leaders. Hidden in plain sight were these monumental manouveres in geopolitics and potentially huge agreements and all that kind of thing. But many of us could not help falling into classic “fan girl” and “fan boy” mode. And we can be forgiven for that but when our major media players get caught up in fan mode too its funny as hell. At one point I became an expert on all the features of Air Force One and the now legendary Beast (still not the Jago man). One media house experiencing potential dead air actually re-read verbatim what was essentially an ode to how cool the vehicles are. What was less conspicuous was digging into the meat of the agenda but eventually sanity and balance returned.
- President Obama is probably the coolest guy on Planet earth – whether you are the president of the Obama fan club or you think he is a “wasteman” one thing we cannot deny is that di man jus cool. “Greetings Massive…Wah gwaan Jamaica…Big up UWI…” Mr Pres just delieverd these patois attempts so smoothly. Not just that, of all the things that he could have done essentially his first order of Business was to make a stop at the abode of the King of Reggae – The Bob Marley Museum. I don’t know about you but the man smooth, personable relatable style shatters the mould of what a very very VIP world leader should look like and act like and for that I think no matter your political stance, if it was just a hombre to lyme with, you probably would want to hol a reason with the Bama.
- We as Jamaicans have some really self-loathing and “inferiority complex” tendencies – back to the largescale spring cleaning done to welcome Uncle Barack. Like seriously, this metaphor that “if your family from farrin a come visit yuh nuh clean up too” must be a joke. Let me use it to debumk it. If your yard so chaka chaka dat you almost have to rebuild in order to accommodate a guest den yuh jus nasty and yuh nuh rate yourself. Why are eyesores muck, unpaved and unmarked roads filled with vagrants okay for us daily but as soon as “somebody important” is on their way its time to spruce up. Clearly we don’t rate ourselves.
On this theme of not rating ourselves, last night a very popular Jamaican entertainer, whilst making the primary (but vastly ignored point) that maybe rather than rushing to touch the hem of Mr. Obama’s garment we should be focusing on the injustice of Mr Obama’s country’s still having our beloved Marcus Garvey on record as a common criminal, referred to Mr Obama as a wasteman. This entertainer was soon to find out who a large section of Jamaica sees as their daddy. The onslaught of people who leaped to Mr Obama’s defence was startling to say the least. Not only that the greatest part of the reaction were the prayers that the entertainer LOSES HIS VISA. YES VISA. And the truth finally comes about. We don’t really care about people being rude to local public figures. Clearly dem a nuh nuhbady. So we post derogatory messages about our leaders, we laugh at the most crass internet memes and oh yes Clovis is like a national hero BUT WHATEVER YOU DO DO NOT SAY A ILL WORD ABOUT THE VISA DON. We really don’t like ourselves and we wonder why people belittle us sometimes but the mirror holds hol heap a truth. I pray we look into ourselves and stop hating ourselves,
- Last but definitely not least Jamaicans are the kings of “tek serious ting mek joke” – and I love this about us. From the day it was announced that Mr Obama was going to visit Jamaica social media was awash with the most hilarious tweets, posts and memes to anticipate and commemorate the occasion. From Obama smoking weed, to him having Jamaica coloured socks, not to mention him looking out the window of Air Force One at the lovely Lisa Hanna. The LOLs would not end. Here is a sample of the genius that we are capable of:
https://twitter.com/tami_black/status/585860099912118272
https://twitter.com/Sparky_Channer/status/585573148982149120
https://twitter.com/Moosie928/status/586290059164446723
Barack Hussein Obama, love him hate him he is and will forever be one of the biggest figures in world history and for a day and a half Jamaica had its moment to share with this monumental figure and that is a moment we won’t forget, doubt it will “define a generation” as one too excited journalist suggested but we kid ourselves if we pretend this wasn’t an important moment.
GIVE THANKS
Reasoning with The Cunning One 