Mark Wignall | Some are mad but don’t know it

I have never been to a psychiatrist in my life but, once, way back when my wife ditched me, I wanted to head east, knock on that big gate, and volunteer my mental insides to the skilled professionals occupying the premises. The thing which did it – seeing her in every dream, every joy, every nightmare.

When we came back together after that torture of a five-yearsseparation, I told her about it and she said, “... serve yu right.”

A post of mine on TikTok years ago was removed and TikTok gave me a warning of ultimate cancellation. I had dared to suggest that the essence of a post directed to me made someone badly in need of professional assistance. At the same time, the social media had a regular set of Jamaicans earning high followers by threatening to chop up each other with machetes.

A friend of mine told me, “You don’t know di road code. Throw in some Jamaican words and phrases. Tik Tok don’t want to spend the time checking out the minutiae of country-specific creole.” According to her, “Don’t make a trap just so you can fall in it.”

Via Vernon Derby’s Bark Di Trute blog, I was directed to a social media post of someone cussing the prime minister. The young male voice dived into his deepest reach for human depravity as he was somehow using Montego Bay Melissa damage to tear into the PM and dump on him. The voice was indicative of a young man who, for his own sake, needed to volunteer to go and knock on that big gate and say, “... please, please, take me in and fix me. Please.”

I say all of that while recognising politicians are the easiest targets for excessively nasty criticisms. It is known that it would be, logistically, most difficult for politicians, especially those in the top tiers of leadership in Jamaica, to chase down those most strident and depraved critics. I will admit that many of them appear to be using the politicians as security blankets.

In other words, awake at dawn, skip brushing teeth, reach for social media and release all the pent up anger clogging up your insides on a politician. Still, the fact is, politicians must eventually develop tougher hides in dealing with making human obscenity on social media roll off their backs and be forgettable.

Which leads me to Marlene Mahaloo Forte, former minister of legal and constitutional affairs. The lady is in the spotlight again. This time around, she wants to criminalise libel. The more intellectually adept politicians, as we are sure the lady has to be, must know all about the perfect ‘clash’ of policy formation and timing.

With the devastation caused by Melissa, is Ms Mahaloo Forte sure that she wants to tackle criminal libel at this particular time? Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and make the polite assumption that she is not fronting for someone else.

Throughout the rest of time on the JLP’s political clock and its electoral high noon, in the wake of Melissa, the PM will have to deal with the hurling of dangerous slings and poisonous arrows at him. That will be par for the course, as I stated in previous columns.

Seems likely that the lady is on another mission to take the heat from the PM when the PM himself knows that he must resist all temptations to develop a thin skin. Granted, those of us who have seen much in the past know what hurts and what heals. PM Holness knows that the blogs and the zillions of social media posts will join the long line of cussing first and listening later. That, unfortunately, is a lot of what encapsulates the Jamaican ID.

Honestly, Ms Mahaloo Forte, with the massive amount of work required for Melissa recovery, any discussion about changing the libel laws is out of place. Additionally, any law developed during this time of anger runs the risk of being tainted by that very anger.

Now, everyone should be focused on Melissa recovery. The huffing and puffing backstage is not needed.

DESIGNED TO DRIVE US CRAZY

We Jamaicans may believe that we are safe from the impulsive predations of President Trump but, in truth, we must pay close attention to the very worst of these impulses, just in case the US President wakes up on the wrong side tomorrow.

He has been alleging that the Venezuelan president, Mr Maduro, is a drug trafficker and that Maduro is a “bad guy”. Trump alleges that drugs coming into the US because of Maduro’s actions are killing many Americans.

He is convinced that Maduro is a “bad guy” and that fits into his most convenient political calculus, true or not. Maduro stole the recent election; he persecutes his opponents, he is corrupt and he has ruined Venezuela’s economy. One would hope that Trump would best do that sabre rattling with an A1 economy under his belt.

Even so, the argument about putting pressure on Maduro makes sense. But then, Trump pardons Juan Orlando Hernandez , the former president of Honduras, who was convicted in the US for drug trafficking. At Hernandez’ trial, there was damning evidence including audio recordings of Hernandez boasting about the amount of cocaine he helped to get into the US for the “gringos” to push up their noses.

Hmmm, maybe Dudus should still be here singing a hymn in church today.

You pardon one drug dealer, but you want to remove another one from power. Trump has proven that he will pardon himself just because he is having a bad-hair day. This is a horrible place for a US president to be. In fact, by pardoning Hernandez, Trump obliterated his arguments about Maduro.

But then again, this could only have come from a man who has declared that he is a stable genius. Let’s hope it doesn’t go viral and drift towards the western Caribbean.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com