IDIOCRACY...a Jamaican experience

how populations are dumbed down to idiocy by their governments

Countries tend to go through a period of Idiocracy. When
a segment of the population reaches a stage of sophistication
to challenge the Rulers, a process of Dumbing Down ensues.

This dumbing down may be in a specific area, i.e. schools
drop subjects from the curriculum, or add useless subjects,
or certain 'beliefs' obliterate facts, logic, learning.

Certain knowledge might be outlawed or the population
encouraged in negative pursuits.

For example, the 'Dark Ages' in Europe at the fall of the
Roman empire, or the current Shari'a Law promulgated
in Muslim nations. The lauding of 'gangsta rap' and the
life style it entails or the murder of intellectuals by Pol Pot.

In short, a wholesale dumbing down of the majority to
maintain the minority in power.

Jamaica is an island in the Caribbean. It was invaded by
the Spanish in 1494, the native population murdered.

The Spanish had little use for Jamaica, and though they
created towns and plantations and imported African slaves,
they virtually abandoned it in the mid 1600s when it was
captured by the British.

As in other territories, there was a population of Africans
who had escaped slavery and created their own villages in
the mountains. In Jamaica, the British signed a truce with
these 'Maroons' (as they were called).

The British colonists kept mainly on the coast, developed
their own society. When slavery was abolished in 1834,
the majority of Africans left the plantations requiring the
importation of Asian indentured workers.

People from India, Pakistan, Java, China, etc. came to
Jamaica as indentured labourers, bringing their culture,
and gaining their freedom after seven years.

These people remained in Jamaica where there was a
great deal of cultural blending, inter-marriage, and by
1930, with the rise of local political leaders, the course
was set for Independence.

English was the official language. Not being able to speak
proper English caused a 'branding on the tongue'. Class
position was not based solely on skin colour.

By the 1950s there was a large population of highly educated
Jamaicans who had studied in Britain and returned home as
barristers/solicitors, doctors, economists, etc.

By 1962 when Independence was gained, there were enough
educated Jamaicans to fill positions vacated by the British,
and considering the economy, the culture, Jamaica seemed
to be moving towards first world status.

In the late 70s, demagogues, to gain power, began to
encourage a 'rootsy' approach; that is to accept patois;
a mix of mispronounced English words, Akan, and
local terms which change parish by parish, village by
village, as a 'language', while moving away from
British Standard Education.

By the 90s Jamaicans had their own local exams, which
besides being substandard are not accepted outside of
the region which falls under the 'Caribbean Examination'
Counsel; CXC.

The University, which originally had second markers of exams
from Cambridge to maintain a parity, dispensed with them,
so that everything was 'local'.

The currency, which had been British pound, was replaced
by the Jamaican dollar, which, for a few years maintained
its equality, and then began to slide.

In 1972 One Jamaican dollar was equal to One British pound,
and cost $2.80 U.S. to purchase. By 1978 two Jamaican dollars
purchased $1.00 U.S. By 2009 it takes more than 90Ja to buy
$1.00 US.

This slippage in the value of money, in educational standards,
coupled with the lack of nutrition has ensured that those born
in 1980 are intellectually inferior to their parents.

The entire fabric of Jamaican life has declined to the extent
that a Jamaican who went abroad in 1970 will be as much a
foreigner on return as visitor from Japan.

Where in other parts of the world one can see progress, in
Jamaica, it is regress.

It is not accidental, it is not random. It is separate skeins
woven together to create the cloth of Idiocracy.