"EVERY KINGDOM divided against itself becomes a desert and house falls on house." (Luke 11:17)

The integrity of the individual gives rise to the integrity of a people as a whole. Our nation, at present, is in a state of chaos and confusion. There is such enmity within our country that I fear its rapid decline and eventual destruction.

Our leaders themselves are helping to promote enmity by their silent condoning of the violence between the PNP and the JLP supporters. Rather than an open condemnation of the violence there seems to be a quiet applause for it, and this is only leading our nation deeper and deeper into the pit.

Violence is just simply on the increase. There has even been a recent attack on the Gold Street Police Station. A few days ago, while the Brothers and I were at breakfast, there was a lot of shouting outside our house by Kingston Technical High School on Hanover Street. This was followed by a big commotion and people began to set fire to old cars and tyres to block the roads. Within minutes we were surrounded by barricades, and the Brothers could not go down to the ministries to serve our poor until later in the morning. The schools in the area, including St George's College and Kingston College, had to close early and make announcements on the radio notifying parents to pick up their children.

Though there seems to be an attempt to minimise inflammatory rhetoric against each other, there is still an obvious animosity and hatred exists between the two major political parties. As long as this continues, there is not going to be any moderation in the violence, strife, and division in our beloved country. When they stop treating each other like enemies then there will be the beginning of peace.

Of the five homes we run in the ghettos, four are located in a JLP area, while one is in a PNP stronghold, and we hear daily the cursing, swearing, and vitriolic language that passes between them. Let us not make the lust for power, wealth, and prestige damage our nation's welfare and peace. Our leaders need to understand that the more they incite such violence and hatred, the greater the destruction of their own reputations; finally, the reputation of our little island will be destroyed at the international level.

True Christianity has no rivalry and division within it and so too, any political party centred on Christ will be free of rivalry and division, but will promote peace and a greater love for neighbour as well as for the nation at large.

The divisions, however, are not limited to politics alone. There is a great and growing division between the rich and the poor. These class barriers of 'uptown' and 'downtown' take away the integrity of our
country.

One of the greatest divisions is the one between word and deed. There are promises that have been unfulfilled. We want to see the promises our leaders make fulfilled. We do not want liars for our leaders; we want men of truth who follow the example of Christ the Lord, the model of all truth.

Another major cause of division in our nation is the lack of vision on the part of our politicians. We are a Third World, black nation and cannot have the values and lifestyle of the First World, American society. There is a great effort to Americanise our little beloved Jamaican nation. We need to know who we are, and we should settle down with our own economic and material culture. There cannot be, and should not be any pretence that we are better than we are.

Thus, in trying to inculcate the American way, we have become an overtaxed nation. Who are the ones to suffer? The poorer classes suffer while the rich prosper. We are a beautiful country with beautiful people. But we must stop acting as though we are a First World nation.

I beseech and urge all politicians to work towards building up our country rather than breaking it down. Promote love, learning, respect for each other, and above all, instil the life and values of Christ as our Chief Shepherd.

Fr. Richard Ho Lung is Founder and Superior General of the Missionaries of the Poor.