Thinking in scarce supply in Jamaica

Christopher Thomas, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Reverend Karl Johnson, general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, has called on Jamaicans to do more independent critical and moral thinking on all issues in order to progress as a nation.

In his keynote address at Sam Sharpe Teachers' College's 37th annual invocation and thanksgiving service at the Burchell Baptist Church in Montego Bay last Sunday (September 23), Johnson said the capacity to think is in short supply in Jamaica.

"Preserving our heritage and embracing the future - to do so requires something that is in short supply in this country today. Thinking is in scarce supply in this country," he stated.

"When we do not think for ourselves, others think for us, and we become vulnerable and susceptible. When others think for us, they give us misinformation and take big people for fools. Being lettered does not mean you are a thinking person; being certified doesn't mean you have sense."

Week of activities

The invocation was held under the theme 'Preserving Our Heritage, Embracing the Future' to launch the college's annual week of commemorative activities following its founding in 1975. The school was named after local national hero Samuel Sharpe, a slave and Baptist deacon who was instrumental in the Christmas Rebellion of 1831.

"We must not be afraid to be analytical in our thinking, and we must not be afraid to ask the tough questions. We must be open because a thinking person is an open and willing person," Johnson said.

"Every thinking person is willing and open to learn something new. No matter who we are, we can learn from and about each other."

The clergyman also declared that Jamaicans have a responsibility to think on a moral level, taking a swipe at western Jamaica's notorious lottery scam as he made the remark.

"Education without morals equals scamming. It is at the heart of not only what is happening in Montego Bay, but the world," he concluded. "We are learning the hard way that what is 'all right' may not be right, and what is 'popular' may not be proper. We must agree on what is right and wrong. We must think morally."