Of Charisma, Ginalship, and Despotism

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Percival James Patterson (PJ), Orette Bruce Golding.

Aristide is the charismatic one; PJ is the ginnal; and Bruce is the aspiring despot.

Aristide burst onto the scene as the fiery man of the cloth spewing vitriol at the bourgeoisie, questioning the status quo and presumably speaking for others of his hue that lacked the platform and protection his education and social standing (as a clergyman) allowed. He was the messianic political figure the black peasantry was waiting for when all other brown faces before him were brutal, self-serving, misanthropes.

PJ was the cunning attorney, stealthily weaving his slight ebony frame through the beige and caramel faces of the cartel of politics in Jamaica in the 70s and 80s. He positioned himself as Joshua's disciple, learning the nuances of control over the lumpen proletariat that would see him convincing them that he was one of them, working in their interests, despite not having the charisma of his predecessor.

Bruce was the prodigious child of the plantocracy. The special son whose intellect would determine his destiny. He always held himself in very high esteem and believed he was a cut above the rest because of the gift between his ears: his mind. His ego is the real star for it concocts the fiction his mind believes is real and reassures his mind that the drivel it ejects while feigning sincerity is divine poetry the masses will appreciate as part of his legacy to democracy. He is a despot trapped by a passive, polite society. He is desperately searching for the impetus under which he can reveal his true dictatorial nature, disguised as patriotism.

Three political leaders. Three points along an arc of corruption. A spectrum of immorality.