What has been happening over there in the UK is ridiculous. Police shot a man last week Thursday and what started out as a peaceful yet tension-inducing march escalated into wide-scale looting, murder and mayhem.

Most likely, there were underlying social issues festering for a while that were sparked by the police shooting, but from there a lot of what happened had nothing at all to do with the shooting of the young man by the police. The rioting spread from London to Birmingham to as far as Liverpool way up north.

The whole thing disturbed me, especially when I heard reports from relatives and friends in the United Kingdom that some of the looters were not necessarily Jamaicans but were wearing headwraps that were similar in colour and design to the Jamaican flag. Now, I would bet good money that some Jamaicans or people with Jamaican connection are involved in the illegal activities. It seems as if whenever something bad is going down, some of us feel like we need to be part of that history.

And you know what, if that is what floats their boat that's fine by me because, apparently, some people like the idea of having the 'stable home life' that prison provides - free meals daily, clothes on their backs and a place to sleep. My problem is if they are going to break the law then they should do it on their own accord and not sully the country's name as well.

You know why some thugs wear Jamaican colours when they are doing their evil deeds abroad? It's because we have grown to have a reputation as lawbreakers and evildoers. So no matter where they come from, as long as they look like us; that is, dark-skinned, all they need to do is throw on some Jamaican colours and they're instantly branded Jamaicans. I've seen it happen in the United States, where Caribbean nationals get caught breaking the law and because they have no identification they tell the authorities they are from Jamaica.

poor social services

But of even greater concern for me is that the same social issues that may have triggered the situation that deteriorated into the madness the UK now faces are attendant right here in Jamaica - no jobs, poor social services, few opportunities for anything, widening gap between the rich and the poor. We have the added burden of weak leadership at the political level. Now when we end up sitting on a powder keg like that every day in this country, one day soon we are going to wake up to the reality that someone has just struck a match and the whole thing is ready to blow.

I say all that to make the point that our leaders better take heed. They can ignore all the signs that are there and pretend that everything is all nice and rosy, but when you listen to the frustrations being voiced by hard-working Jamaicans every day you have to accept that it is just a matter of time - one more police killing, one more exorbitant price hike, one more suspect JPS bill, one more protest over anything - before the match that sets that powder keg alight gets lit.

What happens next will make Tivoli in May 2010 look like a picnic on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

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