When I lived in Jamaica, we’d go to the beach regularly. My older male cousins were all good swimmers

and on one occasion, I asked one of them to teach me to swim. He led me out to where my feet no longer touched the sand. Then he let go of my hand and yelled as he turned towards shore, that I should swim.

I think of that incident now as I reflect on Jamaica’s 49 years, and take a personal assessment of how it has handled its own navigation as an independent nation.

In August, 1962, Jamaicans were giddy with the prospect of self-government after 300 years of British

rule. (There was a semi-independence period from the mid- to late 1930s under universal adult suffrage. Political parties were formed and the first election took place in 1944. Full independence came later, in 1962.)

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