cmcketty
23 posts Location:
Brooklyn
United States |
10.01.2012 19:03We The PeopleThe Bandulu Society
The failure of the pollsters in Jamaica to provide a reasonable prediction of the outcome of the recent election is perhaps a reflection of a pervasive malady that has become so acceptable in the Jamaican culture that it is commonly overlooked despite its detriments. Commonly known as bandulu, it is the practice of boldly passing flawed goods as authentic, a practice that is so ubiquitous, it can be seen at every level of the society and can be expected to continue even as society clamors for integrity, transparency and an end to corruption.
This practice which can be seen even in folklore is no doubt a cultural norm. It is perhaps best exemplified in Bre’r Anancy, who is featured prominently in the current Jamaica pantomime as the 100th birthday of the celebrated folklorist, Ranny Williams is commemorated.
While Anancy stories, folklore and the pantomime are good for a laugh, the practice of bandulu behavior is no laughing matter when it comes to the social sciences, political science, public policy, governance, civic life and even casual conversation. In the recent Buju Banton trial, the lead witness for Buju’s defense, Stephanie Black, a non Jamaican Caucasian woman testified that typical of Jamaicans, Buju was boastful and meant little of what he said in his conversation on the plane with someone who turned out to be an informant; in other words, he was just being the typical bandulu Jamaican. It seems Buju, Stephanie Black and the defense team had on qualms about profiling Jamaicans in this manner in their Bre’r Anancy scheme to subvert Justice.
The Jury was not sold on that bandulu move and apparently, neither was the poll watching voters of Jamaica when it came to the bandulu moves of the pollsters. No less than the defense team, the pollsters knew they were providing misinformation that served no honorable cause but for reasons known to themselves, proceeded to foist their non scientific findings on the people.
Whereas the outcome of the elections was predicated on the aggregate results of 63 constituencies, pollsters went about conducting national polls as though the results would be based on a national popular vote. Elementary level students of statistics know this was not a reliable methodology and so too did these highly trained professionals but in a bandulu society, malpractice has little consequence or seemingly, so it was believed.
As the previous government found out, you can fool some people some time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time; and now you see the light… As Haki Madhabuti cautioned in his book Enemies “It must be remembered that in a large way, we the people are all leaders and must in the final analysis, display those qualities of leadership that we so arrogantly expect of the leaders.” Someone should tell this to those pollsters who failed the Jamaican people.
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