Children Of The World: Jamaica

High in the hills of the blue mountains of Jamaica, there is always rain. And in the summer months, the thunder speaks daily. For all of the nine years of his life, Leon Wright has heard it, and so has his uncle for many more. But to them both the thunder is a friend, for it brings the rain, and the rain is coolness and water and life itself. For in the northeast corner of Jamaica, from the Blue Mountains to the sea, the rain for centuries has fed the earth, has created the rivers and streams and tropical forests which have made this island, some say, one of the most beautiful spots on Earth. Yet for many Jamaicans, life is not beautiful. Many people of this lovely island are poor. Most are illucated. Many children do not go to school. A great many people have no jobs. Oh, we do not starve for the land produces much food. Bananas, cassava, potatoes. But these are all starchy foods. There is not enough meat or protein to make a few pennies. Leon sells bananas, but the price is low. Only to the outsider does Jamaica appear a paradise on earth. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Christopher Columbus was the first European to see it. [music] The Spaniards claimed it for the queen of Spain and they named this river the Rio Grande nearly 400 years ago. [music] The original inhabitants, the Arabic Indians, were quickly killed off by the Spaniards. This means that all the peoples of Jamaica today have originally [music] come from somewhere else. Like Leon's brother, Vincent, like Leon himself. In fact, many, many Jamaicans are descended from slaves who were brought from Africa 2 and 300 years ago. These were terrible years. Only the strongest survived. And today, the men and boys of Jamaica are strong, [music] free, and fearless. For us, the ideas of freedom and independence have a very special importance. [music] For these three brothers, Leon, Vincent, and Dennis, life revolves around the Rio Grande. Every week with a bamboo [music] raft, they take bananas from their father's small farm to the banana plant a few miles [music] from Port Antonio on the coast. If the river is high, it can be very dangerous. If it is low, it is just hard work. Picking the right channel is part of the secret. In the dangerous places, the older boys take the lead. It is a good life for any boy. carefree, fun with many lazy days. But Leon knows that this is a boy's way of life. That sooner or later he must become a man. He dreams of being a lawyer or doctor, well educated and respected. And [music] he knows there is only one road to that goal, school. In Jamaica, there are a great many children. More than half the population is under the age of 20 and the numbers are increasing rapidly. >> Good morning children. A pleasant day to you all. >> Many of them do not go to school. In fact, for every child in school, there is another one who does not attend. my sh but I not [singing] want he makes me >> oh it is a terrible problem here increasing numbers of children many with little or no education leave the villages and go to the capital city Kingston only to find they cannot get jobs the unemployment is bad for Leon and Vincent and all these children organizations like UNICEF the United Nations Children's Fund works with the government to improve schooling, health and nutrition. To raise the standards of living, to give health and hope. Education is a start. To get good jobs, you need good government. And for that, you need good citizens who know and care about their government. >> With Minister of Health and Environmental Control. >> Minister of Health and Environmental Control. >> Dr. M. >> Dr. can mark me. >> And so our children study about government, how it operates, and what the important jobs are. >> Who chooses these ministers? >> Who chooses these ministers? >> The prime minister. Who chooses them? >> Parliament. Parliament. And which party must he belongs to? The prime minister. What party must he BELONGS TO? BUT TO REALLY KNOW ABOUT YOUR GOVERNMENT, you must know the history of your country. And the history of Jamaica is one of great struggle and hardship. For centuries, we fought for freedom and independence. For years, some of our people had to live in the forest, hunted like animals. They became known as the maroons. From the Spanish wordon, meaning wild. and hunt you know he's answering that question >> planting corn yams and on wild >> you are right >> the port Antonio area where the right boys live is in a part of Jamaica once controlled by the maroons many of these boys are their descendants originally the maroons were slaves which had been freed by their Spanish owners. When the British conquered Jamaica in 1655, they fled into the forest and later many other runaway slaves joined them. The British never really conquered them, though they did agree to a peace. But even today, in the mountains of the northeast, there are little towns in which everyone claims to be a maroon and proud of it. Such is a history of Jamaica, unusual and colorful. But today, at long last, we are all free and peaceful. [music] [music] The Wright family has a home and 4 acres of land. By Jamaican standards, it is quite nice. The grandmother fixes a traditional meal of vegetables and rice. And today, as a special treat, roast chicken. come talk [music] about real life story about him. >> To many outsiders, Jamaican families are unusual. [music] You must remember that as slaves, the Jamaican people had no privileges, no rights. Women and men worked together all day long in the cane fields and the sugar mills. Cruel, brutal [clears throat] work. Because many died, the plantation owners encouraged them to have many children. But there was little chance or reason to get married. Even today in Jamaica, men and women often get married after they have a family or sometimes children in one family may have different fathers. >> And because the mother always had to work, the grandmother does most of the housework and looks after the children >> in Jamaica. Mr. Wright's family would be considered a little better than average, but certainly not wealthy. >> Meat or chicken? He provides fairly well for his family. >> Though Mr. Wright never finished school, he's highly intelligent and a very good father. >> He's determined that all his children get a good education. >> So, it is an unusual family for more often in Jamaica, a family consists of an unmarried woman with several children and no man around to take care [music] of them. Another important custom in old Jamaica was the grandmother who tells the children's stories. This is the way in which many children first learn of the world around them. Their first and perhaps last schooling. >> A woman always walk from here to Kingston. That time nobody drive, everybody walk. And one night as she leave out, you have a little boy like Patrick. And the little boy said, "Mommy, we following you tonight." So everybody hear about this rubber man under this big palm tree. And she said, "No." And she take a long knife in her basket, put her basket on her head, make a big cutter. And she move out to Kingston. And every curve that she broke, the little boy go back behind her and go on and go on and go until she reached this palm tree. Then she reached to the palm tree. The robber come out of your life or your money. The woman life and say, "Give me your money." And the woman have the knife and she take out the knife. And after the man hold him up, the little boy run down on him. And when he hold, you could have wrestled him. And when he begin to r the little boy run out on him and it stick him one stick on the man drop a gun a little piece of rope you know and it time and he tie him up and he t up and the man said the little boy time up little boy like you know and the mother and time up time up with the rope. The man come and stop the buggy and he has you kill the robber and then throw him in the van and then drive away drive away to the police station and then give the little boy a present. >> Tomorrow it may be a Bible story like many other things. We have adopted Christianity but have made it something of our own. >> And if you believe that he's coming again, PRAISE THE LORD. AND IF WE HAVE A HOME OF THIS RESURRECTION, SAY PRAISE THE LORD. >> AND IF YOUR HEART IS INDICTED IN A GOOD MATTER, SAY PRAISE THE LORD. [music] >> It is only the Europeans, the white man who separates music and prayer and dance and joy [music] and makes them different things. We believe that religion should be spirited and [music] joyous. >> [music] [music] >> And there is an important purpose to this meeting. These people [music] wish to build a new church. Each candle represents a pledge of money or assistance. [music] Yeah. Heat. [music] Yeah. [music] Heat. [music] [music] PRAISE THE LORD. >> PRAISE THE LORD. >> But if the Lord assures us comfort in the next life, we must look elsewhere for sustenance in this one, and we have found it in the bananas. It is our staff of life. >> Mr. Wright earns most of his money by growing and selling bananas. Each week, all through the year, he and his sons will take one or two raft loads to the packing factory down the river. >> Okay. >> It is more complicated than it looks, for the bananas can only be cut on the same day they are to be loaded on the ship. So, when a banana ship arrives in Port Antonio Harour, officials send messages by radio to the banana farmers telling them who is to cut and how much. >> [music] >> The bananas grow year round. Once a plant is cut, it will grow again in a very few months. The plantation must be constantly cared for, protected against weeds and plant diseases. [music] And even four-year-old Dennis lends a helping hand, or at least a pair of short and very unsteady legs. [music] Few [music] [music] [music] people realize, even Jamaicans, that bananas are Not native to Jamaica, [music] they were first grown in Southeast Asia perhaps a thousand years ago. Europeans found them in India and from a plantation in the Canary Islands. The first banana stocks were brought to Hei and then to Jamaica by the Spaniards in the 16th century. The same is true of coconut. They too were first brought to Jamaica by the Spaniards nearly 400 years ago. So too were sugarcane, cotton, rice, oranges, lemons. None of these grew here before the Spaniards introduced them. >> Today, they are our most important crops. >> It is another indication that despite all the struggles and hardships, all the people in Jamaica's history have helped in one way or another. your drink already. >> She just have one. >> Where's Leon? >> Come on. Drink her don't need a jelly. Why? >> When Mr. right attacks a coconut with his machete. He makes it look easy. Um, >> but I can tell you it takes years of practice to do that without losing a finger. >> And Dennis has learned already that when you can't get Coca-Cola, there's nothing like the real thing. And sometimes one must think, if there ever were a garden of Eden in this new world, must it not have been Jamaica? >> Even the word Jamaica goes back to long before the Spaniards. Columbus named the island Santiago, but the people soon forgot that name and called it by its old Indian name, Hamikah. It is thought that in the Arabic language, it means land of springs. Or it might have come from the word hammock, the sleeping bag slung between two posts. That was an Indian invention. And hammock is an Indian word. So you see Jamaica is a mixture of many things, many cultures, many people >> and that mixture is very complete. It is a lifestyle we call Jamaican, relaxed, natural, carefree with much affection and often people sometimes forget much hard work. >> [music] >> In the countryside, we do not have many of the things they have in the big city. Yet, people from all over the world come here and pay us good money just to ride on our rafts for a few miles. They say they're looking for peace and quiet and beauty, and that they find it here. They speak as though we were lucky. They do not know how hard we have struggled [music] and suffered for this peace and our freedom and our country and our chance to enjoy it, to build it. For [music] centuries, we pulled our rafts and remained poor while other countries became rich. Yet today, we are becoming more the partners of these other countries in developing Jamaica. We are no longer simply the workers. We have learned and are still learning the difficult job of economic development. And today, when the boxes marked Jamaican bananas disappear into the holes of ships which will take them all over the world, we feel proud for they are very truly Jamaican. And so we export bananas and sugar and aluminum ore, trading with countries the world over, earning money to buy the things we cannot make ourselves. And every time a shipload of bananas leaves Port Antonio, there is a celebration, a party in Jamaican style, free and [music] easy. >> [music] >> And whenever they get the chance, Leon and Vincent are there for the man sings of things which are close to a Jamaican heart. [music] Girls, good times and humor. I [music] am [music] happy girl. [music] [music] The green [music] Ready. [music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> A few miles from Port Antonio are the ruins of an enormous old mansion. [music] Although most of the great houses in Jamaica were built by the British, this one was built by an American about 1905. For Vincent Wright, it represents [music] many questions and puzzles. Why should a man build something so huge, so grand, only to see it go to ruin in two [music] generations? What is the use of ambition and money and hard work when this is what happens? Imagine the hopes and the dreams that have perished here, [music] leaving only the corroded pillars, the empty rooms. >> [music] >> But it must have been at one time beautiful. Someone's marvelous dream briefly [music] come true. There can be no harm in dreams and visions and imagination [music] if you can make them come true even for a short time. There is no mystery as to why the old house crumbled. Sea water was used in mixing [music] the cement and the salt corroded the reinforcing steel inside the concrete. So now they call the house folly. It is like much of Jamaica's history. Grand dreams, great achievements, small mistakes, things crumbling into ruins. Even Christopher Columbus believed he had really found Asia [music] and believed it till he died. And then the Spaniards who thought they would find gold here but never did. Who introduced bananas and sugar [music] but did nothing with them. And the British who made fortunes in bananas and sugar and by bringing in hundreds of thousands of slaves made revolution and independence inevitable. And though we call it a paradise [music] in Jamaica no people have yet stayed permanently. Even the Arabic Indians had come from South America only to be exterminated by the Spaniards. >> [music] >> But today in modern Jamaica, there is a difference. Through centuries of British rule, the Maroons had kept alive the idea of freedom and independence. Perhaps they were the first to feel a national pride. Not African, Spanish, British, but Jamaican. Jamaica fought for [music] true independence for two centuries, and we finally achieved it in 1962. For us, there is no more popular holiday than August 6, Independence Day. [music] [music] [music] As you might have guessed, in Jamaica, it is not a serious pompous ceremony. [music] It is full of fun and dancing, music and humor. [music] Some of these characters portray the ancient oban or which doctor who holds the power of life and death over members of his village. [music] [music] >> [music] >> And though we are Jamaicans, we do not forget our African heritage. On Independence Day, we stage many traditional tribal ceremonies and dances. [music] [music] >> [music] >> But many Jamaicans are Chinese or from India and Europe. Our national mut is out of many one people. [music] [music] And here is the prince that now we are a nation, an independent country allowed to make [music] our own mistakes and our own great achievements. [music] [music] Now, it is truly our country, and we will turn it into the paradise it promises for all Jamaicans. And we will preserve its peace and beauty to share with the peoples of other countries, [music] for we need their help. [music] There is a long way to go and the way can be dangerous. It is important to have people who know the channel show us the way. [music] For Leon Vincent, for boys and girls like them, UNICEF [music] is helping the Jamaican government in its schools and health programs and in its youth camps. It is [music] important work not just for Jamaica, but for the whole world. For Jamaica still presents a vision for all men of just how beautiful our world can be. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music]