Could there ever be an empirical way of measuring how much any given society values life? If one were to use a crude measure of media attention, in particular, to births and deaths, it would seem that white babies who are third in line as heir to the British throne are most valuable. Young men in Jamaica who prefer to wear what are traditionally regarded as women’s clothes are of almost no value. 

Clearly, however, there is no way to measure how much a society values a life relative to various social characteristics, but that would make a fascinating Phd thesis, I suspect. In the meantime, we are left with a striking and devastating situation in Jamaica. While much of the world celebrates the birth of William and Kate’s son, parents or friends and other relatives in St. James are mourning the horrific death of their son, brother, friend.

His or her name was Dwayne Jones. We know that he was dancing at a party the other night. He was wearing women’s clothes and it was reported by media that people at the party assumed he was a woman. He was dancing with another man, when another woman recognized him and revealed his identity. His dancing partner then chose to feel around in his genital area, only to discover the person was actually a man. (Fellow blogger Annie Paul also wrote about this story and so did Damien Williams:

In Jamaica, a 17 year old was chased by a baying mob of __________ (creatures masquerading as humans); stabbed and chopped multiple times. His lifeless body dumped in nearby bushes and those who robbed him of his life went back to their party as if nothing had happened. In the wake of finding his corpes, there has been little outrage on social media (just the usual and activists and a few others who acted as pseudo reporters, like OGNR). I can hear the crickets. The silence reverberates! There is no national call for a march or for intercessors to pray for a healthy society. No call for justice. Why? You guessed right. The dead boy belongs to a species too low to be worthy of compassion, justice or a march. He is a Homo-LGBTQ!! Yes, those are a lot lesser than Homo-Sapiens.The Jamaica Gleaner mentioned the murder but they did not mention that this was a possible hate crime, motivated by the teens perceived sexual orientation and gender non-conformity. In fact, the Gleaner deliberately tried to distance this murder from the youth’s sexual orientation. A first. Sexual orientation is often important when we are writing about (homeless) squatters in affluent communities; or loud brazen revilers who have no regard for respectability politics; or when we want to discuss pedophilia; or when they are wreaking havoc in New Kingston.

Oh, no call for justice!!! This teen caused his own murder (like Trayvon did, I guess). He provoked a crowd who were charged with the moral obligation to protect Jamaica’s values and morals and spiritual legacy to murder him. This is the will of God. This is just recompense for his sinful life. So, we stay silent and we hope it will go away – that his blood will be silenced because it is complicit in an abominable “lifestyle”. And Jamaica’s god and all his minions remain silent!!! 

As you were! Let the crickets continue to “chirp”. Back to your silence. Continue giving violence a pass – as long as it is against a Homo-LGBTQ, right?)

A violent confrontation ensued in which the young man was “chopped” to death (media’s word, not mine). His body was disposed of in the bushes. Apparently, there were numerous stab wounds and gunshot wounds. Imagine how much fury and anger this mob had to have discharged. Imagine then the battered body lying in the bushes. Imagine then that one life is now over unnecessarily. For more on the story, click here.

The media has not, to date, done much investigation of the story. It has not made many headlines. In fact, the birth of the Royal Baby was front page on both major newspapers yesterday. To say that this is an injustice is an understatement. 

So I go back to my original question: How do you judge how much a society values life? In this case, it seems that a young man who chooses a lifestyle that many Jamaicans fear or are offended by, not much, at least if we judge by the attention this horrific crime has been awarded. 

UPDATE: Here is a Jamaica Gleaner story from today’s paper.