At this moment in Jamaica's history, all Jamaicans, at home and abroad in the diaspora, must face the front page as the media report of stand-offs with criminal elements and turmoil among the country's political leadership.

At the root of this tragic saga is the U.S. extradition request for an alleged drug lord. As a person of Jamaican descent, it is disheartening to share or acknowledge that this type of tarnished laundry is clearly on the clothes line for public scrutiny.

Notwithstanding, it is an important first step for many Jamaicans to assess how they may begin addressing the reverberating effects of this seedy relationship. More broadly, even though Jamaica is one of the countries currently taking the heat, the issue of the impact and influence of criminal networks is a hemispheric one.

Recently, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder furthered the Obama administration's interest in dealing with hemispheric security at a meeting with national-security ministers and agencies in Washington D.C. Many nations in the hemisphere are grappling with breaking the influence of the criminal underworld, especially in urban cores. It is a war of good over evil. It is also a war of protecting the meek from the ill effects of poverty.

The continued failure of our political and business leadership to address issues of poverty will maintain the status quo for citizens in the hemisphere to fall vulnerable to the criminal elements in their communities. The weak and voiceless will be forced to choose between basic survival and immoral authority. It is an unfair choice and reflects the involuntary transfer of power to criminals. This culture of dependency oppresses marginalized citizens. Unfortunately, the majority of these citizens throughout in the hemisphere tend to be black or indigenous more often than not. Before hemispheric leaders, including the Obama administration, can execute any successful security alliance initiatives, they must also face the vestiges and spoils of colonial history in improving economic conditions.

Although history plays a role in the inheritance of our current dilemma, Jamaicans and other hemispheric citizens must take responsibility for changing their culture.

In particular, Jamaicans have tacitly permitted their governments to nurture a perception of being compromised with community leaders who abuse their power for self-interest and with impunity. This will continue to happen when our civil society is disenfranchised. In other words, they will need our help to regain the power of their voice.

It is obvious that there are forces in our hemisphere that benefit from powerless and needy populations. It is also obvious that there are powerful business and political leaders who benefit from the status quo within these same populaces.

We cannot pursue an interconnected world where there is no peace and prosperity for all, or at least the opportunity to pursue them. The hemisphere's stakeholders of political, business, faith and grassroots leadership must exert a firm stand against criminal organizations. Those with power, political or economic, will be judged on their silence, or better yet, their willingness to change the hemisphere and world for the better.

**Marlon A. Hill is a Miami attorney and the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board member for the southern United States.