WE ARE a nation forged, as our national anthem declares, from the love of liberty. But all around us that liberty is under threat.

This Independence Day, as we commemorate the diamond anniversary of six decades since being freed of the yoke of British colonial rule, we do so in a world vastly different from anything the architects of our autonomy could have imagined.

The sun rises today on a nation only just returning to life after the paralysis wrought by a global pandemic. Though concerts, plays, exhibitions and sporting events have resumed with gusto - including $7.5 million in commemorative events organised by the State - for every person now exhaling, there is someone out there still catching their breath.

But fetes are not the only thing that have resumed.

Crime has spiralled, to the extent that the Prime Minister on Monday described it as a 'huge' challenge. For Dr Rowley, the problem relates to the US and its role in supplying arms and ammunition to our shores.

Yet we are the captains of our own destiny. It is through our ports of entry and across our borders that these weapons come. While transnational crime is a challenge requiring international co-operation, the failure of local controls on domestic soil are manifest every time an illegal gun goes off.

If crime has made our streets impassable, climate change has made us all daily prisoners of unknown fates. Precipitation events of unusual intensity, not just hurricanes and major storms, now regularly batter our infrastructure.

The devastation is not just limited to widespread flooding or landslides.

All manner of infectious diseases tied to temperature increases are emerging or re-emerging. Monkeypox, Valley fever - spread by breathing in air infected with spores - are among the latest to grab headlines. And who knows which coronavirus is next?

In a world so changed, what does it mean to say we are free?

What does it mean to assert independence when our officials routinely court Caracas, London, or Washington in pursuit of national interests? When the fate of our economy is contingent on international investment and international arrivals? When most items in the average food basket are from abroad?

When leaders make it a habit of going away for medical treatment? When children needing surgery must to do the same, if their families can find the funds? When we rely on the charity of strangers for the prophylactics needed to keep us alive?

And yet all is not lost.

We remain a country of great resilience, steeped in rich culture and endless creativity, surrounded by abundant beauty. Despite the caustic nature of our politics, we have a strong democratic tradition.

It takes great pressure to form diamonds. Perhaps independence was merely the start of a heated process of self-discovery that remains ongoing.