"He bared his chest and declared…If you are going to shoot, shoot me, but leave these defenceless, hungry people alone." ….Alexander Bustamante
I once saw a play in the early 80s at the little theater where the above was said by one of the actors and another actor shouted in response…..”A should a now!!” …to the laughter of the audience…
His implication was that today's police would have obliged Alexander Bustamante and open fire killing him and everyone dead. I however think that if it was now there would be no one to play the role of Bustamante because that is not how our current so called leaders roll, we would simply be on our own.
Market Woman early 1900
For me the best part of Jamaican history is the period from 1900 to 1962, I call this period the age of Nation Building Stage 2, the fight against hard life and suffering experienced at the hands of British Colonialism. A time when the working class, Educated Class, middle and upper middle class came together and took a stand, back then they had Back Bones made of steel, an intellectual mind coupled with a gritty personality, they were not afraid to risk liberty, life and limb while standing up for their Principles and defend their country and people.
This is not a period in Jamaica’s History to forget or dismiss since full knowledge of what happened and all the players involved is required to create a strong foundation for future Nation Builders, what they did, how they did it and why should be taught in every school across Jamaica, their names should flow of the tongues of old and young alike. These nation builders were strong, charismatic and educated, their ability to organize the masses and articulate their hopes, dreams and desires for the future even in the face of British Colonial might, is why they were so successful. These men and women could engage the British on so many levels, including an intellectual level and if that failed then they had the power to shut down the entire country with just one word, they could mobilize the population of Jamaica, having them take to the streets at a moment’s noticed, even when the colonial forces tried to stop them with a barrage of bullets. Yes they were scared and concern for themselves and their love ones but they considered what they were fighting for to be more important than life itself and their love ones were right beside them in the struggle.
Frank Hill, Ken Hill, Richard Hart, Arthur Henry
They were fighting for Liberty, Equality and Social-Justice, for the rights of man, the freedom of man and the Independence and birth of a Nation. They were not perfect, far from it but they were more of a man and woman than any man or woman claiming to be our leaders today. They were supposed to live for an eternity through us, we should have been an embodiment of their spirit and humanity but we failed them, we could not carry their achievements, their strength, their discipline and determination on our feeble, worthless, brittle poor excuse for a backbone.
Wherever they are now I am sure they must be saying to themselves what a waste of my time and life, what a complete waste of my efforts, to sacrifice so much only to see that my sacrifice was in vain. Look at them running around without any sense of collective purpose, consumed by their own self-importance, consumed by greed and selfishness, look at how they turn their backs on everything we fought so hard to achieve. Then I can imagine Sam Sharpe and Paul Bogle turning to the others saying “might as well we kept our mouth shut, cut the masters cane and say yes sir may I have another when the whip cut across our backs, instead of having that rope around our broken necks, suspending our lifeless bodies and George William Gordon agreeing”. Because they had so much hope for us but look how we let them down.
I know when we think of the period from 1900 to 1962 only Manley and Bustamante comes to mind but there were so much more players involved and without these brave men and women, both Manley and Bustamante although being great men just would not have succeeded. It is a waste of time to compare our so called leaders today to these brave men and women, as it would be an insult to their memory. The fact is our current stock of educated and political class are nothing more than shallow over privilege selfish little pricks, consumed by their own self-importance and I have no respect for them, they are not men or women of substance and value, they are profiling little fluffs who exist in a fluff bubble and trying very hard to keep their bubble intact at the expense of their people and the future of their country. Their flawed concept of class is measured by money, too stupid to realize that all the stolen money in the world cannot buy an ounce of class, it does not matter how big your house is or how massive a car you drive, you are and will always be just a shallow prick living in a big house and a prick driving a big car, who enjoys the poverty around them simply because that is the only way for them to stand out and feel special, the look at me syndrome.
Colonial Britain Propaganda Newsreel : “Just a hundreds years ago Great Britain abolish Slavery, today the Jamaican Negro is a happy and law abiding citizen, loyal to his Government of which he is very proud. The reality for Jamaicans was very different from that portrait by newsreel at the time, unemployment was very high and wages very low.”
For the most part we as a people were engineered to collectively belittle ourselves, our achievements, our history and we belittle our past leaders because to understand these great men and women would belittle our lives and make us realize that in the scheme of things we are nothing. History will collectively define us as cowards, selfish, greedy, tribal and inhumane and history will not remember our names because it is not worth remembering. History will remember our post independence political class as corrupt, murdering, selfish little twats who purposely created hardship and suffering for their people, who armed Jamaicans and send them out to murder other Jamaicans and who stole from every Jamaican to satisfy their own greed.
Norman Washington Manley
I said before that some of our past leaders, even though they were visionaries and great men were not perfect, no one is, however long before we had political party violence in Jamaica, there was Trade Union violence which was like a drug gang turf war. The Unions set the stage for the political violence that was to come and what we experienced over the decades, the BITU gave birth to the JLP and from the NWU came the PNP but instead of Nation Building these Political Parties now practice Nation Destruction.
When we were fighting the British our mission was clear cut and well defined, it was US against THEM, after the British left, we did not know what to do, we searched high and low for someone else to fight but found only Jamaicans, so unable to find any other group to demonized, we quickly turned on ourselves. Jamaicans from all walk of life rallied around the Political Parties and shouted “old dutty Labourite”... and …”old dutty Socialist” at each other. We made up retarded party slogans…”Stand Firm!”…and…”Deliverance!” and shouted them at each other, we created Political Party Gang colours and signs and flashed them at each other, some "Raised the Fist", others raised "The Victory Sign” and after we had fully demonized each other in every which way we could, filling our hearts with pure hate and contempt for our fellow man, we then proceeded to set upon our Jamaican brothers and sisters with great vengeance. We murdered Jamaican Men, Women and children with ease simply because they belong to the other party, all in the name of politics and our political overlords, ......such is our Legacy!
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Independence and Freedom means absolutely nothing without a strong sense Responsibility and Discipline.
Equality, Social-Justice, Self-Reliance and Discipline are wonderful principles to live by and we should try to instil these principles back into our society.
Political Tribalism will be the death of us, as we are way too small and too poor to survive this crab in a barrel mentality.
Jamaica is a country with so much potentials, we could achieve so much as a people if we apply our selves but we do not think or operate as a collective.
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St. William Grant
Alexander Bustamante
Sir Florizel Glasspole
The Right to Vote
Workers Rights!!
Colonial Times
Life in Jamaica under British Rule as a Crown Colony can be defined as a place filled with poverty and inequality, many Jamaicans at the time was still working on the estates for below living wages.
A friend of mine recently sold his house packed up his family and furniture bought a new house in a different country and moved to that country/house, now he did not move because he hated his neighbors he did it because he wants a bigger house, new life and better opportunities. He loved his old neighbors and will miss them dearly but sometimes “A man's got to do what a man's got to do, what he thinks his right”.
I am beginning to get the impression that some people believe that some Jamaicans desire to become a republic is being done out of hate or spite for Britain or the Royal Family. Some in the media and various individuals seem more concern with creating controversy where none exist. The desire to become a republic has nothing to do with disliking the Monarch, The Queen or The United Kingdom but sometimes “A Jamaican's got to do what a Jamaican's got to do”, Jamaicans have a right to decide their own destiny.
Jamaicans on a whole do have a love affair with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the Royal Family, both will always hold a special place in our hearts. The Commonwealth represents a special community, a family with a unique shared history and the United Kingdom of Great Britain is a central part of that history and a major part of the Jamaica’s History, Britain is partly responsible for who we are as a people, our failures and our success, the British culture runs deep, its influence can be seen in every aspect of Jamaican life and will always be a part of who we are.
The Results of one Poll, an island wide survey among 1,008 people: 60 per cent of Jamaicans held the view the country would be better off under British rule. 44 per cent of the people surveyed said the current Westminster system should be retained 35 per cent said it should be replaced with a republican system. 21 per cent answered 'don't know' to the question.
*Updated Poll: March 12 2012, CVM/Don Anderson polls for 2012, which sampled 1,000
JAMAICANS are nearly evenly split on the issue of whether or not to cut ties with the British monarchy, with 44 per cent for and 40 per cent against.
Over the past couple decades it has become clearer and clearer that this love affair with Great Britain was in fact a one sided love affair as successive British Governments(especially "Nu Labour", they had a special dislike for Jamaica and the commonwealth) tried their very best to distance Britain from Jamaica. Our relationship became purely symbolic and added nothing to the lives of Jamaican and British people. We were locked in a loveless marriage and have been for some time. Over the past couple of decades Jamaicans have become increasingly disillusioned with the commonwealth of which we had such great expectations of growing and evolving together into something more meaningful.
The Commonwealth of Nations represents one of Great Britain’s biggest failures since losing its empire, the failure to evolve from Slavery, Colonialism, from Commonwealth into something more meaningful and beneficial, it exists with no sense of direction, no purpose and made up of so many failed and failing states that exist in limbo, it demands nothing, builds nothing, adds nothing and reminds me of a dying star that never really achieved its true potentials but soon will cease to exist. To say I am disappointed would be an understatement, we are 54 countries strong, 15 of which make up the Commonwealth Realm, a third of the world’s population, a mixture of Developed and Developing countries and yet we are not a part of a dynamic economic bloc and add nothing to the lives of the members.
There are 15 Commonwealth Realms in addition to the UK: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Papua New Guinea, St Christopher and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuvalu, Barbados, Grenada, Solomon Islands, St Lucia and The Bahamas.
These are the countries Britain cared to keep this is the extent of the British Empire with a Combine Population of about 226,560:
Overseas territories of the UK:
Anguilla - 14,766
Bermuda -68,265
British Virgin Islands- 24,939
Cayman Islands - 50,209
Falkland Islands (Malvinas) - 3,140
Montserrat - 5,118
St. Helena - 7,670
Turks and Caicos Islands - 23,528
Gibraltar - 28,877
Pitcairn – 48
The Rise and fall of The British Empire
While the Jamaican education system was teaching us, beating into us and promoting “Britishness” and our shared history, the British education system omitted the importance of the colonies like Jamaica to the development of Britain, that without countries like Jamaica, Great Britain we know today might never have existed and would never have been so rich, so powerful. That Britain’s development was done at the expense of the colonies, that there was never any mutual development plan, except for the members of the white commonwealth. They the British were educated in terms of the White man’s burden they took on the Job of colonial masters to save the savages from themselves. The average British person on the street is totally ignorant when it comes to British History with regards to the former colonies, most do not know that Jamaica's Head of State is the Queen and also Head of State for the other members of the Realm, or even what it means and under such condition, such ignorance, how then do they expect this Commonwealth Realm or Commonwealth to survive, to evolve. I suspect they do not want it to survive much less evolve.
The few British Citizens who seem upset about Jamaica’s decision to become a (or pay lip service to become a) republic are only upset because they feel embarrassed for the Monarch, upset that the queen will lose one of her symbolic Head of State status as the Commonwealth Realms gets smaller and smaller. The Royalist in the UK wants Jamaica to retain the Queen as Head of State keeping the symbolic Commonwealth Realm together but really wants nothing more to do with countries like Jamaica or its people. There is no special love for Jamaica or Jamaicans, it is not about us, it is only about preserving the status of The Queen and Britain to the world. This relationship makes us feel like a girl whose male friend only uses her for sex then discards her until nature calls again, when the Queen needs to do one of her symbolic world tours with signature Royal wave.
These loyalists are the same people who complain, day in day out that there are too many foreigners living in Britain, that their cities are infested with non-white people and that Britain is for the British and should close its borders. These are the people who lobbied their Government and bombard the media to restrict Jamaicans from entering Britain. It seems we are not good enough to come to England but we should have the English Queen as our Head of State and if we dare use the word Republic then they are the first to say we should be charged with Treason.
An excerpt from the "madmonarchist" blog website states: “Would they prefer Jamaica to be more like the impoverished republic of Haiti or perhaps the Communist dictatorship of Cuba? With the Crown and the Jamaican monarchy the island has had security, independence, freedom and a proven system of government to respond to the needs of society”. The blog went on to say "Former PM Bruce Golding had made the same sort of treasonous statement"
Here the white man’s burden is alive and well, over stating British involvement in Jamaica as a reason for our security, independence, freedom and a proven system of government” where was Britain during the Invasion of Grenada and why are they not doing more in Zimbabwe and countless others, as a matter of fact the only time Britain defended its interest was during the Falklands War or when America commands it to. These loyalist have gone so far as to say that if Jamaica becomes a republic then the UK should cut of all aid to Jamaica.
The Commonwealth
I do believe that it is not the commonwealth who is abandoning the Monarchy but Britain who is abandoning Commonwealth and Realm and have been for sometime now. As far as most Brits are concern the Commonwealth includes Canada, Australia and New Zealand since that is the only part of the commonwealth they can and want to relate to.
Apparently 50 years ago Jamaicans were all Educated and Prosperous! I am sick and tired of the British Media (especially the BBC) stating that 50 years ago Jamaica was prosperous without providing the necessary economic and social indicators/data/facts to support that statement and not just the cherry picked data but the entire truth, provide me with a detail explanation of the Standard of living of most Jamaicans and how it was better. I understand it was a different time, a simpler time with simpler people but knowing the British concept/”one sided view” of a colony being “Prosperous” I doubt that the standard of living of most Jamaicans was better or even close to what it is today. The top 1%, the colonial class, the ones who benefited from the existing status quo, who owned the means of production and reap all the wealth will always see those times as the glory days. Us Jamaicans are not fools we have mastered the fine art of “If you find a donkey, ride him to pasture”, we would never have turned our backs on a good thing.
As citizens of the Commonwealth we get no special treatment from the United Kingdom, no special protection, enjoy no elevated status. In the years before 2003 the British Government and media launched a media campaign to demonize Jamaicans for the sole purpose of implementing visa restrictions against the Jamaican people, at a time when more Europeans from the EU was flooding into the UK, Black Jamaicans had to go. Headlines after headlines reported that Jamaican “Yardies” were destroying her Majesty’s perfect society and they needed to be stopped. Yes there is such a thing as one sided over reporting used to shape people's perception, to make them think what you want them to think, this is a standard practice employed for centuries to get your people to do what you want them to do and support your actions, first you demonized then you strike.
In months leading up to the visa restrictions the British media directed their sights on Jamaica like attack dogs, reporting each and every crime committed by a Jamaicans and descendants of Jamaicans some of whom had never set foot in Jamaica. Every black person who committed a crime in the UK was somehow linked to Jamaica thus turning the tide of public opinion against us, something had to be done about the Jamaican menace,it was media persecution at its very best.(Read: Removing The Jamaican Menace)
The British deputy high commissioner in Jamaica, Phil Sinkinson, had said one in 10 passengers leaving for Britain was a drug mule. Both the Jamaican national carrier, Air Jamaica, and British customs and excise officers disputed the numbers and the national anti-crack strategy published by the Home Office at the time made clear that most of the 40 to 50 tonnes of cocaine shipped into Britain each year came in bulk by sea to Spain and then overland to the Netherlands but once Jamaica’s name was associated with this, the damage had already been done. Even the recent riots in England did not pass without Jamaica being blamed for the uprising.(Read: Whites have become black)
I remember in my A’Level history class reading a paragraph from the manuscript Debate in Parliament where a British MP, after slavery had ended, complained that Jamaica was now costing Britain 10 thousand shillings a year. It was then that I realized that we were no longer a pearl in the British crown but a drain on her resources. Deep in my subconscious I believe that Independence was a British concept planted in the minds of the educated middle and upper class and I would not be surprise also if becoming a Republic was also a British concept.
Westminster has been trying to set us adrift for some time now, chipping away at the relationship, trying to break the bonds between us. Britain at one time had a preferential Import agreement for Bananas from Jamaica and the Commonwealth using a favorable trading agreement, in short the United States of America took Britain and the EU to WTO court and the Trade Agreement was canceled thus killing the Banana industry in most of the Caribbean and bankrupting small farmers, (I would not be surprise if Britain/Nu Labour asked America to take them to court to end this subsidies and preferential treatment). All this happened at a time when America was creating preferential trading blocs of their own such as the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA and Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), The United Kingdom of Great Britain failed to create any such trading bloc with the Commonwealth Realm we were left high and dry in a cold dark place without a candle, told to get on with it.
The British have never defined their relationship with the Commonwealth Realms or Nation as a “Special Relationship”, that title is reserved for the United States of America. Jamaica stopped being a “Pearl in the Caribbean” and a “Jewel in the British crown” simply because we no longer serve any purpose to Britain. We no longer enrich her but instead add to her cost, constantly being treated like a begging dysfunctional child who is genetically predisposed to crime with a parent who is trying to abandon that child in the car park of the shopping mall.
Even though, I will be the first to tell you that any system, either the Westminster model or a Republican System is only as good as the people running it and if we cannot get this current Westminster system to work for us then I do not see how the hell we will get the Republican System to work also. Becoming a republic should but will not do anything to the mindset of the Jamaican people they were never engineered to value Jamaica, this rock of mine and most see it as an unfortunate birthplace, a barren wasteland from which to escape. I do not have faith in the Jamaican people to get this system or any system working, the political class does not fill me with confidence and while the body of the people is trapped in Jamaica their minds wonder the landscape of North America, London and Paris, anywhere else but here, I do not get Nation Building from them.
However I do support Jamaica becoming a Republic and finally turn her back on the old ways once and for all, it is sink or swim time now boys, will you be man enough to shoulder the responsibility to engage the nation building process and create a nation state future generation and the world will be proud of or sink into the Caribbean, forever begging for a handout, continue to behave like unwanted dogs hanging around the dinner table waiting to be noticed but instead being kicked.
Total independence is not a solution in itself but could be part of the re-branding process, a core part in the ideology of Jamaica. Jamaica needs an ideology, the people need something to believe in, something to rally around, something everybody can get on board with, the ideology of nationalism, the ideology of patriotism, the ideology of self reliance and the ideology of Jamaica first. Before we can sell the brand Jamaica to anyone else we must first have a brand we Jamaicans believe in. We need to redefine what it means to be a Jamaican, what it means to be a Jamaican worker, what it means to be a Jamaican farmer , what it means to be a Jamaican producer and we need to redefine what it means to consume Goods and services made in Jamaica. It is about time we take on our own burden, it is about time we bring home the reality of what it means to be a Jamaican, what it means to have your own country, no one is going to save us, not the United Kingdom of Great Britain and certainly not the United States of America this we must do ourselves.
FACT: Becoming a Republic is NOT the most important issue facing Jamaica today, personally I am happy either way, we have far bigger fish to fry but we will always have bigger fish to fry, so we must make time for the not so big but very important fish in our lives, this is not a life or death situation. The majority of people who oppose full independence say to me that they like the arrangement we have today, that Government have power but not Total Power, that we have the British Monarch as an ace in the hole and that they do not trust their fellow Jamaicans with full control fearing things may get kind of “Mugabe like” and if our backs are against the wall and all hell is breaking lose then Britain can send troops to restore order. They also said to me that they do not want to lose the English Privy Council as it is outside of local control and influence, not prone to local corruption.
Queen ELIZABETH II the Head of State of the tiny spice island of Grenada, The Monarch of Grenada, a member of the Commonwealth Realm and yet the United States of America without her knowledge or permission invaded her domain, so it seems Britain is truly a nation without “street cred”. Grenada was Britain’s responsibility to fix, not America’s, if a member of the Commonwealth Realm needed sorting out, needed to be invaded, then I expect The United Kingdom of Great Britain, The Mother Country, Protector of the Realm and the other members of the Realm to do the invading and set wrong, right, I was embarrassed for Britain and the Commonwealth... Jesus! .. Give me something to rally around I beg you... Nothing would please me more than to scream to the world that our union, our commonwealth, our Realm is both beneficial and progressive.
Montserrat is a British overseas territory, a British colony, in July 1995 a volcanic eruptions devastated two-thirds of that island, it looked like a barren lunar landscape as per the BBC. The people had to be evacuated and yet in the UK there was opposition from the general public to the people of Montserrat being evacuated to Britain as some members of the British public declared, why Britain, why not to the other Caribbean islands, somewhere else, anywhere else except Britain. In the end 4,000 of the 11,500 people living on the island was relocated to Great Britain. As a direct British overseas territory, a British colony there should not even be the question, why Britain, it should be automatic, British responsibility, British Solution, end of, even if you have to get rid of some people from the EU. As far as I am concern your circle of importance and responsibility should be United Kingdom, then Commonwealth Realm, then Commonwealth of Nations then whomever.
So the very idea that Britain have the ways or the means or even care enough to run to our rescue is laughable and provides a false sense of security to anyone who believes otherwise, just look at the state of the commonwealth, Britain care about a hand full of non-white commonwealth countries with small population sizes as vacation and offshore banking paradise, she no longer cares about Jamaica and most of the Commonwealth.
I do believe that becoming a Republic is such a fundamental change that we should have a referendum, the people must decide, and if they choose not to become a Republic, then a referendum should be held every 10 years.
I have read one report in the Gleaner stating the cost of becoming a Republic, What did you think it was going to be free? That is like saying I would like to own my own house but I do not want to pay for it. I did not think you needed a report to figure this out, yes it will cost us, when have we gotten something for nothing, making your way through life will cost you, owning and managing your own country will cost you.
I have a love affair with the United Kingdom of Great Britain, I really do, I am an Anglophile and a Gooner, the older members of my family were all loyalists and the majority of my family now call Britain home and themselves British but Jamaica is my life, the very essence of my being and I will support her regardless of direction, Republic or Constitutional Monarchy. Currently Queen Elizabeth II is "The Queen of Jamaica","the Head of State", she is my Queen and Jamaica is the "Monarchy of Jamaica", and a Commonwealth Realm, that is a constitutional Fact and I respect that and will continue to respect it, so long as this Constitutional Monarchy remains.
"What is missing from this debate is a comprehensive list of Pros and Cons reasons by all concern about why Jamaica should become a Republic or not become a Republic, a list of Pros and Cons on keeping The Queen as our Head of State and mutual benefits that it may or may not will bring. It cannot be only for sentimental reasons whatever decision we make must be a working decision."
God Save the Queen and God Bless Jamaica Land I love.
What is Jamaica, the brand? What is the image your mind conjures when you think of Jamaica? Sunny beaches, ganja and guns perhaps? Or how about laid back work ethic, homophobia or backward banana republic on the brink of civil unrest? Credible words or great misnomers?
An American colleague remarked, “My wife and I have been going to Jamaica now for 8yrs we just love it.” Then he paused, took a deep breathe and said, “But don’t you feel as you drive to the compound and see those shanty huts that any minute now they might rise up with machetes!”
Bangkok street riots
This is ‘Brand Jamaica”? Is this fear of a black planet or fear of the folklorist bravado that Yaad likes to perpetuate; the bombastic bad bwoy Buccaneer. We know this is the media image of Jamaica, search online and you will be floored by the amount of off-balance reporting and negative reports on gangs and drugs. During the time of the Dudus drama you would think the whole isle was ablaze with unrest and uncertainty. A time that cost Jamaica dearly. Meantime in Bangkok street riots took many lives but still Conde Nast placed the city as the Best Place to Visit. Proof that it is perception not reality that reaps the revenue.
Ironically, it’s the tourist beach hustlers who understand Brand Jamaica more than anyone. It’s a symbiotic relationship; the tourist start with their need for drugs or their yearning for sex and it end in a toxic trade and an understanding that the more brazen they are the more most tourists will in intimidation, pay. They understand that the key factor in revenue for Brand Jamaican spending is entrenched with fear and distrust. They have cleverly capitalized on this with lotharian tactics that flip on a dime to aggressive hustling and intimidating swagger.
More sluggish to catch on is the Jamaican Tourist Board. The approach of the JTB is that of a band-aid on a cancer. When your brand image is that of unrest, corruption, danger, drugs and guns, a pretty picture of an exotic beach won’t work. More pretty picture campaigns and a social media push that posts banal “How is your day” posting to the thousands of potential customers. However, it is clear their strategy is to build up “all inclusive” market, (a mainly foreign owned industry). A strategy that shoots the brand in the foot as it fortifies the salient factors that Jamaica is not safe and the locals are not to be trusted.
When there’s negative brand connotations the key strategy is to change that perception fast before it spreads. Deflection is a weak tactic when you are up against a media tsunami of negative misinformation.
Identifying the main issues as fear and distrust in the brand. Knowledge, perspective and exposure to facts will reinvigorate the lost revenue. Steering revenue to the smaller hotels of Jamaica and encouraging tourists to visit Kingston is key towards the transparent drip of trust. The fact that JTB pretty much ignore the smaller hotels and Kingston again strengthen the fear. JTB need to stop herding their social media masses to endless banal clips of reggae artists videos but post human interest stories of real people in real communities doing great initiatives alongside pretty pictures. Show the cosmopolitan aspects of the people and the culture. Applaud the victories in education, industry and the arts. Bombard people with facts and real perspective. During the Dudus drama not one major media put out that Tivoli was the size of Sandals resort in a small contained area miles from any tourist area. When there is a hurricane the story is the same huddles masses of foreign journalists relish in the scaremongering, “A city on the brink of Civil Unrest” I heard last time on CNN. Then there’s other media reports like that video report on the Wall Street Journal about returning Jamaicans who come home for retirement but invariably killed in robberies. Who is managing Brand Jamaica here? Where are the global media watchdogs who protect Brand Jamaica and where are the lobbyist groups who instigate the more truthful real balance in reporting. What litigation surrounds to protect Brand Jamaica when such unbalanced reporting continues.
This re-brand needs to be a cross platform initiative to survive and really reap the potential global revenue. Manufactures of Jamaica need to protect and promote “Buy Jamaica” to rebuild that trust and knowledge that the country has authority and is worthy of investment. Education should have a component in to build back the pride the people have in the land and culture and should also tie into the Buy Jamaica ethos. Politicians need to be mindful of the Brand Jamaica image when they play verbal ping pong throughout each campaign promoting crime stats and the other parties corruption. Jamaica is the only nation in Caricom who print so grandiosely the crime statistics. Meantime, throughout the rest of the world crime statistics are ‘re-classified’. What use is this negative branding?
Local media needs too to be held accountable with watchdog monitoring committees. Accountability is key in order to bring back Jamaica the positive brand onto a global stage for revenue potential.
Who is driving this brand and what is their strategy? I think they are asleep at the wheel.
Jane Nina Buchanan jane@stooshpr.com www.stooshpr.com Originally from Liverpool, England Jane started her career as producer and presenter of the SONY award winning show "Streetlife" on the BBC. From radio she moved on to television with seasons as Entertainment Producer for the network Granada TV show, "This Morning" and later "Jameson Tonight" on Sky TV. Headhunted from Sky TV by Sir Bob Geldof and Lord Waheed Alli company at 25yrs old, she was appointed the position of US Producer for Planet 24 Productions. Based out of NYC she coordinated and produced all US strands for the controversial show "The Word" and later, "The Big Breakfast". When Planet 24 relocated to LA to produce the successful "Survivor" reality show, Jane decided to make NYC her home and continues to live and work in the media. She has held positions at New Video Group/Docurama (Home Video arm of A&E/The History Channel), Disney Theatrical (Lion King,, Mary Poppins and Phil Collins' Tarzan) Maxim Magazine/Dennis Publishing, and Bad Boy Entertainment.
Collective Guilt - The unpleasant emotional reaction that results among a group of individuals when it is perceived that the group illegitimately harmed members of another group. It is often the result of “sharing a social identity with others whose actions represent a threat to the positivity of that identity.
-Wikipedia
Most Jamaicans lose their minds whenever they hear that a black person in England or in America is charged with a crime, they would log on to various messaging boards, posting messages of hope, that the culprit is not a Jamaican or of Jamaican origin. It seems that Jamaicans regardless of geographic location suffer from collective guilt and shame only when a person of Jamaican origin, who lives in a foreign country, commits a crime, however no such guilt exist when a Jamaican commits the same crime in Jamaica.
If one Jamaican commits a crime in a foreign country he is blamed for making all of us look bad… US? …. Excuse me... where did this “US” thing come from?
Why should I share the guilt and shame for another man’s crime when I am a hard working and law abiding person and he is a damn criminal, when did this become my responsibility, my shame and my guilt even thou it was not my crime. I do not see this collective shame and guilt happening in the first world, so it must be a third world thing. When a white American or British citizen travel to faraway lands and commit crimes like murder, drug smuggling and child molestation I do not see collective guilt coming from the people of these countries. When their Governments sends their armies to some poor third world countries and drop 500lb bombs on innocent woman and children, I do not see them holding their heads in shame. When they are caught at my airport trying to smuggle drugs out of the country I do not see collective guilt and shame form their countrymen. I have as much control over the hearts and minds of my fellow Jamaicans as an American or British would have over their citizens and I have no control over a person who is a citizen of another country but either descended from a Jamaican or migrated from Jamaica at a young age.
This collective pity party by Jamaicans must stop, this is meaningless collective punishment, I know you are concern with how people in the outside world will look at you or treat you but believe me, regardless of what you do certain people will only look at you the way they want to look at you, even if you have a halo above your head and wings on your back. What is more important is how you view yourselves and others around you, refrain from making generalized statements, take each person one at a time, there are some good people in this world and some very bad ones regardless of colour and nationality. If you have not broken any laws and you are good honest hard working inhabitants of this planet then you have nothing to be ashamed for or feel guilty about.
The British media takes extra pleasure in identifying black British citizens as either Jamaican decent or Jamaican born, even when that person have never been to Jamaica or left Jamaica at birth. Take Germaine Lindsay for example (No seriously …. Take him because he is yours) the British-Bomber of “Jamaicans descent” was described as Jamaican. The man was born in Jamaica, yes but was NOT bred in Jamaica he left Jamaica at age 5 and spent his entire life in England, got all his education and all his socialization from the United Kingdom of Great Britain, he was a failure of British Society but that did not stop one British reporter from saying "He had British soil under his feet and Jamaican blood in his heart” that speaks volume to me.
At what point does the responsibility of the Jamaican Government and people ends and the responsibility of the British government and its people begins, are we to assume responsibility for the crimes of first, second or third generation British citizens with Jamaican lineage. The British government and people are blaming Jamaica for its failures to properly educate and socialize their young people.
When a Jamaican-born person or a person of Jamaican descent represents Great Britain and achieves greatness then that person is presented as a product of the British Society and Jamaica never gets the praise, no report of Jamaican blood running through that person’s heart. However, the opposite occurs when a person commits a crime or disgraces themselves in any way, we then find out immediately that the person is associated with Jamaica. Ben Johnson was Canadian when he was winning races and breaking records but as soon as he failed his drug test Ben Johnson became a dirty no good Jamaican, we found out almost immediately that he had Jamaican blood running through his heart. A number of the current England national football team have origins in Jamaica and if we go by the British media standards when reporting on crime, we would have to list them as follows, The Jamaican Darren Bent, The Jamaican Aaron Lennon, The Jamaican Theo Walcott and the Jamaican Shaun Wright-Phillips but since us Jamaicans lay no claim to them in their height of glory for England, we want no part of them if they fall from grace.
If Germaine Lindsay or Delroy Grant (the rapist) had ran the 100m in 9.77 sec. flat for the UK at the Olympics they would have been British and no mention would have been made about their Jamaican connection. The British double gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes father is Jamaican, so too is the father of Jessica Ennis and countless others yet the British press makes little or no mention of them as Jamaicans, no grand news headline stating “Jamaican Dame Kelly Holmes or Jamaican Jessica Ennis” and I don't expect them to.
In the game of politics there are two types of players who disgust me, the first is the politician and the second is the die-hard party supporter.
The Politician and the Party
All politicians disgust me even the ones regarded as a good politicians, in fact they disgust me even more simply because good politicians should be an agent for good but they have mastered the art of playing and sipping champagne with the devils in their own party. They lack the power and will to turn to their own party members and point the finger of shame at the evil doers and as such they are just as guilty. Just the sight and sound of most politicians is enough to send shivers down my spine because Politian’s are liars’, they will say anything, do anything for power and they have all mastered the art of taking the people for fools. In fact the Jamaican politicians show nothing but contempt for the people and the constitution. It makes me really sick to watch these clowns perform their circus acts, prancing around making one empty promise after another, one lie after another with no intention of delivering on these promises, their worthless manifestos are just a book of lies.
I cannot tell where the PNP ends and the JLP begins they are no longer a party separated by an ideology, they are both equally worthless and only seem to squabble about who can management the country better however they bring nothing new to the table and commit the same mismanaged and corrupt mistakes they accuse each other of making. In most countries political parties are separated by an ideology, in the United States the Democrats and Republican are two parties separated by social and economic ideology. In Great Britain the Labour Party is defined as a Center-Left Democratic Socialist Party (New Labour was a different animal) and the Conservative Party as the Center-Right that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism, we however have no such luck, our parties are afraid to take any stand or to adhere to any Nation Building Ideology.
JLP=PNP
The real purpose of the Jamaican politician is to line his or her already overflowing pockets and the pockets of their friends and relatives with the assets of my country. Nepotism rules and it starts with the political leaders, who filled the Government Sectors and providing government contracts to their friends and relatives. Patriotic, Nationalistic Jamaicans they are not they do not care about this country, only about their own personal well being. Our politicians are weak because we the Jamaican people are weak, our politicians fail because we fail to hold them accountable, we fail to stand up and demand that they do the job they were elected to do, the job they promised to do. Our political process fails because we the people believe that voting every 5 years in the beginning and end of the process. We equate this little 5 year ritual we call an election with democracy and freedom, what a joke. Voting every 5 years is just the beginning, not the end, as a society we need to continuously engage the process and as a society we need to step in and perform regular appraisals and course correction of these people we employ to work on our behalf.
In fact, there is no difference between the JLP, PNP and the NDM. These political parties are made up of the same old, tired, recycled, thieving, lying, get rich quick, pre-colonial type individuals that have lied to us, turned Jamaicans against Jamaicans, stolen from us, deceived us and led us down the wrong path time and time again. Yet we continue to behave like zombies on election day, marching down to the Polling Station, risking life and limb to put our tired mark on a piece of paper that will give these culprits the mandate to keep doing what they have done to us since Independence Day 1962.
We will not get a different result using the same formula.
The Die-hard Firebrand Political Party Supporters:
The second type of people who disgust me in the world of politics is the Diehard Firebrand Political Party Supporters. I am talking about the type of people who supports a politician or a party for simplistic one dimensional reason because they lack objectivity and an open mind. For some they support a political party because of family tradition, for others it’s due to peer pressure or just because they live in a certain community, a political party controlled zone.
Guinea Pigs, The Grand Experiment
In all cases it’s due to laziness and pure ignorance, lacking the intelligence to analyze or even understand the information before them, unable to formulate a political, economical and sociological ideology of their own but they are willing to die for the party. They get no real benefits for their support except for the free chicken back, pig tail and the occasional dancehall events that happens every election period and normally after the election their Member of Parliament don’t even remember they exist.
This type of supporter reaps no other benefit for supporting their political party, for the most part they still live and die in the same tired ghetto with little or no change, generation after generation , trapped in time, having to relive the same election-to-election events, shouting “JLP”, “PNP”, “Socialist”, “Labourite”, reciting party slogans, “Stand Firm”, “Money gwaan gingle”, “Deliverance!” and my favorite “More man have gal, cell phone and cars” (not jobs, education, health care and a way to properly support one’s family).
Then there are those diehard supporters who support a party because they have a personal stake and interest, their lives are better if a particular politician or party is in power and as a reward for their support they intern gets power and money, they now have contacts, these are normally the more educated and leech like of the bunch. Their support for the party however has nothing to do with the process of Nation Building. They are selfish to the core with no real interest in the development of the country, so long as they are able to live the high life at the country’s expense.
The Jamaican electorate reminds me of guinea pigs in a lab experiment, given the choice between two colors, orange and green, he touches one and gets an electric shock as a negative reinforcer and if he touches the other he is rewarded with small scraps of food. When this experiment is conducted over a period of several decades the subjects mind becomes putty and ready to do whatever the politicians wants them to do.
The Swing Voters
Out of all the voters it is the swing voter who bears the burden of the democratic process, they are the potential nation builders. It is the swing voter who is forced to re-evaluate life under the party who forms the government, it is the swing voters who compares promises made to actual promises delivered and it is the swing voters who must make the bold decisions for change, for the greater good of the nation, swing voters demand results and forces politicians to engage them on a higher level. However waiting every 5 years to perform these tasks is not enough, the swing voter must be proactive and become advocates for the greater good of the country.
To tell the truth I cannot relate to diehard supports, I do not engage them in conversion, it is a total waste of time to have a conversion about nation building and civic responsibility with people who have lost all political objectivity. I talk above, around, between and under diehards; I try to avoid them like the plague that they are because they are the problem.
My only hope is that there numbers will dwindle over time and that they will be a thing of the past, I blame diehard supporters for the state of Jamaica today. I am a firm supporter of the independent swing voters, people who are not afraid to make choices base on facts, evidence, hopes, dreams and aspirations, people who are open and objective, people who understand their role within society and the part they must play in the nation building process. I only wish that their numbers will continue to grow and their influence strong over the state of affairs, so they may over shadow and drown out the negative influence of the pathetic, brain dead diehard political party supporters whom I have not one ounce of respect for.
When the JLP is in power their supporter’s perception is that all is right with the world and the PNP party supporter’s perception is that all is wrong with the world. When the PNP is in power their supporter’s perception is that all is right with the world and the JLP party supporters perception is that all is wrong with the world and in reality their world is falling apart.
I am not asking anyone to vote in or vote out any one political party because under current conditions nothing will change, in a sense we are executing the same equation with the same values and continue to expect a different result.
What I am asking, is for the people to change their attitude towards political parties, politics and politician, I am asking for us to put Jamaica first, to hold both the politician and ourselves accountable, to take a more pro-active role in the nation building process. We have had 12 General Elections (1962, 1967, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1983, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2007and 2011) since gaining independence and we are still singing the same tired song, still only blowing smoke. Take for example the issue of crime, many Jamaicans often express outrage at the levels of crime, we see that the Government and the Police Force are unable or unwilling for whatever reason to come to grips with it but what have we done to show our displeasure, what have we done to communicate to the Government that this is not an issue with which we are willing to compromise on, NOTHING! We have done nothing but pay lip service to crime. If solving crime was so important then people from all walks of life would organize and take to the streets, rich, poor and middle class regardless of political party to send a clear message to our elected officials that we demand a solution.
Die-hard supporters have labeled the swing voters as sellouts, back stabbers of the party while all along it is the die-hard supporters who have sold out this country and the future of this country time and time again. We need more swing voters in Jamaica because it implies we have a section of the population who is able to think outside the box, who are objective, capable of putting their foot down, drawing a line in the sand and shouting enough is enough, do the job you were hired to do or else!
1989 ITN Jamaica Election Report
I listened to the Prime Minister’s speech, like all other Prime Ministers before him, same lyrics different DJ, same sound system. He stated his intentions, made his promises and declared that things will be different under his leadership. I listened to the leader of the opposition as she spouts the same lyrics, this from the same DJ and same sound system and in both cases I have seen the diehard trolls jump up and down like patrons at a dancehall event, as they shout praises and encouragement to the DJ, their lord and savior, the maximum leader.
After you have elected one of these muppets what will you do? How will you ensure that they keep their promises? What part will the Jamaican people play after putting their tired, dead beat X beside the idiotic Head and equally stupid Bell and after you have jumped around singing praises to these people who live so well at your expense? What organization/advocacy groups are you going to create/join that is not affiliated with any political party but with the single task of Nation Building? What timeline are you going to give them to deliver on their promises or are you going to continue to come up with useless excuses for their continued failures, its hurricane, its recession, its drought.
As Jamaicans we bring nothing, not a damn thing to the table but blind religious like faith in people who have screwed us time and time again, but the only thing the Diehard care about is that their party is in power, nothing more and nothing less. The number one reason why we are in this mess is because of Diehard supporters, these one dimensional trolls who are unable to think or act outside of the box, selfish to the core, blind to reality, jumping around in there orange or green shirts screaming stupid slogan, making gang signs, raising their fist or holding up two fingers, these Diehards will never allow Jamaica to move forward.
I have been listening to PNP supporters listing JLP corruptions and I have listened to JLP supporters list PNP corruption, I have listened to them trying to convince the general public that the other side’s corruption was worst than their corruption, like kids in a school yard, proven that they are both equally corrupt, If your defense to corruption by your party is to point out corruption by the other party then I think you have all lost the plot.
Wherever they are now I am sure they must be saying to themselves what a waste of my time and life, what a complete waste of my efforts, to sacrifice so much only to see that my sacrifice was in vain. Look at them running around without any sense of collective purpose, consumed by their own self-importance, consumed by greed and selfishness, look at how they turn their backs on everything we fought so hard to achieve.
Then I can imagine Sam Sharpe and Paul Bogle turning to the others saying “might as well we kept our mouth shut, cut the masters cane and say yes sir may I have another when the whip cut across our backs, instead of having that rope around our broken necks, suspending our lifeless bodies and George William Gordon agreeing”. Because they had so much hope for us but look how we let them down.
