"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.
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.
A country, any country is only as good as its people, so in order to understand the problems that exist in Jamaica one must first understand the people of Jamaica, the way they think and their relationship to the country of their birth, do they see themselves as part of the nation building process?
Three hundred and fifty years of British rule helped mold the Jamaican mind into what it is today, British rule was based on the path of least resistance, it was best to have a willing and docile people to govern, if required, force was used to achieve this objective but for the most part the British regarded the use of force to be counterproductive and costly, the use of soft power was preferred. By the early 1900s Britain was able to pacify the inhabitants of Jamaica simply by making them believe that they were British subjects like any other British Subject, a valid part and parcel of the grand Empire, even without the rights and privileges given to their Anglo Saxon counterpart.
At the start of the 19th century present day concept of Jamaica and Jamaicans simply did not exist, the population did not see themselves as patriotic, nationalistic Jamaicans entrusted to build a nation state, a society future generations of Jamaicans would be proud of, they saw themselves as British Subjects which is exactly how the British wanted them to feel since they were not in the business of promoting pro Jamaica Nationalist movements, to do so would be counterproductive as the population would start to question British rule, as such they preferred the Borg approach to conquest and colonization “Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated” and in 1948 the British Nationality Act conferred the status of British citizen on all Commonwealth subjects.
Jamaican Flag 1906-1957
The Section of the population that saw themselves as and believed themselves to be British men and women of the empire, for the empire even without the rights, wealth and privileges of their Anglo Saxon counterpart began to see Jamaica as the problem, its distance from the source of power, the mother country was affecting their ability to achieve the rights, wealth and privilege that every true British men and women should have, this blasted rock, this island outpost, this satellite of the Empire was keeping them from their goals, to walk hand in hand with their Anglo Saxon brothers and sisters united under the crown. England had done a proper job on the mindset of the people, brainwashing at its best, so good was this mind job that it continues to this very day as the current generation still sees Jamaica as the problem and still tries to distance themselves from her.
River of Blood
While the Colonial Office was busy convincing the population of the various colonies that they were British, part and parcel of a grand empire, working for queen and country they failed however to send that memo to inhabitants of the British Isles. One must understand that at the start of the 19th century the inhabitants of Jamaica had no idea that a poor working class Britain existed and how could they, the closest thing to working class Britain they saw was British soldiers and they had guns and was entrusted with the task of policing the inhabitants, so they were seen from a position of authority. Other than that the British contingent was made up of Ladies and Gents of the colonial office, civil servants of the crown, judges, estate and business owners, working class Britain just could not afford to travel and had little or no information about the empire or how the people within it live. As such the conflicts that followed after their arrival was bound to happen.
Several family members who migrated in the late 50s and 60 expressed to me how shock they were with the living conditions when they first arrived in England, they just did not expect to find such poor working class Britons living in such poor conditions, shocked that they left better conditions at home in Jamaica and too embarrassed and too broke to return home, they decided to stick with it. All that coupled with the fact that they were now experiencing blatant racism the likes of which they have never experienced before.
If you have not read the story of Enrico Stennett, a privileged half-black Jamaican youth, and two friends, stowed away to England, where he thought he belonged, on the SS Empire Windrush, well then I suggest you do, the Jamaica Gleaner published a three part excerpt from the Book titled “Buckra massa pickney”
[Enrico Stennett: "Each day, as I sat on the harbour and gazed out to sea, I could only see England through my eyes, thinking of the land of milk and honey, the land where the streets were paved with gold ... the land my ancestors so proudly talked about ... the land I had been told I was a part of and where the people were Christian and good people. Now my only goal in life was to reach this land."
AFTER FIVE weeks of homelessness in London's East End, Enrico Stennett came to the grim realisation that stowing away to England was a big mistake. Post-war London was in disarray, so much so that even the Britons themselves were left in the cold. Racism was there to welcome him, and nobody cared about his mixed heritage and privileged upbringing in Jamaica. He was just another black man.
Enrico: "Sometimes I would burst into tears knowing that I had reduced myself to living like this. Jamaica was too far away to help me now. I could not take the next ship back, it was too late, and I had disobeyed the wishes of the people who knew best. For this, I had to pay the price."
Enrico: "The funniest incident that happened to me at that time was when I was standing in a long queue at a bus stop, when a child of about seven years old shouted to his mother, 'Momma, Momma, look there is a white man with a nigger's head'. ... At the same bus stop on another day, a child approached me and said, 'Mister, can I see your tail?' When I told the child I had no tail, the child said I was lying, because his father had said all black people have tails."]
The day the Empire Windrush first docked in Kingston harbor sealed Jamaica’s faith, we never stood a chance. These British men and women of African decedent, who lived their entire lives in Jamaica was going home to the Mother Country, to coexist with their fellow Ladies and Gents in the upper echelons of British society and to take their rightful place and position within Her Majesty’s Realm. However when the people of Jamaica arrived in England they immediately found out to their shock and horror that they were not British Citizens but Jamaicans, this title was not a title they wanted or wore with pride, the title of Jamaican was forced upon them by the Anglo Saxons of the land. The resistance to their presence by the native British population forced them to rally around and embrace the only thing they knew, the only thing they had in common and that was their “Jamaicanness”, they became Jamaicans not because they wanted to but because they had to in order to survive. In most cases early migrants from Jamaica to Britain experienced great hardship.
Allan Wilmot who arrived in 1947 wrote “I never knew what it was like to be broke, hungry or homeless until I came to this country. I couldn't even afford a cigarette”, so why is it then that we are prepared to go to such length, to suffer and to fight for survival in any other country but not our own?
“Almost the entire population in Britain really expect the coloured man to live in an inferior area…devoted to coloured people…Most British people would be quite unwilling for a black man to enter their homes, nor would they wish to work with one as a colleague, nor stand shoulder to shoulder with one at a factory bench.”
Lord Leary Constantine Cricket legend, Political activist and first black peer From the book "The Colour Bar" (1954)
Those who were left behind on the blasted rock simply decided to just sit around and bide time, wait for their chance to escape the rock for the Mother country and when the mother country turned her back on her subjects the people of Jamaica searched high and low for her replacement this they found in the United States of America, Uncle Sam.
Not everyone supported Jamaica’s independence from Great Britain, large sections of the population including my own Grandmother was against it, most Jamaicans who migrated to Britain during the early 1900s hated the idea of independence as they declared that Jamaica needed Britain to take care of them, which is the exact same thing most Jamaicans today say with regards to the United States of America. Why are we so child like, why do we always need to be taken care of, a mindset that explains our current political predicament? These Jamaican Royalist often declare with pride that Jamaica was once the pearl of the Caribbean, the pride and joy of Britain without an understanding of what it means when the British describe one of its colonies as a Pearl. Britain had many pearls most of which were underdeveloped societies but were big money earners for Queen and country. At the time when sugar was king Jamaica was a British pearl with a slave labour force, It is this ability to extract maximum profit with minimal cost and minimal investment and at the expense of the local population that defines whether a country was a pearl or not.
Independence was an upper educated middle class concept, made up mainly of mix race Jamaicans who were not welcomed in England and had no real power at home, Middle Eastern Jewish immigrants who control the means of production and now needed the power to go with it and the British who had decided that Jamaica was now a drain on the purse of the crown, a has been, use to be pearl and it was time to release her to the wild.
After independence it quickly became apparent that we got rid of one Foreign Colonial Master only to be shackled by our own Home Grown Colonial “Muppets”. It did not take long for them to settle into the houses vacated by the old British colonials and start their own brand of oppression while paying lip service to the concept of Nation Building and “upliftment” of the masses. This was now easy to do because after 350 years of British rule the mindset of the population was subservient, self hating and looking to be taken care of.
Wat a joyful news, miss Mattie, I feel like me heart gwine burs Jamaica people colonizinEnglan in Reverse
By de hundred, by de tousan From country and from town, By de ship-load, by de plane load Jamica is Englan boun.
Dem a pour out a Jamaica, Everybody future plan Is fe get a big-time job An settle in de mother lan.
What an islan! What a people! Man an woman, old an young Jus a pack dem bag an baggage An turn history upside dung!
Some people doan like travel, But fe show dem loyalty Dem all a open up cheap-fare- To-England agency.
An week by week dem shippin off Dem countryman like fire, Fe immigrate an populate De seat a de Empire.
Oonoo see how life is funny, Oonoo see da turnabout? jamaica live fe box bread Out a English people mout'.
For wen dem ketch a Englan, An start play dem different role, Some will settle down to work An some will settle fe de dole.
Jane says de dole is not too bad Because dey payin she Two pounds a week fe seek a job dat suit her dignity.
me say Jane will never fine work At de rate how she dah look, For all day she stay popn Aunt Fan couch An read love-story book.
Wat a devilment a Englan! Dem face war an brave de worse, But me wonderin how dem gwine stan Colonizin in reverse. * **
(Don't worry I have trouble reading it also)
I am very interested in Early Jamaican migration to Britain, the reality surrounding such migration, the mindset of the people in the early 1900s and why they decided to leave. I want to know what they found when they got there and what happened... I continue to interrogate the older members of my family whenever I get the chance, about conditions in Jamaica and the UK at time... A lot of history is based on nostalgia, fantasy and perception and I am forced to dig deep in order to get to the reality of the time…
The social and economic condition of both Britain and the Jamaica is well documented and helps to dispel the nostalgia, fantasy and perception fog, even older Jamaica living in Jamaica would tell you things was better when they were a boy but they were a boy and they see reality through a boys eyes. Migration to America was just an extension of early 1900 migration and not very interesting as the migratory mindset that most Jamaican now have was conditioned in us from early 1900s and before. During Slavery we wanted to escape the plantation, to run away and after slavery we wanted to escape Jamaica.
Watch 1 to 16
Rural life - turn of the Century
Going to Mother Country
Men of the British West Indian Regiment - For King and Country
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.
