Poll: Majority of Jamaicans believe they should have remained a British colony.

reply to post by aboutface

She's actually 84 I believe ... my grandma is 84 as well and given that it makes me respect Queen Elizabeth II even more. She is a woman who truly loves each of her 16 realms and the people that inhabit them. She has dedicated her life to serving her people. Technically speaking, she is the last WWII veteran on active duty in her capacity as commander in chief of the armed forces of the various Commonwealth realms.

reply to post by ChrisF231

It's interesting that you bring up the monarchy.

Well the British empire is not under England as such. It's under the monarchy. The queen and family are the commander-in-chief of all the various regiments and military. The enlisted men and new citizens must swear allegiance to the queen. (And of course, it's the citizens who must fund the military.) The monarchy owns all the land in the empire and people who purchase lots are tenant landholders. When a member if the royal family goes on official tour, the host country foots the bills for wardrobe, transportation, expenses and security. Now I don't know if Jamaica has saved itself a ton of money by declaring independence, but I sure hope so.

reply to post by aboutface

They would have to provide all the same for a president in a republic as well. You don't think a president works for free do you? They would need residences, bodyguards, household staff, limos, airplanes, etc same as the Royal Family does. The White House has a household staff of over 450 cooks, cleaning & maintenance people, butlers, groundskeepers and the like not to mention all the secretaries, aides, Secret Service special agents and uniformed officers, etc.

Originally posted by Adyta
It's quite simple. People of the third world countries are seeing how us civilized nations are living, and they want a piece of the pie. Jamaica is on the fast track to failure, and they want Britain there to pick up the slack when they finally collapse.

While there is no real definitive way to label a country as ''Third World'', Jamaica is not really a Third World country in the way that most people would think of when hearing that term.

They have a higher GDP per capita than some Eastern European countries, a life expectancy of 73, a literacy rate of 86%, an average rate of infant mortality, reasonably good standards of clean drinking water and sanitation, 78% of houses have electricity ( which compares favourably to many other countries ) and no widespread outbreaks of disease and dysentery.

All of these statistics are far better than those of a genuinely impoverished Third World country, such as Haiti.

Of course Jamaica has its problems with poverty, housing, crime and other social problems, but to suggest that Jamaica is ''uncivilised'' because of this, as opposed to the oh-so-civilised West, is laughable.

Originally posted by Adyta
Unemployment rate has nothing to do with it. I wonder how many of those "employed" Jamaicans are actually making a respectable salary.

You could ask that question about any country. How many Americans and British are in jobs which pay little more than the minimum wage ?

Originally posted by Adyta
Take ANY third world dump and ask them if they wanna join the Unites States or Britain, and every single one of them will be screaming "YES!!! SAVE US!!!".

I doubt that there would be too many developing countries which would actually want to join the US or Britain.

For a start, people have national pride. You can't tell me that if there was a social collapse in the US, your countrymen and women would be begging for a better-off country to come in and take control of you !

Secondly, European colonialism is just a long history of exploitation and the looting of resources in the countries that were colonised. Why would people in these countries want to return to that ? It makes little practical difference to them whether they are being shafted by their own ruling elite or by a foreign power.

Don't forget that this poll said that 60% of Jamaicans thought that the country would have been better off if it had remained a British colony. Not, 60% of Jamaicans would like to return to being controlled by the British. There is absolutely no indication that Jamaicans actually want Britain to take back control of their island.
As I said, it's more likely just a case of people thinking ''the grass is always greener on the other side.''