http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1394236Oh my.
Actually, it's a good idea; the world was a better, safer place, when decent and civilized people ruled it.
ej510 (1000+ posts) Thu Jun-30-11 08:37 PM
Original message
Most residents think Jamaica ‘better off as a British colony,’ poll suggests
Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence from the United Kingdom, but a new island-wide poll suggests most residents of the tiny Caribbean nation believe they would be better off had the country remained a British colony.
The survey, conducted for the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper by Johnson Survey Research, found that 60 per cent of Jamaicans think the country would be better off today if it was still under British rule. A mere 17 per cent said they believed the country would be worse off. The remaining 23 per cent of respondents said they didn’t know.
The results speak to weak economic progress Jamaica has made in the last 50 years compared to neighbouring states and other developing nations, pollster Bill Johnson told the Toronto Star on Wednesday from Kingston.
“The point obviously is that people’s main concern here is the struggle to survive, finding food for the bellies of their children,†said Johnson, who has worked as pollster for 35 years.
“It seems to me most people don’t care if there’s a monarchy or dictatorship. They’re just trying to survive.â€
The results were remarkably consistent across all age groups, with a majority of those old enough to remember independence and young people born long after saying the country would be better off as a British colony. Two-thirds of respondents 65 years of age or older said the country would be better off under British rule, while nearly that same proportion of respondents in the 18-34 age range agreed.
But Audrey Campbell, president of the Toronto-based Jamaican Canadian Association, questioned the entire premise of the poll, saying many Jamaicans can in no way compare life now to what it was like under British rule because they were born after independence.
“That’s like saying, ‘I kind of like the concept of slavery. Who needs self government? Who wants the right to dictate their future? I’d rather have someone come in and tell me based on what they think.’ Seriously?†said Campbell, who was born in Jamaica after independence and came to Canada as a young girl.
Cont'd at the link: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1017031--most...
When the country colonizing you by stealing all of your nations wealth causing nationwide poverty, one could understand why people will feel that way. They should demand that Britain pay them for all the years of free labor.
Uh, the primitive's nuts, knowing nothing at all about history and income-expense statements.
Jamaica as a British colony cost London more than whatever London got from Jamaica.
malaise (1000+ posts) Thu Jun-30-11 08:40 PM
Response to Original message
1. That crap is everywhere
The majority of the population wasn't born before independence and that pollster isn't taken seriously.
Then there's the primitives wiggle-waggling their armpits at each other about the "exploited" Jamaicans of the black persuasion. Never mind; it's the usual standard primitive bigotry and racism.
MellowDem (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-01-11 12:08 AM
Response to Original message
15. Don't know the veracity of the poll...but it is quite possible that Jamaica would be better off had it stayed a British colony for longer, at least economically.
If you look at a lot of the places Britain colonized and helped industrialize, like South Africa and India, they did have a leg up on their neighbors generally. Course, Jamaica is so small that I don't know it would have ever been able to industrialize in the same way.
Lots of peoples have benefitted from more technologically advanced civilizations taking over and occupying them for some amount of time. It's not a guarantee, but if you look throughout human history, there are quite a few examples of occupation resulting in the spread of positive changes to other societies, such that when they eventually become independant, they are able to keep what they liked from their occupiers.
Of course, anymore, that really doesn't apply, where there are no longer wars between countries by and large and we are so globalized that the dynamics have completely changed, and countries can adopt other society's ideas whenever they'd like.
I think Puerto Rico is a very interesting case. Almost no one there wants independance, and more and more want statehood every year. They are of the opinion that either being part of or a commonwealth of the US is better than being independant.
Nye Bevan (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-01-11 10:45 AM
Response to Original message
19. That British colony Bermuda seems to be doing pretty well.
So this is understandable.
