My first Publication SRTV Classic Magazine | Page 5

A
nd during the course of the 1948
into the early 1960 there was a
continuous flow of persons out of
Jamaica joining their families in
the United Kingdom and doing the work of
the rebuilding. And the manifestation was
really of the issue on the ground of many
persons that came at that time and who
actually were regarded as having the right
to abode here in Britain, but now because
of changes in the law are considers as
migrants who does not have the right to
reside here in the United Kingdom. That
they were here conditionally, and for that
reason a lot of persons were placed in the
deportation list, and it was a significant
setback for the population of persons
effected, like their jobs and things like been
able to open a bank account, access to
health care services, very basic amenities
were denied, so the alternative of cause
was that I have to get out of here because I
can’t live here because its quiet unfortunate
and not only misery but separation of
families, and really came to the fore during
the meeting of Heads of government in
the Commonwealth States, the subject
emerged and was discussed within the
caucus of the High Commissioners from
the Caribbean and some other ministers
from the Caribbean government , we were
petitioning the British government to do
something about it and it became a very
big issue (WIND-RUSH) which occupied
quiet number of months in 2018, of course
the outcome was that the government of
Britain realised that this is just atrocity
and something not to be tolerated and not
only that there was a significant levels of
apologies from the government of Britain
but there was steps taken to try and
reverse the ills that were done. Hence the
entire matter of regularising of status of
the individuals who were put in category
of not having the right to abode anymore
and their rights were restored, and
there’s still quite a number of persons still
waiting for the process to get theirs done,
but it’s something that has created that
opportunity to take a special second look at
our community here, there was a very wide
support across the United Kingdom for the
situation that these people were put in, and
for that very reason the consensus was
something that was very hard to be done.
But we were very pleased that the British
government realised the need to reverse
the trend and to put in place the correct
legislation that would regularise these
persons right to abode here in Britain.
This of course has created a kind of
spotlight on our community and one of
the things that we have been doing in the
past year which will come to fruition this
year by the date of June 22nd which has
now known as (WIND-RUSH DAY) will be
the publication of compendium compiling
of about five hundred (500) persons of
Jamaican heritage who have significantly
contributed to the wellbeing of United
Kingdom, that their presence here is part
of what has made Britain more than Britain,
a great country.
AMBASSADOR SETH GEORGE RAMOCAN
JAMAICAN AMBASSADOR
T
his not only portend to the Jamaican
community, it portend to the persons
of Caribbean community, African
community and of course all of
the many other Commonwealth nations.
So we were very pleased at the outcome
even though that there’s still much yet to be
done, which has to do with compensation,
the wind-rush compensation (PACKAGE)
that have been worked at which am very
hopeful that will be address in the very near
future, so as to draw some kind of closure.
So these are some of the sensitive issues
on the ground that the High commissioner
had to be dealing with and of course we are
pleased with the number of persons in our
community who has moved towards attaining
their citizenship in Jamaica, persons born in
Britain getting their citizenship in Jamaica
because there is an agreement of a dual
citizenship between Britain and Jamaica. So
we are working on making more people to
visit Jamaica, we are talking about Diaspora
Tourism, making more Jamaicans to visit
Jamaica from Britain as part of the population
of tourist visiting Jamaica each year, Jamaica
is one of the most attractive tourist destinations
in the world, last year 2018 we recorded over
4.3million tourist that visited Jamaica and in
2019 we are looking at that number to grow,
we are projecting that 25million tourist will be
visiting Jamaica in the next 10 to 15 years.
one of the beautiful aspect of our tourism is
that about 42% of tourist visits for their first
time each year and that’s speaks for itself,
it speaks volume and confirms that once
you visit Jamaica you want to go back to
Jamaica. And that’s because of many good
things about Jamaica, sometimes they go
because of our foods, we have a very rich
cuisine, for instance if you Google top 10 cuisines
in the world, Jamaica is number 2, now when you
consider our kinds of fish burger etc. you will agree
with me that with more marketing capacity we can
do more, thus; we are looking at Jamaicans in
diaspora tourist.
The diaspora is very much committed, so excited
and loyal about our homeland wherever they are,
they promote their country, that’s what have made
us as one of the little countries of note when it comes
to tourism, for instance if you raise a Jamaican flag
anywhere in the world a very large percentage will
recognize and say that’s Jamaican flag, and that’s
of course not only to do because of the diaspora
but it has to do with things like our sports programs,
major personalities such as Usain Bolt, Donald
Quarrie, Veronica Campbell-Brown to name but a
few, went back to the 1952 when Helsinki hosted
the Olympic games when our athletes’ won many
gold medals, George Headley was one of them.
Then you think about music, you think about
reggae music across the globe. I was speaking
with some folks this morning I have to talk a little bit
of reggae music, just about a month ago UNESCO
of the United Nation (UN) inscribed reggae music
into its Hall of Heritage items, Reggae is now a
world heritage item, and that’s because of the role
its playing globally, reggae music is known and
played in every country across the globe and its
loved by people. It’s not just music that one can
dance to but it carries with it a message, lyrics of
healing and comfort, message of liberation, human
right messages that have helped shaped people
positively across the globe. All these have helped
in giving Jamaica a global presence.
For these reasons it makes me proud as a
Jamaican High Commissioner to meet with folks
not only my Jamaican community but persons
from across the world, it makes it sort of ready to
be recognise and acknowledgement for what it
is, because Jamaica is a wonderful country, and
I want to use this opportunity here to invite you
SRTV to visit Jamaica.
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SRTV Classic Magazine