BY JANICE BUDD Associate Editor — Sunday buddj@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, December 25, 2011
A recent snapshot study of some Jamaicans living abroad has revealed that while many are heading home for Christmas, they are not coming to vote; in fact, several who participated in the survey indicated they are turned off Jamaican politics.
The study captures the feelings of 60 middle-class Jamaicans living abroad (30 males and 30 females) over the age of 35. Forty live in the USA, 12 in England, six in Canada, and two in Germany.
University of the West Indies researcher and anthropologist of social violence, Dr Herbert Gayle, who conducted the study, posed four very simple questions over the course of the first two weeks of December:
* Are you thinking of coming home for the holidays and to also get a chance to vote?
* Can you kindly explain your response to question one?
* What is the most embarrassing matter about Jamaica that you have to endure living abroad?
* What is your greatest Jamaican pride-booster where you live?
The data suggest that of the 30 men, 22 will not come home for Christmas to vote or otherwise. Eight said they will come home for the holidays, but only five of this number had any wish to exercise their franchise. Three of them do not want to have anything to do with Jamaican politics.
Even fewer women who were part of the small sample will travel home this Christmas — only three, two of whom said they intend to vote.
According to the data, only 20 (41 per cent) of the 49 persons would have loved to come home (and have the bonus of voting).
The majority (29 or 59 per cent) were too upset with politicians to want to be in their home country at this time.
Fourteen (29 per cent) stated clearly that they would not wish to get involved in Jamaican politics as it is too corrupt.
As one man put it, “Living here in England shows me what we have in Jamaica, and I would not wish to be associated with any of those two gangs.”
Seven persons (four women and three men, all residing in the USA) told the survey team that the Government of Jamaica does not consider them seriously unless politicians need money.
“They just remembered that I am a strong supporter of the party so [name withheld] reach here; but he never even asked us what ideas we have,” one woman expressed to the research team.
Others simply dismissed Jamaican politics as a joke or said that they were not coming home because of the election.
Of the 11 persons coming home, only seven said that they were motivated to vote.
Three of these seven persons said they were coming home “to my family for Christmas, but not to vote, as Jamaican politicians are too corrupt”.
Three said, “Because Jamaica will not allow me to vote from the USA.”
Two said they would vote “to give my party a chance”.
Just one person said they “would rather come when it is not election, but had no choice”.
Meanwhile, some members of the diaspora reacted strongly to questions about national pride and being the flag-bearers of Jamaica during their sojourn abroad.
Seventy per cent (or 42) of the 60 respondents were embarrassed by Jamaica’s “diarrhoea of scandals, deceit, brutality against the poor, and plain nastiness by our politicians”.
According to Dr Gayle, a woman explained how she was conned out of US$100 by a Nigerian in New York and was laughed at by clerical staff at the police station where she went to report it. When she asked why, the employee reportedly exclaimed that people lose entire beaches in Jamaica, so why would she report the loss of just $100. She told researchers she went home and cried.
According to the snapshot study, the most embarrassing issue for Jamaicans living abroad is “corruption”, with 70 per cent of those surveyed citing this.
Twenty per cent of those surveyed said violence was the most embarrassing thing in their home country, while seven per cent said “lack of governance” was most embarrassing to them. Three per cent said the “assault on Tivoli” was most embarrassing for them as Jamaicans living abroad.
By contrast, 41 per cent of those in the sample pointed to “sports” as the biggest source of national pride.
Ten per cent said they were most proud about “our foods”, while seven per cent pointed to a recent news story about students at the Norman Manley Law School beating students from the prestigious US Yale University to retain the local school’s World Human Rights Moot Court title in the final held in Pretoria, South Africa.
Two persons cited “our brilliant students here in Canada” as their greatest source of national pride.
