Dawn Ritch, Contributor
SOME months ago British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was reported in The Sunday Times, expressing concern about the arrangements being made by Buckingham Palace for the celebration of Her Majesty the Queen's 50th year on the throne, her Golden Jubilee.
He said there seemed to be little enthusiasm in the kingdom for it.
This was rich, coming from the lips of the man responsible for the billion pound sterling fiasco, known as the Millennium Dome.
This was a much ballyhooed contraption in plastic to celebrate the new millennium, and which miserably failed to earn even the price of admission.
One would have thought that after a million people gathered outside the gates of Buckingham Palace last weekend, the British Prime Minister would have kept his mouth shut.
But oh no. After the Thanksgiving Service in St. Paul's Cathedral he made a speech full of carefully crafted irrelevancies about all the troubles the Queen had faced in public perception.
And this from the Prime Minister who, years ago, said he would reform the House of Lords, and instead just packed it full of his own cronies. There is nothing so unctuous as a hypocrite, or a cheap politician on the look-out for votes.
For her part, the Queen merely said, "Gratitude, respect and pride are the words that sum up my feelings... for Britain and the Commonwealth."
There is no need to doubt her sincerity. Planned by Buckingham Palace, the Golden Jubilee celebrated 50 years of history in Britain and the British Commonwealth of Nations.
I thought Her Majesty was going a bit far, however, when I heard that a huge pop concert was planned for 12,000, all tickets raffled and free for the lucky winners, in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.
Fire in the palace
I was not at all surprised, therefore, when a fire broke though the roof of the palace on the evening before. At that very moment the crews of the world's greatest pop stars, as well as many of the stars themselves, were setting up in the garden, and so was the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which had bought exclusive television rights to the concerts.
I immediately supposed, therefore, that one of the pop stars or the crew must have thrown down a lit cigarette butt in the drawing room, along with an empty box of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) which then caught fire, and this was to be the end of Buckingham Palace.
In the end, however, 12 fire engines and three ambulances evacuated hundreds of palace staff and had the fire extinguished in 40 minutes.
The concert the following night was a tour de force, with huge screens and sound outside Buckingham Palace and the streets crammed with hundreds of thousands of people. Much to the expressed amazement of the BBC, which had obviously not been expecting the great outturn.
On the penultimate day of the thanksgiving service and parade, the crowd swelled to a million people whom British police described as a "joy to police".
Everybody came to have a good time, it was said, although all the children had to be dragged struggling from Nintendos and Game Boys, never having seen a jubilee parade before, and, therefore, thoroughly inconvenienced by the occasion.
Readers should note that prior to this, the Caribbean event, "Nottinghill Carnival", was the only public event in Britain to have drawn a million people.
For the Queen's Jubilee 1,200 revellers representing Nottinghill Carnival were part of her parade.
Also in the parade were scores of British nannies with their prams, as well as floats representing fish and chips, sushi, and other popular icons of the last 50 years.
There were white people watching, Asians, browns and blacks in the sea of people who came out to see the Queen's 50th Jubilee Parade. I need not add that it was incident-free.
On the night of the pop concert, the last beacon from the new Millennium was lit by Queen Elizabeth II, which in turn ignited a three tonnes display of fireworks from the roof of Buckingham Palace.
This was the signal for 2007 beacons to be lit throughout the world. Having just had a fire on the roof of the palace the night before, Her Majesty the Queen looked distinctly queasy as the fireworks began.
I marvel that she found the courage at all to set fire to the whole conflagration, knowing that it would end up on the roof of her palace as a monumental fireworks display, even though custom-crafted by the Chinese especially for the occasion.
That could have led to centuries of treasure going up in a blaze, a sweet revenge perhaps for the sacking and burning of the even grander Chinese Winter Palace during the Opium Wars.
The palace didn't burn, thank heavens. Instead there was a giant light show on its walls, and a fireworks display without mishap.
On the penultimate evening, the Royal Couple returned to Buckingham Palace which was now draped in a huge tapestry of the flags of the 54 nations in the British Commonwealth, unfurled by three little Commonwealth children.
Outside the gates of Buckingham Palace lay the rest of Britain. Inside the palace gates stood the specially invited representatives of the British Commonwealth, and only they, the BBC reported.
All of a sudden, I was no longer vexed about the Queen having a pop concert in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, nor any longer irritated by the previous fire.
My country's representative was invited to stand inside the palace gates, along with other representatives of the British Commonwealth.
This was the most inclusive and protective royal gesture it is possible to imagine. I'm therefore more than a little shocked and disappointed that Jamaica was not among those asked to light a beacon to commemorate this historic event. There has been no commemoration in Jamaica.
Is it that our Government was offered the opportunity to participate, and replied that it was beyond them to light a beacon.
Or was it that, the lights having gone out in Kings House on the night of the Queen's dinner here, Her Majesty thought us incapable of lighting one.
The Antarctic Expedition lit a beacon, Australia lit a beacon, 2007 beacons were lit up in countries all over the world. Where was ours?
Was the beacon lit in secret here, because the Jamaican Government couldn't afford a public function, in light of the disastrous floods?
What can have been the reason for our failure to participate in such a splendid moment of shared global history, participation to which we could not be more entitled nor deserving as a people?
Perhaps the Jamaican Government, like mistaken Tony Blair, believes that there is no public enthusiasm for the monarchy. Like it or not, this institution has become the universal symbol of stability and tradition among all races across the face of the globe.
This column is very well-acquainted with asking questions that nobody bothers to answer. But was there a Jamaican reggae band in the concert at the palace? Or was there a ban on foul language for the evening? If there was no Jamaican artiste, this is indeed a failure to participate.
I fear to ask, therefore, whether our country's ambassador to the Court of St. James was in attendance at any point, because the answer might be no.
But it is the absence of a beacon here in Jamaica that nettles me most, because it would have been so symbolic and so simple. I wonder, therefore, whether the acting British High Commissioner to Jamaica would care to confirm that we have not so fallen in the Queen's estimation that she thinks us incapable of lighting a beacon.
If the whole damn thing is a secret, I promise to keep it confidential.
