THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE RECENT Stone polls, which state that 53 per cent of Jamaicans believe that the country would be better off today had we remained a British colony, have sparked much debate and controversy. Much of the argument has foolishly been centred on the past: Jamaica before Independence.
The present generation certainly are not thinking about what Jamaica was like before Independence; 58 per cent of Jamaica's population today want economic success and prosperity. They are thinking about the parlous state of affairs in the country while observing the enormous prosperity and wealth enjoyed by the British citizens of the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands and even Anguilla.
Many Jamaicans have siblings and other relatives who have been forced to seek a better life for themselves in these territories in order to escape the penury, crime and destitution encountered in their homeland.
May I remind our commentators that Britain has changed; so have her colonies and suggest that they scrupulously explore this fundamental element which has inspired such an extraordinary consensus.
I am, etc.
GEORGE ABBOTT
P.O. Box 2859
Kingston 8
