JAMAICA'S NAME is gone abroad in ways suggesting that we seem intent on making ourselves into international pariahs; or to paraphrase President Bush, not so much a rogue state as rogue people.Hot on the heels of the United Kingdom, Bermuda has imposed visa restrictions on Jamaicans wishing to travel to that country.
The island of 60,000 in the mid-Atlantic has not bothered with the diplomatic niceties. Even while acknowledging the tremendous contribution Jamaican nationals have made to their country in the areas of law and education, to name two, they are worried about other aspects of our influence.
In 2001 Bermuda had a list of 52 people who were on a 'stop-list' and were denied entry to the country. The list included eight Jamaicans. Also in 2001 33 persons were asked to leave the country, they included 10 Jamaicans. And, another 10 Jamaicans were denied entry to the island in 2001. Twenty-eight Jamaicans are in their jails.
Other Bermudans have been on local radio programmes speaking about the emergence of criminal gangs in their island, which they attribute to Jamaicans. The behaviour of Jamaicans and their activities are said to be a hot topic on call-in programmes in Bermuda.
It would seem that we are now into the export of our boorishness, our violence and our criminal behaviour. As we are now discovering other people are not prepared to put up with it and are exercising the option of excluding us from their countries. Also, as we are discovering, the taint ultimately affects us all. Father Richard Ho Lung's experience at Pearson International airport in Toronto where he said he was made to feel like a criminal and a man with something to hide is perhaps an indication of what we can brace ourselves to expect.
There is an economic dimension to this issue. Many of the Jamaicans who go overseas do so in search of employment and ultimately to better their lives. With more and more doors being closed to us migration as an outlet is becoming less of an option and therefore the unemployment and other economic pressures locally can be expected to increase.
We should therefore treat this latest development as one more indication of the urgent need to fix the economy. Mending the national image abroad is equally urgent.
