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The plantocracy
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By David P Rowe
Jamaica still has a plantocracy, people who own large tracts of land in a relatively small island. This plantocracy’s predecessors fiercely resisted the abolition of slavery in the same way that they now fiercely oppose Portia Simpson Miller. These traditional big boys cannot control the Prime Minister as they control the radio waves and the different chambers of commerce and private sector groupings. That is why they are attacking Simpson Miller personally in public.
Their problem is that she is a politician of spotless reputation, who the Jamaican people love.
The big boys wish us to forget the historical evil of their plantations on which black people were beaten daily. Many men were killed for the slightest indignity. I am sure that many members of the local plantocracy would love to whip Minister Phillip Paulwell as their forefathers would have exulted many years ago. But times have changed and the cat-o-nine tails are no longer available, so the editorial cartoon is being used.
Frequently on the plantations, the female slaves were raped by the white planters, resulting in mixed race babies known as mulattoes. The mulattoes were allowed to work in and around the plantation houses, a process which led to their adoption of certain European cultural norms. But the social reality remained that the poorest, least educated, lowest ranking white persons were held in higher stature than the most respected black people in Jamaica.
So a fairly dangerous hurricane affected Jamaica. The Prime Minister quite correctly called a State of Public Emergency to prevent looting. The plantocracy’s collective knees knocked. “Are the black people in Jamaica gone crazy?” Page one editorials spouted forth. “What next?”
It has also been discovered that many plantocratic candidates for Parliament are also US citizens. Sadly, these matters cannot be hidden because of the Freedom of Information Act in the United States. So the affected individuals who have been naturalised in the United States and have been nominated for Parliament in Jamaica, should admit their status now before it becomes an embarrassment.
David P Rowe is a Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law and the S.t Thomas University School of Law.
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By David P Rowe
Jamaica still has a plantocracy, people who own large tracts of land in a relatively small island. This plantocracy’s predecessors fiercely resisted the abolition of slavery in the same way that they now fiercely oppose Portia Simpson Miller. These traditional big boys cannot control the Prime Minister as they control the radio waves and the different chambers of commerce and private sector groupings. That is why they are attacking Simpson Miller personally in public.
Their problem is that she is a politician of spotless reputation, who the Jamaican people love.
The big boys wish us to forget the historical evil of their plantations on which black people were beaten daily. Many men were killed for the slightest indignity. I am sure that many members of the local plantocracy would love to whip Minister Phillip Paulwell as their forefathers would have exulted many years ago. But times have changed and the cat-o-nine tails are no longer available, so the editorial cartoon is being used.
Frequently on the plantations, the female slaves were raped by the white planters, resulting in mixed race babies known as mulattoes. The mulattoes were allowed to work in and around the plantation houses, a process which led to their adoption of certain European cultural norms. But the social reality remained that the poorest, least educated, lowest ranking white persons were held in higher stature than the most respected black people in Jamaica.
So a fairly dangerous hurricane affected Jamaica. The Prime Minister quite correctly called a State of Public Emergency to prevent looting. The plantocracy’s collective knees knocked. “Are the black people in Jamaica gone crazy?” Page one editorials spouted forth. “What next?”
It has also been discovered that many plantocratic candidates for Parliament are also US citizens. Sadly, these matters cannot be hidden because of the Freedom of Information Act in the United States. So the affected individuals who have been naturalised in the United States and have been nominated for Parliament in Jamaica, should admit their status now before it becomes an embarrassment.
David P Rowe is a Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law and the S.t Thomas University School of Law.
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