12 Apr 2006 |
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| By Ben Oghre I think Uche Nworah expected Diane Abbott's views to be different from the average ethnic Jamaican's sciolism and perception of most things Nigerian. This phenomenon is deep rooted in the psyche of many of our Jamaican brothers and sisters based in Britain. If Diane Abbott looks carefully she will see it is the Jamaicans in the UK who continually seek relevance by recourse to the primordial sentiments of ethnicity and nationality that fans the flames of discord amongst Nigerians and Jamaicans. It is this overwhelming ignorance that pervades the black race in Britain. If you were raised and surrounded by people who have enslaved, abused and hated you, it's no surprise that in addition to whites and Asians you'd find other groups to despise. The Jamaicans in the UK in my view and observation are a good example of this. As a Nigerian living in the UK for many years, it is indeed quite a revealing experience; the brand of hate you will find among the Jamaicans in the UK is very interesting. It is not only the interface of indecency and illiteracy but it's the ignorance, cretinism, inanity and irrelevance in some of the utterances and actions of this lost in the time wasp group of former slaves. The hate of Africans is visceral and pathological. There is no political correctness with this lot, the Jamaicans tried to no avail to become a part of Britain's "accepted" ethnic power structure by turning on Africans. Many Jamaicans talk about Africans with quizzical nescience and obtuseness, wondering why Nigerians are so functionally literate and professional, why even the criminal elements among Nigerians are brainy scammers, as supposed to the petty criminal lot of their mugging, rape and yardie intelligentsia. When former British metropolitan police commissioner, Paul Condon said 80 percent of muggings in the City of London was perpetrated by blacks he was in fact talking about our violent and barbaric brothers of Jamaican extraction. They cannot understand why even in crime the average Nigerian is a white-collar, non violent skilful criminal. They envy Nigerians their resourcefulness and drive to succeed. Initially their claim was that Nigerians work dirty petty jobs that blacks should not do in modern day Britain, they claim such lowly jobs make us look like slaves and put all blacks in a bad spotlight. They prefer instead a culture of handouts and dependency on state welfare and benefits, the average Jamaican sees welfare dependency as a way of getting back at the white man for years of enslavement. They consider council social welfare housing as their birth right, and once saw Nigerians as rivals in struggling and scrounging for hand outs in a society they feel blacks have become economically deprived and alienated. But times have changed, with multiculturalism and changing legislation against racism and discrimination, many blacks have started to enter professions they were never allowed to venture before, many have aspired to become academics and professionals in many fields of endeavour, many seek educational pursuits, and it's sad to say that many of our Jamaican born brothers and sisters refuse to uplift themselves educationally and professionally. It is understandable that many of them are illegal but then so are Africans; the question is why are there more Africans in UK higher institutions than there are Jamaicans? Why are there more Nigerians and Africans buying properties than the average Jamaican? Why is it that when you look in higher institutions and in the corporate corridors where minorities exist there are more Asians, British born West Indians and Africans than Jamaicans? Their constant drivel about slavery and victimisation is almost costing them socio-economic empowerment in the UK society and serve to do anything else but leave them in the time wasp that they created for themselves. The average Nigeria see many Jamaicans as desolate and wasters of opportunities, a wasted chance derived from being more affiliated with the UK from the days of slavery and being one of the first minority groups in the country. The successes of other minority groups compared to the depravity of many Jamaicans in the UK are an eyesore that many Nigerians can't understand, why waste many academic and professional opportunities in a land of plenty like the UK? Nigerians often speak of Jamaicans as confused and out of touch with the changing times. I often wonder why the Jamaicans will be more associated with weeds, alcohol, dread locks and reggae music as supposed to say the medical profession, engineering and science. What standards have the Jamaicans set for people from Africa who came after them? How have they socially and economically helped the lot of many black people who initially came here to meet Jamaicans as the first mainly black people in Britain? Perhaps Diane Abbott should use her time in Nigeria to find out why Nigeria was voted the happiest nation on earth a few years ago; she should check what lessons Jamaicans can learn from Nigeria's fast growing economy that has produced freedom from debt and a surplus of nearly $50 billion, rather than engaging in irrelevant homilies she should advice Jamaica to learn from the socio-economic successes of Nigeria. Ben Oghre, Co Wexford, Republic of Ireland
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