Barack Obama

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• • gleanerjamaica • jamaicagleaner • FEATURE THE GLEANER, THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015 E7
OBAMA ON THE ROCK
FORMER JAMAICAN Ambassador
to Washington, Audrey Marks, feels
the visit of American President Barack
Obama is an ideal opportunity for the
Jamaican Government to re-engage
with the diaspora to have them support
the island not just through remittances
but also through investment and by
their voting preferences.
Speaking at a Gleaner Editors’
Forum, Marks noted that the large
Jamaican population currently living
in the United states is not being
utilised effectively in policy decisions
by the current administration, even as
they offer the potential for sources of
foreign direct investment as well as a
powerful voting and lobbying block.
“Just over three years ago when
Secretary (Hilary) Clinton came to
Jamaica we were working hard at
looking at how can we utilise the
diaspora, because it is really not
totally understood,” said Marks.
“We tend to only talk about the
diaspora in terms of remittances, but
similar to Jamaica’s demographics
there are two per cent of individuals
who are extremely wealthy
Jamaicans; there is another eight
per cent who are also reasonably
wealthy and can become
investors, then you have 30 per
cent who are professionals
who are looking for opportu-
nities to invest in Jamaica.
And, of course, there are
the 60 per cent who send
back remittances, but we
have never gone after that
top 40 per cent who are very
passionate about this country.”
Marks argued that while invest-
ments from the Jamaican diaspora
would make a tremendous impact on
the country’s business climate, the
untapped political power of the
diaspora community could have an
even more far-reaching effect.
“The diaspora is a very large voter
bloc that if effectively targeted could also
influenceAmerican policy,” she said.
Marks believed that it was imperative
for the diaspora to unite and support
those politicians who support the
interests of Jamaica.
Gary Spaulding
Senior Gleaner Writer
P RESIDENT OF the
United States (US),
Barack Obama, steps
on the Jamaican scene
as this country seeks to fashion
its own economic programme
of relief, recovery and reform.
Fascinatingly contrasting yet
similar phases have marked
two previous occasions when
sitting US presidents set foot
on local soil. This time around
promises to be just as, if not
more, absorbing.
Yes, it’s two and not one US
presidents who have made a
visit to Jamaica while in office,
according to respected Jamaican
historian, Arnold Bertram.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a
wartime US president, came to
Jamaica long before Ronald
Reagan embraced former Prime
Minister Edward Seaga in the
ideologically flavoured period of
the 1980s.
Others such as Jimmy Carter
and Bill Clinton have, in recent
years, visited Jamaica after
they left office.
But Barack Obama of current
vintage, the first United States
president of African descent,
touching down in Jamaica feels
rather special.
VISIT FEELS DIFFERENT
Differences in time have
uniquely positioned all three and
it’s largely for this reason that
Obama’s visit feels distinctly dif-
ferent to the ordinary Jamaican.
Roosevelt, the American
statesman and political leader
who served as the 32nd presi-
dent of the US, was a Democrat.
FDR, as he was affectionately
called, won a record four elec-
tions and served from March
1933 to his death in April 1945,
and is said to have been the first
US president to visit Jamaica.
Roosevelt was the central fig-
ure in world events during the
mid-20th century, leading the
US during a time of worldwide
economic depression and World
War 2, with his programme for
relief, recovery and reform.
Obama steps on the Jamaican
platform approximately 70 years
later as this country fashions its
own programme of relief, recovery
and reform, with an approving
nod of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF).
It’s left to be seen whether this
administration will be able to
work wonders as FDR did under
his economic programme known
as the New Deal.
Notably, US 40th president,
Ronald Reagan, visited Jamaica
in the early 1980s, also in the
midst of spectacular, global
ideological upheavals that left
economies, including Jamaica’s,
scrambling for survival.
Unlike FDR and Obama,
who emerged out of the bosom
of the Democratic Party,
Reagan, the one-time movie
screen actor, was Republican.
FDR HAD TO STAY PUT
And unlike Reagan and
Obama who will move through
Jamaica, albeit briefly, FDR,
afflicted with the crippling dis-
ease poliomyelitis, had to stay
put on the ship that brought him
to Jamaica.
A signal of how far Jamaica
and its political parties have
come from the ideological days
of the past is indicative in the
fact that Obama will be meeting
a People’s National Party
administration.
With FDR having no such
worries as both political forces
were not yet in existence, it
was Reagan who embraced for-
mer Prime Minister Edward
Seaga in 1980.
At a time when former Prime
Minister and President of the
People’s National Party Michael
Manley was experimenting with
Socialism, the capitalist-oriented
Seaga was the darling of the US
and Reagan showed his affection
by visiting Jamaica.
Just as Seaga needed the fillip
of a Reagan visit 35 years ago
when he sought to rescue a tee-
tering economy, Simpson Miller
requires stimulus in 2015.
Only time will tell whether
the historic visit of Barack
Obama will influence the efforts
of Simpson Miller and her
Finance Minister Peter Phillips
in reversing Jamaica’s economic
misfortunes.
Robert Lalah
Features Editor
WHEN YOU’RE Miss Lilly from Bellefield
in Manchester and the most immediate task
ahead of you is sweeping the steps to the
Bellefield Shiloh Apostolic Church, you
couldn’t give a hoot if the president of the
United States is only miles away in
Kingston. For she has more glorious, sancti-
fied thoughts on her mind as she readies
herself for the coming of her saviour.
“Missa Obama is nat my saviour! No sah!”
she snapped. “No disrespect to him, still. Is a
good man and me hear seh him bright and
these tings. But I only business wid one man
and that is Jesus Christ. When yuh hear dat
him is coming den me will have more fi seh,”
she said. Miss Lilly promptly resumed sweeping,
mumbling something about pestilence and
demons as I walked off.
I had visited Bellefield last week to see
how residents there were feeling about the
impending visit to Jamaica of Barack
Obama, the president of the United States.
While in Kingston and St Andrew the masses
were buzzing about the visit, in Bellefield,
the atmosphere was, let’s say, more sedate.
“Seh who ah come yah?” asked Gerald, a
wrinkled mason I met in the modest commu-
nity square. “So him is coming Bellefield?
But ef him ongle coming Kingston den dat
nuh really matter me. Him fi come
Manchester mek we roast some yam and boil
two flour. Yuh nuh get dem ting deh ah foreign,
yuh know. My cousin live ah one place name
Hatlanta, and she call pon di phone and tell
mi granddaughter seh is pure hamburger she
deh nyam,” said Gerald. “Dem ting deh nuh
good fi you, yuh know. But anyhow, I wish
Missa Obama well. God go wid him.”
While it appears even a personal visit to
Bellefield by Obama would ignite little
more than modest interest from residents, in
Mandeville, the parish capital, it was a
whole different story.
It was a busy Thursday afternoon and Miss
Charmaine was heading home to cook dinner
for her husband and two teenage sons. I asked
her what she thought about the visit of Barack
Obama that was then just days away. “I feel
very good, you know. I feel very good,” she
said. She was clutching two large plastic bags.
I could see a hefty piece of pumpkin sticking
out from one of them. “When Obama was run-
ning for president, I pray, I pray, I pray. Mi just
love him and mi glad when him win. I use him
and show my two boys dem dat dem must try
and be like Obama. I say look at that man. Him
is a black man and because of how him bright
him is now running the most powerful country
in the world. I can’t wait for him to come.
Even though him only going to Kingston I
going to watch him on my TV.”
Miss Charmaine’s eyes lit up when she
talked about Obama. I asked her if other
people she knew were as excited about the
visit as she was. “Yes, man! Nuff Mandeville
people used to live in America, yuh know.
And some still have family there so we have
a connection. In fact, if Obama did know
that him woulda tek a drive come here. But
anyhow, we love him and can’t wait fi see
him. Until next week come and
gone, Mandeville is Obama
town,” she laughed.
A lonely road leading to Top Bellefield
in Manchester.
President Barack
Obama and former
president Bill Clinton.
US PRESIDENTS AND
JA’S CHANGING TIDE
Manchester and the coming of Obama
AP
President Barack Obama (second left) poses with former presidents (from left) George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush,
Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in this January 7, 2009 file photo.
Look to the diaspora – Marks
vision of a greener America
which shifted towards new types
of energy technology. But there
have been real stumbles along
the way, and it remains to be
seen if some of his measures on
emission standards survive his
presidency (since they haven’t
involved any new legislation).
In foreign policy, the record is
once again muddled. Mr Obama
said he’d take US troops out of
Iraq. He did, ISIS advanced, and
nowUS troops are slowly trick-
ling back. He said he’d close the
American prison at Guantanamo
Bay. He hasn’t yet. He said he’d
win friends abroad and help turn
back the tide of Islamist terrorism.
The latter is looking more resilient
than ever, and some ofAmerica’s
friends have been wondering
where all the love has gone. In the
Middle East, for instance, the
Obama administration may have
pulled off a dramatic feat in the
recent agreement on nuclear
weaponry negotiated with Iran.
But in the process, theWhite
House has antagonised staunch
American allies like SaudiArabia
and Israel, who may now become
even more belligerent in response.
All in all, the Obama presi-
dency has so far been marked by
great vision but shoddy imple-
mentation. Still, the ‘vision
thing’ – as George H.W. Bush
used to call it – should not be dis-
missed out of hand. It has been a
welcome change after some of
the harrowing visions the Bush-
Cheney years gave the world, to
say nothing of the nothing-but-
vision of the Clinton years. If
America were a malt shop, the
Obama presidency might be
remembered for producing either
an experimental sundae which
didn’t quite come off or a bold
new flavour that took a while to
catch on – it’s perhaps too early
to say. But that beats the food
poisoning of the previous
administration, or the endless
supplies of vanilla ice cream of
the Clinton years – sweet but
hardly something that will be
engraved in collective memory.
It has been a presidency of high
hopes, modest achievement, but
potentially lasting change.
VISION
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