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The ghosts of the planter class
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Dear Editor,
I am beginning to feel worried and dismayed that Jamaica is going to return to the symbolisms of the planter class (planter's party) from which the first Diocesan Bishop, Rt Revd Christopher Lipscombe, tried to separate the Anglican clergy.
The first ghost is the "dependency syndrome and the identity crisis", which had been mentioned in a speech by the late Michael Manley when he addressed the World Council of Churches in 1975 (Nairobi, Kenya).
The second was when Douglas Fletcher reiterated that 300 years of British colonialism created a Jamaican mindset that neglected creativity, and one that genuflects to permission from the metropole for all decisions. This seems to include the commissioner of police who may come from any country in the UK.
The third ghost is one that VS Naipaul calls "the mimic men", because Caribbean people tend to distrust themselves and love to tell lies about themselves.
The fourth ghost was highlighted when Prof Rex Nettleford bemoaned the fact that with all the struggle for Independence we have not moved from cultural inferiority to cultural creativity.
Thank God, the Anglicans in the Province of the West Indies in the Prayer Book included a confession which says "we have not loved ourselves as we ought".
Revd Canon Ernle Gordon
St Mary's Rectory
Cowper Drive, Kgn 20
gordfm@yahoo.com
The ghosts of the planter class
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Dear Editor,
I am beginning to feel worried and dismayed that Jamaica is going to return to the symbolisms of the planter class (planter's party) from which the first Diocesan Bishop, Rt Revd Christopher Lipscombe, tried to separate the Anglican clergy.
The first ghost is the "dependency syndrome and the identity crisis", which had been mentioned in a speech by the late Michael Manley when he addressed the World Council of Churches in 1975 (Nairobi, Kenya).
The second was when Douglas Fletcher reiterated that 300 years of British colonialism created a Jamaican mindset that neglected creativity, and one that genuflects to permission from the metropole for all decisions. This seems to include the commissioner of police who may come from any country in the UK.
The third ghost is one that VS Naipaul calls "the mimic men", because Caribbean people tend to distrust themselves and love to tell lies about themselves.
The fourth ghost was highlighted when Prof Rex Nettleford bemoaned the fact that with all the struggle for Independence we have not moved from cultural inferiority to cultural creativity.
Thank God, the Anglicans in the Province of the West Indies in the Prayer Book included a confession which says "we have not loved ourselves as we ought".
Revd Canon Ernle Gordon
St Mary's Rectory
Cowper Drive, Kgn 20
gordfm@yahoo.com
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