Jamaica disease

In the mid 80s, the Japanese described New Zealand's nuclear-free policy as the "New Zealand disease" which had to be prevented from spreading throughout the South Pacific. They were right. Not long after our own nuclear-weapons free zone was declared, the Treaty of Rarotonga creating the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone was signed. What's making monarchists sweat over Jamaica's republicanism is that the same could be true of the English-speaking Caribbean. 

Meanwhile, the reasons for a Jamaican republic are being sharpened:

Great Britain has never been an affectionate parent or benevolent guardian to Jamaica. It has, throughout our history, simply used us - and many others - to further its imperialist pursuits. For centuries, our ancestors toiled in slavery, creating wealth for distant foreigners. Even after securing Emancipation, we were, for more than a century, further oppressed and dehumanised by the Brits.

Decades after Independence, we hold steadfast to vestiges of colonialism both in our system of governance and in our attitudes towards one another - particularly our deeply embedded class divisions.

Our entire existence has been marked by submission - both physical and mental - to our captors. It is appropriate, then, that at this moment in our history, 50 years after gaining political independence from the British Crown, we will make one final gesture towards mental emancipation by freeing ourselves from our London Syndrome in replacing the Queen - a descendant of slave traders - with our own indigenous head of state - a descendant of slaves.