By Peter Polack

Peter Polack

The United States Of America has a unique connection with Jamaica in that they share the same national motto. For the USA it is E Pluribus Unum or out of many, one. For Jamaica it is ‘Out of Many, One People’. It is thought to have it’s origin from the Roman poet, Virgil.

For the USA the phrase came out of the American Revolutionary War which led to American independence in 1776. Their motto arose from the unity of thirteen colonies of what was then the USA.For the Jamaicans, their motto replaced an obsolete one when they too became independent and it was meant to reflect a new multicultural post-colonial country.

The Caribbean had more or less followed suit in the last several decades with political and trade groups to reflect unity. That has all changed now.

The biggest threat to Caribbean unity are the island countries that either support the new hegemonies,or worse, remain silent.

This divisiveness is no different from political groups, political maneuvering, special interest groups even quasi indigenous groups like the Maroons in the Caribbean. If inner unity is unattainable then outer unity is a mirage.

While these realities swirl around the islands like hurricane Melissa, it should give pause to the status quo before going gospel with the instant reality of being on the outside looking in or the inside looking out.

Walking on a tightrope trying to be all things to all men does not work. 

Ask the British Overseas Territories.

Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer from the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88.