Micheal Burke

The residents of Bamboo Avenue and adjoining areas in the Liguanea area of St Andrew are incensed that the US embassy is being relocated there. They have pointed to the fact that US embassies all over the world have been attacked by terrorists. An attack on the US embassy, if relocated to Bamboo Avenue, could affect the entire area of thousands of feet to the north, south, east and west, which includes schools, the universities and several residents.

In his piece in the Sunday Observer of July 18, John Maxwell wrote that he is being saluted in supermarkets, pharmacies and on the streets by people who previously disliked his stance on the USA. All of a sudden Maxwell has found himself unwittingly the champion of a cause that is backed by members of the upper middle class. And it is not Maxwell who has changed, but an offensive position is now directed at a section of the Jamaican upper middle class, causing them to change.

And John Maxwell has set me thinking of an idea that may never be used and might even be derided. The fact is that wherever the embassy is placed in Jamaica, it will pose a security threat with what has been happening since 9/11. The Americans themselves recognise this, which is why they decided not to go ahead and turn the old Crown Plaza Hotel in Constant Spring into their embassy.

Now, with all the little islands off the coast of Jamaica, why not place the US embassy on one of them? Many of us have spoken about relocating the prisoners to one of the islets off the coast. Those in favour of casino gambling have also suggested "offshore gambling". So why not an offshore US embassy?

You might say that such an idea is impractical. How would one transact business with the embassy, such as the regular-seeking of a US visa? There is an easy solution to that. It would be nothing for the US government to make available a boat with offices aboard that could sail into Jamaica's harbours to transact such business. Indeed, rural residents might no longer need to travel to Kingston to seek a US visa because, if the embassy officials have a generous spirit, they could sail around the island in such a way that they visit every parish for two or three days in each month.

And speaking of applying for US visas. I was a passenger in a taxi along Oxford Road in the vicinity of the US embassy last Tuesday. And there I saw one of the greatest acts of humility by a prominent person that I had ever seen in half-a-century of living. Standing in the long line in the hot Jamaican sun waiting to be processed for a visa was Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus Edgerton Clarke. He pulled no strings to get ahead of anyone else. Had he done that, he would never have been there in that line.

It has been said that one definition of "mixed feelings" is seeing your mother-in-law driving over a precipice in your brand new Pajero. Archbishop Clarke provided another definition of "mixed feelings" for me. I sympathised with him sweating it out in that long line at 75 years of age, because if I live that long I certainly would not want to have to do that.
But the retired archbishop made me proud to be Roman Catholic by practising the very humility that Jesus Christ taught and our church preaches. I am sure that Archbishop Clarke would have preferred to be in an air-conditioned boat doubling up as an office of an offshore US embassy. Still, as I have already indicated, the idea might never be used, but I make it known anyway.

And while I am on the subject of offshore facilities, there are things that we should all know as a matter of general knowledge in civics and geography. About 11 years ago, Jamaica was declared an archipelagic state. Indeed, this is part of the legacy of P J Patterson, and since he is so concerned about his legacy, it is a wonder that he has not done anything to publicise it.

And what is an archipelagic state? First of all, an archipelago is like the Bahamas, the Philippines and Polynesia, where a chain of islands make up a single nation. The word "archipelagic" is simply the adjective of the noun "archipelago". With Jamaica being an archipelagic state, all of the islands within the 12 miles of Caribbean Sea around Jamaica are part of the nation of Jamaica.

According to United Nations law, 12 miles of sea around any nation is the territory of that country. If the distance between two countries is fewer than 12 miles, then the distance is divided. Your next question is, what are the benefits of Jamaica being an archipelagic state? It has to do with fishing rights. The maximum distance by which our fishermen can set out their nets is no longer 12 miles from the coast of the Jamaican mainland, but 12 miles from the furthest islet within 12 miles of the Jamaican mainland.

And with that in mind, an off-coast embassy within the 12-mile radius is still a part of Jamaica. Indeed, it always was.

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