This year makes it 61 years since the end of the Second World War. The spillover from that is mixed; as some aspects of it are positive while some are negative. There are some effects that cause debate as to whether they were positive or negative. What is very clear however is that the world after 1945 is a different place than the world before.

Michael Burke

We have all been taught about the role of national heroes, particularly Norman Manley, in the fight for political independence. The truth is that the Second World War had a great role to play in that advancement, even in India where Mahatma Gandhi was the father of the 20th-century fights for political independence.

Of Gandhi, Britain's then prime minister Winston Churchill said, "I did not become His Majesty's first minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire." Yet by 1947 India gained political independence. The fact is that when Britain was being rebuilt after the war, they simply did not have enough money to maintain an empire.

So the policy changed to one of granting independence on request, as it would ease the burden off the so-called "Mother country". The gradual changeover from colony to independence actually started before the war was over. And as you know, Jamaica was granted independence in 1962.
Up to the time of the war, Jamaica produced mainly raw material and unprocessed agricultural products. But importation was next to impossible during the war. The food preparation "dip an' fall back" or "run dung" was devised during the war.

The first verse (and chorus) of a mento song of the era was: "Now when de war was ova an' everyting was scarce, an everyone was experimentin wid tings to full dem space. We got a lot of food here but meat was out of stock, so to put it back we recommend de dip an fall back. Dip an fall back, dip an fall back, my advice dere is nutting nicer dan de dip an fall back".

And the war coincided with the rise of nationalism in Jamaica. The fact that things were scarce gave Mrs Rose Leon an opportunity to put the Made in Jamaica label on her chemical products, which were used in women's hair. Rose Leon, who was later a minister in governments of both major political parties, died tragically in 1999.

Technology developed for war purposes is now being used for commercial purposes. For example, there are the jet planes as well as a greater use of computers. True, the computer was invented all the way back in 1866 in England by Charles Babbage. Further advances in the development of computer technology came about for the war.

But there was a caveat on releasing the technology for 30 or 40 years. This is why computers were not used so often before the 1970s. The fact that such technology was not used until 1970 only serves to confirm the continuing effects of the war, in this instance, a positive one.

The fact that many persons have illegal guns today has been blamed on politicians over the years. The truth is that some politicians only developed on an illegal practice that was already taking place. The greater use of guns started after the war when Jamaican soldiers stole army guns and sold them in Jamaica. By 1947, Dr Ivan Lloyd, a PNP legislator, would say in the House of representatives that there were too many guns on the streets of Jamaica.

A huge section of the Jamaican diaspora is in England. The fact is that after the war many British soldiers who survived the war could no longer work because they were injured. So Britain sent for Jamaicans, who did all the manual work in England.

Today, many of them have returned and are called "returning residents". Those who are still in England send much-needed foreign exchange by way of remittances to their relatives and friends in Jamaica.

But the fact is that the whole business of Jamaicans being in England is because of the war. In terms of Jamaicans in England, it has not all been rosy. Jamaicans have had to encounter prejudice over the years and there have been riots.
Indeed, the prejudice was the motivation to the West Indies cricket team for their earlier victories, which they have great difficulty in reproducing today.

Word of that prejudice would filter back to the Caribbean and to the West Indies cricket team. It has been said that the earlier West Indies victories were a form of revenge for the bad treatment being meted out by Caucasian Britons. As the prejudice lessens, the motivation for victory in cricket also lessens.

The Women's Liberation Movement also developed during the war. When the men in the United States of America and Europe were at war, the women did jobs such as being bus drivers, truck drivers, postal deliveries, working in mines and factories, and all the other jobs traditionally done by men. For some reason, because of such jobs women gained confidence. Was this a good or a bad thing? It is certainly debatable.

Cameal: Sittin' On Top

Laws of Men

Alton Ellis hailed a musical icon