Money
JAM | Aug 20, 2022

Steven Golding unlikely to find pot of gold from ‘tourism reparation tax’

Al Edwards

Al Edwards / Our Today

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Steven Golding speaking at the 2018 staging of the UNIA Marcus Garvey Awards at Somali Court, Lady Musgrave Road in St Andrew. (Photo: Facebook @steven.golding.ja)

Steven Golding, president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), is calling on the Jamaican Government to impose a reparation tax on tourists from countries with a history of trading slaves as chattel.

The ardent supporter of reparations for Jamaicans and all black people of the Caribbean said: “One of the easiest things you can do is put a reparation tax on every passport from a country that has a history of trading in chattel slavery and kidnapping Africans, and you can collect that every year, but we are afraid of that because it will hurt our tourism.”

The call for reparations has grown in tandem with many Caribbean states including Jamaica, seeking to become a republic and do away with the Queen as head of state.

Veteran minister and MP Mike Henry has calculated that the United Kingdom should pay Jamaica £7.6 billion for the damage imposed on both the citizens and the country of Jamaica as a result of its slavery policy and colonisation of the country.

Member of Parliament for Central Clarendon, Mike Henry, speaking at the 66th staging of the Denbigh Agricultural show in August 2018. (Photo: Facebook @MikeHenryMP)

Minister of Culture Olivia “Babsy“ Grange said: “ We are hoping for reparatory justice in all forms that one would expect if they are to really ensure that we get justice from injustices to repair the damages that our ancestors experienced.

“Our African ancestors were forcibly removed from their home and suffered unparalleled atrocities in Africa to carry out forced labour to the benefit of the British Empire. Redress is due.”

Grange recently added that Jamaica is now seeking legal recourse on the issue.

Both the United States and the United Kingdom have made it clear that the respective countries will not be doling out billions of dollars to Jamaica but instead will help with education and infrastructure projects that can benefit the country.

“Jamaica has not made progress since independence. There are many who feel it would have been better off remaining a British colony. Successive Jamaican governments have not made people’s lives better. Illiteracy, poverty, debt and crime define Jamaica. It would do far better focusing its efforts on those issues than on the pipe dream of sticking its hands out for reparation funding. It has to move on from what occurred centuries ago and make its way in the twenty-first century,” said Sebastian Flyte of the Evelyn Waugh Society.

Golding remains adamant, insisting, “Don’t let the countries that practised enslaving Africans decide how they are going to give reparations. They must yield to what we are demanding and what is owed to us.”

Steven Golding, the son of former Jamaican Prime Minister Brue Golding believes that this reparation tourism tax can be imposed in conjunction with other CARICOM states with the region’s solidarity on this matter remaining unbreakable.

Dr Julius Garvey supports this stance maintaining that Barbados and other eastern Caribbean countries are pushing a reparations plan. “The movement is growing becoming a global one,” he further added.

Dr Julius Garvey, son of Jamaican National Hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey. (Photo: Ebony Magazine)

But with tourism being a major pillar of the Jamaican economy and a leader in foreign currency earnings, it seems unlikely that this tourism reparation tax will see the light of day. Over 70 per cent of visitors to Jamaica come from the United States. Then you have around 250,000 from the UK.

A reparation tourism tax may prove prohibitive. It would be interesting to ascertain Minister of Tourism Ed Bartlett’s view on this reparation tourism tax, particularly in light of the industry staging a recovery post-COVID pandemic.

Last year, Jamaica saw 1.5 million visitors come to its shores resulting in US$2 billion. The target this year is 3.2 million visitors with revenues of US$3.3 billion. Already, July of this year has seen a 10 per cent increase in arrivals compared to 2019.

“If Jamaica insists on this reparation tourism tax it will be to its detriment. Tourists will choose to go to Dom Rep, US Virgin Islands, Mexico [and] Costa Rica instead. People vacation to relax and enjoy, not to be embroiled in politics. It will be a guaranteed turn-off. No one goes on holiday to feel guilty,” said Matt Helm, who resides in the Florida Keys.

Former British High Commissioner Asif Ahmed, speaking on reparations, said: “When it comes to this direct request for reparations from government to government the reason it will not prosper is because who do we pay it to?”

Asif Ahmad (Photo: Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica)

“The people who were harmed directly are no longer here.”

Lionel Shriver, writing in The Spectator, asks, “First off, who would qualify for restitution? Would recipients of taxpayer-funded guilt money have to prove a lineage tracing back to human chattel?

“Or would the determination be made by skin colour and beyond a certain whiter shade of pale you’re out of luck? Pretty repulsive.

“Next, how much? Anything short of an enormous sum would risk seeming an insult. And monetary value is subjective; one person’s life-changing windfall is another’s slap in the face. The arithmetic seems arbitrary.”

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