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0:00 Everybody keep talking about I'm going back home. I'm going back to Jamaica. But somehow the majority of us is still here. So today I'm asking the uncomfortable question. Do we actually want to go home or are we just tired of living in the UK? This is on the veranda with Kel. This is a space where real stories from the Caribbean diaspora are spoken about and where we discuss things that are maybe discussed quietly. Some level of shame around it. But we have no shame here. We will not hype it up. We [clears throat] will not judge it. What we'll have is some just honest, genuine conversations. And I'm not here to lecture you. So yeah, welcome to On the Ver. I think that there's a genuine uproar and interest in Jamaica as a culture and
0:48 country. You know, on the media, it's coming across as a lovely place to live. It looks beautiful. And as a Jamaican myself, I do know the quality of life there is a lot different and one to aspire towards. Also, there is the cost of living in the UK. Financially, things are not that good. It feels wet, dry, and cold. Let's talk about the burnout and the racism that people experience from day to day and the microaggressions. Those things after a while gives you that sense of not belonging in the spaces that you are in. And before you know it, Jamaica is somewhat of a place, a place of escapism. You want to go there because you know, you have that familiarity with family and friends and nostalgia as well. Things that you experience before
1:33 that you now think that if you experience it again, it will be the best for you. And then on top of that, we have a a large proportion of social media that's now showing ways of moving back to Jamaica, how you can survive there. And you know for me what I have observed is coming from a really younger group of people as well with maybe a little bit less responsibility. And then you also remember the wind rush generation. So that's our parents and grandparents who their intentions were to come to Britain help to do whatever they can here earn as much invest as much as they can so that they can pack up and go home. Some were able to do it and then there was others who really struggled to get that done. For a lot of us, Jamaica isn't just a place, as I
2:19 said before, it's a it's an escapism. It's like holiday with a nice drink, you know, like it's a feeling of belonging, a family space, somewhere where all your troubles go away. As with all escapism, there's some realities that I feel like we have to pay attention to. And some of those fall into the concept of for example healthcare infrastructure in Jamaica. How are you going to actually earn money? What about your children and their education and their future? And then also for those who wasn't raised in Jamaica and you have bought into the idea of escapism. There are some real struggles in Jamaica that I feel isn't within play that we've somehow put aside. And I'm not saying that by the way. This is not me saying that Britain is any better. I think as Caribbean
3:06 people from time to time we will struggle with the UK and mental health and so Jamaica becomes even more of an inspiration because we want to have that experience of happiness and it appears to be a place of natural happiness. But the people from Jamaica and people who are currently living there may have a different story to tell. They will tell you about how bad the health care is and how much if you want good health care, you'll have to pay for it or wait an extremely long time. A lot of people that have moved back to Jamaica, specifically within the Windbrush generation when they've had a change of health, had to move back to the UK to get healthcare. Then you also have infrastructure in Jamaica. So, you know how you go online and you can pay for
3:52 everything online and all is well in Jamaica to pay your light bill. I mean that changed now, but back in the day to pay your light bill, you'd have to go join a line and pay your light bill that way. And that line could pick you all day. Things change now, so things are getting better for sure. Whenever we think about Jamaica, have we thought about the full picture? Money. How you going to survive there? Jamaica is very expensive. Nothing is free. There is not government benefits or child benefits or tax credits or anything like that to support you. If you're poor, you're poor. The end. On top of that, work. There's a lot of qualified people in Jamaica, a lot. And they are struggling to find jobs there. They have to leave Jamaica to get jobs. So sometimes you love a place deeply and still you can
4:38 struggle to live there. Another thing I think that because of us as Jamaican and also I think the Wind Rush generation kind of spilled this on us and because we're proud people as well, nowhere no better than yard. We have this guilt of even thinking that no me really want to go back. It's almost like saying that out loud feels like a betrayal of everything that you know and love. I just want to say that staying in the UK doesn't actually mean that you love Jamaica any less. As a matter of fact, we all have reasons for why we have left Jamaica and we have reasons for why we're still here. My main reason for staying here is my children. I can't imagine having to put them through the Jamaican education system, which by the way is amazing and
5:24 really grounds you and prepare for prepares you for the future. But in the same breath, when you leave Jamaica with any qualification of any sort, you are told that it's not enough. I don't want my children to fight that same system. So that's one of my reasons for not wanting to go back at this point. The idea of going back to Jamaica, I know for some people is genuine. And to be honest with you, the people who want go back to Jamaica and know people actually born and grow there, you know, are people who actually know Jamaica as adult because genuinely speaking, the people them know Jamaica as an adult and them go pick up them bag and go back first because they remember poverty, they remember the struggles. So yeah, all is good and well, you can go meet up with your friend up on the roadside and talk and laugh and have a drink and
6:10 whatever. But when no money did, life hard. So yeah, everybody say want go. But when the reality actually hits of going home and then the trauma of not having what you need starts to flicker, then you you kind of toy with the two idea. There's another group of people where Jamaica, as I said before, is a escapism. So things are not going so well wherever you are and you immediately think that Jamaica will solve your problems. But that's not a wise thing. As a matter of fact, that's you trying to run away from things that you probably need to resolve. Maybe it would be good for us to ask ourselves the question, are we actually dealing with the things that are problematic in our lives rather than running to Jamaica
6:57 with them? Because what I want to do is to raise awareness around the fact that a lot of people say that they want to go back, but no, going back is potentially not the right choice. And also, what do you feel at home in Jamaica would actually look like? Think about that. And then when you think about that and you visualize it, think to yourself, that real or can I actually have that life there or can I have it here? If this is something that sits [music] with you and you want to talk about it, but this is what we do on the ver. We talk about things like this and we don't necessarily have the easiest conversations [music] either. Thank you for joining me on on the veranda.
