Dear Editor,
The first time I did it I was 40 years old. No, I don't mean sex, that happened 14 years earlier when I got married. I mean reading the fine print on my passport.
I was on a flight to England to pursue further studies and, while leafing through my passport, I saw the notice on the back flap captioned Registration at Consulates Abroad, which advises citizens of Jamaica who are resident abroad to “register their names and addresses at the nearest diplomatic mission or consulate of Jamaica…” Address changes and departure from a foreign country “should also be notified to the mission or consulate”.
About a week or so after settling in Sheffield I called our High Commission in London to register my family and the person who answered the phone politely asked me why I was doing that. Now, I was baffled, so I simply said I saw it as a requirement in my passport. The details were then taken albeit a bit reluctantly.
What was even greater news to me was that any talk about 'my passport' is technically wrong. The last heading on the said back flap of the passport is a Caution. This caution informs: “This passport remains the property of the Government of Jamaica and may be withdrawn at any time.” So you thought that having paid for a passport it became your property.
Not so at all, you and I paid for the privilege of having use of the property of the Government of Jamaica.
You really should open the passport you have and look at the wording of the front flap. It reads: “The Minister of Foreign Affairs requests and requires in the name of the Government of Jamaica all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.”
So then the passport you and I have really belongs to the Government of Jamaica and is a document requesting the courtesy of admission of a Jamaican citizen into a foreign country. How many of us knew this bit of fact?
Clinton Chisholm
clintchis@yahoo.com
The first time I did it I was 40 years old. No, I don't mean sex, that happened 14 years earlier when I got married. I mean reading the fine print on my passport.
I was on a flight to England to pursue further studies and, while leafing through my passport, I saw the notice on the back flap captioned Registration at Consulates Abroad, which advises citizens of Jamaica who are resident abroad to “register their names and addresses at the nearest diplomatic mission or consulate of Jamaica…” Address changes and departure from a foreign country “should also be notified to the mission or consulate”.
About a week or so after settling in Sheffield I called our High Commission in London to register my family and the person who answered the phone politely asked me why I was doing that. Now, I was baffled, so I simply said I saw it as a requirement in my passport. The details were then taken albeit a bit reluctantly.
What was even greater news to me was that any talk about 'my passport' is technically wrong. The last heading on the said back flap of the passport is a Caution. This caution informs: “This passport remains the property of the Government of Jamaica and may be withdrawn at any time.” So you thought that having paid for a passport it became your property.
Not so at all, you and I paid for the privilege of having use of the property of the Government of Jamaica.
You really should open the passport you have and look at the wording of the front flap. It reads: “The Minister of Foreign Affairs requests and requires in the name of the Government of Jamaica all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.”
So then the passport you and I have really belongs to the Government of Jamaica and is a document requesting the courtesy of admission of a Jamaican citizen into a foreign country. How many of us knew this bit of fact?
Clinton Chisholm
clintchis@yahoo.com