"The right to vote, unlike other rights, is a right to decide under what conditions one will live."

More importantly, in my opinion, adult suffrage is a civil right. In times past, governments have placed restrictions on who could vote based on any number of things. At one point, one had to be a landowner. You also had to be a man. In the southern United States, a Black man had to interpret obscure sections of the state constitution or pay a "poll tax" before they could register, while a White man in the same town would simply have to sign their name. Jamaicans who live abroad are now lumped in with minor children, the mentally feeble and convicted felons in regards to the limits on their civil rights.

"We know that more Jamaicans live overseas today than the total population of the country. This means that, as a voting bloc, we could decide an election"

Rubbish. Please explain to me how members of the diaspora, numbering in the millions and spread literally over the four corners of the globe, could be considered a "voting bloc" ? Do you know what a "voting bloc" is my friend ?

"..leaving the residents out in the cold if their needs differ from ours"

Fear mongering. If an election were to be held in April of this year and members of the disapora were able to vote for either party, please explain to me how this would "leave residents out in the cold" when one of the political parties won ? Does that mean that local residents who voted similarly also left locals who voted for the other party "in the cold" ? What nonsense.

" When diasporans send money home it is not sent directly to government and hardly out of some wish to prop up the economy."

Straw man. I never said any such thing. Read my post bro. Errol before you start pon mi. I said "...the Diaspora sent money to the island in an amount that is equivalent to a whopping 21% of the (2005) GDP..." and did not address the motive for doing so. Nobody I know sends money to "prop up the economy" and I never said so.

"We do it mainly to support relatives."

We know this.

"And those of us who still own property there have the option to sell and enjoy the proceeds in a foreign country."

So ? What does this have to do with the price of tea in China ?

"It just is not an equitable situation to give us the right to vote, as I see it."

I see. And it seems the inequity is springing from the fact that some Jamaicans are "less Jamaican" than others because they live outside the island.

You know Errol, back in the day some justified not giving women the vote because their brains allegedly used emotion rather than intellect make decisions. That argument was based on the same thing that I hearing from you.

Fear.