Thomas C. Famous. Photo: Provided

Well, on one hand, handsome Princes do get to marry the brides of their choice; however, the reality is those not in the Royal Families or their immediate circles do not live happily ever after.

For millions of people around the world, colonialism has had quite the opposite effect. There are very few who can say that their countries or lives are better off because of colonialism. Just ask the Aborigines of Australia, or the First Nations of North America how colonisation has worked out for them.

Post-1945, when the European powers of Holland, Portugal, France, and the United Kingdom were forced, in one way or the other, to lower their flags from their colonies around the world, they did not leave them in pristine conditions.

Quite the opposite, as they had essentially used those colonies primarily as sources of vast wealth. Nor did they actually provide educational development for the masses. 

Countries such as; Angola, India, Kenya, Indonesia, and Mali, just to name a few, were left with little to no proper infrastructure such as; adequate amounts of hospitals, proper roadways, telecommunications, electrical grids, and education opportunities, for their citizens. You know, all the nice stuff that developed countries had built for their “mother countries” with the monies generated from those very same colonies.

Hence the popular use of the comparative terms “first world” countries versus “third world” countries.

The newly independent governments were then in a predicament that they had to find financing in order to provide basic necessities such as; schools, hospitals and jobs, for their populations. For the most part, those countries such as India and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, were major agricultural economies. In the case of many African countries, they had vast amounts of natural resources such as; oil, gold and diamonds. Materials that were still controlled by European corporations.

India alone was the source of over 45 trillion dollars for Britain.

Closer to home, up until the late 1950, the Virgin Islands did not have island-wide electricity. During the same time period, opportunities for schooling were limited for young persons in islands such as Antigua, Trinidad, Sint Maarten and Guadeloupe. Just ask the people of Puerto Rico if they were treated as equals after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Here in Bermuda, the majority of black students had to attend Central School, now known as Victor Scott. Often the 1,000 students had to share desks and chairs.

All this willful neglect against a backdrop of European nations and their elite, growing untold wealth for centuries. Take a look at any given world map and it is clear to see that colonialism only benefitted a few whilst destroying the many. Indeed it was no fairy tale existence.

Now, as we begin to have the conversations about self-determination, let us be reminded that the nations of; Holland, France, The United Kingdom and the United States of America are bound by International obligations to educate their citizens about "self-government".

The United Nations Article 73 (section b) states the following "to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions, according to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and their varying stages of advancement…"

Has the United Kingdom ever taken up the mantle to educate the citizens of their remaining 14 colonies about Article 73?

If not, why not?