LETTER OF THE DAY - Seeking colour-blind solutions for Jamaica
Published:Thursday | April 4, 2013 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
It has taken a little over 50 years of Independence for at least one politician, Roger Clarke, to admit to what many of us already knew. We need to throw away our green and orange shirts because, soon, we won't have any shirt to put on.
Civil society and many ordinary Jamaicans have been saying this for years. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, when they are negotiating, do not see political parties, they see government representatives. They don't care whether it is Audley Shaw or Dr Peter Phillips who is in front of them; they have no prejudice. Their only concern is whether or not we can repay the loans.
Similarly, when we travel abroad, no immigration officer cares what party we are a member of; they see in front of them a Jamaican. If Jamaica's reputation is horribly stained, no one cares how qualified the traveller is. Ideas do not have colours. If Opposition Senator Christopher Tufton has a workable idea, we should adopt it. If Tom Strokes suggests that Mauritius has been able to use its sugar industry to provide 70 per cent of its energy need, why not adopt such an approach?
Waiting on solutions to Jamaica's problems to come from persons with master's degrees and doctorates is foolhardy. It doesn't matter from whom ideas come, whether it is our friends or foes. If they are credible, listen and adopt them. Waiting on a Phillip Paulwell to come up with ideas to solve our energy problem, a Roger Clarke to solve our agriculture problem, or Peter Bunting to solve our crime problem will end with us all waiting in vain.
MARK CLARKE
St Elizabeth