Dear Editor,
In May 2013, Jamaica entered into a four-year US$948.1 million (approx J$104.3 billion) extended fund facility agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Now, with such low productivity and poor management, how on earth will we pay this back? Not to mention the hundreds of billions owed prior!! God help us!!
Very few seem to be asking this very important question. But I guess this is what the doctor ordered. The Government has been ruthless in this borrowing spree, apparently without much concern about how we will pay back these hefty loans with interest.
The Administration and its advisors are good, so why not make hell for the rest of us? It really bothers me to observe the lacklustre attitude towards socio-economic development as though it's business as usual for us and all is well in the Cuckoo's nest.
The good book says in Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." Jamaica has been successful in proving this to be a fact and we are revelling in it. One needs not be a Christian to agree with this statement.
Slavery is said to be abolished, at least in the traditional sense, but Jamaicans are certainly enslaved by debt, only this time we are under the whip by choice. We are far separated from true emancipation and from all indications we will never be truly free.
People in the diaspora are being asked to invest and send money home, and so on, to help, while the Government is doing very little to help the country. Unfortunately, not all Jamaicans living abroad will take up the Government's responsibility, as I have come to realise. Why should they, anyway?
One Jamaican living in the US had this to say: "I, and many of us in the diaspora, don't vote in Jamaica anymore, so I am not sure how much power we have. I am now a naturalised US citizen and I vote here in the US. I used to send money back home a lot, but I just came down there to bury my dad in April after losing my mom four years ago in 2010, so I won't be sending anymore money."
This, I fear, is as far as the diaspora will go; when the loved ones go, the remittances go with them. From my own observation, as soon as the Government meet a challenge in a particular sector, their first action is to divest. They have divested our best and most valuable resources and more of that will soon take place with the little we have left.
We are sold out and left to beg all over the world with no real plan to repay, and our finance minister is going for more -- more debt that is, I'm sorry for us!
It's time for a significant change. Where that change will come from and when it will come, only time will tell.
Derville Lowe
drvlllowe@yahoo.com
How will we pay back these loans?
-->
In May 2013, Jamaica entered into a four-year US$948.1 million (approx J$104.3 billion) extended fund facility agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Now, with such low productivity and poor management, how on earth will we pay this back? Not to mention the hundreds of billions owed prior!! God help us!!
Very few seem to be asking this very important question. But I guess this is what the doctor ordered. The Government has been ruthless in this borrowing spree, apparently without much concern about how we will pay back these hefty loans with interest.
The Administration and its advisors are good, so why not make hell for the rest of us? It really bothers me to observe the lacklustre attitude towards socio-economic development as though it's business as usual for us and all is well in the Cuckoo's nest.
The good book says in Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." Jamaica has been successful in proving this to be a fact and we are revelling in it. One needs not be a Christian to agree with this statement.
Slavery is said to be abolished, at least in the traditional sense, but Jamaicans are certainly enslaved by debt, only this time we are under the whip by choice. We are far separated from true emancipation and from all indications we will never be truly free.
People in the diaspora are being asked to invest and send money home, and so on, to help, while the Government is doing very little to help the country. Unfortunately, not all Jamaicans living abroad will take up the Government's responsibility, as I have come to realise. Why should they, anyway?
One Jamaican living in the US had this to say: "I, and many of us in the diaspora, don't vote in Jamaica anymore, so I am not sure how much power we have. I am now a naturalised US citizen and I vote here in the US. I used to send money back home a lot, but I just came down there to bury my dad in April after losing my mom four years ago in 2010, so I won't be sending anymore money."
This, I fear, is as far as the diaspora will go; when the loved ones go, the remittances go with them. From my own observation, as soon as the Government meet a challenge in a particular sector, their first action is to divest. They have divested our best and most valuable resources and more of that will soon take place with the little we have left.
We are sold out and left to beg all over the world with no real plan to repay, and our finance minister is going for more -- more debt that is, I'm sorry for us!
It's time for a significant change. Where that change will come from and when it will come, only time will tell.
Derville Lowe
drvlllowe@yahoo.com
How will we pay back these loans?
-->