Dear Editor,
The poor economic performance of the governments of Jamaica have persisted since we embarked upon the self-indulgent path of so called Independence over 50 years ago.
At every step of the way the Jamaican people have been sacrificed on the altar of misguided expediency without the relevance of Jamaica being the largest English speaking region outside of the contiguous American continent. Whether it is the stadium at Trelawny, the other at Catherine Hall, the port at Falmouth, Harmony Cove, Springs Plains, Kingston Freezone, Font Hill, the convention centre at Rose Hall, or the proposed trans-shipment port for the Goat Islands, and the many other ill-conceived ideas, they have been without appropriate consideration of the necessary economic parameters for long-term success. All these projects are either on the dust heap or still costing the Government to be maintained from the public purse at the expense of provisding adequate education, security or infrastructure.
The town of Austin, Texas, entertained the idea of a major sporting complex for which the infrastructure of the city of Austin was not ready. Unlike Jamaica, they did not dumb down the investment, but fortunately now have the real incentive to upgrade the Austin into the cultural capital of the state. Jamaica has a vastly parochial approach to the economy relegating the country into further obscurity.
Haiti has recently commissioned the latest development of a total solar-powered 300-bed hospital that will provide excess power to the national grid. Jamaica's answer was a 20-room hospital on the other side of the nation's congested tourism capital, hence the absence of possible economies of scale in the delivery of sophisticated health care options.
Lastly, for our prime minister to fly to a once-satellite country that depended on Jamaica for administrative support and then acknowledge the importance of tourism to the Caribbean brand, so elegantly represented by the Sandals/Breezes brand, with no further developments projects being built on the island shows that Jamaica is missing out on the development relevance of an industry that employs hundreds and consumes billions in local produce.
The priorities are totally out of focus when the majority of the public debt is held by Jamaicans while the prospect of their real value diminishes with every devaluation of the dollar without the real application of policies to further the longed-for growth of the overall Jamaican economy.
Jamaica is really being sold a six for a nine and the end result is bankruptcy.
Douglas Gooden
douglasbgooden@yahoo.com
We have a poor investment portfolio
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The poor economic performance of the governments of Jamaica have persisted since we embarked upon the self-indulgent path of so called Independence over 50 years ago.
At every step of the way the Jamaican people have been sacrificed on the altar of misguided expediency without the relevance of Jamaica being the largest English speaking region outside of the contiguous American continent. Whether it is the stadium at Trelawny, the other at Catherine Hall, the port at Falmouth, Harmony Cove, Springs Plains, Kingston Freezone, Font Hill, the convention centre at Rose Hall, or the proposed trans-shipment port for the Goat Islands, and the many other ill-conceived ideas, they have been without appropriate consideration of the necessary economic parameters for long-term success. All these projects are either on the dust heap or still costing the Government to be maintained from the public purse at the expense of provisding adequate education, security or infrastructure.
The town of Austin, Texas, entertained the idea of a major sporting complex for which the infrastructure of the city of Austin was not ready. Unlike Jamaica, they did not dumb down the investment, but fortunately now have the real incentive to upgrade the Austin into the cultural capital of the state. Jamaica has a vastly parochial approach to the economy relegating the country into further obscurity.
Haiti has recently commissioned the latest development of a total solar-powered 300-bed hospital that will provide excess power to the national grid. Jamaica's answer was a 20-room hospital on the other side of the nation's congested tourism capital, hence the absence of possible economies of scale in the delivery of sophisticated health care options.
Lastly, for our prime minister to fly to a once-satellite country that depended on Jamaica for administrative support and then acknowledge the importance of tourism to the Caribbean brand, so elegantly represented by the Sandals/Breezes brand, with no further developments projects being built on the island shows that Jamaica is missing out on the development relevance of an industry that employs hundreds and consumes billions in local produce.
The priorities are totally out of focus when the majority of the public debt is held by Jamaicans while the prospect of their real value diminishes with every devaluation of the dollar without the real application of policies to further the longed-for growth of the overall Jamaican economy.
Jamaica is really being sold a six for a nine and the end result is bankruptcy.
Douglas Gooden
douglasbgooden@yahoo.com
We have a poor investment portfolio
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