Dear Editor,
Whatever his detractors might say, Edward Seaga, as the records reveal, accomplished vastly more in Jamaica's modern development than any other three politicians of his time combined. The promising Mr Delano Franklyn now seeks to divert attention from this legacy even before making his own first contribution to nation-building.
In my letter I suggested that we Jamaicans should think big in relation to the building of a deep-water pier and dry dock that could significantly change the country's fortunes. I stressed that with our proven resourcefulness we need not beg in order to launch the project.
Mr Franklyn might have joined me in this expression of faith in our people. He totally ignored that opportunity and instead put pen to paper in an effort to belittle the achievements of an outstanding fellow Jamaican. In doing so, he, not for the first time, enlists the support of Timothy Ashby, his favourite American Seaga critic.
Delano digs and finds something negative written by the late Carl Stone about the Seaga-managed economy in the 1980s. Somehow, in his excavations he did not uncover Stone's opinion of Seaga recorded in May 1992: "I don't think that there is any other national leader in the post-war Caribbean who has built and left as monuments for posterity so many institutions and so many new beginnings and so many new ideas in the sphere of public management. The list is awesome and formidable".
For Mr Franklyn's enlightenment, that list of institutions includes the Development Bank, the Agricultural Credit Bank, Unit Trust, UDC, HEART Trust, Jamaica Festival, National Heroes Awards, National Heritage Week, Devon House, the Cultural Training Centre, Jamaica Journal at the Institute of Jamaica, Food Stamp Programme, JAMPRO, MPM (now National Solid Waste), the Jamaicanisation of financial institutions, etc, etc. The social concept of Tivoli Gardens is still the outstanding example of community development in Jamaica.
Finally, Mr Franklyn, I could write you a treatise on how Jamaica never became a severely indebted nation until the mid-1970s when the PNP, having exhausted the inheritance of 1972, put us in the hands of the IMF. The first tests were failed and from there it was devaluation and depreciation to the point where every succeeding government has had to borrow just to stay afloat. So now, my dear Delano, we need big thinking.
Ken Jones
kensjones2002@yahoo.com
Big thinking
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Whatever his detractors might say, Edward Seaga, as the records reveal, accomplished vastly more in Jamaica's modern development than any other three politicians of his time combined. The promising Mr Delano Franklyn now seeks to divert attention from this legacy even before making his own first contribution to nation-building.
In my letter I suggested that we Jamaicans should think big in relation to the building of a deep-water pier and dry dock that could significantly change the country's fortunes. I stressed that with our proven resourcefulness we need not beg in order to launch the project.
Mr Franklyn might have joined me in this expression of faith in our people. He totally ignored that opportunity and instead put pen to paper in an effort to belittle the achievements of an outstanding fellow Jamaican. In doing so, he, not for the first time, enlists the support of Timothy Ashby, his favourite American Seaga critic.
Delano digs and finds something negative written by the late Carl Stone about the Seaga-managed economy in the 1980s. Somehow, in his excavations he did not uncover Stone's opinion of Seaga recorded in May 1992: "I don't think that there is any other national leader in the post-war Caribbean who has built and left as monuments for posterity so many institutions and so many new beginnings and so many new ideas in the sphere of public management. The list is awesome and formidable".
For Mr Franklyn's enlightenment, that list of institutions includes the Development Bank, the Agricultural Credit Bank, Unit Trust, UDC, HEART Trust, Jamaica Festival, National Heroes Awards, National Heritage Week, Devon House, the Cultural Training Centre, Jamaica Journal at the Institute of Jamaica, Food Stamp Programme, JAMPRO, MPM (now National Solid Waste), the Jamaicanisation of financial institutions, etc, etc. The social concept of Tivoli Gardens is still the outstanding example of community development in Jamaica.
Finally, Mr Franklyn, I could write you a treatise on how Jamaica never became a severely indebted nation until the mid-1970s when the PNP, having exhausted the inheritance of 1972, put us in the hands of the IMF. The first tests were failed and from there it was devaluation and depreciation to the point where every succeeding government has had to borrow just to stay afloat. So now, my dear Delano, we need big thinking.
Ken Jones
kensjones2002@yahoo.com
Big thinking
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