Dear Editor,
A few years ago when I came kicking, screaming and shouting, “To the world!” you can just imagine how proud I must have been to think I were born in a Jamaica that was no longer a colony or our people were no longer being enslaved.
How foolish and naïve of me to have thought that Jamaica was no longer a colony or an island being enslaved?
In 21st century Jamaica, we shouldn’t have to worry about losing our sovereignty, but anyone who thinks we are a sovereign nation harbours nothing but a fallacy.
Each morning I awake I find myself wondering, will this be the day when other Jamaicans and I are taken against our will and forced to work on some plantation somewhere, maybe in China?
It is amazing that when our forefathers rebelled against the atrocities of slavery those lessons were not passed on to the future generation. It is also daunting that our elected officials are oblivious to the fact that Jamaica is being quintessentially re-colonised by the Chinese, one supermarket at a time; and now our roads and hotels, soon our best watershed areas will be given to them along with the most hard-working and virile Jamaican men and women.
The Chinese and other nationals too are not exactly coming to Jamaica with new technologies, skills and talent, so we must ask: Why are they being given tax breaks when after that five- or seven-year period expires they will close shop and a new set of unskilled individuals take over the reins. Additionally, the net profit is being expatriated to some foreign country.
So one can’t help but wonder, other than the minimum wage jobs that are being provided, what are the real benefits that Jamaica derives from the Chinese and other foreigners who set up businesses in Jamaica.
While our engineers are teaching mathematics and science in some secondary school or tertiary institution, our Government is securing loans for foreign engineers.
I am not saying that both direct and indirect foreign investments are not necessary and needed, but it must equate to some long-term benefit to the Jamaican economy and population.
Wayne A White
wayne2white@gmail.com
A few years ago when I came kicking, screaming and shouting, “To the world!” you can just imagine how proud I must have been to think I were born in a Jamaica that was no longer a colony or our people were no longer being enslaved.
How foolish and naïve of me to have thought that Jamaica was no longer a colony or an island being enslaved?
In 21st century Jamaica, we shouldn’t have to worry about losing our sovereignty, but anyone who thinks we are a sovereign nation harbours nothing but a fallacy.
Each morning I awake I find myself wondering, will this be the day when other Jamaicans and I are taken against our will and forced to work on some plantation somewhere, maybe in China?
It is amazing that when our forefathers rebelled against the atrocities of slavery those lessons were not passed on to the future generation. It is also daunting that our elected officials are oblivious to the fact that Jamaica is being quintessentially re-colonised by the Chinese, one supermarket at a time; and now our roads and hotels, soon our best watershed areas will be given to them along with the most hard-working and virile Jamaican men and women.
The Chinese and other nationals too are not exactly coming to Jamaica with new technologies, skills and talent, so we must ask: Why are they being given tax breaks when after that five- or seven-year period expires they will close shop and a new set of unskilled individuals take over the reins. Additionally, the net profit is being expatriated to some foreign country.
So one can’t help but wonder, other than the minimum wage jobs that are being provided, what are the real benefits that Jamaica derives from the Chinese and other foreigners who set up businesses in Jamaica.
While our engineers are teaching mathematics and science in some secondary school or tertiary institution, our Government is securing loans for foreign engineers.
I am not saying that both direct and indirect foreign investments are not necessary and needed, but it must equate to some long-term benefit to the Jamaican economy and population.
Wayne A White
wayne2white@gmail.com