Dear Editor,
William Mahfood must be able to do so much better than having Martin Henry handle his defence of his shallow statement that people shouldn’t tell him to call Daryl Vaz when he comes upon a snag in the business process.
Henry suffers from academician’s disease and cannot think outside the textbook, as is clear from his column in this week’s
Sunday Gleaner.
Not even primary school students will argue against having a properly functioning system to sort out problems that inevitably come up and create obstacles for doing business in Jamaica. The point that Mahfood is missing is that, even in much more resource-rich countries, business systems do falter at times and someone has to be called to get things back on track.
In our case, we have Daryl Vaz who has earned himself the reputation as a man who gets things done and the moniker “Mr Fix-It”. Bruce Golding wisely used him in that capacity and Andrew Holness is doing the same. It is Daryl Vaz’s gift, and we are fortunate that it is available to the country and not merely to private endeavours aimed at self-enrichment.
Everyone who has done business knows that no system is perfect. The best of systems do malfunction, and for a variety of reasons. We know this and so there is no need to tear out one’s hair when one encounters a problem. Unless, of course, there is no one to call. Mahfood is complaining that there is, in fact, someone to call.
I run a small business, and I come across system failures in both the public and private sectors. In the private sector there is almost always someone to call, and where there is no obvious person, one can call the managing director’s office. In government, it is not always the easiest thing to find the responsible officer to make one’s complaint. And a prime minister who is the managing director of the Government cannot be expected to take every complaint.
This is why someone like Daryl Vaz, with all the imperfections, is a feather in the Administration’s cap. If my application for an import licence is lost in the system, and I am getting the runaround, I am happy to know there is someone I can call who will light fire under the responsible ones to go find my application.
Poor Martin Henry does not have his head out of the textbook long enough to understand this. He can’t help William Mahfood to understand this, even as simple as it may sound.
Joseph “Straight Talker” Thelwell
Jstt2014@gmail.com
William Mahfood must be able to do so much better than having Martin Henry handle his defence of his shallow statement that people shouldn’t tell him to call Daryl Vaz when he comes upon a snag in the business process.
Henry suffers from academician’s disease and cannot think outside the textbook, as is clear from his column in this week’s
Sunday Gleaner.
Not even primary school students will argue against having a properly functioning system to sort out problems that inevitably come up and create obstacles for doing business in Jamaica. The point that Mahfood is missing is that, even in much more resource-rich countries, business systems do falter at times and someone has to be called to get things back on track.
In our case, we have Daryl Vaz who has earned himself the reputation as a man who gets things done and the moniker “Mr Fix-It”. Bruce Golding wisely used him in that capacity and Andrew Holness is doing the same. It is Daryl Vaz’s gift, and we are fortunate that it is available to the country and not merely to private endeavours aimed at self-enrichment.
Everyone who has done business knows that no system is perfect. The best of systems do malfunction, and for a variety of reasons. We know this and so there is no need to tear out one’s hair when one encounters a problem. Unless, of course, there is no one to call. Mahfood is complaining that there is, in fact, someone to call.
I run a small business, and I come across system failures in both the public and private sectors. In the private sector there is almost always someone to call, and where there is no obvious person, one can call the managing director’s office. In government, it is not always the easiest thing to find the responsible officer to make one’s complaint. And a prime minister who is the managing director of the Government cannot be expected to take every complaint.
This is why someone like Daryl Vaz, with all the imperfections, is a feather in the Administration’s cap. If my application for an import licence is lost in the system, and I am getting the runaround, I am happy to know there is someone I can call who will light fire under the responsible ones to go find my application.
Poor Martin Henry does not have his head out of the textbook long enough to understand this. He can’t help William Mahfood to understand this, even as simple as it may sound.
Joseph “Straight Talker” Thelwell
Jstt2014@gmail.com