‘Jamaica Should Do Better Than This’ – The Economist

If one more person tells us that we need to do better than this, that’s it!

So many persons, from so many different backgrounds, and point of views have again and again highlighted what the Jamaican government needs to do to simply put this country on a better path… yet our leaders constantly fail to implement. Why?

Frustrated. Certainly, they must be able to figure it out by now! | Photo by jonwatson

International Media

Only recently, we were in the international media as the Chicago Tribune highlighted our precipitous debt situation, our demise and how our lack of leadership and political will brought us to where we are today.

Today, the well respected, ever on point publication, The Economist has said that simply put, ‘Jamaica should do better than this’. I think they’re right. After highlighting our perilous situation. They write;

Jamaica should do better than this. The island has plenty of well-educated, English-speaking people. It has great beaches, a near-perfect climate for farming, useful deposits of bauxite and a port which is just a short hop from both Florida and the Panama Canal.

But Jamaica lacks energy supplies. It spends more on oil imports than it earns from tourism. Households and businesses complain that electricity is dear. For a decade there has been talk of alternative fuels, such as liquefied natural gas or “clean” coal. Successive proposals have been blocked, some amid accusations of incompetence or mismanagement. Even if a scheme is approved this year, cheaper fuel remains at least five years off.

The frustrated tone says it all. Even The Economist has had enough of our leaders, our politics, our poor implementation, our mismanagement, our corruption and lack of commitment. Sure, there’s a lot of good going for Jamaica, yeah, Chill Winstan, Get Happy, but if we don’t change now, soon there won’t be anything left.

Why have so many persons been able to see some of the key things that need to be done urgently, yet our leaders fail to implement?