The Urgency of Now...

Below is a letter to the editor that I plan to submit to the Gleaner and Observer:

Dear Editor,
Jamaica is facing serious times. I would write this, Something has to change. Unfortunately, the current leadership’s actions show that they don’t understand this urgent need.

Take a moment to imagine what will happen if Jamaica doesn’t receive the IMF loan. In such a case, Jamaica WILL default on its debt. We don't have any money and the economy has not grown in more than a decade. The ramifications of the negative global publicity alone, would probably be more than our fragile economy could handle.

This whole situation with the Director of the Bank of Jamaica is complete slackness—His salary was greater than the Chair of the US Federal Reserve! To put it in perspective, the US chair earns JA$17,217,000 annually, versus the JA$38,000,000 our Director is reported to receive. Not only is this another example of the serious problems with how the government—past and present—operates, but more importantly, it has shown that neither the government, nor the opposition, is willing to take responsibility for our numerous problems. Instead, they have wasted the country's time bickering and placing place blame in attempts to gain political points. They need to understand that the Jamaican people don't care whose fault it is! We just want the situation fixed—so fix it!

The crime situation only seems to be getting worse. Two police commissioners and two Ministers of Security in two years is NOT good enough. The problem of crime in Jamaica is bigger than the government, and will need the efforts of all of us—but the government must be held accountable.

I don't want to be all “gloom and doom”. There are enough other people doing that. Therefore, I am making the following suggesting based on PM Golding's many invites for greater participation and the need to “tighten our belts”: I suggest that the Prime Minister take invitations one step further by releasing to the public non-personal data related to government spending and contracts. This act would increase transparency and allow research institutes, academia, etc to participate in the governmental process. This community based participatory design, aka “crowdsource”, has been heavily adopted by the Obama government. It is certainly worth a look(see http://www.data.gov/).

Much has been said about future generations and the hope placed in their potential to fix the country's many problems. As a member of the “future generation,” I have aspirations to one day act as a leader in contributing to the development of our nation. But today I am very worried. I am worried because I feel like Jamaica is slipping away. I am worried because time is not on our side and my beautiful country could be “all out,” before my generation even gets a chance to bat.