Commentary: How We All "Destroyed" Jamaica And Made Ourselves Poor!!

In spite of all the mammoth residential buildings and tourist hotel complexes going up in the countrysides, and in spite of the shiny new vehicles and new highways, Jamaica is a financially bankrupt country! No politician dare tells the nation the truth because to tell the truth would be asking the nation to stop living a lifestyle that it cannot afford and everyone wants to live good while someone else foots the bill. Pointing accusatory fingers at politicians charging corruption and security forces charging brutality, is hpocritical because the citizenry itself is everything it accuses the politicians and security forces of being!

1. We all have a lifestyle that we cannot afford! Any government who wins an election and does not demand a cut in the salary of parliamentarians is living a lie! Borrowing to pay salaries with no future plans or capability to repay those loans is an economic theory only taught in Jamaica; BORROW AND HOPE FOR A WRITE-OFF,MODERN FINANCIAL STRATEGIES IN JAMAICA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT!

2. We allowed selfish politicians to lead us down a path of hatred and violence towards non-party members leading to over 10,000 political deaths since 1976! Jamaica’s extreme partisanship has destabilized the nation by causing our leaders to overfocus on partisanship insted of on patriotism and on solutions! “If they think they are bad”, he shouted, “I can bring the crowds of West Kingston. We can deal with you in any way at any time. It will be fire for fire, and blood for blood.” Edward Seaga

3. We allowed deceitful politicans to delude us with promises of free education, and free for alls! We cannot build a market economy on freeness! A market economy depends on the laws of demand and supply and a horde of paying consumers! Inequities in standard of living and social status among the citizenry cannot and should not be eliminated because they depend on a host of factors which cannot be managed-chief of which is freedom of choice!! A economy based on freeness / aid cannot compete with other nations that have greater competitive spirits! Hardship leads to innovation more easily than comfort does!

4.We all benefitted in some way from those ill-advised loans which we will never pay back! Loans used to uphold unrealistic lifestyles are nothing but forms of modern financial slavery from which there is no emancipation.

5.We allowed our bloated self worth to impede sound economics and accounting and wasted hundreds of billions of dollars in sectors we have no competitive advantage in (air jamaica).

6. We all cut corners and did not pay all the taxes that we were required to!

7. We all lusted after the foreign goods and did not support the local industries as much as we should have!

8. We all feasted on those foreign movies which we thought was entertainment when their aim was to brainwash us and let us elevate in our minds the culture of another people! (I BET YOU DID NOT KNOW THAT)!

9. We all agreed that we would allow the multinationals to takeover our bauxite and not teach us a single thing about bauxite and aluminium mining, processing and marketing!

10. We all agreed that we would only ship the raw material products of our coffee and cocoa crops and not get involved in end product marketing and processing where most of the profits and jobs are!

11. We all support the murderous practice called justice killings which has hardenned our hearts and conscience!

12. We all shouted “shoot im” when the police cornered suspects but when the suspect became someone we knew we screamed at the police “murdarah”!

13. We all called rape- the woman love it hard, sex with mimors-16 year olds- legal, bribery- passing a smalls- and we all know where the guns are coming from and through what medium..while we pay lip service about our murder rate is too high! Our highly immoral lifestyle leading to tens of thousands of unwanted, unparented and sometimes irredeemable children and our overpopulation, is more of a destabilizing factor than high oil prices! We cannot build a strong house on a rotten foundation!
* Please note that these opinions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Jamaicans.com