THE EDITOR, Sir:
THERE ARE no simple answers to the problem of unemployment. According to Michael Manley in a booklet entitled We are a society in crisis published by Speaker's Bureau in 1971, "Where gross disparities in wealth, massive unemployment, showpiece industries and conspicuous consumption coexist, violence and even revolution must lurk in the wings..."
University of the West Indies Distinguished Fellow and former Prime Minister Edward Seaga says, "Jamaica is a time bomb waiting to explode because of the country's inability to absorb and sustain the increasing number of people seeking jobs". In The Gleaner April 25, 2006 there was an article headlined 'Many Jamaicans face deportation from Canada'.
POLITICS VERSUS ECONOMICS
Where do we go from here in a context where in Jamaica, when we have a contest of politics versus economics, politics always wins, at least in the short term? From 1971-2006, not very much has changed. Manley in 1971 and Seaga in 2006 said the same thing and both have been Prime Ministers but from different ideological backgrounds, with the former being socialist and the latter embracing the free market.
This is a task not only for pastors and politicians, but all of us, including our intellectuals who should unreservedly take off their political blinkers for those who have and let us get on with the business of building a nation and not just maintaining a place where people passing through live from crisis to crisis through crisis.
I am, etc.,
MICHAEL SPENCE
Micspen2@hotmail.com
P.O.Box 630
Liguanea. Kgn 6
