The Editor, Sir:

I do not believe that the current administration is in a position to boast about what is nothing more than a marginal reduction in unemployment and a marginal increase in gross domestic product. If a person is walking from Half-Way Tree to Papine, there is no basis for boasting about completing the first 100 meters, unless that person is physically challenged. Jamaica is possibly the only country in the English-speaking Caribbean, that one finds pit latrines making a comeback in the capital city.

True social poverty as defined by the lack of access to basic services and gender inequity, has been reduced at the same time as individual and ecological poverty has increased, if one uses real disposable incomes, income distribution and the state and kind of social and organisational texture of given communities as measures.

I would believe that the main task of this or any other government of Jamaica at this time is to ensure that the economy grows at a rate and in such a way, that contributes directly to the reduction of individual and ecological poverty.

I am, etc.,

BASI FLETCHER

Donovanfletcher@hotmail.com

Via Go-Jamaica