The Editor, Sir:

Occasionally, letters have been published in your newspaper querying the fact that goods (including real estate) and services provided in Jamaica are often expressed in U.S. dollar values. This has been greeted with a deafening silence from our plethora of private and public financial experts, pundits, etc.

Nearly everyone working in Jamaica earns Jamaica dollars and spends the same on the goods and services we use every day. Accepting that in today's world, all economies are linked to some degree, why have we Jamaicans 'hooked' ourselves to the world's most powerful economy in figuring out our expenses (and standard of living)?

As we approach our 45th anniversary as an independent state (small and vulnerable), will we grow up, or will our descendants wonder at our continuing lack of identity and self-esteem? Do we really think that anybody 'out there' cannot perceive our 'Anancyism?

Is it the delusion of a relatively naïve (financially) layman to see the existence of a U.S. dollar 'evaluation'/depreciation of the Jamaican dollar?

When will more of us question, then change the reality of the damage that we are doing to ourselves?

A.W. LAWRENCE