'Kingston unsafe - Global ratings agency gives Jamaica's capital two thumbs down.' This was The Gleaner headline of Monday, June 23. It seems the folks at the international consulting firm, Mercer, didn't make it past Mountain View and have proclaimed Kingston the 31st most dangerous city in the world.

What they really should have done was to turn around and catch a boat to Lime Cay, where they would have soon come across some real examples of dangerous, like dangerous bikinis, dangerous pepper on some dangerous escovitched fish, and some dangerous dancing!

This paper reports, "According to Mercer, Luxembourg in Western Europe is the safest city in the world". Well, who wants to go to Luxembourg anyway? They don't even have a beach! A land-locked nation, with population under a half a million people, who happen to have the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world, all sounds pretty dull to me! Mercer needs to place some value on the spice of life factor.

Investors' problem

The problem is that investors consult these reports when they are deciding to invest in a country, and being rated on par with Zimbabwe has got to be a turn-off.

"Conversely, a person in Kingston is not safer than a citizen of Harare, the capital of Robert Mugabe's violence-torn Zimbabwe. Both cities are ranked at 184." Harare, for most people, is somewhere akin to hell, so it is certainly not a country we want to be closely associated with.

Yet, we do have a considerable number of foreigners, who are living here as a result of foreign companies investing in Jamaica, and I am certain, if they were surveyed, they would say that life in Jamaica was pretty darn nice. In fact, most of those I know did not really want to leave when the time came, I even know some who decided to stay.

While we, as a nation, are usually very welcoming to foreigners, recent comments from the Minister of Labour suggest we are going to be less welcoming to foreign labour. Minister Charles was concerned that when he asked for a glass of water that some Filipino might bring it for him. Yet, while we focus on the fact that these jobs are taken by foreigners, therefore excluding a Jamaican, perhaps we should look at the bigger picture.

The truth is businesses do not go to vast expense and effort to employ foreigners because they are prejudiced. They do so because they believe it is going to increase their productivity and profitability. The problem is not, therefore, the businesses, it is the work ethic and the technical capabilities of our workforce. Likewise, we have seen where a large influx of international employees has been instrumental in improving the performance of an entire industry, case in point, Digicel.

As Jamaicans work alongside foreign counterparts, they learn global standards, not just productivity standards but also working- condition standards. We may see some changes and Charles may have to resort to getting his own glass of water once in a while, but all in the name of progress!

So, while we continue to live with an appalling reputation, we need to counter some of our obstacles with a very open policy towards foreign investors and foreign employees, and trust that they will spread the word that Jamaica was a good place to live, work and prosper.