Martin Henry, Contributor

Now, as everybody who knows me knows, I am very definitely not the kind of person to show underwear in public, despite current fashions, or even to talk about underwear in public. But I have just bought some clothing under the label Yeh Mon Island Apparel. And guess where these briefs are made? China, of course. The flags used to celebrate our stupendous Olympic performance are probably the product of some Chinese enterprise as well.

China has become the workshop of the world. These savvy marketers are producing stuff that the world wants, and at low prices, and are selling them under labels that appeal to the imagination and cultural pride of their target markets. And while the Chinese economy is growing at one of the fastest rates in the world, we are wringing our hands over the end of a preferential European market for sugar and bananas, both in decline, anyway.

Brand Jamaica, copied by the rest of the world, has never been more marketable than it is right now as our athletes are returning home with a ton of Olympic medals. Jamaica has just had the most massive and favourable exposure to the global market, but what have we got to sell that the world wants?

The world is wondering "How come?" How come we have not one but the two fastest men and women on the planet? How come such a little rock can be such an athletic superpower taking home a cargo load of medals from the 29th Olympiad? How come Jamaican music has taken such a hold upon the rest of the world to such an extent that Bob Marley is universally the best-known music personality and the best-known black person ever?

Highest murder rates

But how come the same Jamaica has one of the highest murder rates in the world among people widely regarded as among the friendliest and most laid back in the world? "Yeh Mon, Jamaica, no problem." But as Waterhouse celebrated its offspring, Shelly-Ann Fraser's Olympic Gold in the 100 metres, someone was murdered in that community. And the clanging pot covers and wild whoops of joy over Olympic victories have masked the sound of gunfire and the cries of the injured, the dying and the bereaved, as the killings continue unabated. Why would a place with such enormous potential squander so much of it in crime and violence?

How come Jamaica, which, head to head, has perhaps the best country brand name in the world is one of the most heavily indebted countries in the world and is failing so miserably to convert brand potential into economic prosperity? The CIA World Factbook lists Jamaica's debt in 2007 at 127 per cent of GDP. And while many people would have tuned it out while Olympic fever was running super hot, the Planning Institute of Jamaica held a press conference last week which filed a negative report on the Jamaican economy and its prospects for improvement.

Everyone now wants a sports plan to sustain and to expand our athletics superpower status. I can't, however, think of another nation that has used sports to power its economic prosperity. We need an economic plan, a crime plan, and a development plan that can deliver Olympic results. The prime minister, while praising Usain Bolt's lightning run in the 100 metres in Beijing, says he wants the inspiration of our Olympic performance to energise and push us to solve our national problems. His job is to lead that, not just to talk about it and wish for it.

Potential to prosperity

But how do nations convert potential into prosperity, growth and human development? If a nation under a communist political system can chalk up such impressive growth as China has, then one of the freest patches on Earth should be able to do better than it has been doing. As interviewers spoke with chief of mission for the Jamaican Olympic squad, Don Anderson, on the Breakfast Club last week, he was asked jokingly to spy out the secrets of Chinese economic performance and bring them home. After all, the whole world wants to know why Jamaicans are so fast, and you can bet the snoops will be descending upon us.

But much of the secret of the wealth of nations is an open secret going all the way back to Adam Smith's exploration of the matter over 200 years ago, and others even before that. We know that free enterprise in an environment of peaceful co-existence and the rule of law helps a lot. We know that a government that provides simple and fair rules of play and enforces them, and which provides public infrastructure that no profit-driven individual or private corporation would, helps a lot.

We know that the more of people's income and profits that they can retain, the greater the incentive for effort and the stronger the formation of capital to back entrepreneurship. We know that access to appropriate technologies is critical for competitive economic performance - as it is for sports performance. We know that human beings who are healthy, educated, free, and secure in person and property are the living energy source for prosperity and growth.

China has overcome and is overcoming mega obstacles to become one of the growth hot spots of the world: a super-size population and high population density, huge pockets of poverty and back-wardness, a bad political system, a weak regulatory framework, marginalisation in world trade.

Country of consumers

Marcus Garvey wrote in 1930: "Jamaica has grown up to be a country of consumers. We import shoes, clothes, hats, etc, when most of these things could be made right here." Five years later he wrote, in 1935: "We submit as a proposition that Jamaica is a great country; that the country is rich and fertile; that the country is not overpopulated; that the country is inviting and impressive; that the country can be developed. We want a thoroughly universal and happy country and a happy lot of people all around."

Martin Henry is a communications consultant. Feedback may be sent to medhen@yahoo.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.