While at a funeral in Clarendon on Thursday, a young man came over to me and asked if I had heard the joke of the day. I told him no, and in an effort to ease the grief, I stopped to hear the joke.

He said, "The minister of finance told us that we would benefit from the recession, and now I hear on the radio that Jamaica is among the ten-worst countries affected by the crisis. Yuh nuh see that Mr Shaw nuh ready?"

If there was a joke, I did not get it. There was nothing to laugh about in what he said. But then again, what is joke to one man may be the death of another. However, his comments are exactly how thousands of Jamaicans see the Government's handling of the global recession. They see the Cabinet as a set of jokers, drifting aimlessly in this raging economic ocean, hoping for a bailout from a passing ship.

People are wondering how come the Government is in serious negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but it is not Audley Shaw, the minister of finance, who is leading the negotiations in Washington. "How come?" they ask. "Minister Don Wehby, who will be leaving the Government in less than three weeks, is the one leading the negotiations?"

Key budget targets

The approach to the IMF negotiations seems to be as 'chaka-chaka' as the Budget presentation by Shaw in April. The truth is, confidence in the Ministry of Finance is at a very low level among the people. All this at a time when key budget targets, such as revenue intake, are being missed, and the Government's expenditure is being cut back at an alarming rate.

On Friday, the country was told that construction on the Mount Rosser bypass road had been stopped. Three hundred more workers put out of jobs because the Government cannot find the money to keep this essential project going. By now, we all should know that when workers lose their jobs, it is not only the immediate family members who suffer, but the taxi men, the shopkeepers, etc, who depend on the income earned by workers on the project.

Some public-sector workers are expressing the fear that they are not sure if the Government will be able to find the money to pay salaries at the end of July. The pessimistic views among the people are influenced by the fact that the Capital Development Fund (bauxite levy), that was a source of bailing out the Ministry of Finance, is now down to a paltry $6 million.

On Thursday, news came that the Ministry of Agriculture might suffer a delay in drawing down European Union (EU) funds for the Sugar Transformation project. This could adversely impact the Government's plans to address communities that will suffer from the divestment of the sugar industry. The Government had promised a sugar-cane industry with a big emphasis on ethanol. Now that seems to have been abandoned, and the EU wants answers before making further payments to the ministry.

The foundation of the Jamaican Budget is on shaky ground. Aftershocks from the global recession and local mismanagement are reverberating all around. In the face of all these negatives, our leaders are found wanting. They are not inspiring the necessary confidence that is so critical to pulling the country together to withstand, not just the aftershocks, but the inevitable International Monetary Fund/Government of Jamaica conditionalities.

There is a need for our leaders at every level in the society to be organising and holding face-to-face meetings with the citizens of our beloved country to explain the dire economic straits our country is in, and what we all need to do to withstand the upcoming shocks. On Tuesday, the University and Allied Workers' Union organised such a meeting with over 60 union delegates. Each delegate left understanding how we all as citizens contribute to the massive adverse balance of trade by buying more from abroad than we sell to or earn from overseas. They left with the knowledge that trade restrictions would not work, but taste restrictions could.

A major mindset change is needed in the country. We can start by choosing to eat, wear and use more Jamaican products. They learnt that our food-import bill was over US$850 million. They also learnt that the Ministry of Finance had been spending more money than it received, which is why Jamaica's debt is so high.

These delegates asked for a follow-up session, which will take place on Tuesday of this week. They will be discussing what each worker can do to contribute to strengthening the shaky foundation on which the house called Jamaica is now precariously perched.

Tackle the fundamental economic imbalances

It is initiatives similar to this that the Government should be undertaking in an attempt to rally the country to tackle the fundamental economic imbalances facing our country. Telling the people the truth is what is necessary. In the 1970s, Michael Manley went around Jamaica when we faced the first major oil crisis to explain to the people in practical terms how the cost of fertiliser was going up, as, too, the price of things like tractors, which we bought from abroad, while the price of exports was going down.

Today, Jamaica needs this type of face-to-face dialogue in every community, office, workplace and church hall to alert the people to the reality facing the nation, and to enlist their resolve in mobilising the nation to firm up our foundation and allow us to eventually come out of the crisis stronger than we were before.

Unfortunately, not even the shaky foundation on which the house called Jamaica is built, it seems, can pull some of our political leaders out of the valley of narrow partisanship into the desired heights of statesmanship. Give us vision, lest we perish!

Lambert Brown is president of the University and Allied Workers' Union and can be contacted at Labpoyh@yahoo.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.