I have a question for the Planning Institute of Jamaica and the Ministry of Finance. Is Jamaica in a recession?

In all my years of listening to our financial leaders I have never heard an official describe the Jamaican economy as ever being in a recession. I have heard terms such as 'slow down' and 'negative growth'. It's as if the use of the 'R' word is somehow taboo!

We are, however, always 'resilient' and we can 'recover'. Our officials always seem to have some in-built excuses, like 'hurricanes' and 'legacy of colonialism/slavery'.

Every year or election cycle, it is declared that the economy will turn around through some 'mega project to generate thousands of jobs'; 'things are in the pipeline' and we are 'poised' to be great, not to mention 'developing the nation through sports'!

Corrupt nations

Sadly, nothing of significance has happened since the mid-1970s and we are now listed among the most corrupt nations on Earth (99th on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index 2009 at the website transparency.org); among the most difficult countries in the world to do business (75th on the World Bank's Doing Business Report Ranking 2010 at website doingbusiness.org); among the most hazardous countries in the world for newborn babies in the first year of life, (according to the CIA factbook our rank is 99th in the world) with an infant mortality rate of 15 deaths per 1,000 live births.

How come we are so 'great', if by most measures used to determine a country's 'greatness' we are so sadly lacking?

I am, etc.,

KAVON FIENNES

kfiennes@gmail.com

Ingleside

Mandeville PO