A Happy New Year to you. Many have forgotten the debate 10 years ago regarding when the last century ended and when this one began. As there was no original year zero, the first century was from year one to year 100, the second from 101 to 200 and so on. Each decade was from one to 10, 11 to 20 and so on. The last century ended at the end of 2000 and this century began on January 1, 2001. This decade therefore ends at the end of 2010 and not at the end of 2009. I make this point for the sake of the children who rely on the media for factual information.

That aside, the headline of the editorial in the Observer of January 1 was, “Happy New Year for whom”? I recall the headline of an article in the now defunct Daily News in December 1973 which read “1974 will not be happy new year”. So let us go down memory lane and look at the 1970s, how we handled the oil crisis that began in December 1973 and the austerity measures from 1974 onwards.

At the time there were many Socialist governments in Europe which financed the impressive list of social programmes plus free education that were initiated in the Michael Manley-led government of the 1970s. The fact that Michael Manley was a vice president of Socialist International might have helped to procure some of these grants. Beginning in 1972, new trading partners were sought, many from the Communist bloc.

But there was also the bauxite levy of 1974 and a new land tax policy of 1975. Also, Jamaica had a bartering arrangement with the Soviet Union using raw bauxite dirt as a trade-off for Lada cars. In 1977, Michael Manley and all ministers of government took a cut in salary. By 1978 the PNP government went to the International Monetary Fund and by 1980 the government withdrew from the IMF.

During the 1970s Michael Manley spoke of wage restraint, austerity and “tightening our belts” and a united effort to solve the problem. He was greeted with slogans like “Is Manley Fault” and the famous gas strike of January 1979. There was mass migration after the land tax adjustments of 1975. It was heightened after the “flights to Miami” statement by Michael Manley. The Jamaica Labour Party capitalised on it by having as their main campaign slogan “Deliverance is near” for the October 1980 election.

Over 800 people were killed in political violence in 1980. Food that disappeared from the shelves of supermarkets mysteriously reappeared in the supermarkets the day after the 1980 election. The JLP won in 1980 and Edward Seaga became prime minister. Early in 1981 Seaga visited US president Ronald Reagan. Out of that came the Caribbean Basin Initiative. And in 1981, Jamaica went back to the IMF. There were lay-offs and the cost of living went up. The social programmes were reduced and we were told by Seaga to “bite the bullet”.

By the late 1980s the Soviet Union was no longer Communist and many Socialist countries in Europe fell in line with their major trading partner. So when the People’s National Party returned to power in 1989 they had to curtail the social programmes because these financial grants no longer existed.

But we have never seen the problems in a national sense rather than in partisan political terms. Today, we are in a crisis caused by outside forces, just as it was in the 1970s. The USA is in a recession and they are our greatest trading partner. It is not the fault of the present JLP government although the way in which they are imposing additional taxation is terrible.

It is not the fault of the previous PNP government for spending money on infrastructural development and social programmes. The brain drain of our professionals who migrate is a serious problem in all developing countries, let alone Jamaica which is so near to the USA. For many Jamaicans lectures on patriotism are not enough. Had money not been spent for infrastructure development, how much greater would the brain drain have been? What should we not have spent money on?

Attorney at law Howard Hamilton has come up with an idea just as there was the Butch Stewart Initiative in 1992 when he kept our dollar at $25 to US$1. In a letter published in the Gleaner of Saturday, January 2, 2010, Hamilton suggested that we fill the hole in Jamaica’s budget immediately rather than by more taxation. He said that everyone should get involved, from the wealthiest right down to the street boys who wipe windshields. In that way we will find the few billion dollars to plug the hole in the budget. It is a plan that we definitely should look at.

I have been trying to get people to come together to form a co-operative employment agency that buys shares in businesses so that we can get the jobs. I do not know if anyone said it before him, but the late Forbes Burnham of Guyana once said that it is either we swim together or sink separately. After all, as the song goes, we are all in this thing together.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com