Dear Reader,

It is very clear that the Air Jamaica story will neither fly away nor crash (pun intended), and there’s good reason for that. The issue of the sale of the Lovebird remains front and centre of the news because Air Jamaica is not just an airline. It represents the soul and spirit of Jamaica and a source of national pride, regardless of the economic deficiencies and considerations.

There are certain things that cannot be distilled or measured simply by their financial value, and Air Jamaica is one such entity. For a country our size to have introduced an official national carrier 42 years ago that impacted on the regional and hemispheric markets so significantly, is paramount in understanding the sentiments attached to its sale. Not only did Jamaica enter the international aviation business, it did so with beauty and style. The Lovebird”s name represented the spirit and ethos of Jamaica, and the colours of the aeroplanes with the doctor bird etched on its tail made Air Jamaica unique in and out of the skies. We were the first and only airline to offer free champagne service and in-flight fashion shows. Air Jamaica was the airline that aligned itself to promote the fledgling tourist trade after the tragic 9/11 World Trade Centre attack when fewer Americans wanted to travel. It is not just Jamaicans who fell in love with Air Jamaica over the years, it is also the hundreds of thousands of tourists who have enjoyed our national carrier.

Most important, Air Jamaica is the only airline that will accept carton boxes used by Jamaican informal commercial importers in the buying and selling trade. And just in case there are some of us who are not fully aware, it is the “higglering” business that is the mainstay of the informal economy and the reason the country has not already gone up in smoke. The ability of the ICIs to move their boxes quickly and efficiently on Air Jamaica’s planes so that they can make a profit and feed themselves and their children is as extraordinary as it is economically essential. No wonder the ICIs have been joining the anti-Trinidad sale protests. For some of us, the disposal of our airline may revolve around sentimentality, but for the ICIs it is about bread and butter.

There is no doubt that Jamaicans feel deeply about the sale of Air Jamaica to Trinidad. The volume of e-mails that I have received from Jamaicans all over the world in response to my column last week was unusually heavy and uncharacteristically strident. In one of the letters, a Jamaican posited a six-point argument. He wrote, “First of all, I want to thank you sincerely for giving voice to the concerns of many well-thinking Jamaicans at home and abroad as well as those friends of Jamaica. There are several issues that are raised by this emerging tragedy. (1) Is there a legal/administrative duty of consultation regarding the sale of national assets? (2) If there is no legal duty of consultation, a moral and good governance duty exists. (3) Any tender process can be halted at any time prior to the signing of the contract. I have personally had to re-tender (on behalf of the Jamaican people) because of a lack of suitable respondents. (4) If Air Jamaica is now in profitability the reasons for its sale can only be to (a) get rid of existing debts and/or (b) prevent exposure to future debts. How could any sale that continues to allow existing debts to burden Jamaica be justified? If there is an intention to alleviate exposure to future debts, then sale from national ownership will achieve this goal. At any rate, exposure to future debt is also exposure to future profit for an entity that (we are told) is now in profit. (5) There is a strategic and intra-government disconnect between the proposed sale of Air Jamaica in this instance and the economic strategy of promoting brand Jamaica. (6) What steps can ordinary citizens take individually or collectively to thwart this unpopular, ill-illumined and imprudent sale? I suspect that there is an unholy rush to get the contract signed and ride roughshod over the collective will of the people.”

It is audacious for the government to expect that the sale of Air Jamaica would sit well with large cross-sections of the Jamaican populace, both at home and abroad, and no amount of spin and dance can suffice for the deep anger many of us feel about the way our country’s assets are being sacrificed on the altar to foreigners for a “mess of pottage”. We ought to remind our prime minister that we elected him to be a statesman, not a salesman. It doesn’t take any particular gift or genius to sit down with a pen and cut and carve numbers or budgets. It does take statesmanship, however, to be able to gauge the pulse and spirit of your people, and to be able to captain the national vessel in a way that protects and promotes its integrity and viability.

If the funeral of Air Jamaica is going to take place, let the people of Jamaica be told what and who sent Air Jamaica to its death and why so little effort is being made to ensure that it stays in local hands before the coffin is sealed. The IMF may have to wait a little bit longer, but at least the folks in Washington would respect us for having some backbone and gumption in fighting to keep our national airline in our own hands.

And let us be very clear that the story is not only about a 42-year national treasure. Air Jamaica’s demise coincides with the downward spiral of the country as a whole. Like Air Jamaica, the country is dying – dying from a steady diet of murders as crime and violence continue to escalate, with the bodies of women and children adding to the numbers at overcrowded morgues. Children, some as young as seven years old, go missing every day, reaching a total of 1, 859 reported cases last year alone. Rape and carnal abuse are now so prevalent they jockey for space in the national news. The carnage on our streets is unspeakable as the breakdown in the rule of law displays itself openly and defiantly.

So as the country sinks, our national assets are being simultaneously disposed of. All this happening as our prime minister, who should be exhibiting the highest qualities of the consummate statesman, is busy working as a salesman.

With love,

bab2609@yahoo.com