Sometimes small countries like Jamaica have a hard time keeping up with the wider world. Like a short sprinter with short legs, the only option is to work harder at technique and form. One does not abandon the race simply because others are taller, bigger, and stronger. One simply plays the cards received at birth, emphasising the positive and making the best of one’s circumstances.

A review of the leading Jamaican newspapers clearly demonstrates that the island is quite sophisticated and cosmopolitan with regard to its news. But reading between the lines the conclusion is inescapable that the news reflects a manifestly English-speaking bias. More information emanates from Canada, the United States and Great Britain than anywhere else in the world. In part this reflects areas where Jamaican diaspora communities are concentrated. In part it reflects a frozen and misleading intellectual tradition of a world that North American propaganda created after World War II. Still photographs can be inherently misleading.

Jamaicans need to be much better informed of their wider American hemisphere. It is a vast and organically dynamic region that is constantly changing. The Americas rank among the most dynamic and interesting areas of the world. The picture of the Americas is quite different from what it was just a decade or so ago.

Nevertheless there is a caveat in generalising about the Americas. Conditions are remarkably varied even across single countries. Violence has become generalised and it is no longer possible to talk about safer countries for travel. The long-held universal model of the United States as the most desirable location to live in the world has become tarnished recently, not only by international wars and bleeding economic recession but also by the large proportion of its population in jail. The US has also become a country hostile to immigrants. Assertions of general poverty throughout Latin America are challenged by notable increases in general education and life expectancies everywhere. The principal problem in Latin America today is not poverty but inequality.

Across the Americas several countries are doing very well. They managed to weather the economic challenges of the past three years remarkably well. Four countries that are doing exceptionally by any social indicator measures are Canada, Brazil, Chile and Peru. To a certain extent, the insatiable demand by China for primary products has provided a bonanza for commodity exporters across the world. But these four countries have all managed to implement realistic social policies designed to provide the greatest good to the greatest number of its citizens. Brazil, with a per capita income less than twice that of Jamaica, has managed to reduce the number of individuals below the poverty line by more than 30 million during the past seven years. As one of the world’s leading economic powers, the government of Dilma Rousseff has promised to continue the affirmative policies of her popular and pragmatic predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Countries that are doing less well include the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. Each, however, has a different explanation for its present malaise.

The United States is experiencing the consequences of a combination of some bad policy actions taken over a long time. It continues to suffer from self-inflicted wounds. From the 1960s when Lyndon Johnson declared that the United States was so great that it could easily afford to make guns and butter through the irresponsible economic policies of Ronald Reagan to the thoughtless actions of George Bush who simultaneously reduced taxes while starting two large distant wars, the country has been haemorrhaging. Its political system has become largely dysfunctional and at its present rate of economic decline it will be replaced by China within the next decade as the world’s largest economy.

By being linked to the United States and Canada through the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico derived some remarkable early benefits but now shares the economic woes of its larger neighbour. Even worse for Mexico, a long tradition of corruption and an ongoing war on narcotics trafficking has ravaged large sections of the country. Since 2006 Mexico has reported a staggering 28,000 drugs-related murders. Nevertheless, the Mexican murder rate is lower than that of some of its Central American neighbours, including Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Colombia has experienced civil war for most of its independent history, although the violence became accentuated during the past 30 years as narco-traffickers joined the politically ideological warriors such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and right-wing paramilitary groups such as the United Self-defence Forces of Colombia (AUC). Colombia is well endowed with natural resources and despite the incessant violence and expatriation many cities have made extraordinary progress improving the lot of the average resident. Colombia is down but not out.

Venezuela defies easy explanation. With one of the world’s largest petroleum reserves and a plethora of other high-priced export commodities, Venezuela should be a model state. Instead, the country is plagued with economic problems. Last year the inflation rate hovered above 28 per cent. About 60 per cent of households are poor; and the per capita income is only about twice that of Jamaica. Since 1999 the government of Hugo Chávez with its Bolivarian Revolution has not managed to improve the general condition of the Venezuelan citizen. The country has made some bad policy decisions.

Oil resources have not had much impact on the overall Ecuadorean economy and quality of life. Since 1997 the country has expelled three elected presidents and the multi-lingual, highly intelligent Rafael Correa barely escaped being overthrown last year. With less than competent administrative leadership the various Ecuadorean domestic problems simply fester.

Latin American economies, even Mexico’s, are growing at a much faster rate than either Canada or the United States. Latin American countries, except for Venezuela, have diversified global trade networks that insulate their economies from that of the United States. Jamaica should take note of those countries that are doing well and try to follow those examples.