Dear Editor,

I read with great interest the questions raised by Mel Robinson in his letter of June 13 about the debt crisis. His questions are reasonable and deserve to be answered for the benefit of all Jamaicans.

Unless this enormous albatross is removed from the neck of our country, our people will eternally be in economic shackles.

However, Robinson’s question of a two-year moratorium on borrowing would not solve the problem. Can you imagine the “bangarang” a two-year state of economic emergency would cause?

Surely Jamaica can, and should produce or substitute many items that are imported. However, elevated taste for foreign foods and goods stand as obstacles to overcome.

One glaring example is that Jamaica can produce all the goat meat that the nation consumes but kleptomania and the anancy syndrome are powerful retardants to this achievement.

After 50 years, we are a nation in name only, in spite of the achievement of our athletes and our educational luminaries. We still pay homage to a foreign monarch and pray for final legal relief to a distant and foreign legal system.

The economic albatross can be removed, but it will take time, effort, nation building, deep sincerity and honesty in the total population.

Louis Alexander Hemans

Lahemans@aol.com