Dear Editor,

I am reminded of the quote, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” from one of William Shakespeare’s plays.

The late journalist Wilmot Perkins described criticisms as either true or untrue, not constructive or destructive. If it is untrue, allow it to run off your back like water, but if it is true then you need to address it.

Our prime minister needs to adopt such a stance and not have her husband surf the television channels seeking out criticisms of her. We have always had an alternating relationship with the IMF, what we need is an alternative to the IMF.

The IMF is demanding that we address the issues of waivers and inducements and steeply reduce the debt, which is 140 per cent of GDP. If we decide to reduce it to 100 per cent in three years it will require around $300 billion, the experts tell us.

The IMF is demanding that we address the issues of waivers and inducements and steeply reduce the debt, which is 140 per cent of GDP. If we decide to reduce it to 100 per cent in three years it will require around $300 billion, the experts tell us.

Long before the Chicago Tribune, the Economist of July 21, 2012 told us the same thing; they made similar statements. They told us that Jamaicans are no richer today than they were in the early 1970s, and that most of our enduring problems are home-made.

Jamaica has run fiscal deficits in 44 of its 50 years of Independence. Few people pay taxes: the middle class is small, the informal economy big, and enforcement chilled-out. Only about 3,000 of the country’s 65,000 registered firms are thought to contribute. The Government has steadily dished out waivers to favoured industries; tourism pays an effective tax rate of five per cent.

Lacking sufficient revenue, Jamaica has financed public spending by borrowing. Years of accumulated deficits, a bank bailout in 1995, and punishing interest rates have swollen the national debt to a Greek-style 140 per cent of GDP. Servicing this burden now accounts for over half the budget.

These are the same things that local newspapers, the electronic media, financial experts and commentators have all been telling us. It is either true or untrue, not constructive or destructive. Let us face the truth and don’t make excuses.

Never have so many promises been made, by so few, to so many for so long. Come on, prime minister, “time come”. We cannot afford an Arab spring, our police force is too deadly, right Dr Gomes?

Mark Clarke

Siloah PO, St Elizabeth