ON my most recent trip to Jamaica, I had the chance to speak with a friend in my age group who never fails to share his thoughts on politics and the direction of the country.

Unlike previous times, he was far more upset about the current state of things and very concerned about the lack of action within the population or the media with respect to forcefully calling attention to the lack of urgency.

Few Jamaicans wish to see Greece-like unrest erupt, but he does have a valid point that Jamaicans of previous generations were far more active when it came to sending a clear message to those in leadership.

Are journalists and columnists going easy on the current Administration? Easier than on the previous one? He feels that way, but is more upset by the defence of the PNP’s current track record by so many, despite the facts available to compare to previous administrations. Saying that he is disappointed in our generation, those born in the 80s, is an understatement.

His ultimate response when people make excuses for the way things are today is that he feels like he is in the Twilight Zone. He can’t believe that anyone in Jamaica would really defend the current results in a rational, unbiased manner.

Over the last few weeks, I have been watching the old Twilight Zone series from the 1950s on Netflix, and so that struck a chord with me.

One particular episode I watched was titled Mr Dingle, the Strong, which featured a timid vacuum-cleaner salesman being given the strength of 300 men by some aliens.

The story follows this gentleman, who is unable to defend himself, and when he gets these powers that can help so many people he immediately uses it to show off, secure popularity and try to make money for himself. Just as fame starts growing, the aliens take the power away from him because they thought that was a poor user of the power.

A second set of aliens show up and give him super intelligence as another experiment, and the episode ends not long after he calculates the odds relating to a baseball game and his predictions bear out.

As you know, all Twilight Zone episodes have some moral to the story. In this case, it is saying that when you secure the ability to help others but instead only focus on yourself, you are bound to lose that ability in the end. Around the world it is common for people to feel that politicians are first focused on enriching themselves and taking care of their futures before they focus on the future of the people.

My friend made a suggestion he considers simple, saying that we are not pursuing the low-hanging fruit and refuse to just stop the foolishness (he actually used a much stronger word). We have a fundamental problem with tax compliance, so he suggested taking 1,000 civil servants and moving them into a Tax Administration role where they check on every business for tax compliance certificates by actually visiting premises all over the island, starting in Kingston.

They should walk from Papine to New Kingston checking every floor of every building and do that in all areas. Give them a two per cent commission of the money that their efforts lead to collecting and you would have impacted the revenue directly while addressing some of the inefficiency we hear about within the civil service.

Say what you will about the idea, but at least he is thinking and making suggestions instead of sitting back and complaining or defending the status quo. No one is satisfied with the current economic environment, but so few are putting forward ideas and being vocal about their disappointment. Is it that many are simply trying to plan their migration to another country?

David Mullings was the first Future Leaders representative for the USA on the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board. He can be found at facebook.com/InteractiveDialogue and Twitter.com/davidmullings