Dear Editor,

“It’s not as bad as it seems”; “this is actually good for Jamaica” are among the rhetoric heard from public officials and learned economists alike. I will not, however, purport to know their motives for trying to pull the wool over the eyes of all well-thinking Jamaicans.

We hear of the value of the dollar being now so low it resembles a line from an oversexed hip-hop song. We hear what will happen for exports. We hear about the country’s NIR, etc. Let’s not even begin to discuss cost of local production will respond negatively to the devaluation of the dollar, or how history has already proven many of these assertions to be false. No, I will not again go there as all well-thinking Jamaicans know the state of our economy.

What bothers me, though, is why all this talk? Why would they try to convince us that all’s well with the world and our fears are simply cases of much ado about nothing? Are our economists so caught up in their books that they can’t see beyond the pages? All this textbook analysis of where we are and where we are going to end up going against common sense and our realities here in Jamaica.

I say tell the people the truth. Stop telling us we’re all going to be OK when we all know that we are trapped on the Titanic and the last lifeboat has left.

I have not heard one of these “better days” economists or public officials even seriously address the adverse effects of the dollar devaluation and everything that comes with it. Peter Phillips and the Bank of Jamaica head are both reading us the gospel. Is this some attempt at mass deception to retain some political viability? I am genuinely curious as to what the agendas are. Is it our leaders trying to cover their heinies? Whatever the reasons, they ought to do away with it and be honest with the people. We are the ones who will feel the brunt of it while they drive around in their big SUVs smiling through their tinted windows. We are paying you our dollars, now give us the truth.

Kemoy Lindsay

kemoy.a.lindsay@gmail.com