Jamaica is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. This is no miraculous discovery. We were beautiful to our original inhabitants, the Taino Indians, who thought they had settled forever in “the land of wood and water”. We were beautiful to Christopher Columbus who, when he caught his first sight of Jamaica, was moved to record in his journal, “the fairest isle that eyes have ere beheld. The mountains and the land seem to touch each other”.

After many hundreds of years, the mountains are still there, the beaches are still inviting, the over 3,000 species of flowers are still blooming, and the landing of a homebound flight for returning Jamaicans is enough to bring out a round of applause as the aircraft makes its touchdown. The cheers and nostalgic sighs from the Jamaican passengers are always a bit of a mystery to accompanying foreign passengers. They don’t encounter that sort of homecoming at any other airport in the world.

Which reminds me of the waving galleries that used to accommodate send-off parties and tearful farewells at our airports; again this was a unique Jamaican feature that used to bedazzle the travellers from overseas.

It must be something ordained and ingrained, this romantic attraction and appeal that our island home seems to have for people around the world.

“An island without mountains gives up all its secrets,” ran a Jamaica Tourist Board movie line many years ago. “An island like Jamaica, with so many mountains and valleys, conceals its innermost mysteries and delights, revealing them only to those who attempt to court her.”

It’s not just for the tourists. Spend a weekend up in the Blue Mountains and you will wax lyrical. At the end of every rainbow there are tantalising glimpses of the Kingston plains 5,000 feet below. The peace and tranquility of the unspoilt environment in and around Newcastle, or beyond Cinchona, serenades the senses and transports you to another world that seems almost detached from Jamaica. Amazing to think that you are only 30 minutes away from the hustle and bustle of city traffic starting at Papine. Another world indeed.

Yes, we have to endure unthinkable crime, hooliganism, alarming poverty, obscenity as a norm, and we are taxed beyond our means. Yes, we are tempted to give into the claims that Jamaica “mash up” because of the bad manners, the murder rate, the employment challenges, and ethical standards that are only as good as the paper they are written on.

And yes, we are constantly embarrassed when our relatives in “foreign” send us newspaper clippings that are uncomplimentary about Jamaica, or when we get the regular after-the-evening news calls which come in the form of “hey what’s going on down there” even when “is jus a breeze lif’ up a woman’s dress”.

But, pause for a minute, there are many good stories out there, and it’s good for our peace of mind to sometimes tune in on other persons’ perspectives, rather than listen to our own self-destructive opinions.

“Oh, would some power the giftie give us, to see ourselves as others see us, it would from many a blunder free us”, wrote Scottish poet Robert Burns years ago.

For example, a must-read to share is an article picked up from the Toronto Star newspaper which was published on June 12, 2013, and sent to me by St Ann Custos Radcliffe Walters. Listen for a while to how others see us and feel a little better within yourself.

“Jamaica is a paradise thousands of Canadians pay attention to only when the winter winds howl down Bay Street and University Avenue. Even then, they see only the sun, sand, seas and cold alcoholic drinks with fruit and tiny umbrellas stuck in them. But Jamaica is more than a fun-filled beach haunt.

“Jamaicans have known for centuries that their apparently featherweight island has the heart and punch of a superweight (read Usain Bolt, Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, and ‘Axeman’ Walters). Jamaica has produced world leaders in politics, world renowned intellectuals and artists, famous musicians, and supplied millions of immigrants to build developed countries all over the world.

“Jamaica was the first country to impose economic sanctions against the apartheid regime of South Africa. It spearheaded the International Seabed Authority. Jamaica is the first country to sign a grant agreement on a global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Apart from the United States, which has more than 300 million people, the island has won the most world and Olympic sporting medals.

“Jamaican workers helped to build the Panama Canal. They worked in the sugar cane fields of Cuba, the apple orchards of America and Canada, and hastened Britain’s post-World War II recovery in rebuilding the public transport system and health sector.

“The impact of Jamaicans in Canada has been tremendous. Politicians, nurses, doctors, teachers, manual workers, farm workers, the list of Jamaicans who have made Canada their home contains every profession and trade that helped build this country. If your child has surgery at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, it may well be performed either by a Jamaican or a doctor trained by a Jamaican who is a professor of paediatrics at the University of Toronto.

“In the last three decades three ministers of government in the Ontario Cabinet have been Jamaicans — Alvin Curling, Mary Anne Chambers, and Margaret Best. And, of course, the impact of Jamaicans on other countries is just as profound — read Dianne Abbott in Britain’s House of Commons, Colin Powell in the USA.”

It just doesn’t stop there. My friend Lloyd Russell sent me these interesting facts about our little island.

Jamaica is third place on the list of countries to win Miss World, behind Venezuela, India and England. And did you know that the Manchester Golf Club is the oldest golf club in the western hemisphere? It was founded in 1868. Now, a well-known fact is that we have a large number of churches, indeed we are a church-going nation. But did you know that, according to the Guinness Book of Records, we have the most churches per square mile of any country in the world. Lloyd didn’t say it, but we also seem to have the highest number of bars as well — we were the first country in the world to produce rum on a commercial basis.

And the story continues. We had piped running water in Falmouth before New York City had theirs. We were the first tropical country to enter the IOC Winter Olympics, the second country in the western hemisphere, just behind Cuba, to have a railway system, and we were the first British colonial territory to establish a postal system.

I don’t know if any of these facts make you feel any better about Jamaica this morning.

But, in spite of all of the heartaches facing us, and the fact that you are likely to lose at Caymanas Park today, it is always good when someone without an agenda helps us to regain or maintain a proper perspective on ourselves. Pity it had to come from overseas.

“Oh, would some power the giftie give us….”

Lance Neita is a public relations and communications specialist. Send comments to lanceneita@hotmail.com