Dear Editor,

There is a place in the Free Zone areas we used to have in the country some years ago. Hundreds of Jamaicans were employed. If was referred to as mass employment for mass production, but people used their skills, held jobs and earned a living.

Jamaica would do well now if there were more places like that, where so many people were being employed, were available and functioning. I don’t know which devil in hell, or what empty idea caused the closure of that place.

Correct me if am wrong. I cannot think of any other business place — not even Alcan, the place of alumina, not even the sugar factories — that has ever employed so many workers like the Free Zone. It was cheap labour, but sure labour and many, ladies especially, benefited.

If we had more business places that could open doors for thousands of workers in Jamaica, that could hike the employment rate. Many of us would have a little money jingling in our pockets, we wouldn’t have such difficulty paying our bills. Maybe the crime rate would not be so high and some people would not have given up hope.

I am looking at two areas where mass production and employment on a wide scale could rise in Jamaica:

(a) agricultural production

(b) ganja production/development for medicinal use

If we put labourers to work in their thousands and can find markets for the products, we could see Jamaica on the road to economic recovery. There is still hope for the hopeless and for Jamaica in the face of gloom and doom.

Donald J Mckoy

donaldmckoy2010@hotmail.com