Dear Editor,

I am suggesting that Jamaica now implement a massive goat-rearing initiative in the Portland Bight area, specifically targeting the Goat Islands as preferred locations.

We seem not to have a sense of urgency, or the radar for business culture to balance advantages against disadvantages, in attempting to grow the Jamaican economy. So many see, apparently, goat rearing/indigenous lizard sanctuaries as viable alternatives to a mega-project which will destroy such environmentally sacred activities.

I say this against the background of the shocking news of the thaw in political relations between the US and Cuba, with fully staffed embassies ready to follow normalisation. I do not think this radical move caught the savvy Chinese completely by surprise, so it must have been a deliberate decision by them to go head-to-head with their proposal of a logistics hub in Jamaica, as against the one being built in Cuba, financed in part by Brazil. That is China + Jamaica vs Brazil + Cuba — two the hard way — in a mega-business project.

There is no doubt that many modern communist countries, hungry to escape their traditional poverty-stricken existence, have used their strong points, centralised decision-making, and disciplined workforce ethic to great effect. Look, China has leapfrogged leading Western class-ridden societies, including the former world leading power Great Britain, to become the world’s second largest economy.

Now what is the present logistics state of affairs? Jamaica has a relatively slight geographical placement advantage, enough so that the Chinese decided to invest here in the proposed hub rather than elsewhere in the relevant Caribbean. They no doubt thought Jamaica would respond with enthusiasm to the prospect, and so have invested in many other fair-sized projects. To their surprise, perhaps, they have found intense and often acrimonious bickering among influential groups regarding the the preservation of the “sacred patrimony” of our ‘environmental bequeathments’ by the almighty, compunded by and a seemingly molasses-slow movement by the Government to implement.

I have news, which is not really news when you look at it. Cuba is the new kid on the block, and already foreign business is salivating at another China-type success location. Jamaican businesses are finally waking up to the fact of looming and serious competition in this and other matters, especially mega-projects.

As a Jamaican, I wish my countrymen, businessmen and otherwise, well. For I know they are in for 15 rounds of a bruising battle in the ring against a formidable opponent.

Cathy Brown

cathy291181@yahoo.com