Here is my sincere wish for Jamaica in 2026 and beyond: That we place equal premium on and give equal prominence to the work and worth of citizens who are skilled at winning arguments and citizens who are adroit at finding practical solutions to especially complex and long-standing problems.

This paradigm shift needs to happen fast. It must penetrate from ground zero right through to the very highest levels of our governance ecosystems.

“Higgins, that is a very strange wish,” some will probe. Others will ask, “Why didn’t you wish for the customary peace, prosperity, and goodwill to all?”

As I see it, the realisation of those pleasantries and objectives is directly related to, and dependent on, winning arguments, correctly diagnosing problems, and timely and judiciously implementing practical solutions, especially to long-standing challenges.

Societies seldom progress in sustained ways unless that very critical balance is achieved. History has taught that lesson repeatedly. For the adherents of Mark Twain’s dictum, “history rhymes”. Fret not! In reality, nothing can rhyme unless it’s repeated. So essentially, we are on the very same page.

JAMAICA’S COSTLY MISFOCUS

One of the biggest errors that especially developing societies like Jamaica’s continue to make is that we consciously and maybe unconsciously put far more importance on the work and worth of citizens who are able to win arguments.

Winning arguments here comes down to having the gift of the gab. I think the work and worth of citizens who have solved, or can solve, particularly national problems should be valued just as highly.

It is a fact that we like talkers in Jamaica. Sorry, Jamaica loves talkers. We love them to death. We are not alone. Our fixation is a major reason for our economic, social, and political ebbs and flows.

As I understand it, the skill sets that are required to win arguments and those needed to solve especially complex problems are related but not the same.

‘Don’t be fooled by empty ‘chattins’ ‘ was the title of my piece here on April 14, 2024. In it, I said many things, among them: “There is no shortage of them that can talk in this world. But it is action that sets the great ones apart, Margaret, not words.”

This was the advice given to a young Margaret Roberts by her father and chief political mentor at the beginning of the movie
Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk to Finchley.

Unfortunately, for decades Jamaica has had a tragic oversupply of skilled talkers — and simultaneously a woeful scarcity of conscientious doers — in politics. The greatest talker was undoubtedly Michael Manley, our fourth prime minister.

When I was about age nine, Manley had a political meeting in Richmond square, St Mary, one Sunday evening. Anyway, as was customary most mornings during summer visits, I helped my grandfather in his ‘grung’, as we say in the rural parts. Tilling the grung was often a community-type activity. So it was not a surprise when a friend of my grandfather soon joined us and began helping with the work. He had attended the Richmond meeting. He waxed warm about Manley’s great ability with words.

“So what did Mr Manley say?” I asked my grandfather’s friend. I remember it well. He was so obviously enraptured by the adrenaline rush he got from hearing Manley speak that he did not even “pay me bad mind”, as we say in the rustic parts.

“What did Mr Manley say?” I asked, again. I never did get a sensible answer. In later years I found out why.

Have you ever wondered why so many of our top politicians — especially the highest-ranking ones — are and have been lawyers? Have you ever wondered why none of our national heroes are scientists? Our highways and most other important landmarks are named after politicians. Why? It is because we place a premium on talkers and relegate doers. This is anti-common sense.

Some years ago I made a case here for Dr Thomas Phillip Lecky, popularly called T P Lecky, to be named a national hero. I was not the first to make that call. Dr Lecky was a Jamaican who lived and worked in Jamaica, except when he studied and travelled abroad. It is an irrefutable fact that Dr Lecky’s work has revolutionised cattle breeding, especially for tropical conditions. His work has set international benchmarks. Does Jamaica truly appreciate the immense importance of Lecky’s work? Jamaica has produced other great scientists, too. Have they been suitably honoured by Jamaica?

MAKE NO MISTAKE

Being skilled at winning arguments is not a negative. But for Jamaica to become “the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business” which is the aspirational objective in the national vision statement for Jamaica’s long-term development plan, Vision 2030 Jamaica, we must put equal premium on and give equal prominence to the work and worth of citizens who are skilled at winning arguments, and citizens adroit in finding practical solutions to especially long-standing predicaments.

Our Parliament exemplifies the conundrum of which I speak. Decisions there significantly determine the life chances of thousands of especially ordinary Jamaicans. Yet too many there are good only at talk and little else. This is bad for Jamaica.

Now, I know some will maintain that the sum of 2+2 = 22, no matter the proof. Fuzzy maths is their thing. Fortunately there is a critical mass of Jamaicans who did not part company with mathematics at addition, long division, and related. We know that the sum of 2+2 = 4. If we are going to rebuild better, the mentioned paradigm shift is absolutely crucial.

The worship of winning arguments to the detriment of everything, including Jamaica’s national interest, has become immensely corrosive. We saw evidence of this suffocating corrosion for the umpteenth time recently in our Parliament. This stifling corrosion has caused ordinary Jamaicans, in particular, to be poorer, weaker, and less respected for decades.

Consider this headline: ‘Not something to celebrate’ — Opposition leader warns $6.7-b financing package from IFIs risks derailing Jamaica’s hard-won gains.

The Jamaica Observer news item said, among other things: “Opposition Leader Mark Golding has chided the Government for celebrating the US$6.7-billion recovery package from international financial institutions (IFIs), arguing that presenting new borrowing as a triumph masks ‘a national setback rather than a success’.

“Golding, responding in Parliament on Tuesday to Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness’s update on the country’s reconstruction strategy and the money from the IFIs, said the Government’s tone failed to reflect the seriousness of the economic challenge now facing Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa.

“He said that, while the prime minister described the financing package — assembled by the IMF [International Monetary Fund], World Bank, [Inter-American Development Bank] IDB, CAF [Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean], and the Caribbean Development Bank — as ‘nothing short of historic’, the public should view the announcement with far greater caution.

“ ‘These debts that we are now going to be incurring to finance our attempts at recovery are like lending money to a business that suffered losses through some kind of crisis that it’s trying to dig itself out of a hole… taking on additional debt. To do that is going to be a challenging road for any country. Therefore, I don’t think it’s appropriate to treat these announcements in a triumphant way,’ said Golding.” (Jamaica Observer, December 3, 2025)

I believe these utterances by Opposition Leader Mark Golding demonstrated, in living colour, a scarcity of critical problem-solving skills. Golding, a lawyer by training, seemed preoccupied with winning an argument and little else. For those who disagree, they must honestly answer this: What immediate — or otherwise — problem was Golding practically helping to solve in the aforementioned tirade?

In the midst of Golding’s seeming preoccupation with winning an argument, scores of Jamaicans are still living under the stars. Dozens are still without electricity and potable water. Food prices are shooting up. Only those with political cataract in both eyes do not see that the national misery index has significantly moved up as a consequence of one of the most powerful hurricanes in recorded history making landfall on our shores. Only the wilfully blind do not see that life has become harder, much harder, for ordinary folks.

The realities we face need immediate and longer-term solutions, not grandstanding. Four Sundays ago I said this, among other things here: “Some in the Administration might be of the mistaken view that the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has all of five long years to restore and rebuild. Imprudent legislators in the JLP need to understand that, especially for the ordinary Jamaican, the time left on the Administration’s clock exists only in the present. Folks’ watches show only one time. That time is today. A secured roof, restoration of livelihoods, those are the things that are important. And they are important, today!”

Golding evidently does not realise that he is in the direct firing line, too. Just over 400,000 Jamaicans voted for the People’s National Party (PNP) in the general election three months ago. Many of those who voted for the PNP are already assessing whether they wasted their votes.

Early last month I said in this space that, “People have the memory of elephants, especially when it comes to the loss of livelihoods. People never forget those who were entrusted with power to help them and/or could have helped but did little and/or nothing. And Google never forgets. Callaghan was given the order of the boot by Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party — the fraternal twin of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) — on May 4, 1979. The BLP remained in Opposition until 1997; 18 years.” As I see it, Golding has become to the Andrew Holness-led JLP what Edward Seaga was — after he lost the plot — to the PJ Patterson-led PNP.

GOOD GOING!

Securing significant funding to help restore people’s livelihoods just 34 days after one of the most devastating hurricanes this century (by any objective measure) is a good look, as we say in the streets. The Administration deserves a lot of credit for this. The focus is very clear: Restore lives while building back Jamaica in a far more sustained way. In short, solve people’s problems.

“You can’t love without money,” the Mighty Sparrow sang many years ago and Prime Minister Edward Seaga in the 80s told us that, “It takes cash to care.”

I believe Prime Minister Holness was spot-on about the earmarked uses of the funding secured: “It gives us the liquidity, the fiscal space, and the multi-year investment framework required to rebuild stronger and more secure for our future. Securing support of this magnitude within one month of Hurricane Melissa is nothing short of historic. It reflects sustained, direct, and proactive engagement at the highest levels. It reflects the credibility we have rebuilt through years of disciplined fiscal management, debt reduction, institutional strengthening, and responsible stewardship of the people’s resources.”

Well-thinking Jamaicans are now keenly watching how the billions are spent. The prime minister said in Parliament that, “We will turn this moment of crisis into an opportunity for transformation.” Holness also said, “The Government will approach reconstruction as a growth-inducing strategy.”

He also noted that: “The reconstruction effort being deployed across infrastructure, housing, digitalisation, logistics, agriculture, and energy will create thousands of jobs, crowd in private investment, improve national productivity, protect fiscal sustainability, and reposition Jamaica as a resilient, modern, competitive economy.”

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Keep an eagle eye on these commitments; for that’s where adroitness in winning arguments will have to match practical problem-solving skills. Happy Christmas!!