Below is the full text of former Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s address to the Jamaica 64th Independence Gala hosted by Team Jamaica Bickle in Philadelphia on August 1, 2026.

Thank you so much for your warm and gracious welcome. I haven’t been to Philly in a long, long time and it is so delightful to be here today and to be here among family. The outstanding contributions you make here and your unbreakable ties back home make us extremely proud.

When Irwine invited me, one of the first questions I asked him was “How are the Jamaicans there doing?” and he said “They’re doing well despite the challenges and the odds”. I’m going to speak to some of that this evening because we back home are facing some of those same challenges and odds but, as Irwine said, we are resilient – we’re little but we tallawah; we are nice but we are tough.

Team Jamaica Bickle

Let me thank Team Jamaica Bickle for the privilege of sharing some thoughts with you as we celebrate our 64th anniversary of independence. We celebrate, as well, more than 30 years of outstanding work by Team Jamaica Bickle. No commendation is too great for the efforts of Irwine Clare and Blane Stoddart in recognizing that there was a need, in conceptualizing a response, in persevering even when it appeared too ambitious and in growing the organization to what it is today.

Its initial focus was on taking care of our young athletes when they arrived to compete in the Penn Relays. Many of them were travelling abroad for the first time, found themselves in an environment where they knew no one other than their teammates and coaches but had to prepare themselves physically and mentally for the competitive challenges that faced them. Few people would have recognized that something important was missing, that they needed to be acclimatized, that their dietary needs had to be carefully managed if they were to be at their best and that they needed to be made to feel at home as much as possible. But Irwine and Blade recognized it and Team Jamaica Bickle is a legacy of which they can be proud and for which they must be saluted.

It has contributed immensely to the development of our athletes, some of whom like Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shericka Jackson, Asafa Powell, Merlene Ottey, Veronica Campbell-Brown (and I could name so many others) have gone on to be world champions.

But Team Jamaica Bickle didn’t stop at providing hospitality. It has provided grants to schools to assist them in developing their sports infrastructure and programmes, recognizing that our schools are the nursery for future champions. A major accomplishment has been its donation of well over a hundred defibrillators to equip the schools to deal with medical emergencies that athletes sometimes encounter.

And Team Jamaica Bickle didn’t out of patriotism confine its endeavors to Jamaican student athletes but extended its generosity to young athletes from other Caribbean countries. That it has served over 3,500 athletes since it came into being is a truly remarkable achievement and I ask you all to stand and give a rousing applause of commendation and gratitude to Team Jamaica Bickle.

It couldn’t have done it alone and we must celebrate, as well, all the sponsors, donors and volunteers without whose contributions much of this would not have been possible.

Jamaica’s progress

On Thursday of next week Jamaica will mark 64 years of independence. America recently celebrated its 250th anniversary but for us 64 years has been a long journey. It has been difficult at times. We have made mistakes, sometimes we lost our way but we were determined enough to wheel and come again. We have never forgotten that we have a rich legacy to protect and advance – the work and sacrifice of Nanny, Sam Sharpe, Paul Bogle, George William Gordon, Marcus Garvey, Norman Manley, Alexander Bustamante and the countless number of unsung heroes on whose shoulders we stand; the brilliance of Louise Bennett, Bob Marley and Usain Bolt.

Despite whatever setbacks befell us, we have made progress. We are a proud and, sometimes, even feisty people. We are a mature democracy. Lest we forget, the 2016 election was won by only one seat and an overall majority of less than 4,000 votes. Yet, there was a peaceful and orderly change of government. Not a single shot was fired, the PNP didn’t claim that the election was stolen, no mob attacked Gordon House and ransacked the place. People went about their business the next day as if the day before was a normal day. Little as we are, there are some important things that some big and powerful countries can learn from us.

Upon his retirement, Norman Manley said that the mission of his generation was to achieve political independence and he declared “mission accomplished”. The mission of the next generation, he said, was to achieve economic independence. That goal has proven to be elusive.

We have made some important strides over the last 15 years.
• Our national debt that had reached as much as 147 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product has been cut by more than a half…….even after Hurricane Melissa.
• Our Net International Reserves now stand at US$6.5 billion which commands respect in the international financial markets.
• Our unemployment rate is now at a record low of under four per cent. For the first time I have seen “Employees wanted” signs posted on some business places.
• Inflation is running at less than 6% despite the pressures caused by the war in Iran.
• We have a stable exchange rate with annual depreciation of around 1% over the last 5 years.
• Annual tourist arrivals now total over 4 million visitors.
• Our murder rate which I know has caused concern to most of you and which was once as high as over 1,600 a year is now down to less than 600 – still too high but still coming down.
• We have a capable and independent judiciary – we don’t have JLP and PNP judges – and the huge backlog of cases that has plagued our court system is being significantly reduced.
• Despite the pressure on our health services, we managed the Covid crisis better than many other countries. For example, our death toll per 100,000 was 125 compared with 375 here in the United States.
• When Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica it was a more powerful hurricane than Katrina when it hit New Orleans. It took New Orleans 18 months to restore basic infrastructure and services and 10 years to fully recover. We are only 9 months in and we’re doing better than that.

So, despite the many difficulties that we face, we have a lot to give God thanks for. Our macro-economic fundamentals are in good shape but economic growth remains well below what we need to achieve. Over the past 5 years the economy has grown by an average of less than one per cent per year, due in part to Covid and Melissa but, even then, we have to do much better.

We have to refocus. Low unemployment, healthy foreign reserves, a stable exchange rate and moderate inflation are not sufficient to put us where we want to be. We have to add more value to our output. We have to lift our productivity through education, innovation, upskilling our work force, further upgrading our infrastructure and transforming our business processes. The aim must be for workers to earn better wages and enjoy a higher standard of living. That is our major challenge as we move into our 65th year.

The new challenge facing us

But we are facing an even more pressing and unnecessary challenge at this time. We are an island state but our borders don’t define our circumstances. How we live, how we govern ourselves, how we progress is determined, to a great extent, by the environment in which we live and how we are able to operate within that environment. That environment has always been challenging, testing our mettle and fortitude.

We went through 45 years of the Cold War when we became the bully beef in the sandwich that the two superpowers were fighting over. But I have never witnessed anything like what we are facing now.

We had to adapt to globalization with a set of rules different from what we were accustomed to. The preferential treatment that we enjoyed from the European Union for exporting our sugar and bananas was banned. The protective tariffs and subsidies that we used to help level the playing field for our local manufacturers and farmers had to come down so that foreign goods could more easily enter our markets. We had little say in the design of this new framework but we muscled up to face the new challenges. After all, we had to grow up one day and stand on our own two feet.

But, to our amazement and just as we were learning how to navigate this new landscape, that global order has become topsy-turvy. Established rules are being discarded. New rules are being handed down, not after discussions and negotiations, but unilaterally by social media postings at 2:30 in the morning when most of us are asleep. The long discredited Monroe doctrine has been reincarnated.

New tariffs were imposed last year on our exports to America although America enjoys a huge trade surplus with us. What we export to the United States is less than a quarter of what we import from them.

We have been ordered to send home the Cuban doctors and nurses who have played such a big part in keeping our health services going. Countries and companies that do business with Cuba run the risk of incurring severe penalties. We are being forced to contribute to the strangulation of the Cuban people who have helped us in so many ways, including gifting us the GC Foster College, the Jose Marti Technical High School, the Garvey Maceo High School and the Anchovy High School.

But Cuba is not the only friend we have that we are being told not to keep company with anymore. China has become a major investment partner in Jamaica. It has invested in major highways that have significantly improved our transportation and logistics in. You can now get from the Caymanas to Ocho Rios in less than an hour. The long under-developed parishes of St Thomas and Portland have been opened up because of China’s concessionary loan financing for the South Coast highway. Try buying a piece of land now in St. Thomas and see what you would have to pay.

China invested in our sugar factories when they were on the verge of closure. It is investing almost US$500 million in the revitalization of the Alpart alumina plant. It is heavily involved in the modernization of our port facilities to enable us to better take advantage of our strategic location along a major trade route.

But we are now being told that we must run the Chinese out of Jamaica because they are saddling us with unsustainable debt and threatening America’s influence in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Chinese have never made any indecent request of us or imposed any condition that could be a concern to the United States. What we owe to China is neither a burden nor a debt trap; it is less than four per cent of our total debt and is offered at concessionary rates of two to three per cent – you can’t get rates like that anywhere else! On the other hand, what we owe to American bondholders who account for most of our foreign debt comes at a cost of six to eight per cent.

China thinks long-term, sees potential that investors in countries like the US ignore because it looks too risky and China puts its money where its mouth is. China’s stock of investment in Jamaica now stands at US$2.1 billon – America’s investment is only a fraction of that (US$276 million). But we are being told that we must drive them out of the country!

The most controversial issue in this new hegemonic environment is the requirement for Jamaica to accept Third Country deportees – not Jamaicans whom we are obliged to accept, but persons from various other countries that America wants to get rid of. In our case, we were required to sign an agreement which allows America to send up to 10,000 persons (25 every two weeks) to Jamaica.

We are told that no more than 10 people will be in Jamaica within any 30 day period but no specific arrangements have been provided as to how they will move on or where they go from there. And if it is the case that they will be in Jamaica for such a short time, why bother to send them there? Why not keep them in America for the 30 days and then send them off to wherever they are supposed to go? It just does not make any sense! Or is it America’s unspoken expectation that they will be parked here?

We are not alone in this. Seven Caricom countries have had to sign similar agreements. Please don’t ask me to believe that we entered into these agreements joyfully!

Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, when he visited Jamaica in March 2025, is only the latest highly placed official of the US government who has boasted of the strong, long-standing bond of friendship between Jamaica and the United States. What is being done to us is not friendship. Imposing arbitrary tariffs on us when we are struggling to make our exports competitive in a difficult market is not friendship! Dictating to us who we must do business with is not friendship! Forcing us to accept foreign deportees when we are struggling to look after our own people and trying to recover from Melissa is not friendship!
True friends don’t abuse your friendship; they don’t make unreasonable demands of you; they should be there to help you. Holding a gun to our head and insisting that we must be “reasonable” and do things your way is not friendship! The United States has put us under severe stress – that’s not what friends are for!

There are many at home and abroad who are outraged at what is taking place, who are incensed at the bullying being meted out to us, who are angry that we have not pushed back, that we haven’t stood up like President Lula who declared that “Brazil’s destiny is for Brazilians alone to determine — without foreign interference or subservience”.

But we must pause for a moment to understand who we are and the pickle we are in. Brazil is a large country and provides a US$57B market for American exports. We are not in that league.

We struggle to find markets for our goods. The US market accounts for a half of our total exports. If our exports to the US were slapped with a 50% tariff, our manufacturing sector would fall apart and thousands of persons would lose their jobs.
An airline ticket from Philadelphia to Montego Bay attracts federal taxes of around US$65. Bear in mind that the US accounts for 70% of the tourists who come to Jamaica. If that ticket were slapped with an additional tax of US$200, do you understand what that would do to our tourism industry that is so vital to our economy?

Remittances from the US to Jamaica amounted to more than US$2.6 billion last year. Since January this year a one per cent federal tax was imposed on such remittances. What if the tax on remittances to Jamaica were increased to 25 per cent or disallowed altogether as a form of punishment? We don’t have to pause to wonder what that would mean to thousands of families that cannot survive without it.

Our correspondent bank arrangements are tied to the US financial system. That’s what facilitates transactions between Jamaica and the rest of the world. What if those arrangements were cut off? Our economy would be literally paralyzed.
What if companies that want to do business with us were told that they would be penalized if they did so? What would that do to our investment flows?

Scores of people gather at the US embassy every day hoping to obtain a visa so they can visit their family members in the US or seek better opportunities here. What if the US were to restrict the granting of visas to Jamaicans as has been done to countries like Sierra Leone and Haiti?

And we are not alone in this; all Caribbean countries are at risk and all of us are extremely vulnerable. If our governments say or do anything that the White House finds displeasing, punishment will be meted out to us as sure as night follows day. Tariffs have become the weapon of choice and retribution a foreign policy tool. Canada was recently threatened with a 50 per cent tariff because smoke from wildfires there had drifted into America.

So, when Caribbean governments adopt a measured, cautious approach in dealing with America’s bullying tactics, it is because they understand the pickle we are in. Make a wrong move, defiantly defend the Cuban assistance programmes and our partnership with China and they pay the price. They understand how careful they have to be when their hand is in the mouth of an angry lion.

And, sadly, we have been placed into a position where Caribbean unity is of no avail. Our individual sovereignty and regional leverage are under siege. It is now every man for himself….every country on its own!

Some of us, in the national interest, have to be restrained in what they say; others of us, in the national interest, have to say what needs to be said and I will continue to voice my concerns as to how America’s dictates affect Jamaica and impair the hopes and aspirations of our people. Putting America first should not mean putting Jamaica in jeopardy.

I cautiously cling to the hope that this will pass, that the hemisphere will once again be a neighbourhood of peace, mutual understanding and respect, where true friendship prevails, where all of its people can pursue their own destiny with dignity and purpose and where we can look upon America as a friend indeed.

God bless all of you as you continue to make us proud and keep the black, green and gold flying. God bless the United States of America which, if it is so minded, can hold hands with us in a spirit of true friendship. God bless the land we love – Jamaica – and guide us with His mighty hand through these troubling times.