In the mid-90s, Anheuser-Busch Companies, because of a significant drop in sales, launched a campaign called “Louie the Lizard”. Today it is recognised in academia and elsewhere as a piece of advertising genius, and is often a required case study particularly for university students majoring in communications, political science, international relations, law, rhetoric, and related fields.

The Louie the Lizard campaign focused on an embittered animatronic lizard named Louie who had a distinctive Brooklyn accent. Louie railed against three frogs, because Budweiser had chosen them as their brand representatives instead of him. “Bud”, “Weis”, and “Er” those were the only three syllables which the frogs were capable of uttering while Louie was highly articulate and intelligent. Louie becomes so insanely jealous of the frogs he hires a hitman, a ferret, to kill the frogs. Frankie, another lizard and Louie’s friend, recognises the futility of Louie’s vendetta and repeatedly says to him, “Let it go, Louie. Just let it go man.”

There are many Louies among us. They are hate-filled and angry because of the recent successes of Jamaica. “Let it go, Louie!”

Recently, chairman of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) Keith Duncan told us that our country continues to meet and, in many instances, exceed structural benchmarks. Duncan said the Jamaican economy continues to show resilience even amid turmoil in its main trading partner, the United States.

Some Louies among us did not like this good news. It caused their overt and disguised malignity to be punched into overdrive. Hence, they took to social media and tried their best to decry, minimise, and cancel the positive news from EPOC. Why? Because some among us would rather see Jamaica reduced to rubble once they end up as kings of the pile. These politically and socially decrepit types would prefer to hear that inflation is rising uncontrollably, foreign exchange is scarce, our balance of payment accounts are on the ropes, international confidence in the Jamaican economy is on its knees, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning that rough waters and very choppy seas are ahead for Jamaica.

Why? They believe the demise of Jamaica is their trump card to power.

Unsurprisingly, specific portions of the good news from EPOC greatly enraged the Louies among us. Headline: ‘EPOC chair says current account surplus a milestone for Jamaica…but cautious about sustainability’.

The Jamaica Observer news item gave these and related details: “Jamaica saw its trade position running a positive $352.4 million at the end of March 2023, meaning that the country received more inflows of foreign exchange than there were outflows. That positive trade balance continued into the first quarter of fiscal year 2023/24, when the country recorded a $241 million surplus.

“This surplus marks a milestone achievement, representing the first time in decades that Jamaica has not recorded a current account deficit,” Duncan said, adding that it can be credited to “robust recovery in tourism and travel, increased exports, and continued strong inflows from remittances”.

Of note, Jamaica saw a massive increase in services exported, which jumped from US$97 million in 2022/23 to US$1,635.1 as at March 31 this year. While the country’s overall exports rose by US$50 million, its imports fell by US$150 million. “So, therefore, when you take all this into account, that means that Jamaica [was] in receipt of more US dollars than it [was] spending US dollars in 2022/23,” Duncan explained.”

“Mi nuh believe none of it. Is a setup for the elections,” some protested.

“This cannot be true,” some objected.

“This nuh have nutten to do with the average man,” some bellowed.

The vitriol was spewed in relay-like fashion, much of it I cannot repeat here. The orchestrators of these cancel campaigns are not unlettered individuals. They are not living from hand to mouth either. Power by any means necessary fuels them. I believe they will desecrate their mother’s coffin if that will get them power. These kinds of individuals do not mean Jamaica any good.

Information in the public domain says that the last time Jamaica had a positive current account balance before 2023 was in 1966. This is good news. But, it sent the Louies into a massive fit of distress.

“Let it go, Louie!” With 14 days from the start of a new year, I am humbly recommending the adoption of this possible life-saving/changing shift for some among us.

Believe it, there are some among us who are terribly upset that Jamaica has some US$4.7 billion in reserves in our central bank — the most we’ve had since our country’s Independence. They are angry because Jamaica’s debt is steadily decreasing as a result of increased payments by the Government. They are incensed that several targeted strategies to cushion the bite of inflation, so that the most vulnerable are protected, are being implemented. They are outraged that tourism is thriving. And, among other things, they are livid that murder and other major crimes are lower to date when compared to 2022.

Mark Twain gave this verdict on hate: “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” The equivalent in this context is: “Let it go, Louie.”

Those among us who spew bile because Jamaica is making significant advances need to get accustomed to the country’s forward trajectory.

I do not believe that well-thinking Jamaicans, the majority of us, are hankering for the days when we were the laughing stock of the region because our economy was regularly in tatters. I do not see any credible evidence that right-thinking Jamaicans are pining for a return of capital flight and long lines at the banks for foreign exchange. Most Jamaicans, as I see it, do not want to see the face ever again of foreign exchange controls and the ugliness of the deadly black market in foreign currencies.

A critical mass is done with an unusable past that some among us want to resurrect. The time when a small number of privileged people in a small segment of Jamaica controlled what the majority thought about, and how often, is over — thanks to the Internet and other innovations. The days when “sufferation” and ideology could be successfully romanticised are dead.

The Louies among us need to read the memo they got, long ago. You lost it, Louie!

Can’t cancel the truth

Some try very hard, but they will not ultimately cancel the truth. This is one of the seminal lessons of the mentioned commercial series. “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time,” said America’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln.

Recently, for example, Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding was on the hustings in St James. Obviously embarrassed by the social and economic disasters which the People’s National Party (PNP) presided over during their 18 ½ years (1989-2007) in Jamaica House, 89 Old Hope, in recent months, has launched a campaign to cancel those realities.

Golding needs to understand that facts will never become hostage to those who attempt to cancel them with dodges and misinformation.

Consider this: ‘The 18 years were progressive years’ — Golding hits back at PM’s critique of PNP’s management of Jamaican economy

The Gleaner article said among other things: “Mark Golding has rejected, as baseless, claims by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) that his People’s National Party (PNP) destroyed the country during its 18 years of governance from 1989 to 2007.

” ‘They can’t tell us anything about 18 years wasted. The 18 years were progressive years; we brought poverty from multiple digits down to single digits,’ Golding, the PNP president, said in defence of his party’s management of Jamaica’s affairs.”

Golding is obviously hostile to facts. Each time there is an attempt to cancel the catastrophic results created by the PNP between 1989 and 2007 there must be a concerted pushback with the verifiable facts. Those who calculatingly seek to rewrite any period of our history must not go unchallenged.

These are the facts, Golding: Our economy was on life support when the PNP presided for 18½ years. Whereas the vast majority of Caribbean economies grew by an average of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent, ours nosedived. The global economy was buoyant most of the time. There was a near total collapse of the black entrepreneurial class. Some 45, 000 small and medium sized companies capsized. Dozens of large companies, which employed hundreds of Jamaicans, went under because of the inept management of the national economy by the PNP. I named many of these companies here previously.

“The greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich since slavery,” that is how former Cabinet minister Ronald Thwaites described his party’s colossal mismanagement.

Social degradation and political corruption grew as if on steroids between 1989 and 2007. I have previously provided copious evidence of the debilitating impact of especially money scandals during the 18½-year period which Golding would want us to believe was a glorious period of great achievement, growth and development.

Social and economic rot were the order of the day in the lost years between 1989 and 2007. The rot became so pervasive the then Prime Minister P J Patterson initiated a values and attitudes drive which massively resembled Lee Kuan Yew’s ‘Make Courtesy Our Way of Life’ campaign which was launched in Singapore in 1979. Patterson’s campaign failed. The horse had already bolted. We are reaping the whirlwind today.

In 1989 we had 439 murders. There has been a stubborn surge in homicides from then. In 2005 Jamaica suffered the ignominy of having the highest murder rate in the world. On the watch of then National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips, 1,674 Jamaicans were murdered in 2005 or 64 per 100,000.

You cannot rewrite history, Golding. The Information Age will not facilitate it. And a more discerning Jamaican will not tolerate it.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness is right. “We know that there is a generation of Jamaicans who were not born in the 1970s, and they have no clue as to how the other party destroyed Jamaica. They have no clue. There is a generation born in the 90s and early 2000s; they have no clue as to how the 18½ years of the PNP destroyed Jamaica.” Those with the knowledge have a responsibility, lest we go that sad route again.

The forthcoming LGE

Come early next year we are slated to have our 17th local government election since universal adult suffrage in 1944. It will be a career-changing election for many of our major political leaders. The stakes are high for the JLP, and even higher for the PNP. If the JLP were to lose the upcoming parish council elections I think that would cause a resurrection of the frequent nightmarish-type visitations with which the Portia Simpson Miller-led Opposition of 2007-2011 haunted the Bruce Golding’s Administration.

The JLP, however, would still have time to recover. The next general election is not due until 2025.

The Black-Bellied Plovers, Bananaquits, and John Chewits tweet that if the PNP does not win or achieve a very decent draw it will be over for Mark Golding, Dr Dayton Campbell, Dr Angela Brown Burke, and some other higher-ups in the PNP.

They chirp that the tiny and remaining big funders of the PNP are not in any mood to cuddle losers going forward. Golding’s political future hangs by a thread, as I see it.

A few weeks after Dr Peter Phillips became Opposition Leader and PNP president I predicted that he would become the first major party leader not to become prime minister. I was proved right.

A little over year and half ago I said here that Mark Golding would become the second.

Admittedly, elections are hostage to events. So, barring a catastrophic scandal in the JLP, or a major natural disaster — the latter would be a two-edged sword — I believe the JLP will win the upcoming local government elections. More anon!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

In the mid-90s, Anheuser-Busch Companies, because of a significant drop in sales, launched a campaign called “Louie the Lizard”. Today it is recognised in academia and elsewhere as a piece of advertising genius, and is often a required case study particularly for university students majoring in communications, political science, international relations, law, rhetoric, and related fields.

The Louie the Lizard campaign focused on an embittered animatronic lizard named Louie who had a distinctive Brooklyn accent. Louie railed against three frogs, because Budweiser had chosen them as their brand representatives instead of him. “Bud”, “Weis”, and “Er” those were the only three syllables which the frogs were capable of uttering while Louie was highly articulate and intelligent. Louie becomes so insanely jealous of the frogs he hires a hitman, a ferret, to kill the frogs. Frankie another lizard and Louie’s friend recognises the futility of Louie’s vendetta and repeatedly says to him, “Let it go, Louie. Just let it go man.”

There are many Louies among us. They are hate-filled and angry because of the recent successes of Jamaica. “Let it go Louie!”

Recently, chairman of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) Keith Duncan told us that our country continues to meet and, in many instances, exceed structural benchmarks. Duncan said the Jamaican economy continues to show resilience even amid turmoil in its main trading partner, the United States.

Some Louies among us did not like this good news. It caused their overt and disguised malignity to be punched into overdrive. Hence, they took to social media and tried their best to decry, minimise, and cancel the positive news from EPOC. Why? Because some among us would rather see Jamaica reduced to rubble once they end up as kings of the pile. These politically and socially decrepit types would prefer to hear that inflation is rising uncontrollably, foreign exchange is scarce, our balance of payment accounts are on the ropes, international confidence in the Jamaican economy is on its knees, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning that rough waters and very choppy seas are ahead for Jamaica.

Why? They believe the demise of Jamaica is their trump card to power.

Unsurprisingly, specific portions of the good news from EPOC greatly enraged the Louies among us. Headline: ‘EPOC chair says current account surplus a milestone for Jamaica…but cautious about sustainability’.

The Jamaica Observer news item gave these and related details: “Jamaica saw its trade position running a positive $352.4 million at the end of March 2023, meaning that the country received more inflows of foreign exchange than there were outflows. That positive trade balance continued into the first quarter of fiscal year 2023/24, when the country recorded a $241 million surplus.

“This surplus marks a milestone achievement, representing the first time in decades that Jamaica has not recorded a current account deficit,” Duncan said, adding that it can be credited to “robust recovery in tourism and travel, increased exports, and continued strong inflows from remittances”.

Of note, Jamaica saw a massive increase in services exported, which jumped from US$97 million in 2022/23 to US$1,635.1 as at March 31 this year. While the country’s overall exports rose by US$50 million, its imports fell by US$150 million. “So, therefore, when you take all this into account, that means that Jamaica [was] in receipt of more US dollars than it [was] spending US dollars in 2022/23,” Duncan explained.”

“Mi nuh believe none of it. Is a setup for the elections,” some protested.

“This cannot be true,” some objected.

“This nuh have nutten to do with the average man,” some bellowed.

The vitriol was spewed in relay-like fashion, much of it I cannot repeat here. The orchestrators of these cancel campaigns are not unlettered individuals. They are not living from hand to mouth either. Power by any means necessary fuels them. I believe they will desecrate their mother’s coffin if that will get them power. These kinds of individuals do not mean Jamaica any good.

Information in the public domain says that the last time Jamaica had a positive current account balance before 2023 was in 1966. This is good news. But, it sent the Louies into a massive fit of distress.

“Let it go, Louie!” With 14 days from the start of a new year, I am humbly recommending the adoption of this possible life-saving/changing shift for some among us.

Believe it, there are some among us who are terribly upset that Jamaica has some US$4.7 billion in reserves in our central bank — the most we’ve had since our country’s Independence. They are angry because Jamaica’s debt is steadily decreasing as a result of increased payments by the Government. They are incensed that several targeted strategies to cushion the bite of inflation, so that the most vulnerable are protected, are being implemented. They are outraged that tourism is thriving. And, among other things, they are livid that murder and other major crimes are lower to date when compared to 2022.

Mark Twain gave this verdict on hate: “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” The equivalent in this context is: “Let it go, Louie.”

Those among us who spew bile because Jamaica is making significant advances need to get accustomed to the country’s forward trajectory.

I do not believe that well-thinking Jamaicans, the majority of us, are hankering for the days when we were the laughing stock of the region because our economy was regularly in tatters. I do not see any credible evidence that right-thinking Jamaicans are pining for a return of capital flight and long lines at the banks for foreign exchange. Most Jamaicans, as I see it, do not want to see the face ever again of foreign exchange controls and the ugliness of the deadly black market in foreign currencies.

A critical mass is done with an unusable past that some among us want to resurrect. The time when a small number of privileged people in a small segment of Jamaica controlled what the majority thought about, and how often, is over — thanks to the Internet and other innovations. The days when “sufferation” and ideology could be successfully romanticised are dead.

The Louies among us need to read the memo they got, long ago. You lost it, Louie!

Can’t cancel the truth

Some try very hard, but they will not ultimately cancel the truth. This is one of the seminal lessons of the mentioned commercial series. “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time,” said America’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln.

Recently, for example, Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding was on the hustings in St James. Obviously embarrassed by the social and economic disasters which the People’s National Party (PNP) presided over during their 18 ½ years (1989-2007) in Jamaica House, 89 Old Hope, in recent months, has launched a campaign to cancel those realities.

Golding needs to understand that facts will never become hostage to those who attempt to cancel them with dodges and misinformation.

Consider this: ‘The 18 years were progressive years’ — Golding hits back at PM’s critique of PNP’s management of Jamaican economy

The Gleaner article said among other things: “Mark Golding has rejected, as baseless, claims by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) that his People’s National Party (PNP) destroyed the country during its 18 years of governance from 1989 to 2007.

” ‘They can’t tell us anything about 18 years wasted. The 18 years were progressive years; we brought poverty from multiple digits down to single digits,’ Golding, the PNP president, said in defence of his party’s management of Jamaica’s affairs.”

Golding is obviously hostile to facts. Each time there is an attempt to cancel the catastrophic results created by the PNP between 1989 and 2007 there must be a concerted pushback with the verifiable facts. Those who calculatingly seek to rewrite any period of our history must not go unchallenged.

These are the facts, Golding: Our economy was on life support when the PNP presided for 18½ years. Whereas the vast majority of Caribbean economies grew by an average of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent, ours nosedived. The global economy was buoyant most of the time. There was a near total collapse of the black entrepreneurial class. Some 45, 000 small and medium sized companies capsized. Dozens of large companies, which employed hundreds of Jamaicans, went under because of the inept management of the national economy by the PNP. I named many of these companies here previously.

“The greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich since slavery,” that is how former Cabinet minister Ronald Thwaites described his party’s colossal mismanagement.

Social degradation and political corruption grew as if on steroids between 1989 and 2007. I have previously provided copious evidence of the debilitating impact of especially money scandals during the 18½-year period which Golding would want us to believe was a glorious period of great achievement, growth and development.

Social and economic rot were the order of the day in the lost years between 1989 and 2007. The rot became so pervasive the then Prime Minister P J Patterson initiated a values and attitudes drive which massively resembled Lee Kuan Yew’s ‘Make Courtesy Our Way of Life’ campaign which was launched in Singapore in 1979. Patterson’s campaign failed. The horse had already bolted. We are reaping the whirlwind today.

In 1989 we had 439 murders. There has been a stubborn surge in homicides from then. In 2005 Jamaica suffered the ignominy of having the highest murder rate in the world. On the watch of then National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips, 1,674 Jamaicans were murdered in 2005 or 64 per 100,000.

You cannot rewrite history, Golding. The Information Age will not facilitate it. And a more discerning Jamaican will not tolerate it.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness is right. “We know that there is a generation of Jamaicans who were not born in the 1970s, and they have no clue as to how the other party destroyed Jamaica. They have no clue. There is a generation born in the 90s and early 2000s; they have no clue as to how the 18½ years of the PNP destroyed Jamaica.” Those with the knowledge have a responsibility, lest we go that sad route again.

The forthcoming LGE

Come early next year we are slated to have our 17th local government election since universal adult suffrage in 1944. It will be a career-changing election for many of our major political leaders. The stakes are high for the JLP, and even higher for the PNP. If the JLP were to lose the upcoming parish council elections I think that would cause a resurrection of the frequent nightmarish-type visitations with which the Portia Simpson Miller-led Opposition of 2007-2011 haunted the Bruce Golding’s Administration.

The JLP, however, would still have time to recover. The next general election is not due until 2025.

The Black-Bellied Plovers, Bananaquits, and John Chewits tweet that if the PNP does not win or achieve a very decent draw it will be over for Mark Golding, Dr Dayton Campbell, Dr Angela Brown Burke, and some other higher-ups in the PNP.

They chirp that the tiny and remaining big funders of the PNP are not in any mood to cuddle losers going forward. Golding’s political future hangs by a thread, as I see it.

A few weeks after Dr Peter Phillips became Opposition Leader and PNP president I predicted that he would become the first major party leader not to become prime minister. I was proved right.

A little over year and half ago I said here that Mark Golding would become the second.

Admittedly, elections are hostage to events. So, barring a catastrophic scandal in the JLP, or a major natural disaster — the latter would be a two-edged sword — I believe the JLP will win the upcoming local government elections. More anon!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Garfield Higgins is an educator, journalist, and a senior advisor to the minister of education and youth. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.