KINGSTON, Jamaica – Opposition Senator Janice Allen has offered a mixed view as to the “real state of the Jamaican nation”, describing it as one “whose people are among the most creative, most resilient and most inspired in the world, while at the same time, a nation whose people are among the most troubled, vulnerable, and dispossessed in the world”.

Allen, who is also the People’s National Party Spokesperson on Tourism, made the comment on Friday as she made her contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate.

She said the description of Jamaicans being amongst the most troubled, vulnerable and dispossessed people, “has been borne out in the land tenure issue exemplified on this occasion by the demolitions near Clifton in St Catherine and the receipt of evacuation notices by residents in the ironically-named Pleasant Hill near Tydixon, also in St Catherine”.

Allen stated that Jamaica is:

·A nation which in recent weeks saw members of the Constabulary Force gunned down.

·A nation in which on one day alone there were 12 murders in one parish within ten hours.

·A nation where it is revealed that the once lauded Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) is alleged to be fraught with frequent occurrences of sexual abuse of women who made the bold and honourable decision to serve this country in the JDF uniform.

·A nation where there’s a natural expectation to have access to our beaches – yet we saw headlines of locals likely becoming disenfranchised as the all-important foreign direct investment landed in close proximity to a celebrated escape on which none other than the honourable Robert Nesta Marley, Tosh, Wailer and others who engineered the indigenous reggae music that contributes so richly to the very identity that the world beyond our shores ascribes as Jamaica.

·A nation in which too often there are deaths of our new-borns due to outbreaks who, but for proper resourcing and innovative management, may have become the next Louise Bennet Coverly, Lois Kelly Miller or their sister of the arts Leonie Forbes who has now departed to enter the stage beyond this life. Or the next Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake or Asafa Powell – or indeed that scientist who would have been able to prevent breast cancer in black women through scientific research and discovery.

·A nation where there are stares and glares from persons hearing my voice (not necessarily Mr President in this Chamber) saying in stern tones – “why she have to be bringing up these things”.

“To all such enquirers I say simply – I have to bring up these things because these things are happening before our eyes each day and these things, if we scrutinise them carefully, they are within our collective wisdom as a people to resolve, to correct and to prevent,” said Allen.

She argued that “if we could re-engineer the foundation of the Jamaican economy so that we are now the only Caribbean Island economy that is showing growth post the COVID pandemic;

·If we could design progressive policies that caused our athletes to no longer be one gold medallist per decade but several gold medallists per season;

·If we could contemplate the Common Entrance solution (subsequently known as GSAT and now PEP) to ensure that each Jamaican child achieves a space in a secondary school based on aptitude and not last name or address;

·If we could produce scientists such as TP Lecky, Henry Lowe and Manley West;

·If we could design the all-inclusive model to strengthen brand Jamaica and keep our tourism prospects alive through global challenges such as the September 11 attacks, the Gulf War that followed, repeated global recessions and even the COVID pandemic;

Then, if we purposefully scrutinise the challenges that we face and prioritise the use of the resources we have without the epidemic of corruption that weakens our dollar and denies our society the real value of the taxes we collect – there is absolutely no dilemma that Jamaica cannot solve.