Delusion (Vision) 2030

In today’s  Sunday Gleaner ( June 30,2013) Claude Clarke is once again at his best in a rather engaging article entitled  Vision or Mere Fantasy.

Honestly, I don’t think I could add anything further to this article, its absolutely brilliant.

Whenever I hear pronouncements on our governments’ ‘vision’ to make Jamaica a developed country by the year 2030, I am reminded of the old Scottish joke in which someone asks for directions and receives the answer, “If I were going there, I wouldn’t start from here.”

But while it may be laudable for governments to set ambitious goals, we also expect them to operate within the realm of reality, not in a land of fantasy. This element of fantasy may, however, be what explains the unusual concurrence between our two political parties in designing Jamaica’s flagship development plan, Vision 2030. The goals are clearly unattainable and the means of reaching them are absent.

 

What makes Jamaica’s ‘Vision’ so remarkable is that for many years, our capital city, Kingston, along with places like Port-au-Prince, Baghdad and Bangui, Central African Republic, has been numbered among the 30 least liveable cities in the world. Yet our ‘Vision’, without a clear strategy to grow the economy or build social capital, suggests we will be among the most liveable places on earth by 2030.

Now here is something that I have been saying since the letter of intent was signed and to which Claude Clarke has alluded to.

Regrettably, the growth strategies provided by the Jamaican Government in its Budget and the IMF letter of intent reveal nothing capable of accomplishing this. What we got is a plan to reduce the cost of government for the purpose of paying down our debt, not a plan to reduce costs that flow into Jamaican production.

 

I encourage serious folks, who really have an interest in Jamaica first and politics second to read this article.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130630/cleisure/cleisure2.html