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Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness is ‘something completely different’
For hours after listening to Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness speak at a luncheon in midtown Manhattan last week, the Monty Python comedy troupe catchphrase “And now for something completely different” resonated in my mind.
Holness is “something completely different” — a positive and realistic business-minded people-person, and that’s quite unusual. He spoke last Thursday at the gathering, of business executives, diplomats and VIPs, presented by the Positive Jamaica Foundation.
Reiterating some of the themes addressed in his inauguration speech last month, Holness called for Jamaica to “take a more assertive approach to managing” its sizable international debt and urged an end to the nation’s divisive “garrison politics” — which keep his Jamaica Labor Party and the opposition People’s National Party at odds and denies citizens access to facilities and institutions in rival areas.
Yes, that’s a lot to ask. But Holness is not operating from a position of naiveté and inexperience, even though he’s Jamaica’s youngest prime minster and the first born after the nation’s independence in 1962.
“I take this job with my eyes wide open,” said Holness, 39, who became politically active as a teen and by 25 was in Parliament representing his home district of West Central St. Andrew.
Over the years, he worked arduously behind the scenes and in 1995 he became personal assistant to then opposition leader Edward Seaga. Most recently, he served as education minister under Prime Minister Bruce Golding. The JLP selected Holness to take over for Golding, who stepped down after four years as prime minister after negative feedback and sagging popularity surrounding his opposition to a U.S. extradition request for a an alleged international drug lord.
But back to the new PM’s plate. Holness is also “revamping” Jamaica's educational system, setting a goal of universal literacy at the primary level, promoting the nation’s consistently lower crime rate and encouraging diaspora residents to be politically and civically active where they live. “That helps Jamaica,” he said. So, Jamaicans in the Northeast Bronx, East Flatbush, Brooklyn and the entire tri-state area, this means you!
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...ticle-1.979842
For hours after listening to Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness speak at a luncheon in midtown Manhattan last week, the Monty Python comedy troupe catchphrase “And now for something completely different” resonated in my mind.
Holness is “something completely different” — a positive and realistic business-minded people-person, and that’s quite unusual. He spoke last Thursday at the gathering, of business executives, diplomats and VIPs, presented by the Positive Jamaica Foundation.
Reiterating some of the themes addressed in his inauguration speech last month, Holness called for Jamaica to “take a more assertive approach to managing” its sizable international debt and urged an end to the nation’s divisive “garrison politics” — which keep his Jamaica Labor Party and the opposition People’s National Party at odds and denies citizens access to facilities and institutions in rival areas.
Yes, that’s a lot to ask. But Holness is not operating from a position of naiveté and inexperience, even though he’s Jamaica’s youngest prime minster and the first born after the nation’s independence in 1962.
“I take this job with my eyes wide open,” said Holness, 39, who became politically active as a teen and by 25 was in Parliament representing his home district of West Central St. Andrew.
Over the years, he worked arduously behind the scenes and in 1995 he became personal assistant to then opposition leader Edward Seaga. Most recently, he served as education minister under Prime Minister Bruce Golding. The JLP selected Holness to take over for Golding, who stepped down after four years as prime minister after negative feedback and sagging popularity surrounding his opposition to a U.S. extradition request for a an alleged international drug lord.
But back to the new PM’s plate. Holness is also “revamping” Jamaica's educational system, setting a goal of universal literacy at the primary level, promoting the nation’s consistently lower crime rate and encouraging diaspora residents to be politically and civically active where they live. “That helps Jamaica,” he said. So, Jamaicans in the Northeast Bronx, East Flatbush, Brooklyn and the entire tri-state area, this means you!
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...ticle-1.979842