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The Jamaica Project Redux ...
The Jamaica Project
Promising to usher in a new era of non partisan, effective, responsive and corruption free governance.... the JLP administration assumed office to high expectations (of some). The regime promised to be qualitatively different from the failed PNP governments of the previous 2 decades.
What is the reality 2 years later? Unfortunately so far, merely another missed opportunity to break the Dead Paradigm gripping Jamaica's polity...which paradigm (as we operate it) results in our underdevelopment.
The regime has chosen business as usual.... and has achieved the results the more discerning expected... based on an unemotional reading of history.
The new administration has entirely frittered away its early political capital .... which political capital & support it could have used to outmaneuver the divided PNP and engender a better way of doing the nation's business.
Their sycophants will point to the global downturn as the reason for the lack of success... but this is cold comfort. Governments have to lead regardless of the circumstances...and they have to take ownership of the results...all of them...not just those which are good. Even if Jamaica had achieved the "growth" they promised we would STILL be on the wrong path....they just don't realize it.
Granted that growth and development would be next to impossible in the current environment... one should look for the government to be fundamentally reordering the way Jamiaca approaches its business...especially on the social side of the equation.
The old way of doing business... slavishly following the neo British Parliamentary model ...is dead...and should be buried forthwith. It's just that the JLP and PNP don't realize its death ....they are too wedded to and invested in the old Dead Paradigm...and afraid of what change may bring...i.e. less power for their tribe.
The problem with both these parties is that they ALWAYS put their tribe before Jamaica.
They both believe..to paraphrase one tribalist's public statement.... that ONLY their tribe is fit to govern and consequently what's good for their tribe...is best for Jamaica.
Garbage.
This tribal belief achieves its finest expression in our violent, divisive garrison politics.
Jamaica needs to construct its own model of governance by substantially modifying the malformed colonial relic of a governing system .....which we have further abused through stupidity, myopia, self aggrandizement, corruption and a confrontational posture.
This neo British model works for Barbados...clearly NOT for Jamaica. We are not and don't wish to be Barbados... except in having a good standard of living for our people and living in peace.
We need our own organizational model to do that.
More sectors need to be brought into this new model of governance...more inclusion of people who now are relatively powerless and alienated from polite "society".... they need to be a part of the Jamaica Project. Not just when we reach the World Cup or win gold medals.... ALL the time.
This disconnect and alienation of large numbers of people is at the heart of our fractured social relations, poor to negative social capital...and consequent tension boiling over frequently to violence.
Crime plans cannot fix this...it is a structural societal weakness...so to address it society MUST be restructured.
The self serving jokers who take turns misleading Jamaica and Jamaicans still have no clue as to what our root problem is... it's not crime, not unemployment, not deficits or debt. These are merely symptoms of the true problem....which is an inability to agree on what Jamaica should be and further...agree on an inclusive and sustainable path we ALL must follow in order to get there......And further..the nationalistic leadership to drive that process.
In short Jamaica has no mission and no plan.... it is a headless chicken with myopic butchers for leaders.
I call this plan a Social Contract....but call it what you will...Jamaica needs a plan that we all agree to in order to progress. This is just like any social organization..a company, a family or any association of people.... they need to answer 2 initial questions to have a chance at success:
1. What's our mission?
2. How do we optimally organize ourselves to achieve the mission?
Jamaica has not yet addressed itself effectively to those 2 questions.
This Jamaica Project is clearly bigger than the JLP or PNP. Neither party is able to run the country effectively for a sustained period of time... they are too divisive, corrupt and lacking in leadership skills...reflecting a country that is fractured and dysfunctional.
Without vision...the people will continue to perish.....so be it.
Promising to usher in a new era of non partisan, effective, responsive and corruption free governance.... the JLP administration assumed office to high expectations (of some). The regime promised to be qualitatively different from the failed PNP governments of the previous 2 decades.
What is the reality 2 years later? Unfortunately so far, merely another missed opportunity to break the Dead Paradigm gripping Jamaica's polity...which paradigm (as we operate it) results in our underdevelopment.
The regime has chosen business as usual.... and has achieved the results the more discerning expected... based on an unemotional reading of history.
The new administration has entirely frittered away its early political capital .... which political capital & support it could have used to outmaneuver the divided PNP and engender a better way of doing the nation's business.
Their sycophants will point to the global downturn as the reason for the lack of success... but this is cold comfort. Governments have to lead regardless of the circumstances...and they have to take ownership of the results...all of them...not just those which are good. Even if Jamaica had achieved the "growth" they promised we would STILL be on the wrong path....they just don't realize it.
Granted that growth and development would be next to impossible in the current environment... one should look for the government to be fundamentally reordering the way Jamiaca approaches its business...especially on the social side of the equation.
The old way of doing business... slavishly following the neo British Parliamentary model ...is dead...and should be buried forthwith. It's just that the JLP and PNP don't realize its death ....they are too wedded to and invested in the old Dead Paradigm...and afraid of what change may bring...i.e. less power for their tribe.
The problem with both these parties is that they ALWAYS put their tribe before Jamaica.
They both believe..to paraphrase one tribalist's public statement.... that ONLY their tribe is fit to govern and consequently what's good for their tribe...is best for Jamaica.
Garbage.
This tribal belief achieves its finest expression in our violent, divisive garrison politics.
Jamaica needs to construct its own model of governance by substantially modifying the malformed colonial relic of a governing system .....which we have further abused through stupidity, myopia, self aggrandizement, corruption and a confrontational posture.
This neo British model works for Barbados...clearly NOT for Jamaica. We are not and don't wish to be Barbados... except in having a good standard of living for our people and living in peace.
We need our own organizational model to do that.
More sectors need to be brought into this new model of governance...more inclusion of people who now are relatively powerless and alienated from polite "society".... they need to be a part of the Jamaica Project. Not just when we reach the World Cup or win gold medals.... ALL the time.
This disconnect and alienation of large numbers of people is at the heart of our fractured social relations, poor to negative social capital...and consequent tension boiling over frequently to violence.
Crime plans cannot fix this...it is a structural societal weakness...so to address it society MUST be restructured.
The self serving jokers who take turns misleading Jamaica and Jamaicans still have no clue as to what our root problem is... it's not crime, not unemployment, not deficits or debt. These are merely symptoms of the true problem....which is an inability to agree on what Jamaica should be and further...agree on an inclusive and sustainable path we ALL must follow in order to get there......And further..the nationalistic leadership to drive that process.
In short Jamaica has no mission and no plan.... it is a headless chicken with myopic butchers for leaders.
I call this plan a Social Contract....but call it what you will...Jamaica needs a plan that we all agree to in order to progress. This is just like any social organization..a company, a family or any association of people.... they need to answer 2 initial questions to have a chance at success:
1. What's our mission?
2. How do we optimally organize ourselves to achieve the mission?
Jamaica has not yet addressed itself effectively to those 2 questions.
This Jamaica Project is clearly bigger than the JLP or PNP. Neither party is able to run the country effectively for a sustained period of time... they are too divisive, corrupt and lacking in leadership skills...reflecting a country that is fractured and dysfunctional.
Without vision...the people will continue to perish.....so be it.
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