Rory Welsh, Contributor
"THIS IS Jamaica, my Jamaica, this is the land of my birth", is sung by even the smallest of Jamaican. Yet the truth has never been told.
Do we really have a government? We need leaders who can take control and bring about stability.
What's the use of a Minister of Finance when the nation becomes increasingly indebted and its citizens continuously oppressed and hopeless?
'The land of my birth' is filled with problems. And teenagers want to know what's the point of going through years of educational attainment when in the end an individual will neither be able to get a job to fit his learning, nor one which offers a salary that allows him to pay his bills comfortably.
The masses are not only being oppressed by high taxes, but exploited by high prices of goods and services.
In order to make a profit in the business world someone or something has to be exploited. The businessman can't exploit the machinery or utilities, as they are fixed cost, so it is the people who have to feel the effects.
"This is Jamaica my Jamaica", but it is a plagued with problems. Based on the levels of injustice, crime and corruption, some might suggest that there is only one solution -- revolution.
But it does not have to mean death and destruction, but a radical change. And why not? It has been done in the past and it can be done again.
The question is how to carry out a bloodless revolution. The answer comes in a statement made in the 1960s by an influential black leader: "Christ gave me the message, but Ghandi gave me the method".
Rory Welsh is a student of the University of the West Indies and one of several teenagers whose opinions appear in this spot each week.
