THE EDITOR, Sir:
GLOBALISATION OR nationalisation or WHAT? Maybe I do not understand this globalisation thing fully, so I wish for one of the globalisationalists (not one from abroad, but one from right here in Jamaica or in the Caribbean) to explain it fully to me.
In the meantime I want them to tell me when it was in our developmental period that we went through the stages of nationalisation, regionalisation and localisation. Maybe we did indeed go through a period of "Caricomisation". I wonder if we can try it again. It still baffles me how the Europeans got it right (relatively) even though they started long after us.
In the same breath I also want them to explain to me when was it that Jamaica and its development were never intimately linked to global forces and conditions. It seems to me that Jamaica and the entire Caribbean was competing and operating in a global marketplace from day one. Our culture, economies, natural resources, societies, politics and whatever else was always freely accessible to outsiders, the only thing that has changed now it that we are now more accessible.
We seriously need to access this definition of globalisation that we have adopted (or that has been forced on us). Our leaders who have assumed the portfolio of "thinkers for the nation" need to communicate this to us in a meaningful way so that we can each play or part. We still do not know what part we are supposed to be playing in the globalised national economy. At least we each need to be in one accord in the nation's best interest.
I am etc.,
EARL BAILEY
earlplanner@yahoo.com
13 Clifton Terrace
Constant Spring
Kingston 8
Via Go-Jamaica
