Try again Mr Gilmore
published: Friday | November 15, 2002
THE EDITOR, Sir:
MY LATE grandfather used to tell me that persons who are consumed by self-doubt and drunken men have one thing in common. They can only see darkness.
A letter in the weekend edition of your paper under the signature of a John Gilmore underscores this point. If anything, it was a bundle of contradictions.
On the one hand, Mr. Gilmore highlights the fact that Air Jamaica now has respect throughout the aviation world, a claim that could never have been made at the time of its privatisation. He then makes heavy weather of the support that the Government has provided the airline to facilitate its turnaround.
My recollection is that at the time of privatisation, the Government only retained 20 per cent of the shares. It now owns just under 50 per cent. This means that whatever indirect capital support the Government has offered, Air Jamaica has been secured by its increased shareholding in the airline, the very thing that Mr. Gilmore is advocating. Given that Mr. Gilmour claims to have more than passing interest in Air Jamaica, I have to assume that he must have been aware of this fact. Try again Mr. Gilmore.
