TORONTO HAS a large Chinese population, about 400,000 according to the Canadian High Commission. We are sure that this ethnic block will share a particular pride that the Renaissance Centre of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), when it is completed in 2005, will be named in honour of Mr. Michael Lee-Chin and his mother. Mr. Lee-Chin has donated over one billion Jamaican dollars (Canadian $30 million) to the project and as a son of Jamaica who migrated to Canada to make this fortune, we share in the reflected glory of this major philanthropic gesture.
Over the years the ROM has been fortunate in its benefactors having manoeuvred a coup in 1967 when it acquired the Henry Moore sculpture collection. The proposed Renaissance Centre will be an exciting architectural achievement, reinforcing Toronto's reputation as an international art centre, a landmark for Canadians as well as for the large Jamaican population which lives in that city.
Already there have been jingoistic bleatings that Mr. Lee-Chin should have bestowed his largesse on Jamaica. But it was Canada which afforded him the opportunity of becoming one of the world's richest entrepreneurs and it is quite appropriate that he should express his thanks as he sees fit.
As a matter of fact, Mr. Lee-Chin has made a significant contribution to the Jamaican economy by his investment in the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and his purchase of the Mutual Life Towers - FINSAC assets which it badly needed to divest. And it has just been announced that NCB will build a business university, probably in St. Catherine, to train its own staff and the general public in banking and related skills. This will bring to four the number of accredited universities in Jamaica.
Other Lee-Chin-sponsored projects are likely to follow in the years to come and we are sure more and more Jamaican businessmen who have prospered here will continue to make their contribution to nation building. Generosity is diffusive of itself, contagious sometimes, and only good can come from the Toronto donation. We congratulate Mr. Lee-Chin on the scope of his philanthropic ventures which reflect the humanitarian face of international capitalism.
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