THE EDITOR, Sir:
IT WAS refreshing to see your editorial highlighting the need for a greater role of Jamaicans living abroad. Recently the Coalition of Jamaican Organisations (COJO) in Massachusetts invited Dr. Dennis Morrison who spoke at our 5th anniversary dinner and dance in Boston on a similar theme. We also arranged for him to meet with Jamaican business leaders, including Black Americans living here in Boston and who were interested in investing in Jamaica.
As I write this letter a group of Jamaicans are at present in Jamaica looking at the possibility of investing in 'Wind Farms' to generate electricity. In this group are Jamaican MIT graduates with tremendous technical expertise.
I mention this example to highlight the importance of Jamaicans living abroad and for them to realise that they cannot wait on the Government of Jamaica, but have to use their own initiative and begin to make contact with individuals who can get things done.
We Jamaicans living abroad need to involve ourselves in organisations that can represent our interests, both in the United States and in Jamaica. Contacts and linkages exist but we Jamaicans need to get more sophisticated and to think BIG. We need our own THINK TANKS and research centres here in the U.S., that will address issues affecting the Black diaspora, including Africa.
Finally, I think that Jamaicans living abroad need to put the "crime and violence" in Jamaica in proper perspective. Yes, we all need to eliminate this scourge in our society. Many of us with years of experience working with young people in schools and institutions like the Social Development Commission, have a particular outlook as to how to tackle this problem. In Jamaica, we have the capacity of analysis, but we are very short on people of integrity that have the ability to get things done.
I am, etc.,
DENNIS A. SMITH
dasmith47@aol.com
46 Emerson Ave, #1
Brockton, Massachusetts
Via Go-Jamaica
