The Editor, Sir:

Just recently I had been browsing through the 1993 edition of the Collier's Encyclopaedia when I came across the topic 'Jamaica'.

Of course, I was persuaded to browse through that article but I became more captivated when I came across the subsection dealing with the economy and certain statements made therein which I regarded as being demeaning.

Other subsections of the article including The Land; The People; Government and Politics; Society; and History were reasonably acceptable.

However, regarding the eco-nomy, the article stated, among other things, that by the mid-1980s sugar which was the mainstay of the economy and bauxite which replaced it in the mid-20th century were greatly diminished as sources of income. "Their central place in the economy has been taken by marijuana and tourism.

It continued to address the GDP of the country which it stated was roughly US$3.4 billion or $1,380 per person and "this number is somewhat understated because it excludes the value of the marijuana crop."

It proceeded to define the six economic regions of the country of which - the mountain region produces the premium Blue Mountain Coffee and marijuana. The central and western sections of the limestone plateau support livestock as well as marijuana and subsistence vegetable and fruit crops.

In conclusion, it stated that Jamaica must pay more for necessary imports than it can earn through legal exports, and During the 1980s Jamaica's foreign trade deficit was financed by part of the more than $500 million per year of the contraband marijuana exports; by financial aid of more than $100 million per year from the U.S. government and by increases in the country's foreign indebtedness.

Maybe I am naive, but I did not realise that marijuana played such a significant role in the enhancement of the Jamaican economy or is it that developing countries are targeted for negative reporting.

I am, etc.,

ALFONSO F. JACQUES, JP

Padmore, St. Andrew

NOTE: Collier's Encyclopaedia was a US-based general encyclopaedia first published in 1950-51. In 1998, Microsoft bought copyrights to Collier's electronic version and incorporated them into its Encarta electronic encyclopaedia. Atlas Editions retained the rights to publish the encyclopaedia in book form, though since then, Collier's has ceased to be in print.