Lawson

This week, The Gleaner is presenting the thoughts of influential leaders in society, on the more positive features of the nation in which we live. Today, we bring you the views of Winston Lawson, president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Mandeville branch manager for the National Commercial Bank.

Given the abundance of challenges in our country today, one could easily believe that our beloved island is void of the relevant gifts and assets to make our journey towards greatness a successful one. But make no mistake, Jamaica will find its rightful place among great nations of the world, one day.

We are too talented a people to prevent it. When we look at Jamaican athletes (and the improvements in detecting performance enhancement drug abusers) we see that we are the great ones; and this extends to the Reggae Boyz and past, present and future Olympians.

Our music and culture is adored the world over. There will come a time when dancehall artistes will recognise that the music is the driver, not the lyrics. They will see the importance of using the music to promote and encourage how things should be and not necessarily to illuminate the ills.

Ongoing onslaught

Perhaps we can look as well at the excellent performance of Jamaicans at the Imagine Cup competition; or maybe the fact that there are Jamaican entrepreneurs and businesses today that can capably withstand the ongoing onslaught of markets from overseas players.

There is so much more that could be said about our gifts, talents and assets. The fact is that we are potentially a great people, who can realise our destiny for greatness. But it will not happen if we do not feverishly yearn and work towards it. Accountability, leadership, respect and hard work are just a few types of fuel that will take us through that journey.