A statement in Geneva on Monday by Juan Samovia, the head of the International Labour Organisation, should begin to place the global credit crisis in a perspective that has not yet commanded sufficient focus: the potential scale of its impact on people's lives.

By Mr Samovia's estimate, extrapolating from the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) projections for economic growth, 20 million jobs will be lost globally by the end of next year, bringing the number of jobless people to over 210 million, from 190 million last year. But the situation could be worse if the IMF is too optimistic about the world's ability to mitigate the crisis, which is likely to be the case.

These jobs will go across a wide swathe of industries and sectors and in economies of various sizes and stages of development, although the smallest and least developed are likely to be the most vulnerable. Jamaica is to be counted among this group, which is why, as this newspaper has insisted, there is need for a concerted mitigation response from the government. Unfortunately, we do not sense in the Golding administration an appreciation of the depth of the global crisis.

People not involved

Or, more correctly, perhaps, we do not believe that Jamaica and other countries in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which are advancing towards a single market and economy, are responding with appropriate urgency. They certainly are not engaging their people sufficiently.

This past weekend, for instance, George Bush, the United States president, and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, met in Washington to discuss the crisis, triggered by America's subprime mortgage problem. Mr Bush signed on to Mr Sarkozy's proposal for a global conference to coordinate responses to stop the freeze on credit that is undermining markets and industries. Sensibly, both leaders agree that such a conference cannot be limited to the G7 or a handful of global economies.

Our concern is that despite the efforts by this newspaper, there is no indication that Jamaica and its Caricom partners are attempting to find a place at the table or to practically influence events. The proposed summit, expected to take place next month, will deal with the immediate problem of the crisis that has forced governments around the world to shore up banks in an effort to restore confidence.

The precursor

But this meeting is likely to be the precursor to broader global talks aimed ultimately at reshaping what is dubbed the global financial architecture, the post-World War institutions, such as the IMF and the World Bank, that underpin the world's economic structure but are proving inadequate for the times. Indeed, Prime Minister Golding made that point at the United Nations last month, but in a rather abstract fashion without offering a clear blueprint for a successor regime. Nor does there seem to be any proactive efforts by the administration to ensure that any proposal is credible.

It would seem to us that Mr Golding, who has responsibility in Caricom for external negotiations, should be pressing on his colleagues the need for a common regional position on this matter, calling for a regional summit to outline a position for next month's global discourse on the credit crisis, as well as to prepare Caricom's agenda for a post-Bretton Woods architecture. This work programme, we believe, is urgent. Indeed, Mr Golding should hear the sucking sound of lost jobs.

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