As 2008 draws to a close, we can all agree that it was a very challenging year. As 2009 approaches, it promises to be even move challenging. We are no strangers to challenges and we must not be daunted by them. We must confront them with confidence in the knowledge that challenges also present opportunities.

This country is so well blessed that it is difficult to imagine any challenge that we cannot overcome, if we play our cards right. We have proven time and again that the Jamaican people, plus opportunity, equal great success. We have also proven that the opposite is true: the Jamaican people, minus opportunity equal disaster.

We must be creative in our thinking and positive in our attitudes. Ideas that we looked at before must be revisited. It is possible that their time has come now, and what could not work then, might just be the solutions to some of our problems now. We must also draw heavily on the experiences of others. It is a terrible waste of precious time and resources to reinvent the wheel. No doubt some of us will feel the affects of what is to come more than others, but there are things that we can do to negate those affects.

Prudent

Crime and violence must be brought under control. The electricity provider and the tax administrators should review their rates (in their own interest). Perhaps now, more than ever before, it will be seen as the only prudent thing to do. If we are to survive, we must adopt a 'live and let live' attitude as we cannot survive without each other and what is more, we just might be surprised that the results turn out better than we could ever imagine.

Survive? yes we can. The question is, will we? With the emphasis on the word 'will'. Where there is a will, there are many ways.

I am, etc.,

VICTOR E. NUGENT

P.O. Box 206

St Ann