The following is submitted as a response to Ian Boyne's recent column "The return of socialist economics " in The Sunday Gleaner of May 24.

In his most recent broadside against Marxist political economy/social science (which he calls Marxist economics) Pastor Ian Boyne states: "Marxists will have to prove that their economics represents a viable alternative to capitalist economics and that it is feasible and implementable in this global environment. I challenge any Marxist to debate me on this."

He goes on: "Our Caribbean Marxists speak and write as though they are unaware of the profound insights from postmodernism and postmodernist philosophers like Jacques Derrida, Jean-Francois Lyotard and Michel Foucault."

He recommends: "Our Caribbean Marxists especially need a crash course in postmodernist philosophy" and that ... "Perhaps Kamau Chionesu could assist them".

OK, Ian is certainly entitled to his opinions. However, here is the real source of the frustration that those of us on this forum - who do consider ourselves Marxists social scientists - have with individuals, such as Ian Boyne. You see, he has this annoying habit of extending invitations for public debates (in fact, he has virtually made it a part of his career) and then he proceeds to construct an elaborate set of excuses as to why he cannot participate when someone, with competence, accepts his invitation.

For instance, in December 2008, Boyne responded to David Wong's acceptance of his invitation to a debate/dialogue ... "I assume that Ian is sincere when he calls for 'serious, non-partisan dialogue in this country on economic issues'. I look forward to seeing him engage these issues on this forum," in the following manner:

"Trevor, my lack of participation on this forum is in no way a negative reflection on its participants or the value of such a forum. I am simply already overcommitted to a number of projects - such as three television programmes weekly, a newspaper column which requires serious work, plus my full-time job and my work as a minister of religion overseeing four congregations. Plus being a family man!

"This precludes my answering online some of the points I would like to take up, and certainly to the extent I would like to. If time allows I will respond to David's piece. But do let him know, that any failure to fully engage is not based on any disregard, despite the unnecessarily harsh, sometimes uncivil tone of some of the correspondence on this forum.

You are providing an important alternative discourse and bringing perspectives not accommodated in the mainstream. Keep the critique going!" - Ian Boyne.

Unfortunately, even though I suggested to him that he may want to do so within the context of his column, to save time, Pastor Boyne has not seen fit to respond, in any meaningful way, to the substantive critique that David made of his article, titled - 'Jamaica and the economic tsunami' (The Sunday Gleaner, December 14. )

Here is what David had to say, regarding Ian's ill-conceived utterances:

"Ian's self-evident confusion over economics and economic policy does not stop him from talking like a guru on the Jamaican economy. He says: 'We in Jamaica not only face the global meltdown, but we have some deep structural and historical problems with our economy, which cannot be remedied by conventional textbook prescriptions. We have a serious production and productivity problem and that, coupled with our high import-dependence, including for basic foods, means that we have to pay particular attention to the exchange rate.'

"He goes on to defend the use of high interest rates in cost-benefit terms as the best short-term measure to prevent the Jamaica dollar from sliding in value against the United States dollar. Ian goes further to note that the high interest rate policy has not stopped the Jamaica dollar from sliding, but says that's another matter 'showing us how severe a predicament we are in.'

"What does all of this mean? Like a lot of other gurus in the media, Ian Boyne has no difficulty coming up with prescriptions without any analysis whatsoever. At best, Ian substitutes a quote from some authority, no context provided, for the missing analysis. Ian needs to criticise by analysing what he is criticising. There is no other way of having a serious dialogue about the important economic issues facing Jamaica."

Folks, it is quite obvious that Pastor Boyne is caught in an unenviable dilemma. On the one hand, he wants to perpetuate an illusion, among the status-conscious Jamaican middle-strata, that he is a very cosmopolitan person, worthy of their admiration. Hence, his proclivity for dropping the names of 'celebrity' academics without any serious attempt to elaborate on why their ideas are relevant to the specific needs of particular social classes in contemporary capitalist society.

This is coupled with frequent declarations that he is ready, prepared and able to engage in debates with anybody, regardless of whether or not he has competence in the subject at hand. On the other hand - as you observe - whenever somebody calls his bluff, as several of us on this forum have done, our dear Pastor Boyne comes up with all manner of excuses as to why he is not able to respond to the challenge. In other words, Ian is running a risk of being perceived as just another one of those para-intellectual, Ponzi schemers.

As some of you know quite well, Pastor Boyne also has a penchant for self-flattery. For instance, In his most recent column 'The return of socialist economics' - The Sunday Gleaner May 24 (from which the citations, at the beginning of this piece, are drawn), Boyne anticipates the following response from his imaginary group of unspecified/unnamed 'Caribbean Marxists'.

Intellectual prostitute

"They'll probably just dismiss me as a 'lackey of the bourgeois state', a 'paid intellectual prostitute' who must sing for my supper and 'dance to the tune of his blood-sucking masters'. And that would be sufficient as a critique of my objections to their cherished and unchallengeable dogmas."

It is truly difficult to imagine any modern capitalist, who is trying to compete at the global level, looking in the direction of Pastor Boyne for economic advice. Nor can I imagine a highly class-conscious worker seeking guidance from I.B. And, as we recently learned from a recent report that was posted on this forum, the current political managers of the Jamaican state ran to the Chinese government for some financial help, in spite of Pastor Boyne's series of attacks on the Chinese government last year.

It seems to me that if Ian really wants to avoid being tagged a para-intellectual Ponzi schemer (or even worse, a buffoon) he might want to explain to the folks on this forum, and the wider Jamaican readership (including the unspecified Caribbean Marxists, whoever these folks are!) what are the profound insights that the respective social classes could benefit from by taking a crash course in postmodernist philosophy; and also, in what specific ways would this course prepare them to meet the economic, the social and philosophical challenges posed by the realities of globalised capitalist production.

Here is David Wong's initial reaction to Ian's latest sounding off. I am sure David and others will have more to say after Ian musters up the courage to respond.

"When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said: 'This is a lonely lonely place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.' Jesus said, 'They need not go away; you give them something to eat.' They said to him, 'We have only five loaves here and two fish.' And he said, 'Bring them here to me.'

"Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

"And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about 5,000 men, besides women and children." Matthew 14, (15-21), The New Oxford Annotated Bible (1962).

Jamaican prophets

"Jamaica is in desperate need of a technology that can multiply the bammy loaves and the fish from the Caribbean Sea. But lo and behold, some Jamaican prophets offer the people only the teachings of bankrupt and discredited (Ponzi) philosophers like Derrida and Foucault to guide them in search of their next meal. What a poverty of philosophy! What a sad country that in its hour of need for serious thought about its future it can find only the interminable braying of donkeys in the dark night!" - David Wong.

Trevor Campbell is the moderator of the online forum 'Caribbean Dialogues'. He can be reached at tcampbell@eee.org; Feedback to this article may also be sentto columns@gleanerjm.com.