The Editor, Sir:

Seventeen years ago, in August 1992, your newspaper published a six-part series tendered by me titled 'An alternative path to development'. In those articles, I not only asserted that the present system of government which we inherited was unsuited to the development of a new nation like ours, but I also placed on the table a skeletal proposal of a new model. I hoped then that it would have sparked a debate, but there was silence.

What I want to address in this letter, as I have done on occasions past, is the present economic dilemma that we now face. Our decline did not just start; the present global meltdown has just exposed further the desperation we have been experiencing since the 1970s. Routinely, we have been living on borrowed money just to keep the country afloat. Capital development has virtually ceased, our infrastructure has remained inadequate to service the needs of our people, individual opportunities elude us at home, so we continue either to migrate, or stay at home and create unrest. Corruption, fraudulent schemes, dishonesty are some of the consequences flowing from a society where honesty is nothing more than an unnoticed virtue.

Source of assistance ignored

During this collapse, one source of assistance was ignored by our visionless managers. This is the overseas Jamaican community. The fact that I have spent half my adult life outside of Jamaica has provided perspectives that I would not have had, had I spent all of it in either place.

What I have sensed in Jamaica is an attitude that any comment made by a Jamaican residing outside of the country has little validity because "you don't live here". That defensiveness is even being played out in our constitutional ban on dual nationality - an unrealistic measure inserted in constitutions that have something to fear from disloyalty. Given our historical migration pattern, it is anachronistic and the debate just serves to chill the efforts of the overseas community to serve the country.

This brings me to the question: Can one Jamaica save the other Jamaica? I maintain that the overseas community - one Jamaica - is the one that our managers have overlooked during the decades of decline at home, but is still a source of help if approached correctly.

Well-thought-out strategy

Historically, Jamaica has been receiving remittances from the overseas community mostly because there were families and property investments that required them. As the years pass, family ties are severed and investments made with the intention to return to Jamaica have diminished, partly because of a fading desire to return to reside. But, I do believe that a well-thought-out strategy to capitalise upon the collective resources of the overseas community could be developed by a non-political body in Jamaica.

I shall not spend too much time in this introductory letter spelling out how I think that it can be attempted. Suffice it to say that time is not on either side; the population here is shrinking and Jamaica's need is immediate.

If both our political parties are interested in discussing a programme, I would be willing to exchange ideas with them together. No one political party has the confidence of the entire overseas community.

I am, etc.,

ALLAN ALBERGA

aalb849728@aol.com

Atlanta, Georgia