Wilberne Persaud, Financial Gleaner Columnist
It's a great puzzle to me and to everyone with whom I speak. They want to know why Jamaica - with proceeds from bauxite extraction for over 50 years, famed Blue Mountain coffee, cocoa coveted for high-end blending, Bob Marley, a vibrant local theatre and arts movement, Usain Bolt - the list goes on - finds itself in such dire straits for so long.
How can individual citizens prosper so convincingly in chosen personal endeavours, in wealthy businesses providing good income, while the society, as a whole, seems absolutely hell-bent on destruction?
The currency creeps or slumps from 5:1 to 90:1 US dollar.
Unemployment hovers among double digits as the economy endures contraction in economic production described by the euphemistic term 'negative growth'.
Now, during potentially the deepest recession in almost a century, we fire our central bank governor; mind you, not during festivities but amid crucial talks with our banker of resort, the International Monetary Fund.
Are we insane? Do we love shooting ourselves in the foot?
Almost simultaneously, as if the two were out-of-tune recalcitrant lead violinists required to quit the orchestra of folly, our previously high-performing army boss, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, left the job of police commissioner in earnest, at his second attempt in less than two years.
Usain Bolt, now a Jamaican brand.
Whereas previously he was prevailed upon to stay, now the political directorate seems happy to see his back.
As The Gleaner has reported though: "Lewin has adamantly refused to shoulder the blame for the current crime level, saying the political directorate had failed to provide him with a crime plan. He has, in the past, criticised politicians for their role in fomenting tribalistic violence in garrison constituencies and causing the tentacles of crime to choke the society at large."
Turning to the key ministry of finance, Don Wehby, the private sector whiz kid on loan to the Government has left. I don't know if we should view his role as night watchman since this was the game plan.
His move is, therefore, neither ship-jumping nor man overboard. Yet none of the objectives he was meant to achieve seem to have materialised.
Previously, the government found it difficult to identify a suitable professional as financial secretary after their apparently hand-picked choice failed at the crease.
The solution here was to cannibalise another key entity - the Planning Institute of Jamaica - to fill the breach.
Air Jamaica, bleeding dollars but with some sign of cauterisation, is to be sold. Then again, perhaps not.
Is all this some sort of juvenile hopscotch being played with critical squares in our potential path to prosperity?
We must be left to wonder at this entire reality screenplay taking place with the ominous backdrop of the US feds requesting extradition of at least one major player in the firmament of competing garrison constituencies.
What therefore, is this picture we see here? It's anything but good governance.
Somehow our civil and police services have been unable to fill their top ranks by what should have been routine succession planning.
Is it that 40 years of special advisors, statutory corporations created to avoid normal scrutiny of public functions, functionaries and expenditure and 'jobs for the boys' - sometimes girls too - has created a dearth of skilled and experienced talent at key nodes in our systems of governance? Is it that the phenomenon I have dubbed "genetic encoding of mediocrity" has finally come home to haunt us?
For those who don't know this process, "genetic encoding of mediocrity" occurs in an organisation if and when top bosses lack self-confidence, are incompetent or are scared of bright, young, enthusiastic junior staff - or some combination of the latter. These problems lead them to stamp leather-soled Bally shoes on youngsters' feet as they attempt to climb the ladder of success within the organisation. They prefer less enterprising yes-men.
These less enterprising yes-men are decidedly more cruel to young talent than the big boss. They wipe out the new and vibrant gene pool.
Quite distinct from the lions' pride in which an alpha male from another genetic line comes in and takes over, thereby infusing genetic variety and strength to the pride, in the former scheme, the organisation atrophies, withers on the vine.
Another possibility is that, somehow, the governing Jamaica Labour Party's strategy sessions prior to being elected in 2007 did not cover all the bases required for their transition from 18 years in opposition to one of their first few years of governance. It is well-known that their funding base was well-supported and their election machinery well- oiled and firing - pardon me, no pun intended.
It could, just as well, be a mixture of both these two conditions. Regardless of cause, we are left with a feeling of being adrift.
It seems high time for our Prime Minister to communicate a vision to us as a people. There are difficulties aplenty. But, in this boat we occupy, it's better to know where we're potentially headed and whose task it is to man the sails, bail out, hold, add or jettison, ballast, and so on.
The vision thing, the communication thing, is key even if we're hurting.
Candidate Barack Obama figured that out. It was 'Yes we can' not 'Yes I can'. Check that out.
Jamaica is also defined by its coffee.