✨ LIVE FROM JAMAICA 🇯🇲! As We Celebrate 64 Years, “We Were Not Supposed To Get This Far”

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode. I am streaming live from Jamaica. Happy Independence Week, happy emancipation for those who were out there celebrating. I see, you know, that people are recognizing emancipation. People are walking around in their patriotic clothing and outfits, you know, the Jamaica, you know, apparel. So I just came to touch base with you guys and also to tell you guys about something I'm reading. Good night, everybody. Thank you for joining. Moderators, if you're here, thank you. So I'm just here to touch base and give you guys some updates and share some of what I have been reading so far. So I have been anxiously waiting to dive deep into Dr. Nigel Clark's Footprints in the Sand, the Jamaican Economic Policymaking experience between 2016 and 2024. I started reading this two days ago, guys, and I'm going to share just a little bit because, you know, I've, I've read good 20 pages so far. And I think it is so important that people hear some of this going into our independence. Okay. So guys, just tell me real quick in the chat where you're watching from. I see somebody's here from Mandeville. Good night and all. Welcome, guys. Welcome. So yeah, the festivities are going on and, you know, things like that and people are taking it all in and, you know, everything. I'm currently in New York. I'm in Kingston, Cayman Island. Big up. Welcome. Montego Bay, Mobile, New York, Canada. Good night. Good night. Good night. Herman, good night. Sydenham Villas. Where is that? Brooklyn, Montreal, Portmore, Connecticut. All right. So I found a very interesting passage in this book. And guys, I'm not going to come out here and read the entire book to you guys because I want you to go check it out yourself and read it on your own. And why not celebrate one of your own authors, Dr. Nigel Clark. The book is available on Amazon for those who are interested and you want to you want to read this. I've been writing in mine because when I read a hard copy of anything, I like to underline or outline the important part. So I'm just going to share excerpts of some of what I read so far. Good night, guys. Good night. Welcome. Good night. I just, um, left. I was with Karen and Michelle, not too long a while ago, you know, had dinner and chat and, uh, we're supposed to be getting together again, but, you know, it was a long day. But anyway, Dr. Nigel Clark wrote a very interesting book. And in the beginning of the book, there are some words by the president of the European Union Central Bank, Ms. Christine Lagarde, right? And she mentioned something that I think is worth sharing with you guys. She said that in her mind, there are three things that stood out as to how Jamaica managed to survive such a challenging time in its history. She said three things. And one of them is the commitment. During this time, the government of Jamaica made an enormous sacrifice to undo the economic damages of the past and with past policies. And that created a degree of trust with the IMF, which would have slowly built a Jamaica past. Each review schedule under the EFF and the precautionary SBA that followed. There's more to it, but the next thing is, and the second ingredient, second ingredient, she said was continuity. And this is an important one for me because I think during the last election, when the opposition leader was asked, if you become the leader of Jamaica, you know, are you going to continue? And he said, no, he said that he won't be elected, if elected, to continue the policies of Andrew Holness and of the current government. And I spoke to you guys about that before. I said, listen, how you build a nation is by continuity. Okay, so policies that are there and that have worked and that are good for the country. By you being elected doesn't mean that you need to either undo or ignore them. You must make an effort to continue. Where this government is concerned, this lady said The ingredient was continuity for this government because Jamaica benefited from a smooth transition between governments in 2016. And the precautionary SBA was a decisive signal by the new administration that it would support continuity. That's important. If this government did not support and agreed to continuity, we wouldn't have a lot of the successes that we had since they came to office. You understand? So yes, continuity is very important. And that's why it's so frightening when you hear other people say, well, if I get elected, the people are not going to elect me to continue doing what the previous administration. No, that's not. That's not how people vote. People vote for you because one, they trust you and two, they trust your judgment on how you would handle situations. But at no point in time, anybody's going to vote for you and say, listen and do everything what the people in before you did. That's never a thing. And the final and third thing of the ingredient to why Jamaica succeeded in its transitional period of economic stability and so on was in her word, the courage. She said, certainly Jamaica's economic trans transformation can be accredited to the resilience of the Jamaican people of the Jamaican people to endure short-term sacrifices to enact real change in the long term. And that required no small amount of courage and endurance in the face of adversity. But she said it also requires policymakers with courage. Policymakers with courage. Okay. And that means policymakers who could have dealt with the country's crime rates and among other things. Another part that I want to share with you is that these are her words. Thank you for the super chat. Thank you. Another another part of of this with her words. She said Jamaica is indeed a small country with big lessons as Nigel observes, right? And those lessons have never been more important than today as nations around the world grapple with rising levels of public debt and increasingly polarized political spheres. That was a key moment. And then finally, finally, I want you guys to hear this part. This is Nigel's words now. And I think this is important that you guys hear. For those of you who are just joining, welcome. We are live from Jamaica. Happy independence. Okay. And I'm just sharing. Hi, everybody watching from Miami. Welcome Miami. St. Catherine, big up yourself, New York City. Yes. So guys, for those of you who are just joining, I'm reading and sharing with you some information from the book of Dr. Nigel Clark, Jamaica's former finance minister who is now at the IMF. So the final part that I want to share with you guys in this book tonight is where Nigel said, we were not supposed to get this far. If you ask any observer of Jamaica's history in the past century to describe the country's prospects, they might well have cited the title of the late Michael Manley book, which summarized the structural nature of our economic challenge as going up the down escalator. So Michael Manley actually wrote a book called Going Up the Down Escalator. Now, if you put that into context, it depicts a country, a Jamaica that was going up a down escalator, meaning the country was basically going downward. Okay. But in the 60 plus years since it's independence, a significant milestone of which every Jamaican can be proud. The Jamaican people have defied the odds and have survived, flourished, and influenced the world. So I'm going to leave it there. And as I go along, I think I'm going to do a full book review. You know, this is going to be like a part one or something, but I'll definitely come back and give a more comprehensive review. I'm hoping, I'm hoping to finish this very soon. You know, and at that point in time, we'll go a little bit more into the crisis, such as the COVID-19 crisis and other things along the way that took place between 2016 and 2024 that shaped some of the economic policies, right, that Jamaica, that helped Jamaica to survive to where it is now. So look out for that. So how are you guys doing? What are you guys planning for the independence? Southwest St. Catherine, big up yourself. And guys, I drove on this road this evening, which I'm going to come back and talk about. What do I do when I am Lurian, a Lurian Avenue? I think a Lurian Avenue it name. I'm going to tell the person we live there. So if you video it and see me come give me. Guys, on that road, you can see that these are middle class people, tax paying people. And if you don't ever see the condition of the road, okay? This is in Dr. Peter Phillips' former constituency. The current MP now is Dennis Garden. And the KSMC, what the hell? I wonder to myself, see how come the people them now come to get up on the road and go put a demonstration down on the KSMC because a parish councilman, you're supposed to fix it. What a disgrace, man. And a long time it's there so. So when we get this video, I'm going to show now. I'll show now say, when we talk about local government reform, and something we just now become a problem. A long time, the local government people them, you look like say them either squand out the money. I'm not going to accuse them of theft, because I never see them theft or anything. But what could have caused these people, a nice community like that, where tax paying, hard working people are, them can't have a good look. Guys, the road is not long, you know? It's less than a quarter mile, or just about a quarter of a mile. And you mean to tell me that the people who pay them tax, and they can't have one good decent piece of road, the drive coming from work at evening time, wait until you see it, because she going to take the video, and send it, come give me. And if she not take the video, me going to go out here and walk on the road, and video it myself, because this is disgraceful. It is very sad, you know? All right, well, I'm going to come back. Good evening. Lorien Avenue. Lorien Avenue used to stay good. Me no, no. Negril in the building. Big up yourself, Rob. Thank you so much for joining. I just sent somebody over your channel to check out this thing that you were doing on the pinnacle. So big up yourself, and thank you for always highlighting Jamaica in such a positive light. You know, we all see the development. And we are always happy when people take the time because I know that content creation is not easy. And what you do is not easy. So thank you for taking the time to do that. Jamaica is a developing country. And we are in the process and we're going in the right direction of development. And I continue telling people, visit Jamaica, you know, and there are so many opportunities here. I've seen a lot of opportunities. One of the things that I would like for the government to do is to go on a campaign or a crusade to engage the young people and let them know that they have so many opportunities in academia, education and skill training for free. They can get up to an associate degree for free. And with that, they can become entrepreneurs and they can, you know, integrate themselves into the workforce here in Jamaica. So thank you for what you do. Anyway, guys, like I said, I'm going to come back and finish updating you guys about Footprints in the Sand, the Jamaican Economic Policymaking Experience 2016 to 2024. It's a very good read. And it basically humanizes everyone who took part, not just in the economic development since 2016, because it started before that. But Dr. Clark was highlighting his personal experience while he was there. And I think, you know, it just shows that when we talk about continuity in government and people who come into government and take the business of development and debt serious, you know, you have to give credit where it's true. But we'll talk more about that. And I will be, you know, bringing some more content as I go along. I'm going to be out on the road tomorrow. I'm going to try my best to come live. But if not, you will definitely get some content afterwards. You know, so I'll catch up with you guys. Thank you so much for joining. Have yourselves a good evening, guys.