Buying Jamaican
published: Wednesday | March 3, 2004
THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE ISSUE of producing and buying local has being a long-standing idea by so-called 'Jamaican socialists'. Our most recent history might suggest that the late Prime Minister Michael Manley was a leading advocate of this campaign. Since Jamaica's problems won't be solved by industrial tycoons we must do it ourselves in a spirit of togetherness with the awareness that there are always 'bad apples' among the bunch.
I think there are two important fronts on which producing and buying local can be established. Children should be taught the effect and importance of their economic decisions. Teachers and parents should try to engender a notion of national pride in students about how and what they buy. Children should be taught the importance of reading product labels, simple analysis of how spending their money affects industries. They should have a broad understanding of globalisation and how it affects Jamaica's economy. They must be taught to understand why things are cheaper in some countries but not necessarily of better quality and how buying some foreign products could reduce standard of living in Jamaica. Jamaicans need to feel and know that being a citizen of this country makes them very important.
The second aspect of influencing people is through public awareness via short training sessions, workshops for public and private sector workers, direct and indirect adverts. I urge ordinary Jamaicans to read about 'genetic engineering' or more specifically 'food engineering', something that Europe is staunchly opposed to because of its many unknown potential effects.
Major public figures, entrepreneurs and politicians need to lead even more by example.
