THE EDITOR, Sir:

The article on page A2 of Monday's Gleaner about the young farmer in St. Mary in which your reporter chronicled the success of Karen Tamasa as a courageous businesswoman who at age 19 already employs 16 persons, was excellent and I hope the Gleaner will continue to highlight such ambitious persons from time to time.

Having recently read 'The World Is Flat', I have been reflecting on just how wonderful capitalists are and how they have driven innovations, competition and in the main, made the world a better place for all consumers, large and small.

In the 70s, there was a serious and successful anti-capitalist campaign and I am convinced that this remains a serious contributing factor to Jamaica's weak economic performance when compared to other Caricom countries (except Guyana which also experienced a similar campaign). In fact, even today, one often sees articles from persons like Dennis Morrison attempting to lecture our capitalists.

When one compares the achievements of capitalists and socialists however, who really are the people making a great contribution to the world? Where is the Bill Gates of the socialist genre? Who are the people who exercise stick-to-itiveness, drive and ambition? Those who leave work at 4 p.m., come hell or high water or those who toil while others sleep? For when it comes down to it, very few capitalists are successful at the get go. Unfortunately we usually mainly hear about them after they have become rich and successful and no one knows about them when they were struggling. Take Colonel Sanders for example, how many people know that he became bankrupt several times and only became successful when he was 75 years old? And Look at Oprah Winfrey one of the richest women in the world. Don't think this happened overnight.

Please continue to highlight young capitalists in our midst, for Jamaica will never join the developed world until we have leadership which extols success (that's where they get the taxes which they need to keep them living the good life at taxpayer's expense) instead of preaching envy against those who have achieved success after years of hard labour.

I am, etc.,

JOAN WILLIAMS

greatestj@hotmail.com

Via Go-Jamaica