THE EDITOR, Sir:

The Jamaican economy is in a serious financial bind, choked with a debt of J$1.68 trillion. The country is sick economically, and the only medicine for recovery is growth therapy.

The austerity measures currently being negotiated between the Government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are not going to help this sinking ship.

Cutting the payroll by laying off employees, requiring public-sector workers to pay into pension funds, slashing other social services and imposing more taxes won't work.

What are these measures in fact going to do? They are going to place more pressure on an already weak economy, pushing it further into recession, with more loss of jobs, because there will be less demand for goods and services because people will have very little money left to spend.

Potential investors will continue to take a wait-and-see attitude until they can determine the direction in which the country is moving.

We are supposed to be a sovereign country; our independence must mean something. As a people, we must do something to dig ourselves out of this financial hole in which we have found ourselves.

Our leaders must lead. They must come up with the right prescriptions to clean up the economic mess we have created.

When the IMF deal is finally signed, are all our financial woes going to come to an end? I assure you, they will not.

IMF or no IMF, we need to do what is right for our country to bring it back in line with properly managed countries of the region and the world in general. We need to make this elusive meaningful growth a reality.

We need to stop wasting scarce taxpayer money. If we are fixing potholes, we must fix them properly and not leave large bumps in the roads.

Billions of dollars are being spent on education annually, but the teachers' colleges are not doing a good job.When I hear some of the teachers speak, their pronunciation and grammar leave a lot to be desired.

We need to cut out the procrastination and stop waiting on the IMF. We need to cut out the chatting; we need to get off our behinds and act now if we are going to save this country for our children and grandchildren.

ROY WILSON

Roy.Wilson@ajasja.com