Make Bolt Ja's UN ambassador

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Athletic sprint legend Usain St Leo Bolt is a Brand Jamaica leader for life.

The only difference between Bolt and Bob Marley is that the former is of recent vintage, of a time when the world may be less inclined to split his honour with his country. This is because Jamaica has not lived up to its economic, political and social potential.

Jamaica's best chance of benefiting, economically, from the tremendous global goodwill of Usain Bolt is likely to come from making him its ambassador to the United Nations. Let the technocrat now in the job shadow him and groom him to grasp the technicalities over time and deliver the country's positions on global subjects himself. That would be the most befitting honour. It would be an original, out of the box, stroke of international relations genius.

Bill Johnson recently established, in a poll for The Gleaner, that 'Bad-mind is active', to such an extent in Jamaica that it is retarding national safety and prosperity. However, since "hope in what is seen is not hope" (Romans 8:24), I believe there are still enough well-thinking Jamaicans who will rally behind the call for Bolt to be Jamaica's next UN ambassador, instead of letting the political opportunists burden him with the tainted status of national hero.

This letter can be the start of that rally.

HYLTON W. DENNIS

Mona, Kingston 7