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(Hot Calaloo wants this also to be a forum for ideas from readers. The following was submitted by Carey Wallace. Hot Calaloo welcomes such ideas.)

Say we could start over as a people. There was nothing, but us Jamaicans, and there was God, and God asked what sort of land would you like? What would be our answer? Let’s see, we would surely ask for good weather, in fact, great weather, sunshine year round, temperatures in the 80’s maybe. We would ask for a land that is fruitful, fertile, exuberating abundance, and richness of nature. A land with good soil, with rivers, good rainfall for crops, basically if a few grains of corn fell out of your pockets, chances are it would grow and bear fruit. We would ask for a land filled with beauty, mountains, rivers, valleys, waterfalls, beaches, cliffs, caves, morass, lagoons, cays, and more. In fact, so beautiful, that people from the rest of the world would pay lots of money to us to have a chance to just spend a week or two per year in this great beauty. We would ask for a location, that makes us independent, not having to share a land mass with anyone else, but cut off from the rest, so …. like an island, not too big, not too small, close to good markets and if you have to have hurricanes, then place us where other islands will form a protective barrier for us.

We would ask for a great culture, maybe a kind of music that would be embraced around the world, we would ask for a people with great resilience, ambition, colorful characters, and simply beautiful. We would ask for athletes that defy the odds, that show the rest of the world that our people are special, God blessed. In fact, since you asked God, why not just make us so darn attractive that we could just make a business out of collecting money from outsiders for them to experience the land.

And God/Jah said “as you wish my children” and as a reminder, lets call it Jah Mek Ya –Jamaica.

So why, one asks, could all these blessings be granted and in the year 2001 A.d., We are in such a serious predicament?

Well the reasons could have us here all day, or even all year. I however, put forward what I believe to be the best solution. A solution that will make Jamaica a successful country. Successful in all the vital areas: Financial wealth, spiritual development, growth, employment, education, health, welfare, housing, entertainment, standard of living, protection of environment, quality of life, family relationships, community relationships, corporate relationships, good governance, and good international relations, and lasting peace.

Economic prosperity

As cold as it might sound, this has to be the driving force behind the solution. Because it is difficult (not impossible) to achieve the others without this. So how do we achieve this. Well, the quickest way is to capitalize on what we have going for us, Tourism. With the beauty of the island, the beauty of our people, and with so many things we have that attract tourists, this country should make enough from Tourism to make our income per capita one of the best in the world. So why aren’t we? You ask. Well three main reasons:

Eliminate the first two items, work on the third, and I would lay my neck on the block that we would be one of the number one destinations in the world. Regardless of competition, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Cancun, all pale in comparison to what Jamaica has to offer as a vacation destination.

Eliminating the Crime stigma

The bulk of the crime in Jamaica is restricted to the corporate area, on the South Eastern end of the island. Now, I ‘m not fooling myself. We can’t solve the social, and political problems that have led to Kingston breaking records in terms of crime and violence, overnight. But what we can do overnight, is brand our resort areas separately, and market them as such. So we would brand Negril and market it separately, the same with Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Port Antonio. These brands would have all the assets of a tourist destination, without the liabilities. Kingston has one of the highest crime rates in the world per capita, Negril has one of the lowest crime rates in the world per capita. So (continuing to use Negril as an example) We would brand Negril as a newly discovered Tourist destination in the Caribbean, with 7 miles of powder white sand beach, 5 miles of majestic cliffs, caves, waterfalls, etc., weather: 90 degrees, sunny year round, Area: 1600 sq miles, language, English, population: 10,000, Crime rate 0.0001%

The easiest way to grasp this concept is to look at the example of Mexico and what they did years ago with Cancun. Mexico had a very bad image, with their economy plunging down the tubes, with the crime high, with pollution problems. They then branded Cancun, ran the resort area independently (from a marketing standpoint), and now, even though there is still crime in Mexico, even guerillas, and there is politics, and all the “unattractive” parts of a country (from a tourist’s viewpoint), Cancun is still perceived to be a great destination, out-performing Jamaica in all categories. Think of the difference in the response from the trade (travel agents, tour operators, airlines etc.) if they should hear that elections were called in Mexico and Jamaica. I doubt very much that travel to Cancun would be affected. Unfortunately I could not say that about Jamaica. And even if you are thinking that Mexico is so big, it can easily do that, then we only have to look at the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. They share the same island, and no matter what unrest they are having in Haiti, it doesn’t affect the image of the Dominican Republic. (I know being separate countries also is a factor)

When the resort areas are branded separately, we should see faster return for our Tourist investment. Firstly, there will be many more open doors in the trade if we approach them with a destination that doesn’t have consumer apathy as Jamaica does now because of the crime (89% of Americans would not consider Jamaica as a holiday destination according to the CNN survey taken right after the weekend Massacre in Tivoli Gardens in July). The trade doesn’t want to hand pump warm water from a well when they can be served cold water in a pitcher from our competitors. Like any business, the consumer’s demands will eventually dictate what the trade does. So as long as consumers want Jamaica, the trade will love us, and embrace us, but now that the consumer is saying no, we’re seeing their bad face. And they are thinking, it could get worst, recent flare ups in West Kingston, again, and then elections are due by 2002? So no matter how much the Tourism officials and moguls scurry around and try and get to the trade, as long as they go with Jamaica as the “brand” with it’s high crime rate, it will be nothing but closed doors. If they go with Negril on the other hand, or Ocho Rios, Montego Bay or Port Antonio, it would be a different reception. The marketing would focus on these holiday destinations, (and not even mention Jamaica), “Negril, the Caribbean” there will be curiosity, there would be consideration, there would be potential. Basically we would start from zero, instead of minus 89%. At our trade shows, we would have separate booths. (I guarantee now, that at the next major travel trade show, World Travel Market, we would get more traffic at a “Montego Bay Booth” than we would at a Jamaica Tourist Board booth.), at travel blitzes, we would have separate tourist boards and separate local travel shows (instead of [1]JAPEX) We would insist on being separate destinations (having separate sections) in the brochures of Tour operators, wholesalers etc. Our advertising would highlight the resort area, and not mention Jamaica, “….Ocho Rios….your complete Caribbean vacation getaway”.

So now we start having open doors, contracts being signed, hotels getting bookings, and best of all, Tourism dollars being spent in our Country, Jamaica. But, it’s not that easy because we have to solve another problem:

Getting Rid of Tourist Harassment

(1) The desperate, poor Jamaican who has no other opportunity, and in order to feed himself and his family has to resort to harassing the tourist.

(2) The thug, who is greedy, and sees an easier alternative to life by harassing tourists. They make more money from selling a spliff, than from working in a legitimate job for a week.

(3) The Jamaican male who thinks all tourist females are down for sex, (and the female prostitute who thinks single male tourists are the same, and if they are persuasive enough will be “the one” chosen by these tourists.

So how do we eliminate (remember I’m not talking to cut down or reduce, I’m talking to ELIMINATE harassment)

Step one would be to remove desperation. Ensure all our citizens have access to the basic human rights: food, clothing, shelter. (I know you are thinking “how on earth can we do that” but trust me and read on). I’ll tell you a story. When my father completed construction of the Mariner’s Inn, in 1985, he was attracting rates of $120 per night per room EP. The last European tour operator that tried to sign a contract with me this year, 2001 for rooms at the (improved) Mariner’s Inn asked for $20 per night. So over the last 16 years, we have seen room rates fall by US$100 per night. And why? Well, competition has played a major part, but if the Jamaican product was not tarnished by harassment and crime, if our people were super personalities, creating raving fans and repeat customers, we would have rates higher, and not enough rooms to house visitors. So to get back to those rates, or even half…$60 per night, I would be prepared to give $10 to creating that reality of no harassment, no crime, everyone working hand to hand to ensure visitors leave with the intention to return and to bring a friend. What I am saying is we should convert the resort areas into States, just as in the US ..Texas, Florida etc., we would have Negril State, Ocho Rios State and so on. We then have our State taxes, and our federal taxes, so we will still pay the existing federal taxes to the government coffers in Kingston, but we would now have State taxes that we could use to fix our own roads in the State, maintain our own verges, garbage, environment, Street lights, etc. But most importantly, our own welfare/development programs that will remove all desperation in our States. The largest program would be “paying Jamaicans to go to school”. Coming from the private sector, you are honed to a principle of aligning incentives in such a way that you achieve the objectives of the company. So this is what we are doing, we will build, or convert an existing building into a multi faceted training mega center where all skills involved in Tourism and related industries are taught. From languages to art & craft, from landscaping to Resort management, dressmaking, housekeeping, bartending, customer service, Public relations, entertainment, music, all that would help the industry and the levels would be such that an 80 year old man who cannot read, but with the dedication and determination can leave that institution with a Bachelors or even a Masters. We would pay these Jamaicans based on credit hours and scholastic achievement, to provide the necessary motivation for academic success. And where would we get this money? From the State taxes and maybe a toll booth entering each State. A booming tourist industry could easily pay for this with pocket change, and this is what will cause the boom.

So we eliminate half of the harassers, anyone caught harassing now, can’t use the excuse that “[2] Ofisa…mih have ten pickney a mi yard hungry ynuh sah, a just likle food mi a try hustle fe dem sah” we would point them to the School, where they will get money as they show up and start learning. This institution would obviously have to be well run with strong discipline and strict, fair principles and policies. And we would ensure that we attract returning residents or Jamaicans proficient in this field to do such.

The other set of harassers, the “greedy thugs” who will think it’s “not cool” to go to school, or it’s just easier to hustle, we would eliminate them by firstly adjusting our state laws to punish harassers more severely, and secondly to de-criminalize ganja in these resort States as well. (I’ve never heard a person harassing a tourist to buy a beer or a rum an coke…….[3]pssst psst hey..c’mere…want a drink??…never) So the demand for undercover transactions would be removed when ganja can be sold (like cigarettes) in bars in the new States. So the high (excuse the pun) demand is removed, but we are left with hard drugs and sex. Well, we still have the harsh penalties in our States, but what we need to do is enforce them. Here’s how we do that. We form relationships with overseas Police departments. Invite them to “prey for stay” meaning they will work in conjunction with our local police departments to play undercover tourists in order to nab the harasser. So a white female tourists (wired/tapped in her bikini) would be on the beach, with a team of police officers in close proximity but hidden. We get officers like this on a regular basis in groups year round..male, female, European, Canadian, American. And we have a few standards …after the third “no thanks”, or “leave me alone” our guys move in, and with our harsh harassment penalties, these thugs would be off the beach in no time….and no one would be sorry for them because the State ensures that no one goes hungry. Doing this, we could realistically get to the stage where we could use this as a marketing tool for our resort destinations. … “Negril offers no harassment guarantee!” if you are harassed even once while on vacation in Negril we will refund you the full cost of your vacation”. If we said that now we would lose our shirts, but after implementing the above measures, what we would pay out would be a few mischievous tourists trying to get back vacation money. With these guarantees, however, you make more from the added business you get by ensuring that guarantee to decent customers (reason why so many American companies offer these “money back” guarantees). Speak to anyone in the industry, and they will tell you of all the millions of visitors who currently would never come back to Jamaica because of the harassment, and who would return if they heard this guarantee. (and usually these are the more affluent travelers.)

So we now have States in Jamaica with their own State laws, State taxes, Welfare programs, having service guarantees, being showered with blessings from the industry, with their people on a major educational program, and most importantly, making a lot of money from Tourism for Jamaica.

The next step would be to use the increased Tourism revenues (Federal Taxes) from the States to “rebuild” Jamaica. To develop housing solutions in inner cities, welfare programs, educational facilities, infrastructure, sporting facilities. No longer will “there’s no money in the budget”, be an excuse. There will be funds to develop the wonderful “Port Royal project”. The standard of living will improve throughout the Island, there will be more money in circulation, more consumer spending, imagine Christmas time but year round. The power of drug dons would be reduced, because the majority of Jamaicans would now be more educated, less desperate, and have more and better options to earn a decent living. The improvements to the Police Force in terms of resources, training, coupled with the removal of desperation, economic growth and increased opportunities would see crime being reduced significantly.

So with crime down in the country, service guarantees, increased standard of living, and more educated people, our only challenge becomes competition.

Re-brand Jamaica as the Crème de la Crème’ Tourist destination

2000 room 5 star hotels in Cuba and Dominican Republic that offer rates lower than 3 star Jamaican hotels, other destinations that have Sun, Sand and Sea just as nice as us. Maybe Latin music is now more fashionable than reggae, maybe Cuba will be more novel than us when they open to Americans. But I’ll tell you a little story on competition. If you love apples, and you have an apple tree in your backyard, as apple season comes around you get more excited. Now, the tree is bearing fruit, but the apples are not ripe as yet. You wake up one morning and you check your tree, all the apples are green, except one that is ripe. Question? Which apple would you pick? Obviously the ripe apple.

After a week passes, you go back to the tree, and the tree is laden with ripe apples. Question? Which apple would you pick now? Certainly, you wouldn’t pick one that has spots, or worms, or looks withered, or smeared, in fact, you would look for the nicest, biggest, juiciest, looking apple and choose that one. But say I asked you not to pick it, but just make a mental note of which apple it is that you would choose, and then I call all the neighbors in your community and asked them to do the same, to choose an apple, wouldn’t they all (or at least the majority) choose that same apple…….as if it was the only ripe apple on the tree?

The point I’m trying to make is that when you are the best, the brightest, the shiniest, the most outstanding, you will do so well it will be as if you don’t have any competition.

Another thing is that, the Tourism pie is very large, and there are many segments to it. With Jamaica’s beauty, vibrations and attractions, we need not compete for the “bottom” end of the market that chooses destinations based on price only. Many of the “new” Islands have low rates because of low labor costs. The disparity in value is almost inhumane, and the “added value for money” that visitors get is at the expense of that Island’s people. A Cuban Doctor for example working a bartending job (as happens a lot there) for wages and tips that a British coal miner would not work for, but that coal miner is on vacation in Cuba getting top quality service for two weeks for a price that could never get him that quality service in the UK not even for a day. Now if Jamaica is to compete on price, then we will have to have wages/productivity to match, we will have to have utility prices to match, costs of support services to match and so on. I don’t see Jamaica going that way, do you? [4]Doctor Nepaul having to work as a bartender? Certainly not.

The solution is to position ourselves like that apple, to be the crème de la crème. Let cheap people buy “no named” clothes, but let Jamaica be the “Benneton,” the Versace, the Old Navy. Let cheap people buy the “no named” jeans, but let Jamaica be the Levi’s, the Jordaces. Let them buy generic cola’s, but let Jamaica be the Pepsi or Coke, let them buy cheap shoes, but let us be the Nike’s, Let them be the “[5]Toyota Corolla Deportees” and let us be the SUV’s and BMW’s, and Volvos etc.. Basically, let us compete on quality, not price. You could find the exact pair of shoes in a store, same colour, same style, same laces etc, but the brand is a no named one, and you look at the price of the one that (the only difference) has the Nike brand, the price difference is going to be significant, but a lot of people would opt for the Nikes, and it’s just human nature, we do the same thing in most of our purchases. There are many “poor” Jamaicans who, as soon as they make a little money, they buy the “brand name” clothes. When we buy appliances, we prefer names like Sony, Kelvinators, Panasonic etc., and are prepared to pay more to get those.

So we compete on quality, and we have a running start, that is natural beauty. For instance, the Cayman Islands and Cancun has no waterfalls or mountains, we do. Dominican Republic has no internationally renowned music, we have. Cuba does not have the color, zest, love of life that we have. Even Christopher Columbus (one of the most traveled men in the world) said Jamaica was the most beautiful isle ever seen by man. (or something close to that.) So let other apples be in the tree, no problem, but brand, position and market Jamaica as the best of the best, and we will be very successful.

So now Jamaica is not only a crime free, productive, educated, developing country, but the “top vacation destination in the Caribbean”. This environment is extremely attractive to foreign investors. But we would go beyond that, we would start a massive repatriation program for our Jamaicans abroad.

Repatriation

The British and Canadian High Commissions, and the American Embassy in Kingston all have a screening process for issuing visas. Jamaican twins apply at one of these institutions for a visa, one has a secondary (high school) or tertiary education, has a skill, a job, owns property, maybe a business. The other, has a criminal record, no education, no job, owns nothing. No one will disagree that the first twin will get a visa and the second will be turned down. So what is it they are seeking, basically it is to see who can contribute to society or not, an asset or a liability to society. So we have this massive screening process going on over all these years (recall the lines at the American Embassy) and the pattern continues… “good” guy gets visa and migrates, bad guys gets turned back and has to stay in Jamaica. And now we have 2.75 million Jamaicans living here and 3 million Jamaicans living abroad. Hmmmm ….. so no wonder On one hand, here in Jamaica we have crime rampant, a degraded society, and politicians who get away with murder, and on the other hand, abroad, our countrymen are doing extremely well, and remittances make up our number one foreign exchange earnings (yes, more than tourism). So the good Jamaican (and remember I’m speaking in a general sense here..there are of course limited exceptions) goes to work (in the cold), earns a salary, pays his bills, his car, mortgage on his house, school fees for his kids, groceries, utilities etc., and then has has a little left to save, now out of these savings, he sends a portion home to Jamaica to his family, and it is this fraction that makes up our highest foreign exchange earnings. Now remember all these Jamaicans are there because of the opportunities, and to avoid the crime and frustration in Jamaica, and so they try and settle in this cold, impersonal, racist culture that they can never feel at home in. They could live for years in a high rise apartment complex, and not know their neighbor, if they die in their apartment, they would start to rot before being discovered.

Deep down they desire to go back to their homeland, to the beauty of the Island, to the respect of the people in their community, to the warmth of friendship, to the purity and great taste of our foods, and fruits, to having a drink at a bar with friends, rich and poor, and it really doesn’t matter. But their desire is not strong enough to overcome the hurdles associated with returning. The disparity in the standard of living and the salary levels, the unsafe environment that make well-to-do people (including returning residents) targets for criminals, the corruption that permeates all levels of public office, from the wharves, to the planning authorities, to the examination depots, all taking advantage of any person whose accent suggests some “foreign” connection. These and other things, frustrate returning residents, into returning to foreign lands, never to come back and also with a vow to dissuade other Jamaicans considering returning home.

But now we have the “New Jamaica”, crime being reduced to very low levels, prosperity increasing, opportunities, hope, consumer confidence, all growing, and more educated people with zeal, enthusiasm, happiness, almost in a celebratory/carnival mode (having come out of rough times). Quite the scene that Jamaican’s abroad would love to return to.

So it is at that point that we start our repatriation Campaign. We appoint an entire Ministry to this program, “Ministry of Returning Resident” or something like that. A Ministry that would be dedicated to the successful repatriation of 2 million Jamaicans that are living abroad. If the average capital taken home is about (conservatively speaking) US$10,000, we are looking at a US$ 20 billion injection into the Jamaican economy. I think this kind of money deserves an independent Ministry, don’t you? So what kind of Campaign? First we would have to develop an attractive program, and then we would have a massive marketing campaign, including advertisements, promotions, speeches from Jamaican leaders, and then a strong support service to include job placements, school enrollment, church, health, etc., and with the internet, all this service can be personalized, quick and efficient. We have to grant incentives, “no income tax for returning residents for 3 years”…(we would still make money from consumption tax..) “no customs duty” for returning residents” and so on, but we would also have to give this incentive program a deadline (to motivate people to take up the offer rather than sit back and wait). We would have to publish success stories early, testimonials, of Jamaicans who returned, and are doing much better than they were in the States, basically create a band wagon so that people can start jumping on it.

So the wheels of the repatriation program creaks into motion, we have a few thousand families that start to come home with their capital, this money is deposited at the bank, and using the “power of money “ principle (if 10 people live in a community and deposit $10 each in a bank, the bank need only retain $30 and can invest the other $70 in loans etc., the logic being that $30 is enough to handle daily transactions, deposits and withdrawals of the 10 people in that community) The banks would have more capital to invest, and there would be a demand for investment. Because those few thousand families will need a few thousand home’s to live in, so the construction, furniture, appliance and landscaping industries would see increase demands. The few thousand families would need food to eat, so the agriculture, restaurant, supermarket industries would see an increase in demand. The few thousand families would need clothes to wear, so the dress making, clothing, boutiques, hair dressing industries would boom, we would need additional entertainment, bars, night clubs, concerts, music, liquor industries would all see boom business, Insurance companies would boom, auto dealers, lawyers, doctors, Indian, and chiefs, would all benefit from the boom, from the maternity clinics to the funeral parlors. Basically our Jamaican economy would grow like never before.

Not only would these returning residents bring home capital, and consumer spending power, but they will also come back with skills, so we will have lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists, businessmen etc., all pillars that will help to build a national economy. Close monitoring, and prudent management of this “new economy” will lead to sustained growth, proper utilization of resources, proper skills deployment, mortgages, loans, and other facilities to spur on the economy.

My family provides a very small example, five Wallace brothers have studied abroad, and we all decided to return home and build our country. Altogether we now employ more than 120 Jamaicans, and our businesses turn over thousands of US dollars for the local economy every day. And we are just one family. Imagine a few thousand families like that.

So within the three year period, we could transform Jamaica into the Island we all dream of: good infrastructure, happy people, prosperity for all, an educated people, successful industries, “first world” thinking, etc. by following the steps outlined above and I summarise:

(3) Create educational /welfare programs and State laws to make Tourism flourish

(4) Use the Tourism revenues to improve services, improve standard of living, to return Jamaica to a position of strength, opportunity and growth (and low crime)

(7) Manage the “new economy” so that skill deployment, opportunities, investment capital etc. support the efficient growth.

There will have to be great leaders to carry this out, leaders that believe in the program, that will not relent in the pursuit, leaders that are prepared to be ridiculed, mocked, scoffed at, betrayed, sidelined, victimized, and even lose all, but still take it with a smile, and forge forward knowing that the prize of this victory is priceless, that this period will be the most exciting in the history of Jamaica. But don’t be scared, it might seem insurmountable now, but you will be surprised the support you will get once the wheels are in motion, all these years of corruption, partisan politics, and victimization have forced the disciplined, the principled, the loyal, the good lot, into silence, withdrawal, indifference, apathy, and cynicism. But show them the light, and like flowers they will come out blooming again. Like the cats, they will come out to play once the dogs are locked away. With internet it is easy to spread the word, to muster support, locally and internationally, and maybe it will be the way to start the well needed revolution ……

[1] JAPEX: Jamaica Product Exchange show held annually in Jamaica, bringing Tour Operators, Travel agents and Wholesalers together with Jamaican Hotel “suppliers” .

[2] Dialect translated: “Officer, I have ten Children at home hungry, I’m just trying to earn to buy food for them”

[3] Dialect translation: “Hey, come here, would you like a drink”

[4] Dr. Nepaul – Leading Obstetrician & Gynecologist in Jamaica

[5] Used cars imported from Japan

Editor's Comments: Lots of innovation here but I think creation of states and especially state taxation is not feasible in Jamaica's volatile un-cooperative political system.

UNDILUTED

Economic prosperity

Eliminating the Crime stigma

Getting Rid of Tourist Harassment

Re-brand Jamaica as the Crème de la Crème’ Tourist destination

Repatriation