Jamican Prime Minister Visits Nottingham
Jamican Prime Minister Bruce Golding was given a rapturous reception as he addressed a crowd of around 400 people in Nottingham. Mr Golding recieved a standing ovation at The Marcus Garvey Centre in Radford on 23rd May 2008.
" As a boy growing up I read about the exploits of Robin Hood " he told the crowd. " With time, Nottingham has found more appropriate ways to ensure income is shared within the city"
Mr Golding who was elected as Prime Minister last year, thanked the people of Nottingham for the welcome he had recieved.
"When I arrived I felt like I was visiting a parish of Jamaica. I got the feeling that I was at home."
On the final leg of his four-city whistle stop tour, the Prime Minister covered and responded to a number of issues from his Nottingham audience, including tourism and travel, immigration, deportation of criminals, investments, education, corruption in the police force and dept.
On the issue of tourism, it was obvious from the discussion that the subject of Air Jamaica is an emotive one for Jamaicans in Britain as the community has remained disgruntled over the sale of the landing slots at Heathrow Airport to Virgin Atlantic. Jamaicans in the Midlands and North of England are particularly aggrieved over Air Jamaica as the airline had closed its Manchester route before eventually pulling out of the UK. He continued that the government was duty bound to honour deals made by the previous administration but was busy preparing to invite bids from investors to secure the airline's future.
While not making promises about a reinstallation of the UK routes, he said the idea was to attract an investor capable of integrating the airline into a wider network of international carriers to guarantee seamless airlift to Jamaica from anywhere in the world.
"We have a major problem with airlift to service the tourism industry. We want to make sure that anybody who is successful in acquiring Air Jamaica will be able to take people anywhere in the world, the opportunity to make their booking in one place and be assured of a high standard of service along the route to Jamaica. " Golding said. The goverment of Jamica has engaged the services of the international Finance Corporation to ensure a seamless privatisation of Air Jamica by March 2009.
Questions were raised about the high levels of deportation from the UK to Jamaica. The Prime Minister said there was genuine concern around the issue and that discussions were taking place to address the concerns. The Prime Minister echoed what a lot of people already know by stating:
" ... We have a problem when there are people who migrated to the UK at an early age, get in trouble with the law, and are then sent back to Jamaica where they have no support system. We have a responsiblity to take them back if they are Jamican but we have to ensure that legal processses that they are entiltled to have been completed and that we are aware of any dysfunctional behaviour thay may have that will impact upopn our society. Even where their criminal expertise has been acquired in the UK, if they are Jamicans we have a legal responsibility to accept them."
According to the Prime Minister, many young people are growing up in commununities without hope, poor parenting, inadequate education and training, poor social services and lack of proper infrastructure, and where many community members feel victimized and stigmatized. He said it is necessary to go into those areas
" Where the conditions of life is burdensome and harsh, we aim to create stability, offer opportunities, encourage good parenting, provide the necessary social services and infrastructure as well as training and education."
Golding said he is aware of the concern that United Kingdom based Jamicans have about crime in the country and said that:
"We have a responsiblity to report to you, we have a responsibility to give you causes to feel that we are getting on top of it and the hope to see levels receding as time goes by. I am not going to come here and tell you to come home unless we provide you with security."
Education is very high on the Jamaican political agenda with the Prime Minister stating that the school leaving age for secondary students will be increased from 16 to 18, to ensure that young people achieve marketable skill levels. He outlined a plan to introduce the Heart/NTA training scheme at the secondary level to make vocational training more accessible.
On the subject of debt, he said Jamica's economy was $US14 bilion in debt, which crowds out critical expenditure for developement programmes. He noted that 50 cent of every dollar earned in Jamaica's economy goes towards debt servicing. He emphasised the fact that Jamaica was not seeking debt relief, but rather access to cheaper financing.
" What is needed is an overall policy direction on the treatment of debt for middle income countries"