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Link to Video of Norman’ s address

The Raffer Debt Insolvency Proposal

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Jamaica appears to be approaching the 50th anniversary of its independence in a state of virtual debt bondage and IMF trusteeship. Mark Weisbrot argues that the austerity programme being imposed on the country, and on the eurozone countries, will push these economies even further into recession and ultimately make it harder for them to service their debts.

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“The paper notes that Jamaica remains one of the most highly indebted countries in the world, and that its interest payments as a percent of GDP were higher than anywhere else in the world in 2011, including even crisis-stricken countries in the eurozone. Jamaica’s large debt burden has displaced most other public expenditures, taking up almost 50 percent of total budgeted spending over the last four fiscal years while health and education have been only around 20 percent combined.”

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Text of the address

Shaggy performs at Jamaica House for Portia

One of the journalists posing questions to the two panels of young politicians in the first debate of the Jamaican election pursued all six young leaders for radical solutions, in vain. I still hope that this emergent generation of politicians represented by both panelists has some radical ideas, but that we did not get them …

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Most cemeteries replace the illusion of life’s permanence with another illusion: the permanence of a name carved in stone. Not so May Pen Cemetery, in Kingston, Jamaica, where bodies are buried on top of bodies, weeds grow over the old markers, and time humbles even a rich man’s grave…

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It has been suggested that as much as 70 percent of Jamaica’s public debt may be illegitimate.,   The following is a list of twenty-one questionable projects and dealings which need investigation. It is by no means exhaustive, but there is a pattern which suggests recklessness and lack of accountability for the spending of public funds…

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Webmaster’s note: as Jamaica faces yet another round of austerity measures in a desperate attempt to get back on track with its latest IMF programme, a call has been made for debt repudiation backed up by an audit of its national debt. While we do not agree with everything in Lloyd D’Aguilar’s article, we share the view that a rebuilding of Jamaica’s shattered social infrastructure and the achievement of sustained economic growth will not be possible without substantial debt restructuring to reduce the crippling burden of its national debt on the public finances and on the national economy.

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Watch Debtocracy–the acclaimed documentary on the causes of the Greek debt crisis and its solutions, that you won’t hear about from the corporate media.

T started off with fewer than 2,000 young people about four weeks ago, and in a flash it has mushroomed into a global movement. “Occupy Wall Street” is now “Occupy Together” as the common chords of injustice, greed and exploitation have found resonance with people all over the world…

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Jamaicans United for Sustainable Development (JUSD) look forward to what appears to be the inevitable confirmation of MP Andrew Holness as the next Party Leader and Prime Minister of Jamaica. ..

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The announcement made today by Prime Minister and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Bruce Golding that he will shortly step down as Prime Minister and leader of the JLP, is welcomed by New Nation Coalition as the “right and proper thing to do”, and “a step in the right direction for Jamaica.”..

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For background go to Jamaican Politics

Jamaica in the late sixties was a seething volcano with political lava bubbling up through the confining covers of colonial society, and day by day it burned, hotter and hotter- intensifying. Intensified! …

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I thank the Chamber of Commerce of St Kitts-Nevis for inviting me to speak on the nature, prospects and challenges of an IMF borrowing arrangement. The timing is opportune as I understand that St Kitts-Nevis has recently concluded arrangements for a Standby Borrowing Arrangement with the IMF and Jamaica signed a similar agreement some 16 months before…

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From The Guardian, UK, 22 July 2011

Some have pointed to the Jamaican debt restructuring of last year as a model for Greece…It is worth a closer look at what has been done to Jamaica, not only as a warning to Greece, but to shed some light on the damage that can be done when “the international community” is willing to sacrifice a country for the sake of creditors’ interests…

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After weeks of high profile media attention and commentary in the wider society the report of the Manatt Commission of Enquiry and the extradition request from the United States for Mr. Christopher Coke has been tabled in the Jamaican parliament. It has been greeted with much disapproval and scepticism and has reinforced the view held all along by the majority of the population that nothing was going to come out of it…

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IMF Agreement Could Worsen Debt Burden, Harm Health and Education

Published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., this paper finds that Jamaica’s economic and social progress has suffered considerably from the burden of an unsustainable debt; and that even after the debt restructuring of 2010, this burden remains unsustainable and very damaging. Pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies, implemented under the auspices of the IMF, have also damaged Jamaica’s recent and current economic prospects…

Click here for Jamaica: Macroeconomic Policy, Debt and the IMF