THIS IS THE HOPE AND ASPIRATION A JAMAICAS PRIME MINISTER NAMED HUGH SHEARER ENVISAGE FOR US CLOSER TO THE BEGINNING OF OUR INDEPENDENCE....... In an early address as Jamaicas youngest prime minister and the youngest in the Commonwealth, at 43, younger than Barack Obama, Shearer told the expectant nation: I have three alternatives from which to select in running the country. The first is to allow Jamaicas development to stagnate. The second is to go on bended knees to some foreign country and beg for economic assistance. The third is to call on my nation of people to accept our challenges and tackle our problems with self-respect and self-discipline. I do not propose to resort to the first alternative and preside over the stagnation of development - I cannot and could not, be prime minister under those circumstances. I do not propose to go, hat in hand, with the problems of Jamaica, to some other country begging for grants and handouts; I will never be prime minister under those circumstances - somebody else, not me! I propose to succeed or fail on the third alternative. I will rely on the self-respect and alertness, the courage and self-discipline of my people to face and tackle the problems of our country. Every other prime minister, subsequently, has gone begging hat in hand, has presided over some stagnation and even regression, and has racked up the national debt which Shearer left in 1972 at low and manageable level
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 01:22:54 +0000
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