Gordon Robinson | Ready or not, here I come!

So the pandemic is over. Right?

Wrong! Government’s ham-fisted attempt to protect Jamaica from it is over. We’ve spent two years hemming and hawing; begging and pleading; and under-resourcing the pandemic response until we’ve achieved 23 per cent vaccinated a year after vaccines became available and an economy in free-fall.

Jamaica is out of options.

World Bank data has Jamaica, true to form, growing by 0.97 per cent (1.0 per cent per capita) in 2019. Cayman Islands (average annual growth 1992 to 2019 of 1.33 per cent) grew 1.9 per cent (7.0 per cent per capita).

In 2020, Jamaica’s “growth” rate was -10.06 per cent (-11 per cent per capita), while overall decline in Latin America and the Caribbean was -6.722 per cent (-17 per cent per capita). Cayman Islands (most severe pandemic restrictions in the region) registered -6.7 per cent “growth”.

In February 2021, the Planning Institute of Jamaica predicted Jamaica’s 2021 growth at between 4 to 8 per cent. Actual growth was 4.58 per cent. Overall growth in Latin America and the Caribbean was 6.2 per cent. Cayman (more heavily dependent on tourism than Jamaica and with zero direct taxation) achieved GDP of US$5.3 billion in 2021 as against pre-pandemic GDP of US$5.9 billion.

It’s early days yet, but Jamaica is at two per cent growth so far in 2022.

The region faces a bleak 2022 involving, according to a January 12, 2022, report by UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), “uncertainty regarding the pandemic’s ongoing evolution, a sharp deceleration in growth, continued low investment and productivity and a slow recovery in employment, the persistence of the social effects prompted by the crisis, reduced fiscal space, increased inflationary pressures and financial imbalances”. Oh, also a small matter of World War III beginning in Europe.

Option-challenged Jamaica faces less than 2 per cent growth in 2022. Pandemic restrictions must be lifted; the economy must be re-opened; a generation’s education deficit, exacerbated by COVID, must be cauterised; and we must now implement a government policy best described as Devil take the hindmost.

Did you read the part of ECLAC’s report that placed “uncertainty regarding the pandemic’s ongoing evolution” at number one on its list of 2022 challenges? Watching Government mangle pandemic management from day one, I’m reminded of the very best story I’ve heard during a eulogy.

Confession: I rarely attend funerals (or weddings – same thing), so I haven’t heard many eulogies. Kobe Bryant was notorious for his selfish but brilliant play and his intense rivalry with teammate Shaquille O’Neal. So Shaq, at Kobe’s funeral, told the story of how he once tried to counsel Kobe. “I told him,” said Shaq “there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’.”

Because I’m repeatedly reminded by our esteemed editor that this is a family newspaper (you can’t write “hell” or “damn” or even plagiarise biblical terms like “ass” or anything like that) I must perforce paraphrase Kobe’s reply, which Shaq delivered at the funeral with a broad smile.

“True,” replied Kobe, “but there’s an ‘m’ and an ‘e’ in that mother lover!”

‘MARKET ME’

Throughout this pandemic, Jamaica’s health minister has applied a “Market Me” philosophy to pandemic management. So he takes photo ops at “vaccine blitz” sites manned by underpaid and underappreciated healthcare workers and attended by inconvenienced citizens having to endure the most appalling conditions before, during, and after vaccination.

Some of the casual disrespect includes cost of transport, long waiting periods in crowded waiting areas or long lines with zero physical distancing followed by ridiculous restrictions and irrational disappointments when it’s finally your turn.

So the vaccination roll-out, essential to defeating the pandemic, has been a circus with the main act being “Jamaica Moves” to scattered vaccination sites while Criss Tufftimes smiles for the ever-present camera whether while exercising, at ceremonials or press conferences, or at the airport receiving vaccine shipments often earmarked for wastage, damage, or dumping.

So Jamaica’s game of hide and go seek with the pandemic is at the stage where COVID has stopped counting and warns “Ready or not, here I come!”

Peace and Love!

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com