You know, I am beginning to become terribly afraid for my country; afraid that we are on the cusp of descending into a place so dark, we are all going to be forever scarred by the experience.

It's bad enough that we have a leader who seems more intent on giving an ear to a 'prophet' who clearly has more than a few screws loose than to the immediate needs of the population and a finance minister whose sole intent is to take everything one earns in taxes. But also, many of our people are devolving into barbarians.

Every day I read the papers I ask myself what the hell is going on. People are stealing phone lines to make bullets; toddlers are having sex in our schools, and anti-gay outrage is becoming more vocal and visible despite the obvious negative economic impact it can have on the island. Already, potential visitors are beginning to voice their concerns about visiting Jamaica primarily due to concerns about their safety.

What makes matters worse is that each day the job market shrinks further and further, which in effect forces some people - out of sheer desperation - to tap into their darkest sides just to be able to put food on their tables.

Nobody is listening to the island's leaders anymore. But why should anyone listen, because their words are so empty most of the time. The only time they say things you want to hear (well, not really) is when they're telling you that more taxes are on the way. I am sure many people, like me, face the month of April each year with a certain amount of dread, scared to think of what the Government is going to want to tax next.

No jobs

It's like we don't already have enough to worry about. I mean, gunmen are making bullets from the wires in the phone lines for Christ sake! This makes me wonder though why these guys can't use this ingenuity to do something positive that will also serve to make them some money so that they won't have to steal, murder and maim. Oh, that's right; Government has not provided them with that option.

There are no jobs to be had, yet the Statistical Institute has the gall to tell you that the economy is growing. Growing my foot! If that's true where are the jobs? I am sure that Jamaicans are not asking for the 200,000 jobs that the U.S. economy, for example, creates each MONTH! Ten thousand jobs a month would be more than fine for all these people leaving UTECH and UWI and those other tertiary institutions. That's 10,000 more people to tax each month Mr. Davies. Guess you never saw it that way; 120,000 people more each year paying taxes each month.

But we're not going to be creating much of anything, let alone more jobs, if we don't find a way to soften our rapidly hardening image across the world which is not being helped by this very vocal and very visible anti-gay sentiment snowballing right across the island. From Montego Bay right across to Kingston, more and more reports are surfacing about the mortality of gays and those suspected of being gay, being challenged almost on a daily basis.

We need to understand something. We might choose to remain homophobic as a nation, which is our right, but when we expect people to support our tourism product we have to sometimes bend backwards a little because tourists don't have to come here. And let me tell you something, if you all think things are bad now you don't want to see how bad they'll get if our tourism market collapses, which it will if the gay propaganda machinery sets its sights on generating a boycott against Jamaica.

We have to learn to be more tolerant. It makes better economic sense. I know we understand dollars and cents so even if our leaders are not leading - primarily because they're incapable - we don't have to follow blindly. Now, more than ever, as a people we need to take the reins and show them the way.

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