The article in The Sunday Gleaner of October 11 by Errol Hewitt is comprehensive and indeed raises questions of why the solutions were not offered in the prime minister's recent address.

Regrettably, many of the problems are years in the making, and it may appear expedient for politicians to present fast solutions, only for the electorate to realise later that it was indeed a mirage, when the quick fixes do not solve the chronic problems.

Visionaries from both political parties of the past demonstrated the characteristics of vision that were matched with the courage of their convictions. For example, the statement by Alexander Bustamante, "shoot me but leave my people alone" (or words to that effect). He was prepared to lay down his life as a sacrifice to the promise of relief he was prepared to offer his 'people'. Do we see those qualities and with such intensity in present-day Jamaica?

Relevant statement

Another example is in the field of education. The adage 'where there is no vision, the people perish' is relevant here. We spend significant sums from the national Treasury to provide 'free edu-cation'. Are we satisfied with the result of our investment? Is the opportunity to be literate or well read sufficient? Education that is no more than book knowledge is not true education. It merely promotes academic heroes but community zeroes. The vision for education needs to recognise that the end of education is not knowledge but character.

Therein lies the problem for politicians, and too often it would appear to be more expedient to compromise on right vision and right action to make short-term gains in the hope that the latter will ensure success of continuity at the next national election.

I am, etc.,

LALU N. VASWANI

laluvaswani@caribsurf.com

St Michael

Barbados