What is the Difference?

Spending two weeks in Jamaica helped me learn a great deal, and also wonder about a great deal.

I read up, asked lots of questions of the folks I worked with over the two weeks. Jamaica's generally very poor, with what I'm told is about 70% unemployment. One person wondered out loud whether it was good for Jamaica to get their independence from the Brits 50 years ago. They've struggled terribly economically, but still know they're light years ahead of their neighbors in Haiti. Hatians float their leaky boats to Jamaica in search of a better life, even though there are few prospects for them.

Why can't Jamaica be a prosperous island nation instead of a poor, crime-ridden place?

I was on the road two Sundays in a row, covering a large chunk of the island. On both Sundays I saw many people dressed very nicely walking to and from their churches. On the other hand, I couldn't help but notice that most of those people were women and children - I saw lots of young men just hanging out.

I learned that the lush island can grow just about anything, and is a great place for growing tropical fruits and vegetables of all kinds. Once upon a time, Jamaica had a fantastically lucrative banana trade. It dried up when other countries began shipping bananas around the world for lower prices. Jamaica historically has been a major producer of sugar from their productive sugar cane fields. Now they can't sell much sugar abroad, because places like Malaysia sell sugar for nearly half the price.

Even tourism is not the greatest these days. Hurting tourism these days is the crime rate, which makes many foreign tourists hesitant to make the trip. Plus, from my perspective from my visit to Montego Bay, the island isn't a great bargain. There are some very expensive all-inclusive resorts that probably do fairly well, but the resort areas remain fairly poor. I wasn't ready to wander around in the Montego Bay area alone, partly because of being approached while just crossing the street to the beach, first by a dude wanting to sell me some giggle weed, and later by a prostitute.

Jamaica has huge bauxite fields, being mined by a couple of companies now. But they can't make aluminum, they just create the alumina raw material and ship it out of the country to other aluminum plants.

The bottom line is that Jamaica has huge potential, with a great climate, world-class beaches, and tremendous natural resources. So why is the place so poor?

One could ask a similar question of Mexico, or for that matter, all the poor third-world countries in the western hemisphere. Why are they so poor while the United States is so prosperous? They have the resources and the opportunity to be prosperous, but can't seem to grap those opportunities.

I believe I know the answer.