Dear Editor,

Granted, there is a time and place for prayer, but it is foolhardy to believe that it is the solution to all of Jamaica’s ills. Were that the case there would be no evil in our country today. Over the years, and especially of late, Jamaicans have been encouraged to indulge in praying, praying, praying their lives away. Recent manifestations of this were evident when Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Chairman Robert Montague asked supporters of his party to pray for the current administration in power, and before that at the annual National Prayer Breakfast.

Others elsewhere such as the Chinese, in the meantime, have not been praying any at all or at best very little, but have been busy working, working, working. The result is that the Chinese are flying down the track like Usain Bolt while Jamaica is still scrambling out of the starting blocks. Interestingly, while the Chinese have the baton of industry and commerce firmly in their grasp, we have a begging bowl, which we will be extending to the Chinese seeking a loan, grant, or debt relief somewhere down the road.

The records do not show that Jamaicans are praying less, as the general Christian population is reported to have grown and church services, prayer vigils and crusades etc. are held week in week out right across the length and breadth of the country. I humbly propose a paradigm shift going forward for all Jamaicans. Let us attempt the working, working, working system nine times and if the desired results are not forthcoming we then try the praying, praying, praying once. I strongly suspect that success will be achieved prior to getting to the 10th try.

It would appear that Jamaica is busy rewriting the quote of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which stated, “The heights by great men reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling (read praying) upward in the night”.

There was an outcry not too long ago about a report, which suggested that quite a substantial proportion of Jamaicans qualified as being “mad”. Whoever put out that nonsense must have been using as a guideline what some old guy, considered a crackpot in some quarters, once said. He claimed that insanity was essentially doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I believe his name was Albert Einstein or something like that. Is this guy suggesting that the constantly praying cohort in Jamaica, from my Prime Minister right down, are all mad people?

Fitzroy Whyte

Mandeville, Manchester

littled_1969@yahoo.com