Tis the season to be hopeful. And, thank God, hope springs eternal in the human breast, otherwise we couldn't carry on. One of my cherished pieces of column correspondence is a letter from Michael Manley in his twilight commending me for celebrating good things about Jamaica in the midst of the over-emphasised doom and gloom.

On Sunday, December 14, the prime minister addressed the nation on the response of the Government to the global financial and economic crisis. In unprecedented fashion, major sectors welcomed the Government's stimulus package with only a few whiners like the Opposition. Tourism was happy. The Jamaica Manufacturers' Association and the Jamaica Exporters' Association published thank you advertisements. But there was little in the package for the most marginal urban and rural Jamaicans. Significantly, urban areas account for some 80 per cent of the nation's crime.

Crisis calls for bold leadership, as this newspaper editorialised on New Year's Day. In his broadcast, the prime minister told the country that although we don't have the luxury that wealthy countries have to pump huge sums of money to stimulate the economy in these tough times, we are going to weather the storm. Crisis can bring opportunity when skillfully handled. And our folk hero Anancy, a master of survival if nothing else, has a point when he said "two trouble better than one". But that is only if we know, like Anancy, how to use one trouble to fight another successfully.

NATIONAL TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME

The economic crisis has provided an opportunity for a bold response to the crime crisis. I want to recommend, in hope, a National Transfor-mation Programme (NTP), which, if handled properly, can simultaneously give an additional stimulus to the economy and put a major dent in crime and violence. There are scattered elements of the programme already in place. We have the experience of how to run it like the Office of National Reconstruction (ONR) after Hurricane Ivan. And the modest resources needed for it can be found.

Historically, several countries have used public works to stimulate sluggish economies while expanding the stock and quality of public infrastructure. And United States President-elect Barack Obama, who will be sworn in on January 20, has pledged as part of his economic stimulus package the most massive public works programme since the inter-state highway system was constructed in the 1950s in the aftermath of World War II.

The Economist magazine in a December 11 article, 'Filling the hole', has praised the move with caution. "In principle, this makes sense," the article said. "As Keynes remarked, it is of benefit at a time of unemployment to spend money on 'digging holes in the ground'. It creates demands for shovels and overalls, and puts money into the pockets of the diggers. Ideally, though, public money should be spent on something better than holes."

"Done correctly", The Economist noted, "a big public-works programme can do two valuable things at once: deliver a useful stimulus and at the same time boost the eco-nomy's long-run rate of growth."

This anti-crime, economic stimulus NTP will focus on cleaning up, fixing up, and greening up Jamaica heavily using the labour of the most economically and socially marginalised Jamaicans. The crime-favouring, anti-policing squalor of inner-city communities will be cleaned up using largely the labour of the people who live in it. The centre of every major town in Jamaica would be cleaned up and fixed up. Derelict buildings in urban space will be demolished and the rubble used for constructive purposes A massive secondary roads repair programme will be undertaken as well as the clean up and fix up of public facilities. Jamaica will be scoured for junk for recycling or proper disposal.

And there will be a massive green-up campaign. Urban green spaces will be created and maintained. Environmental threats will be mitigated or removed: flood control, river training, forestry, waste disposal, land management, coastal management, etc. Small-scale agriculture will be supported in both urban and rural space.

compulsory savings

Two critical elements of the programme will be compulsory savings and compulsory training. Every single participant, from posthole digger to manager, must contribute a determined percentage of gross wages to a savings and investment fund and must learn something new and productive. The fund will become a source of rigorously managed financing for small businesses created by participants.

And where will the money come from for this NTP when the Government is already cutting reve-nue for the announced stimulus package? Actually, this is the easy part. How to carry out the programme in an efficient, value-for-money, non-corrupt manner is a bigger problem.

There are a number of domestic 'development' funds hanging about waiting to be tapped. The Tourism Enhancement Fund will contribute to clean up, fix up and green up in the tourism belt. And those belts can be creatively stretched to include wherever a tourist sets foot. And remember the local tourist! There are the bauxite levy fund and the telecommunications levy fund. There is the National Housing Trust (NHT) fund for contributions to the clean up, fix up and green up of residential areas, something which already neatly falls within the ambit of the Trust. And the well-endowed HEART Trust Fund specifically earmarked for training. What am I missing?

And once the Government starts moving in this positive direction, matching funds will come in from the international donor community anxious to back good projects with good money, plenty of which is still around despite the global financial crisis. Locally, businesses, many of them grateful beneficiaries of the economic stimulus package, will contribute as they did to the ONR after Ivan. Private individuals will contribute when they can see where there money is going and what it is doing. A powerful source of not out of pocket contributions is to ask NHT contributors to forgo collecting their refunds which go to the NTP fund.

central coordinating office

And what role will members of Parliament play? Little or none, please. The NTP will be managed through a central coordinating office like the ONR and executed through existing public service agencies. MPs may recommend projects.

Successful crime-fighting requires overthrowing the dons, not negotiating with them. The dons must be overthrown by force of law and by making them redundant through eliminating community dependence on them by creating economic independence. Towards this end, the economic crisis could be a very useful trouble in the hands of bold, decisive and uncorrupted leadership seriously interested in national transformation.

Martin Henry is a communications consultant who may be reached at medhen@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.