Unity Could Save Jamaica, Says Joe Issa, it was relevant at 50, Crucial Today

Businessman Joe Issa says he backs unity to get Jamaica to retrace its steps, each going its separate way but all heading straight to the abyss, as more young people join the unemployment line and fill the already overcrowded prisons, while a hefty number of them, along with more innocent citizens fill the stuffed morgue. “I see the youth headlining the news again this year, if we don’t unite and come to a common understanding of where we are at and where we are going,” Issa says, reminding that “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

In 2012, as part of Jamaica’s 50th Anniversary celebration, Joseph Issa was asked by The Gleaner: “Why does Jamaica need to unite as we move into the next 50 years?” He says his response was relevant then but is crucial today.

In the Gleaner front page Issa referenced 19th century American poet and songwriter, George Pope Morris, who coined the phrase “United we stand, divided we fall”. He also quoted Johann Friedrich Von Schiller who similarly carved the idiom: “Even the weak become strong when they are united”.

“Many others have written of the wisdom of unity and the folly of disunity and its negative outcomes,” he says, citing from the breakup of the Federation in the 1950s, to the disputes surrounding the colours of the national flag and our 50th Independence anniversary celebrations.

He says the unwarranted disputes took place “much to the chagrin of our Diaspora on whose remittances we so heavily rely, and the international community whose respect for our institutions and processes are critical for our credibility.”

“We cannot afford to continue on the same destructive path; we have to re-commit to a united Jamaica as we move into the next half century,” Issa wrote in the Gleaner newspaper.