New global order needed

KINGSTON, Jamaica - T TAKES just one relatively small hurricane this season to throw our International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement off course. There is no provision for that, no special fund where we can access adequate resources to offset the kind of economic dislocation which results from our natural-hazard vulnerability. Adverse changes in the global economy, too, can overturn all our targets and hard-won gains and there is no global mechanism to take care of these exogenous factors. I am all for our 'putting our house in order' economically. I believe that it makes no sense for us to cry in our soup, lament things which are not under our control, or throw up our hands in despair because things are stacked against us. Acknowledging certain realities and constraints is not the same as being immobilised by them.