For Health’s Sake Let’s Increase Economic Growth – Joe Issa

Healthy Lifestyle enthusiast and philanthropist Joe Issa, has said that the general health of a nation and in particular, its under-five-year-olds should serve as a warning of how well it will fare socially and economically in the long term and the future, and Jamaica is no exception.

“When you look at health trends all over the world it is frightening to realize how badly low income countries like Jamaica are doing relative to high income countries in reducing the prevalence rate of stunting, underweight and overweight,” says Issa, pointing out that the gap between high and low income countries is too wide and should be narrowed with higher social and economic growth.

Issa, who volunteers books, computers and even air condition units to schools in St. Mary and St. Ann, where he is a past president of the chamber of commerce, says the opportunity cost of a sick workforce is massive loss of production and miss-opportunity for economic growth, to say nothing of the burden on the health sector and tax payers. “When we see the national stunting rate decreasing we know then that conditions in the socio-economy are improving.”

According to World Health Organization (WHO), stunted growth, which means a low height-for-age “reflects a process of failure to reach linear growth potential as a result of suboptimal health and/or nutritional conditions.”

Such conditions are shown to be generally associated with poor social and economic conditions in the population and “increased risk of frequent and early exposure to adverse conditions such as illness and/or inappropriate feeding practices.”

The data showed that worldwide variation of the prevalence of low height-for-age is considerable, ranging from 5% to 65% among the less developed countries

Between 1990 and 2014 child malnutrition indicators for stunting, showed a reduction in the number of children affected, from about 255 million to 159 million, with the prevalence rate reducing from 41% to 26%.

Similarly, underweight children fell from nearly 161 million in 1990 to 95 million in 2014, while the prevalence rate reduced from 25% to 16% over the period. However, overweight children which numbered 31 million in 1990 has increased to 41 million in 2014, with the percentage prevalence increasing from 6% to 7% during the time period.

The picture is even more unfavourable when it comes to stunting among children under five years old, with low income groups having a higher prevalence rate than high income groups, as well as a relatively smaller decline in the rate over a 24-year period. The prevalence rate for low income groups was 54.6% in 1990 compared with 32.6% for high income groups.

Also, whereas the prevalence rate for the low income groups fell to 37.6 between 1990 and 2014, representing a fall of 17%, the fall in the high income groups to 7.5% in 2014 represented a reduction of 25%.

The data also show that the prevalence rate of underweight (low weight to height) under-five-year-olds in low income groups was higher at 34.7% in 1990 compared with 13% for the high income groups, a difference of 21.7%. In addition, 24 years later in 2014, the rate in the low income groups had fallen to 20.4%, whereas for the high income groups the rate fell to 2.5%.

However, the overweight (high weight to height) prevalence rate in the low income groups which was 3.1% in 1990 increased to 3.4% in 2014. Similarly, the prevalence rate in the high income group increased from 5.7% to 6.3% during the same review period.

“The reductions we have seen in nearly a quarter of a century in the number of children and the prevalence rate for stunting and underweight in both low and high income groups, are indications of improved social-economic conditions over the period.

“The increase in numbers and prevalence rates for overweight children in both low and high income groups, not only reflect such improvements, but also the bad eating choices made,” said Issa, who is the founder of the Cool group of companies based in Ocho Rios, St. Ann.  

Business heads to hold candidates accountable

Business Leaders who have put Government on notice that they want greater accountability in governance, has taken concrete steps toward securing action from the politicians.

The Gleaner has learned that a meeting of Chamber of Commerce heads and business leader held recently in Ocho Rios, emerged with consensus that candidates in the upcoming election should be made to sign a covenant with their constituents, agreeing to address the more serious problems shortly after they are elected.

The resolution will be sent to all the political parties for their endorsement.

The various Chambers are currently working on the wording of the document, which will be sent to the general secretaries of the political parties.

It calls for all candidates throughout the 60 constituencies to sign off on a document, prepared by their local Chamber of Commerce, pledging to deal with the two most critical issues affecting their constituency, in a period not exceeding 100 days.

The issues, depending on the area, could be anything from crime, bad roads, water, tourism, electricity or telephone service.

“What we are looking for is accountability from our politicians,” said Joey Issa, author of the resolution and executive vice president of the SuperClubs chain of hotels.

“Too often we see candidates getting elected and pretty much disappearing from the scene soon after. We are hoping to change this unfortunate trend by putting them on the spot for a change,” said Mr. Issa.

“We are not trying to intimidate or ambush anybody, what we are saying is that our political representatives must be held accountable by the people in their constituency.”

President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) Anthony Chang agreed. According to him, “This is an excellent idea which my organization has no problem embracing,” he said.

“I am also confident the political parties will view this proposal as something positive.”

Donovon Cover, president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce said his organization was all for accountability and adds that voters would be looking keenly to see whom, if anybody would refrain from signing off on the document.

Cruise shipping row brewing: Amid reports of possible head tax reduction in MoBay

Western Bureau:

Another row is brewing in the tourist industry amid reports of possible reduction in the head tax for cruise ship passengers arriving in Montego Bay.

The reduction is being pushed by Montego Bay cruise shipping players who, for the past three years, have seen a steady decline in the number of cruise vessels arriving in the city.

They have argued that a lowering of the head tax would encourage cruise line officials to have their vessels make more calls in Montego Bay, and more importantly, according to them, not having the resort city dropped as a port of call.

The head tax charged to passengers arriving in Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Port Antonio stands at US$15.

Official Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) figures, however, show that Ocho Rios enjoys the lion’s share of the market.

During the period 1997-1999, of the 2.1 million cruise passengers that visited Jamaica, 76.8 per cent or 1.6 million went to Ocho Rios. Only 461,944 went to Montego Bay. Port Antonio, a much smaller port, has seen only three cruise ships over the pat three years and was not factored into the equation.

The government has acknowledged talks on a lower head tax for Port Antonio but denies that a decision has already been taken on Montego Bay.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism, Wykeham McNeill, said that the government was not planning on doing anything that would be harmful to any particular port.

“There are ongoing discussions to lower the head tax in Port Antonio and this has triggered speculation about Montego Bay,” he said.

“If the tax were to be lowered in the Second City, it would involve careful consultation with all the players in the industry,” he added.

President of the Montego Bay Cruise Council, Lee Bailey, said that he was aware of the proposal to lower the head tax for passengers arriving at the city’s ports and would consider it a good move.

Ocho Rios was saturated with cruise vessels, he said, while other ports were not enjoying what he called “some of the special concessions that are in place”.

Mr. Bailey said that a lowering in the head tax in Montego Bay would in no way undermine Ocho Rios’ status as the cruise shipping capital of Jamaica and noted that fears being expressed to the contrary, are extremely premature.

“The proposal is not for ships to leave Ocho Rios,” he added. “It is to ensure that the whole industry profits.”

Former president of the St. Ann Chamber of Commerce, Joey Issa, who tree years ago was in the heart of a tussle with his Montego Bay counterpart at the time, Lloyd B. Smith, over a proposed head tax reduction for the second city, reiterated his earlier position in stating that any reduction of the cruise tax should be done across the board.

“In terms of equity and fairness, the head tax that is charged to passengers arriving in the island should be consistent at all the ports of entry,” Mr. Issa said. “As I have stated before, we have to be careful about trying to appease one sector at the expense of another. Before anything is done, there should be clarification on the matter.”

We empathize with our American partners

The island’s two major hotel chains, SuperClubs and Sandals, with nearly 70 per cent of their business being generated from the United States, have been hard hit by the terrorist attacks on two American cities.

The repercussions being felt by the two hotel giants have jolted their operations where they have now being forced to make radical changes to their operations, including the rotation of staff and the bonding of moguls John Issa and ‘Butch’ Stewart.

But according to representatives of both tourism entities, empathizing with their American partners were now foremost on their minds. They spoke of the relationship they have with United States and the importance of this relationship to Jamaica’s tourism.

“Seventy five per cent of our business come directly from the United States,” explained Leo Lambert, Group Public Relations Officer for Sandals. “As our American friends struggle to regroup, this is a very difficult period for all of us in the sector.” He added that Sandals was now making a concerted effort to pamper all their guests to how then that “in this difficult time we too share their pains and concerns.”

Mr. Lambert notes that now was the time for the Caribbean to come together as a region to strategize way to effectively deal with the massive downturn in tourism. “We have to pull through this together,” he said. “We have to convince Americans that we are the destination of choice during this difficult time – that we are a place to come and relax and try to relieve their stress. With our close proximity to the United States, we have a golden opportunity to salvage our season.”

Executive Vice President of SuperClubs, Joey Issa, said that as airline travel in the United State continues to decline, the effects were being felt “like thunderclaps throughout the sector.” Like hi competitors at Sandals, he notes that SuperClubs was feeling a lot of empathy for the people of the United States at this time, adding that his country has had a long lasting relationship with that country.

“This is a very difficult period for all of us locally but even more so for our American counterparts,” he said. “As America brace for war nobody knows what the future will bring. Whatever game plan we had going into the winter tourist season has to now be radically changed as we enter this grave period of uncertainty.”

The Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) is also firmly in solidarity with the country’s “American partners” despite the grave period where a number of their hotels are on the brink of closure. According to President, Josef Forstmayer, the JHTA has been working round the clock to find ways to get through the current crisis facing the sector but was optimistic that the winter season could be saved.

Picture caption: “This is a very difficult period for all of us locally but even more so for our American counterparts” –Joe Issa (pictured) Executive Vice-President of SuperClubs