Jamaican students will be among several hundred young people across the Caribbean and Latin America to benefit from a multi-million US dollar education investment initiative proposed by the United States.
US President Barack Obama announced the initiative during a meeting with young leaders at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus on Thursday afternoon.
He also launched a Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative to build on an exchange programme he started years ago.
“Four years ago I launched an initiative called the hundred thousand strong in the Americas and the goal was to have a hundred thousand US students studying in this region and a hundred thousand of this region’s students studying in the United States at the end of this decade. We are on track to meet that goal, so today I’m proud to launch the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative right here in Kingston, this is not your traditional exchange. We are going to seek out the most innovative young entrepreneurs and civil society leaders in the Caribbean, Latin America and we are going to give them a chance to learn, and the capital to make a difference,” he said.
Marijuana
The decriminalization of ganja was also a topic up for discussion, participant Miguel Williams questioned the president on the US policy on the decriminalization and legalization of the drug.
In response, the president said there are several issues, which have to be taken into account with the legalization of ganja.Washington DC and Colorado are two US states which have decriminalized the use of ganja.
The president went on to say that more discussion is needed about the United States international drug policy, but until then, the policy will remain.
“Our current policy continues to be to decrease demand, we need to focus on the public health approach to decreasing demands and we have to stop the flow of guns and the flow of cash into the Caribbean, Central America and Latin America and at the same time, they have to cooperate with us to decrease the power of the transnational drug organizations which are vicious. If we combine a public health perspective, the focus on not only throwing every low level person with possession into prison, but they to get them to treatment, and combine that with economic development and alternative opportunities for the youth, then I think we can strike the right balance,” the process of not simply throwing not every low level person.”
Jamaica’s debt burden
Concerning Jamaica’s debt burden – he made some recommendations.
“The current government has been wise to work hard to abide by the IMF provisions, that has not been easy . But what agreed when I spoke with the Prime Minister, is the need for growth, not just put the squeeze on folks. The best way for a country to reduce its debt is to grow really fast and to generate more income .That does require development plans and approaches that are more productive and it is true that sometimes that requires some short term sacrifice,” he said.
