Last week as we celebrated Heritage Week in Jamaica, I reflected on the lives of our heroes and the tremendous challenges they had to conquer. Today, we are able to live better lives because of their bravery and determination in overcoming various forms of bondage: physical slavery, racial discrimination, and sovereignty to foreign rule.

I wondered aloud to a friend, “Will Jamaica ever attain any other heroes?” “Probably not,” she responded, “there’s nothing left for us to be liberated from.”

But are we really free? The harsh reality is the large majority of Jamaicans are living lives of quiet desperation, bound by the shackles of financial bondage. Unlike some of the chains that kept us down in the past, these impediments to our personal and national success are largely self-inflicted, and are strengthened by our inability to attack the roots of our oppression. Continue reading How to break free from financial bondage →