My Fellow Jamaicans at home and in the Diaspora:

I greet you warmly with my wish that you will have a bright and prosperous New Year, filled with opportunities and the hope of a satisfying future.

As we think about the year ahead, I invite you to pause to renew your minds, hopes, aspirations, dreams, and concepts of where you are now, and what you hope to become in the immediate and distant future.

Starting now, there is much ‘living’ to do as we constantly fight against corruption, greed, malice, and hatred; rejecting them as misguided approaches to progress.

We renew our fight:

i) Against the disintegration of the moral fabric of our society, and seek,

ii) To replace antisocial behaviour, hostility, and immodesty with expressions of propriety, decency, and civility.

Today, we open a new page in our lives. I encourage everyone to renew their trust in each other and enter 2023 with hope and confidence.

• We cannot change the past, but we can learn from our mistakes, and work on the present to ensure a more pleasing future.
• We should make the best use of our time and make every moment count.
• We must be the change we want to see and espouse the solutions that will help us to deal with the challenges we will face.
• As we venture into the unknown, we can daily find:
  – Strength to press on even when it gets hard
  – Boldness to stand firm even though the heavens fall
  – Joy to smile – even on bad days, and,
  – Faith to remain focused when the way looks dark.

We will be called on to make crucial decisions in various areas of our lives that will affect our future, at a personal or national level. The Greek Philosopher, Socrates, observed that “The secret of change is to
focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

We can resolve to make this the Year of Transition to:

• Securing good health
• Unity and peace
• Strong families
• Clean environments and solutions to combat the effects of climate change
• Mental, emotional and physical strength, and,
• Increased reliance on the grace and power of the Almighty.

I trust that this New Year will bring each one of you reasons to go forward and celebrate life with renewed confidence.

Lady Allen joins me in wishing you a New Year filled with inner peace, love, and hope.

May God bless you and “Jamaica, land we love”.

– Sir Patrick Allen is governor general of Jamaica