FORMER Prime Minister Bruce Golding on Saturday night expressed hope that the United States would soften the tone of its relationship with Jamaica and rekindle the strong, decades-old bond of ties between both nations as current demands made by Washington are at odds with the very essence of true friendship.

Golding delivered the message in an address to the Jamaica 64th Independence Gala staged by Team Jamaica Bickle in Philadelphia, during which he juxtaposed impressive economic and social gains in the island over the past few years with what he described as “an even more pressing and unnecessary challenge at this time” created by a global order that has “become topsy-turvy”.

“How we live, how we govern ourselves, how we progress is determined, to a great extent, by the environment in which we live and how we are able to operate within that environment. That environment has always been challenging, testing our mettle and fortitude. We went through 45 years of the Cold War when we became the bully beef in the sandwich that the two superpowers were fighting over, but I have never witnessed anything like what we are facing now,” said Golding, who served as Jamaica’s eighth prime minister from September 2007 to October 2011.