Desmond Henry TREASURE BEACH:
AFTER SIX decades of living and one and a half of writing, I thought I would use the craft of one to comment on the fact of the other. I have decided therefore in my next two columns to list the developments in my lifetime, which I think have helped to define the structure and quality of our country's existence in fundamental ways, for better or worse.
This week I will list the 10 which have defined us for good, and next week those that I think have done the opposite. As a trained marketer of products, passions, emotions and personalities, there is no question in my mind that within my lifetime there are many areas in which we have failed to extend the initial performances, resulting in missed opportunities to further earn and develop. We have failed dismally, for example, to creatively capitalise on the instinctive pride-building values of many of the developments I have identified.
1. Voting Rights I was just a kid in 1944 when we achieved Universal Adult Suffrage. I could barely understand it then, but I remember the beaming faces of the rural folks voting in that election, and talking openly about the development of the two-party system.
2. West Indies Sports The emergence of sports as a pride-building factor began during the 1948 whipping of England by the West Indies cricket team; the arrival of the three W's; and Jamaica's Allan Rae and Alf Valentine. I remember also that all elementary schools got a public holiday. In sports Jamaica has moved dramatically beyond those days with the Helsinki and Montreal Olympics, our performance in World Games, World Cup football, boxing and others. We are today internationally described as "that Caribbean sprint factory."
3. Creation of the UWI This act, more than any other in our educational system, took us on a gigantic leap in our educational development. It continues to do so today, even if at the field level I have misgivings about its non-assertive marketing and public communication performances.
4. Bauxite development The discovery and exploitation of commercial bauxite deposits signalled a new economic reality for us in the fields of international industry and commerce. The fact that lawyer Norman Manley was Premier during the early periods of the critical contract negotiations, turned out to be most timely.
5. Political Independence I was a student abroad at the time in 1962, but came home for the emotional culmination of this great historic event. In some respects, we have seized its opportunities. In most others, however, we have failed to capitalise on its national character-building and widening potentialities.
6. Tivoli Gardens No student of urban development can fail to recognise the single most penetrative example of human development in an overcrowded urban setting that Tivoli Gardens has come to exemplify. Its concept and execution completely transformed urban squalor into human splendour.
7. Tourism The emergence of tourism as a developmental tool in the late 1950s and early 1960s, led to its positioning as a country's leading foreign exchange earner today, and the internationally acclaimed Jamaican contribution of the all-inclusives.
8. Bob Marley Without doubt the single most internationally recognised and performing artiste this country has ever produced. Our lamentable weaknesses in marketplace competitiveness have deprived us from capitalising on the creative talents of this late great Jamaican.
9. The UDC As a force in modern infrastructural development and a way of how to get things done, no other public agency has come close to the Urban Development Corpora-tion. It has the power (technical, administrative and commercial) to refit this country's entire body structure. Its creation was a tour de force. I have been calling for a similar rural structure for the entire south coast.
10. Woman Power The emergence of our women in corporate, political and executive management positions has led to entirely new levels of human relationships in our national life. It started as a noticeable factor with the lessening of curiosity around women drivers in the mid-1950s, to the performance of some political stalwarts like Iris Collins, Rose Leon, Mavis Gilmour and others. Its overwhelming force and momentum is of growing concern to many male sociologists.
So there you have it. I would welcome reader reaction and response. Next week I'll have the 10 worst examples of Jamaican life, as I have witnessed it.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Opportunity dances with only those who are already on the dance floor.
Desmond Henry is a marketing strategist based in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth.
