Desmond HenryTREASURE BEACH: During his recent visit to Malaysia, Prime Minister Patterson is reported to have been so impressed with the levels of personal savings in that country that when asked about it, was told that the many incentives offered to savers were part of the reasons they saved so well. Good for him.
There are many other things that governments in Southeast Asia have done exceptionally well that could be important lessons for us in Jamaica. But we seem not to be interested in learning from their examples, or from the way they do things that work for them. I remember once asking a Minister of Government if during the course of his travels from country to country he ever gets curious enough to enquire about physical things that might have caught his fancy, outside of his formal agenda. Things like clean streets, landscaped highways, uncluttered sidewalks and so on. He was honest enough to say "not really". And therein lies a great deal of our inability to truly forge ahead.
We lack an enquiring curiousity, a kind of inquisitiveness to learn from others. I truly believe it's an unfortunate carryover from a bureaucratic past in which governments were primarily the regulators and controllers and not the initiators or producers. In modern description it is often referred to as a lack of an enterprise culture; or to put it more bluntly, a lack of an understanding of the free market system.
Not so long ago, in a couple of my previous columns, I proposed the possibility of identifying and recruiting some of the best young minds from our colleges, training institutions and marketplace operations, and sending them off by arrangement to Southeast Asia to study and learn some of the unique methods that they have used to develop their economies. I was mainly concerned with the manufacturing and marketing techniques that have made them so successfully competitive. The idea was for Jamaica at last to start developing less bureaucrats and more marketers. Those students selected would be legally bonded of course, to make sure that the country benefited ultimately from the exposure. I am not aware that any of our decision makers saw enough merit in the suggestion to pursue it. Perhaps if we had, Mr. Patterson would not have been so awestruck as he was, in Malaysia.
The concept of Competitive Exposure, whether we like it or not, has arrived and is here to guide our development for a long time to come. If we do not learn and practice how to become rewardingly competitive, 'dawg gwine nyam wi supper.' Some of the first persons who should be learning this art of market-place behaviour, I submit, are our political representatives. By now, a basic introductory course in how the free market system works should have been designed by our tertiary institutions in conjunction with the PSOJ and Chamber of Commerce, as a mandatory session for all Members of Parliament. It should be compulsory for all, especially those who are offered ministerial positions. I believe a great part of our lack of understanding has to do with a fundamental absence of such a course.
Additionally, the levels of government's public communication should be radically adjusted to recognize the kind of society in which we live - one that is highly illiterate and woefully incognisant. We substitute noise for intellect, and force for persuasion. Because of that, we need to use far more creative and visual means of public communication, rather than the continuous reproduction of messages that rely too heavily on reading and mental comprehension.
We need entire new levels of communication and propaganda that will raise public curiosity, arrest excitement, and generate a notion of wanting-to-come-on-board. Advertisers call it a 'call to action'. We need more use of the interactive tools of graphics, drama and pictures on our pages and screens. Our young people, for example, need an all embracing new caricature to take them by the hand and lead them through life's circuitous paths. I recently suggested, for example, the possibility of redesigning and repositioning Brer Anancy from a character of cunning and trickery, to one that is loved and praiseworthy. One who will lead, and not deceive. Just think of it, Anancy the trickster is now Anancy the teacher. Such a new Anancy would fit ideally into any new construct to the revised Values and Attitudes programme. He would be the model of our children to follow. But will it be done? I doubt it. It will require too much creativity, devotion and hard work. There are far easier shortcuts to take, even when they do not work.
When the Minister of Agriculture, for example, starts begging consumers to buy more local products which cost more than their imported counterparts, he must fully understand what he's saying. When products are displayed on our market shelves, we are to a great extent talking about their consumer appeal and attractiveness. In this respect, imported products are far more consumer friendly than the local ones. They are more appealing to the sight, touch and pocket. When I asked a supermarket floor manager in Mandeville recently, why don't they consider washing off some of the volume of the red dirt off the Christiana potatoes being exhibited for sale, her answer was something to the effect that the removal of the dirt could affect the shelf life of the potato. So there you are, competitive ignorance based on a lack of exposure.
And so, Mr. Prime Minister, without entire new levels of creative public exposure and reform to fight the existing high levels of disorder and decay, I can't see a light at the end of the tunnel. In fact I can't see the end of the tunnel at all. You once had a campaign theme called 'Live and Direct'. I suggest you consider utilizing that theme as the basis for a new kind of exposure, towards a better understanding of how and why things work better around the world, than they do in Jamaica.
The Bottom Line: A good university should intellectualize its neighbourhood, as well as its students.
Desmond Henry is a marketing strategist based in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth.
