Hilary Robertson-Hickling

The parish of Hanover has continued to experience decline since the port of Lucea stopped operations and the large estates no longer functioned. Hence, many of its more able citizens migrated within Jamaica and overseas. There have been discussions and plans about how to reactivate the social and economic life of the parish. This tourism project is an opportunity for development.

The recent incident at the Fiesta hotel only emphasises our tendency for self-destruction in this country. That a problem arose with the shooting of a worker is clear, but that the mind of the mob would unleash the destruction of more than a dozen vehicles and confirm that certain members of our citizenry are not ready for life in the 21st century is tragic. When will some of us wake up to the realisation that we are cutting off our noses to spite our faces?

Blacklisted

Many of those employed on the project have not worked for some time and after the completion of the project will not be working perhaps for years to come. Instead of them being able to work at the building of the next hotel, they will be literally blacklisted. No organisation or country will advance without the participation of its most skilled. In a competitive world there is zero tolerance for those who are unskilled, unwilling or unable to learn. I wonder how many of these employees would be invited to participate in the building boom in Trinidad?

Many skilled persons from China and other countries are now working in Trinidad and Tobago, but based on an experience like that in Hanover, some of our folks will be remaining at home. If we continue to develop our reputation for violence and an inability to solve problems using rational means, we will simply be replaced by people from other places. Even those who get work through 'badmanism and political patronage' must realise that their days are numbered.

Mr. Robert Gregory and his successor at HEART must continue to develop the understanding within this society that highly-skilled people can command high wages and that our labour force must b with the development strategy of the nation. Building capacity is as much an individual as well as an organisational and societal imperative.

Underproductive country

Jamaica continues to be an underproductive country by all measures. The institutions responsible for education and training as well as the training which people receive on the job must improve for us to become competitive. The training of the 2000 welders to work on the expansion at Windalco needs to be one of many more success stories.

We have to start to tell the people the truth, mobs cannot create anything but mayhem and destruction. When we destroy these opportunities we are blighting our future. None of the countries that we hanker after want us as migrants. It is only the most skilled, the highly educated or the wealthy who are welcome in fortress Europe and America. Let us stop this folly.