Dennis Chung, Contributor
CHUNG
I AM sure everyone knows the saying that history always repeats itself. What this simply means is that similar events in history will always reoccur in different places. As an example, if one were to study history one would find that revolutionary wars in different parts of Europe seemed to have such a similarity in terms of their development.
Usually they result from a group or an individual oppressing a class of people. As a history student I always found it amazing that these leaders were so arrogant as to avoid learning lessons from the misfortunes of others.
CASE STUDIES
Similarly, from an organisational point of view, learning institutions such as Harvard use case studies to understand what makes organisations succeed or fail. As a matter of fact case studies are an integral part of Harvard's curriculum, and even in the Harvard Business Review this is evident. After all, education is nothing more than a study of the cumulative experience of the world over centuries, compacted into two or three years for a degree. It is because it is compacted that it is necessary to then acquire experience by working, and in so doing develop new ideas.
One of the problems we have in the region is that many companies and countries do not take lessons from their counterparts within their sectors or the region. It seems as if some companies and countries always seem to follow the same path again and again. I can never understand why it is so difficult to look at the experience of others and learn from it rather than make the same mistakes. Could it be ego or just arrogance? Either way it is never worth it to go through the pain that others have gone through before. Even the great Japan got ahead by replicating and improving on the ideas of others. Ford was the inventor of the motor car and IBM of the personal computer. They aren't the world leaders in those areas today.
LEARNING IN CARICOM
In particular, I would like to speak to lessons within CARICOM. There is much talk about the economic and judicial synergies expected from the CSME. But what of the lessons that we can take from each other? If we are truly serious about benefiting from the synergies of the CSME, shouldn't we be talking about political and social cooperation also? I know that our politicians will not want to give up political power, and so will delay political integration, but what of cooperation in the name of the people.
Recently I visited Trinidad and while there was reading the local newspaper, the Guardian. I noticed two things, namely (1) that Jamaica's crime was featured almost on a daily basis; and (2) the headlines and contents of happenings in Trinidad were very similar to Jamaica in the 1980s. Over the three days I was there the headlines read:
1. 'Cops beat us' referring to two young men taken into custody by the police;
2. Central Prowler: Primary school girls kidnapped/raped; and
3. Man killed during domestic dispute.
In addition to the headlines the contents revealed a lot more of what was happening in the Caribbean island. The contents included stories of crimes of all types and problems with infrastructural neglect. As a matter of fact, one of the editorials was about government neglecting to develop the infrastructure within the country and featured pictures of open manholes and damage to the sidewalks. Importantly there were reports of fire being set at schools by students and conflict between students, trials of drug and kidnapped accused, a report of a lawyer not attending court, police who were charged in a kidnapping case, and conflicts between the government and opposition (leading to an opposition walk out). A colleague of mine had to go to the police station because they had broken into his car and stole his bag with passport and reported that the police station was in the same condition as Jamaica.
SIMILAR ISSUES
As if those social issues are not enough to show similarity between Jamaica and Trinidad, the business reports highlight it even further. The reports over the three days include (1) "Food prices up 26 per cent"; (2) "Inflation exceeds 7 per cent" and (3) double digit wage hikes. Based on the inflation increases the central bank was being urged to consider using interest rates to stem inflation. These reports sound similar to what happened in Jamaica during the 1990s and if Trinidad takes the same path, it is clearly a learning ground for us to understand our own history from a distance. Similarly during the 1960s Jamaica was making money from bauxite as Trinidad is doing from oil today.
After reading all these reports, I wondered what of the co-operation within the region to prevent these issues. It seems as if we are always reacting to problems rather than trying to prevent them. Caricom should be concerned with these issues and be talking about case studies such as Jamaica and trying to prevent recurrences in other islands. It is apparent from Trinidad's case that there is a lack of this type of co-operation as they are taking the same path in terms of its social and political development.
Economics is about behaviour
When are we going to understand that economics is really a product of human behaviour and if we do not have the correct social framework in place then economics cannot function properly? I am yet to see an economic text book that factors crime into economic theory, but then again maybe my studies were too limited in that area. It was the neglect of developing our infrastructure when times were good and the decay of our social programmes, justice system and educational institutions that led to our problems. These are the very same things that we are trying to address today and that Trinidad is neglecting. If government had focused on developing these areas then economic development would have been easy, instead of the way it consumes us today to eke out two to three 3 per cent in growth.
Before another Caribbean island falls into the trap Jamaica did and Trinidad seems to be doing, the nations' leaders need to get together and see what learning they can derive from each other. It seems, however, that as a region we are always more apt to co-operating with North America and Europe instead of ourselves, which would really show true commitment to regional development. One problem of course is that the "political party" always seems supreme to the needs of the country until election time. It is said that a chain is as weak as its weakest link and if we want to develop a powerful regional block then shouldn't we be sharing our errors and ideas with each other. Until we can do that we cannot say that we are truly integrated.
Email:
dra_chung@hotmail.com
