The Editor, Sir:

After 30 years of deep concern, I am now quite worried about my country's continuing and expanding wanton waste of its human resource in general. Why do we continue this damaging habit of having so many thousands of our young people 18-40 years of age without recognisable basic education, training, and levels of development, while they are wasting their lives away in hopelessness and despair?

We seem to be obsessed with calling for and carry out studies in all areas of our national ills without being able to find root causes and develop and implement appropriate corrections of them in the short or long term.

Jamaica's greatest problem since we became an independent country is our continuous wanton waste of human resources, and until we recognise this debilitating problem and confront it head-on with effective and corrective programmes nothing will change in general.

Professional knowledge wasted

There are Jamaicans in our country with proven professional knowledge, skills, experience and abilities in modern human resource education, training and development who are also being wasted because of some types of expediencies which have become priorities above those which should be for the overall good and welfare of the nation.

Yet, all is not lost; there is hope. So, wake up Jamaica; the adverse socio-economic temperature is rising fast, so the nation needs an effective relief valve which will arrest this temperature and allow for all-round improvement and enrichment and efficient utilisation of its human resources.

I am, etc.,

JEFFREY N. GAYLE, PhD.

g-gayle@cwjamaica.com

P.O. Box 349

Mandeville

Via Go-Jamaica