THE EDITOR, Sir:
I THINK that the call for national unity and positive attitudes must be related to greater trust, greater partnerships and accountability. The reality is that the root of tackling these goals must be to change how things are done from an exclusionary approach to one of including our people at the workplace, in their communities and in the national life of the country. Our people have been marginalised for so long that any effort at achieving these types of ideals (even though they themselves want them, won't be successful unless they see that they have something to gain from them. And we are not talking material gains although these would not be rejected. We are talking substantially about self worth and confidence. At the heart of the success of this drive will be that people feel important, feel that they are listened to, reported to and they have a big say... Secondly the approach to achieving these goals must be holistic.
Let us say, for example, a citizen goes to the National Water Commission with the hope and no doubt praying that somebody will be sympathetic to his woes. What is going to make that NWC employee respectful to this customer/citizen is going to be determined by the extent to which he/she feels comfortable and important at his workplace. It is not going to depend on how many speeches he hears about the importance of respecting others. He must feel respected in his own environment. He must have a stake.
Or another example a child going astray at school. What is going to affect a teacher not overlooking what could be a critical stage of deviance is possibly how comfortable, how respected, how involved and how important that teacher feels as a teacher at the school. It is not going to depend on how often the new Minister of Education or even the well-liked and effective communicator Minister Whiteman exalts teachers to play important roles.
People must feel they have a stake and an important stake at that.
I always wonder about the possibility of every institution, workplace adopting a school. The aim here would be to play a role not only in material assistance to the school but also helping to develop those positive attitudes at the levels where it is so critical, the early mind. This of course should not be seasonal (like a Christmas thing), but a committed and hopefully enjoyable task. Oh for Michael Manley, the word is love etc.
And think how much we could be doing to build a society of inclusion at all levels. Think of the role that the media could play. Oh that awesome body that as Ian Boyne said "loves the glamour and the sexy, exciting stories". Well how is this for an example. Is there someone in the media landscape who could set their minds to identifying organisations, companies, school, communities who have made efforts at unity, at inclusion, at instilling changed attitudes that is working, is making a difference. There are workplaces that have sought to build these types of values. Isn't the media best placed to generalise these experiences?
Do not get me wrong, the government has a critical role to play. A role that is centred on and rooted in accountability and in particular a completely different structure of governance. Is there going to be a different approach where there is a constant reporting on decisions taken, action taken, progress achieved, difficulties encountered? Too many times sectors at all levels make proposals to government and nothing or little is heard further. Cynicism inevitably builds up which tears away at any effort to build new values, new approaches. People must feel they have a stake, that they are important.
And what of the community level. Oh for regular community and or constituency meetings where there can be a two-way flow. Minister Davies has given a hint. We can only hope that it is going to be two-way.
And what about us. How can we teach about the value of life when we take the children out to view the murdered bodies. Have we seen the babes in arms on the televisions? Then we send them to schools and put a subject on the curriculum about the values and attitudes and begin with the value of life.
The Prime Minister has interpreted the election polls to mean a call for greater unity and a statement against arrogance. May I suggest that changing fundamentally the exclusionary way we all do things is at the heart of any effort to build unity and create positive attitudes and values. Remember now the greatest manifestation of arrogance is exclusion.
I am, etc.,
JANICE ROSE-BROWN
