Of the many "development" events which took place locally last week when Gulf War II was launched, we comment on two today. On Thursday and Friday, the Mona School of Business hosted a symposium on "Transforming Values and Attitudes: Policy Challenges for Jamaica." And on Thursday evening, a recently established Research Consortium hosted its first forum, "Low Agricultural Productivity", at the Terra Nova.
It is instructive that a school of business has staged a major values and attitudes symposium organised by a journalist, Claude Robinson, who is now a research fellow at MSB. There is no question that values and attitudes are a fundamental business and macro-economic problem. There are no long-term solutions to the problems of business performance and economic growth without addressing the values and attitudes issues which are obstacles.
The symposium brought scholarly investigation and insights to bear on the urgent need to transform attitudes and values. Among other things, the symposium examined the historical, social and cultural roots of traditional values in Jamaican society, the transmission and modification of values and attitudes through education, media and entertainment, and the roles of the political culture and justice system. True to the mission of the Research and Policy Group which is behind the symposium a policy agenda for values and attitudes was the expected outcome.
The symposium has come at a time when the Government is placing renewed emphasis on its stalled values and attitudes programme. Minister in charge, Burchell Whiteman, was a presenter. As the Prime Minister himself once said, "we cannot continue like this".
The three universities, the Scientific Research Council and the Institute of Management Sciences/Institute of Management and Production, have together established a Research Consortium. The first public forum of the Consortium on Thursday evening turned the spotlight on reversing low agricultural productivity. Jamaican agriculture is in a parlous state. There is a great deal of research data available to help turn around the situation of low productivity and the problems are quite clear for future investigations, as the expert presentations made quite clear.
Minister of Agriculture, Roger Clarke, in his speech, applied for membership in the Research Consortium for the research arm of his Ministry and, indeed, the consortium is open to expanded membership. This is how things out to have been. The collaborative power of research should be brought to bear on clearly defined national problems. Small isolated units need to join forces in providing research-based solutions to matters of national concern.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
