Martin Henry THE NATION'S Chief Scientist should be happy with all this talk of the Jamaican Diaspora helping out at home. A decade ago Arnoldo Ventura, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister on Science and Technology, and myself were busy badgering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies about something which we gave the lofty title of a "Techno-intelligence Service".
The idea was to organize a mechanism through which the technical and scientific skills of Jamaicans abroad could be channelled into development at home without shipping their bodies back as returning residents. It was quite clear that one of the big reasons - among many - why 75 per cent (this data came up later) of tertiary graduates lived and worked abroad was simply because the national economy could not absorb them. Patriotic appeals for their return was not only silly but counter-productive. But, capitalizing on their extraordinary strength of attachment and willingness to help, couldn't we tap into their knowledge and strategic placements in the industries, academic institutions, service agencies and governments of the world? Couldn't we repatriate their skills with their remittances to match development problems a yard.
FOREIGN SERVICE
We thought then and now that the Foreign Service, with its network of embassies abroad and the communication links which the JIS already provided between home and abroad hooked up to the S&T system here, with the SRC as lead agency under its mandate for information and coordination, could deliver "techno-intelligence". Well, the proposals were written and the meetings held.
Last week Tuesday, the said Ministry in conjunction with the Mona School of Business staged a symposium on reciprocal relations between Diaspora and Home, searching for the way forward. This newspaper has assisted the exploration through its Editors' Forum last Wednesday. The Forum reports and accompanying editorial have triggered an out-pouring of responses from the Diaspora, again underlining the strength of attachment and willingness to give back. But we still are not any more ready than 10 years ago.
Two letters caught my special attention: Mark Fraser wrote out of Virginia, "I read with great interest the article and editorial about the Jamaican Diaspora. There is great potential and energy in this group of Jamaicans. To channel this energy back where its needed, Jamaica has to provide the contacts and links for us to use."
P. Meikle, "one of those highly skilled Jamaicans currently residing abroad (something I thought I would never do)" delivers his own complaint out of Canada. A year has passed, with no response, since this "refugee" has contacted an association here offering professional expertise free of charge. The Toronto consulate didn't know what to do with this person's offer of expert assistance to home so they were politely "fobbed off."
MEIKLE CRIES
Meikle cries in the cold of the North: "Now my story is not unique. Jamaicans abroad are not just a ready source of forex remittances. Many of us are highly trained and within recent years the number of professionals lawyers, doctors, accountants actuaries engineers teachers, to name a few, leaving Ja to take up residence elsewhere is growing. Many are totally fed up with the state of affairs at home, are willing to help, but feel so frustrated by the constant chatter, lack of action and escalating corruption".
The usual concern for remittances received a shock last week when a Forum speaker suggested that U.S. legislation for the fight against terrorism could dampen the flow. Jamaica is a world leader on a per capita basis for remittances through the money transfer services. The national economy is far more dependent on remittance inflow than on production outside of Tourism and Bauxite. Between remittances and aid we are basically surviving on handouts when it is fully possible to do more for ourselves.
The figure floated last week in the discussions of the Diaspora was 40 per cent achieving tertiary level education, one of the highest among diasporas. What a wealth of knowledge and skills to tap into! Our Foreign Service, like the Government it represents, spends too much time and energy on begging and public relations. There is a whole heap of work to be creatively done in tapping the skills of our own nationals overseas and their positions of strategic influence in the service of development at home.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS MOVE
The move by Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade last week is to be commended as long as it is not just nuff chat. Let's face it, for all kinds of reasons, we are net exporters of talent and education. Some 75 per cent of our tertiary graduates have flown. They have gone to do better for themselves. They are strategically positioned to help the country do better for itself and must be wisely managed as assets, as is where is. All the talk of returning is nice sentiment, but--.
As the country is asked to mark another Science and Technology Month, the S&T community should seek to play its part specifically in harnessing the abundant technical scientific skills in the Diaspora for development at home. Pulling on existing knowledge is the fast track, not new research and development. It is also the low-cost track.
A lot more effort needs to be put into the information and techno-intelligence components of the S&T system which are traditionally the cinderellas in the system. Case in point: The SRC has run 16 years of annual S&T conferences and will host the 17th on November 19- 22. An enormous amount of useful research work is stuck in those papers which take years to get to proceedings and hardly ever get out of proceedings into the marketplace of production.
Martin Henry is a communication specialist.
