Wendel Abel - I AM WHAT I THINK AGGRESSIVE, DANGEROUS, unfriendly. Impolite. These are some of the images some people have of us as a people.
The grim reality is that it is true. This is reflected in many facets of life, the lack of courtesy displayed in our everyday contact and our discourse. It is manifest on the roads, in our communities, in business, in customer service, in schools and even in church.
The media celebrates and promotes a certain level of coarseness that is evident on some talk shows and in the depiction of news. This society is churning out large numbers of good people with grossly dysfunctional behaviour who don't know how to conduct themselves and relate to each other appropriately. Are these the images we want to maintain of ourselves?
LOW LITERACY LEVELS
What is contributing to this? Low levels of literacy no doubt, lack of training of our people in life skills, poor parenting skills and a general deterioration in values and standards in the society. The fundamental issue, however, is that we have not created a national sense of identity and we have not agreed on some common values and codes of conduct by which our society will be guided.
HOW TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS
We must address this image problem. This involves recreating a national identity. It is about us deciding who it is and what it is, to be a Jamaican. The solution to these complex problems are equally complex and must involve the collaboration of several agencies, sectors and interest group. The government must take a lead
on this.
HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS:
1. Re-implement the values and attitude campaign. The Prime Minister initiated a values and attitude campaign some years ago. It was scoffed at and in some quarters he
was derided. It was an excellent idea. Sadly, it was not properly designed and was not sustained.
2. Parenting programme. Far too many people who are unprepared for parenthood and who do not have good role models are having children. This is further compounded by the fact that Jamaica has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the world. We need to launch a campaign to promote good parenting.
3. Clean up the inner cities. The problems of the inner cities need to be addressed urgently. I note the attempts are now being made to rebuild these communities but we also have to ensure that the people within these communities are retrained to coexist in a civilised manner.
4. Life skills education. We are churning students out of our education system who are not being taught appropriate life skills. The Ministry of Education needs to effect a curriculum change and to ensure that life skills education is an integral part of the curriculum starting at the early childhood level. So far the response to this has been slow and sluggish. Minister, please do something about this. Urgently, please.
5. Business needs to respond. Customer service is poor in this country. Far too many businesses are reluctant to invest in the training of the workforce to transform the poor customer service culture. Competition is at our doorsteps. People who do not deliver quality service will have
no customer. Take a lesson from
businesses that are doing well, such as, The Jamaica Money Market Brokers, National Commercial Bank, Air Jamaica, DigiCel, LASCO, Grace Kennedy. These are clearly organisations that have invested in their workers and have paid attention to developing a customer service culture. Every business and every worker need to understand the importance and value of the customer.
6. The tourist sector needs to respond. We spend millions of dollars trying to patch up our bad image and to hide the ugly scars of this country. The tourism interests need to put resources not only in the re-training of workers but also in the developing of local communities to make them more friendly and inviting to all of us.
7. Culture and the media. We have to take a critical look at all our cultural expressions and to begin to support and encourage those that promote the appropriate values that we want to engender as a society. The media certainly play a critical role in this regards.
Societies that have transformed themselves, have had to engage in this level of discourse and set standards in terms of how their people will speak, conduct themselves and exist. Let this be our moment of reckoning. We cannot take these things for granted, nor can we leave them to chance. We need to forge a sense of common identity, recreate our image, set common values and make our society less aggressive, less coarse and one that is built on the spirit of civility, accommodation and mutual respect.
We need to bring an end to the law of the jungle. When the state is well organised with a clear sense of values, all things prosper. When it is not, all things go to ruin.
Mr. Prime Minister, please revisit the values and attitudes campaign. Please let this be one of your legacies.
Dr. Wendel Abel is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer, University of the West Indies; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.
