PROFESSOR DON Robotham has urged academics at the University of the West Indies (UWI) to become more proactive in highlighting and developing strategies to address the social and economic problems affecting Jamaica.
Professor Robotham, who was the guest speaker at the 10th annual Derek Gordon Research Seminar at the UWI on Saturday, emphasised that it was important that the society understands the issues affecting us.
The professor of anthropology at the City University of New York emphasised that this was a responsibility that should be taken seriously especially since it was the society's taxes that guaranteed the university's existence.
SOCIETY AT A LOSS
"And this is absolutely non-negotiable," he asserted. "If the university is unable to shed light on the problem of stagnation in the economy, the manifest decay of our state, basic collapse of our political parties, the crisis (affecting) our youths and poverty and the miseration affecting the people in the countryside ... then the game is off because the society depends on its intellectuals."
The former pro vice-chancellor and dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the UWI noted that there has been some work by the university in this regard, pointing to former social scientist, the late Derek Gordon, who dedicated his life to helping to develop Jamaica through his work. He said both himself and Derek Gordon, who were products of the pre-Independence Jamaica, dedicated their time to examining, debating and establishing the benefits of a constitution, for example. "We felt that it was a meaningless use of phrases if the ordinary people of this society simply were left looking at a piece of paper. We were consumed with this issue and that didn't just drive us into the social sciences, that was what also drove us into the Workers Party," he said.
However, "I think there is a lot that needs to be done and we therefore have to look at ourselves and ask ourselves: are we doing enough, are we really helping the society to look on itself and to develop a course of action through this extremely difficult situation?"
