Dear Editor,
Approximately 10,000 Jamaicans were murdered by the gun between 2003-2013, and there is no civil war.
It is quite unfortunate that Jamaica is being led by intellectuals who have an inferiority complex concerning anything European. There are too many scholars who have decided to argue for reparation instead of creating tangible solutions to national ailments. The institution of chattel slavery has been abolished for 175 years, but Europeans are still being blamed for the region's problems. All while many academics do not examine the circumstances which made ancient peoples of the developing world subservient to their European colonisers.
Contrary to what many would want us to believe, Europe was never the bastion of civilisation. Europeans have been successful over the years because they have done what many other races refused to do -- benchmark. According to John M Hobson, author of the book The Eastern Origin of the Western Civilisation, Western intellectual doctrines and inventions occurred as a result of contact with Eastern cultures and not Greek and Roman traditions. Although Hobson's thesis has been criticised by mainstream scholars, it highlights the benefits that a country can obtain when it refuses to operate like a closed nation.
Many scholars have argued that one of the reasons for the triumph of the West as an industrial power is the complacency of the East. For example, the Song Dynasty of China was the first government in the world to issue paper notes, and by 1100 AD, China was the most advanced country in the world. However, according to noted historian David Landes, the East stopped innovating. In 1432, China outlawed the building of ocean-going ships -- an area which she dominated -- and the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan banned firearms. Furthermore, the policies of the last imperial dynasty of China, the Qing Dynasty, policies outlawed foreign trade and restricted commerce by creating a government-controlled guild system. This resulted in what scholars dub The Great Divergence -- the process by which Western Europe surpassed the East, becoming the world's economic hub.
Today, the East is being restored to its former glory because its leaders have decided to promote innovation and benchmarking. For example, in 1871 Japan established the Iwakura mission with the purpose being to study the sophisticated systems of the West in order to effect the modernisation of Japan. While, in the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping presided over the economic modernisation of China, Deng also examined the Singaporean model.
Japan is now the most technologically advanced nation in the world, producing more patents than all countries, and China has the world's second largest economy. Before, deluded intellects in Jamaica bash Europe, they must realise that a country can only become superior to its rival by beating it at its own game -- that's what Asia did.
Local intellectuals should understand that Jamaica needs a global culture in order to succeed, being obsessed with local culture will carry us nowhere.
Lipton Matthews
lo_matthews@yahoo.com
Lessons from Asia
-->
Approximately 10,000 Jamaicans were murdered by the gun between 2003-2013, and there is no civil war.
It is quite unfortunate that Jamaica is being led by intellectuals who have an inferiority complex concerning anything European. There are too many scholars who have decided to argue for reparation instead of creating tangible solutions to national ailments. The institution of chattel slavery has been abolished for 175 years, but Europeans are still being blamed for the region's problems. All while many academics do not examine the circumstances which made ancient peoples of the developing world subservient to their European colonisers.
Contrary to what many would want us to believe, Europe was never the bastion of civilisation. Europeans have been successful over the years because they have done what many other races refused to do -- benchmark. According to John M Hobson, author of the book The Eastern Origin of the Western Civilisation, Western intellectual doctrines and inventions occurred as a result of contact with Eastern cultures and not Greek and Roman traditions. Although Hobson's thesis has been criticised by mainstream scholars, it highlights the benefits that a country can obtain when it refuses to operate like a closed nation.
Many scholars have argued that one of the reasons for the triumph of the West as an industrial power is the complacency of the East. For example, the Song Dynasty of China was the first government in the world to issue paper notes, and by 1100 AD, China was the most advanced country in the world. However, according to noted historian David Landes, the East stopped innovating. In 1432, China outlawed the building of ocean-going ships -- an area which she dominated -- and the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan banned firearms. Furthermore, the policies of the last imperial dynasty of China, the Qing Dynasty, policies outlawed foreign trade and restricted commerce by creating a government-controlled guild system. This resulted in what scholars dub The Great Divergence -- the process by which Western Europe surpassed the East, becoming the world's economic hub.
Today, the East is being restored to its former glory because its leaders have decided to promote innovation and benchmarking. For example, in 1871 Japan established the Iwakura mission with the purpose being to study the sophisticated systems of the West in order to effect the modernisation of Japan. While, in the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping presided over the economic modernisation of China, Deng also examined the Singaporean model.
Japan is now the most technologically advanced nation in the world, producing more patents than all countries, and China has the world's second largest economy. Before, deluded intellects in Jamaica bash Europe, they must realise that a country can only become superior to its rival by beating it at its own game -- that's what Asia did.
Local intellectuals should understand that Jamaica needs a global culture in order to succeed, being obsessed with local culture will carry us nowhere.
Lipton Matthews
lo_matthews@yahoo.com
Lessons from Asia
-->