Dear Editor,
Dr Christopher Tufton, co-executive director of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI) and former minister of agriculture and fisheries, has told Jamaicans entering the working world to adjust their expectations of what the Government and politicians can and should do for them. He was giving the main address at the graduation ceremony of the Global Institute of Certified Specialists (GICS). He continued that the days of the Government being the primary creators of jobs are over.
Tufton has joined the Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna, who continues to tell young people that they must create their own employment. This message is very sobering and true, but it reveals a level of simplistic thinking and is misleading.
When Tufton became the minister of agriculture, he immediately began reforms in the sector, like greenhouse technology, replanting rice, and experimenting with cassava production. But the Jamaica Labour Party almost immediately set about to get rid of the underperfoming sugar factories.
Tufton made a huge mistake. In dealing with the sugar industry he kept the same advisors that had ruined the industry. We could easily have reformed our sugar industry the same way Mauritius did theirs and used it to generate electricity and sugar as a by-product. The same is true of Air Jamaica. If you purchase an entity and there are obvious signs of mismanagement, get rid of the management quickly.
Douglas Orane of GraceKennedy, Byron Thompson of Seprod and many others are employees. Lascelles Chin of Lasco started out as an ordinary worker. To tell young graduates of high schools or universities to rush out and start their own businesses is not being honest.
Hanna leveraged natural beauty to become a Miss World, but afterwards she was employed, she didn't start a modelling agency. Most of our successful entrepreneurs began by working, gathered experience, saved, and later formed partnerships, or borrowed money to start businesses. They didn't, immediately after graduating, start businesses. Many of them had to pay off student loans.
The message by both Tufton and Hanna needs tweaking. While it is true that the Government, because of corruption, scandals and mismanagement, is unable to provide even temporary employment for its huge young labour force, it isn't their fault. We mortgaged the futures of our children, and we continue to do so with scandals like Outameni, no matter how much it has thawed. Phillip Paulwell can easily assist in creating employment not by rare earth metals but by waste to energy plants. We find a problem for every solution and look to complicate things where simplicity will suffice. We want to reopen bauxite plants just because the price of oil is falling, temporarily. We need leaders to think long-term and complex; not just be simple-minded.
Mark Clarke
Siloah, St. Elizabeth
mark_clarke9@yahoo.com
Tufton, Hanna need to tweak their message
-->
Dr Christopher Tufton, co-executive director of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI) and former minister of agriculture and fisheries, has told Jamaicans entering the working world to adjust their expectations of what the Government and politicians can and should do for them. He was giving the main address at the graduation ceremony of the Global Institute of Certified Specialists (GICS). He continued that the days of the Government being the primary creators of jobs are over.
Tufton has joined the Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna, who continues to tell young people that they must create their own employment. This message is very sobering and true, but it reveals a level of simplistic thinking and is misleading.
When Tufton became the minister of agriculture, he immediately began reforms in the sector, like greenhouse technology, replanting rice, and experimenting with cassava production. But the Jamaica Labour Party almost immediately set about to get rid of the underperfoming sugar factories.
Tufton made a huge mistake. In dealing with the sugar industry he kept the same advisors that had ruined the industry. We could easily have reformed our sugar industry the same way Mauritius did theirs and used it to generate electricity and sugar as a by-product. The same is true of Air Jamaica. If you purchase an entity and there are obvious signs of mismanagement, get rid of the management quickly.
Douglas Orane of GraceKennedy, Byron Thompson of Seprod and many others are employees. Lascelles Chin of Lasco started out as an ordinary worker. To tell young graduates of high schools or universities to rush out and start their own businesses is not being honest.
Hanna leveraged natural beauty to become a Miss World, but afterwards she was employed, she didn't start a modelling agency. Most of our successful entrepreneurs began by working, gathered experience, saved, and later formed partnerships, or borrowed money to start businesses. They didn't, immediately after graduating, start businesses. Many of them had to pay off student loans.
The message by both Tufton and Hanna needs tweaking. While it is true that the Government, because of corruption, scandals and mismanagement, is unable to provide even temporary employment for its huge young labour force, it isn't their fault. We mortgaged the futures of our children, and we continue to do so with scandals like Outameni, no matter how much it has thawed. Phillip Paulwell can easily assist in creating employment not by rare earth metals but by waste to energy plants. We find a problem for every solution and look to complicate things where simplicity will suffice. We want to reopen bauxite plants just because the price of oil is falling, temporarily. We need leaders to think long-term and complex; not just be simple-minded.
Mark Clarke
Siloah, St. Elizabeth
mark_clarke9@yahoo.com
Tufton, Hanna need to tweak their message
-->