No Wonder Young People Angry!!

[Historian]

It’s no wonder that so many young people in Jamaica today are angry, and I’m referring at this time to the highly educated ones!! What institutions like the University of the West indies (UWI) have become are simply old boys’ clubs, regurgitating and moving in a horizontal direction members of the “old guard” of Jamaica, or else keeping them in seemingly permanent, highly paid posts. As a result of this “old boys’ club” mentality, there so often seems to be little hope for talented and highly educated young Jamaicans to progress upwards, as where will their salaries be found?

By the way, didn’t this man retire from his post as head of state because of illness?

I realize that criticism of UWI decisions will not be accepted by some Jamaicans, but there are many rather simple reasons why this university has made itself so irrelevant in today’s Jamaica! Even the latest positioning by UTech (involving the legal profession) has pre-empted Mona! But, let me shut up here so that you can read a more authoritative source than my simple comment.

New G-G today
Dr Patrick Allen succeeds Sir Kenneth Hall, becomes Jamaica's sixth head of state

ALICIA DUNKLEY, Observer staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, February 26, 2009

The JCC, at the same time, thanked the outgoing governor-general for serving as a "voice of reason and unity amidst our still tribal politics" during the short period he was in office.

Sir Kenneth, 67, who received the Order of Jamaica (OJ) in 2004, has accepted an offer from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona to serve as an honorary distinguished research fellow. He had taken up the office as head of state in February 2006, fresh from the world of academia, where he had served as pro-vice chancellor and principal of the Mona campus of the UWI from 1996.

[Don1]

It’s no wonder that so many young people in Jamaica today are angry, and I’m referring at this time to the highly educated ones!! What institutions like the University of the West indies (UWI) have become are simply old boys’ clubs, regurgitating and moving in a horizontal direction members of the “old guard” of Jamaica, or else keeping them in seemingly permanent, highly paid posts. As a result of this “old boys’ club” mentality, there so often seems to be little hope for talented and highly educated young Jamaicans to progress upwards, as where will their salaries be found?

By the way, didn’t this man retire from his post as head of state because of illness?

I realize that criticism of UWI decisions will not be accepted by some Jamaicans, but there are many rather simple reasons why this university has made itself so irrelevant in today’s Jamaica! Even the latest positioning by UTech (involving the legal profession) has pre-empted Mona! But, let me shut up here so that you can read a more authoritative source than my simple comment.

New G-G today
Dr Patrick Allen succeeds Sir Kenneth Hall, becomes Jamaica's sixth head of state

ALICIA DUNKLEY, Observer staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, February 26, 2009

The JCC, at the same time, thanked the outgoing governor-general for serving as a "voice of reason and unity amidst our still tribal politics" during the short period he was in office.

Sir Kenneth, 67, who received the Order of Jamaica (OJ) in 2004, has accepted an offer from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona to serve as an honorary distinguished research fellow. He had taken up the office as head of state in February 2006, fresh from the world of academia, where he had served as pro-vice chancellor and principal of the Mona campus of the UWI from 1996.

Every institution in Jamaica is subject to and deserving of criticism... UWI included... they do have some very backward ways.

This is no different from the private sector (extremely backward) the civil service, churches, press and especially our rotten political parties.

The entire mess needs to be cleaned up... starting with our bankrupt political and private sector leadership concentrating on margin gathering and not innovation.. UWI cannot be seen a vacuum as its ills are a reflection on the entire society.

It is really misguided and extreme to claim that UWI is irrelevant. One only has to look at its legions of graduates serving throughout Jamaica and abroad.
If UWI is irrelevant, what is your opinion of the private sector, churches, unions and political parties? Are they irrelevant too... or worse?

In the midst of the somewhat deserved UWI bashing let's hear some practical and workable fixes for it's problems.... an orientation towards solutions..and perhaps less bellyaching.