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Nuh diaspora Mulling seh that out of 1.3m workforce, some 940K nuh have nuh formal training? 350K people ah carry di country?
Lisa Hanna's challengePublished: Tuesday | January 10, 2012 2 Comments
Lisa Hanna, who has the portfolio for youth and culture in Jamaica's new Government, is presumed to have been awarded a 'soft' ministry, where new or young ministers are sent to gain experience. It is likely that this was Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's mindset when she considered the former beauty queen for the job and perhaps how Ms Hanna perceives the assignment. It may, therefore, be a betrayal of Ms Hanna's perspective that her first published statement about her job concentrated on her ideas for culture.
"There is definitely going to be an economic thrust to ensure that the outputs of culture have more of an impact on the quality of people's lives, in addition to building their talent," the former Miss World told this newspaper.
We interpret this as being something about building cultural industries, with which we have no problem.
We, however, offer a few observations, which we hope will encourage Ms Hanna to think deeply about her job and how she might go about it.
First, hers is not a soft ministry. Ms Hanna occupies among the most challenging portfolios in the Simpson Miller government. It has a constituency that is in a state of crisis and whose issues, if left unattended, could boil to a nasty eruption. Should she doubt this, Ms Hanna need only consult Professor Don Robotham, the former [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]University [COLOR=blue !important]of [/COLOR][COLOR=blue !important]the [/COLOR][COLOR=blue !important]West [/COLOR][COLOR=blue !important]Indies[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] anthropologist, who has given dire warnings of the dangers.
For example, of the more than 670,000 persons in the 20-29 age group, about 400,000 are either unemployed or not in the labour force. Or, nearly 60 per cent of the youth population is jobless.
But worse, more than 80 per cent (more than 330,000) of the unemployed 19-29-year-olds have stopped looking for work. Add to this dismal picture the fact that nearly 90 per cent, or more than 220,000, in the 15-19 age group - younger youth, according to Robotham - are neither in school, nor have jobs.
These young people provide Jamaica's army of recruits for antisocial behaviour and crime. Or, as we have warned before, they are potential catalysts for the kind of social explosion that sparked last year's ongoing, mostly violent revolutions in the Middle East.
Tackling tough task
Fixing these problems of Jamaica's youth won't be easy. The answers rest, ultimately, on robust economic growth, which, to be sustainable in today's world, needs a well-educated population. That, fundamentally, is a medium- to long-term project.
It, however, does not mean that nothing can be done now. Part of Ms Hanna's job must be to coherently articulate the depth of the crisis, the danger it portends, and to work in the Government and with the private sector to provide short-term, but productive safety nets for at-risk youth. At the same time, she must help to fashion the longer-term fixes.
Professor Robotham's suggestion of a year ago - of using 10 per cent of the money from the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP) to upgrade the skills of young workers in construction - is worthy of note. It is not far removed from the Government's plan to use JDIP funds in an [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]emergency [COLOR=blue !important]employment[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] scheme. And it offers more capacity-building than spending money on new furniture for the National Works Agency.
Nuh diaspora Mulling seh that out of 1.3m workforce, some 940K nuh have nuh formal training? 350K people ah carry di country?
Lisa Hanna's challengePublished: Tuesday | January 10, 2012 2 Comments
Lisa Hanna, who has the portfolio for youth and culture in Jamaica's new Government, is presumed to have been awarded a 'soft' ministry, where new or young ministers are sent to gain experience. It is likely that this was Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's mindset when she considered the former beauty queen for the job and perhaps how Ms Hanna perceives the assignment. It may, therefore, be a betrayal of Ms Hanna's perspective that her first published statement about her job concentrated on her ideas for culture.
"There is definitely going to be an economic thrust to ensure that the outputs of culture have more of an impact on the quality of people's lives, in addition to building their talent," the former Miss World told this newspaper.
We interpret this as being something about building cultural industries, with which we have no problem.
We, however, offer a few observations, which we hope will encourage Ms Hanna to think deeply about her job and how she might go about it.
First, hers is not a soft ministry. Ms Hanna occupies among the most challenging portfolios in the Simpson Miller government. It has a constituency that is in a state of crisis and whose issues, if left unattended, could boil to a nasty eruption. Should she doubt this, Ms Hanna need only consult Professor Don Robotham, the former [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]University [COLOR=blue !important]of [/COLOR][COLOR=blue !important]the [/COLOR][COLOR=blue !important]West [/COLOR][COLOR=blue !important]Indies[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] anthropologist, who has given dire warnings of the dangers.
For example, of the more than 670,000 persons in the 20-29 age group, about 400,000 are either unemployed or not in the labour force. Or, nearly 60 per cent of the youth population is jobless.
But worse, more than 80 per cent (more than 330,000) of the unemployed 19-29-year-olds have stopped looking for work. Add to this dismal picture the fact that nearly 90 per cent, or more than 220,000, in the 15-19 age group - younger youth, according to Robotham - are neither in school, nor have jobs.
These young people provide Jamaica's army of recruits for antisocial behaviour and crime. Or, as we have warned before, they are potential catalysts for the kind of social explosion that sparked last year's ongoing, mostly violent revolutions in the Middle East.
Tackling tough task
Fixing these problems of Jamaica's youth won't be easy. The answers rest, ultimately, on robust economic growth, which, to be sustainable in today's world, needs a well-educated population. That, fundamentally, is a medium- to long-term project.
It, however, does not mean that nothing can be done now. Part of Ms Hanna's job must be to coherently articulate the depth of the crisis, the danger it portends, and to work in the Government and with the private sector to provide short-term, but productive safety nets for at-risk youth. At the same time, she must help to fashion the longer-term fixes.
Professor Robotham's suggestion of a year ago - of using 10 per cent of the money from the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP) to upgrade the skills of young workers in construction - is worthy of note. It is not far removed from the Government's plan to use JDIP funds in an [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]emergency [COLOR=blue !important]employment[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] scheme. And it offers more capacity-building than spending money on new furniture for the National Works Agency.