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Timely ideas at a volatile time
Franklin W Knight
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
It would be nice to hear some timely ideas about changing Jamaica's future ventilated at this important period in its history. But for perverse reasons, election campaigns seem incompatible with fresh thinking.
Nevertheless, at the risk of being presumptuous, this columnist offers six ideas that are worth ventilating during this controversial electoral season. None is entirely original, implausibly futuristic or excessively expensive. These are ideas, however, whose time has fully come and whose inordinate delay invites some degree of national peril. While related in some ways, each idea may be considered individually.
Perhaps the high level of crime represents the most urgent issue confronting Jamaica today. Nothing substantial will be accomplished without the drastic and immediate reduction in criminal violence. A general agreement exists on this point although there remains understandable division about the means to that desirable end. General violence constitutes a major economic drain on national and individual resources in two ways.
In the first place, violence haemorrhages national resources that could be better employed in maintaining and improving social services such as public health, education, transportation and emergency relief services in times of natural disasters. In the second place, violence discourages individual productive investment in homes or businesses that are vital to the overall economic viability and sustainability of the island.
It is high time for Jamaica to eliminate the private holding of firearms as is done in all sensible and civilised countries. Jamaica must disarm the entire civilian population and restrict guns only to members of the army and police. Restoring the old gun courts and incarcerating illegal gun carriers immediately and indefinitely would be a desirable first step.
It is time to create an intelligent new master plan for the Kingston Metropolitan Area with an emphasis on effective transportation and improved drainage. Traffic gridlocks result in enormous waste of time and resources. The government should create a rational system of throughways with limited exits and with convenient overpasses and underpasses that allow simultaneous free movement in multiple directions. If the airport is to remain on the Palisadoes peninsula, a better way of reaching it must be designed with tunnels or bridges across the harbour and routes that bypass the city centre.
All streets should have sidewalks and be passable during rainy periods. Kingston urgently needs a carefully planned system of waste-water disposal, not by channelling it into untended gulleys that empty into the harbour but by directing it to a series of reservoirs for proper treatment and future use.
It is time to reorganise the administrative structure of the island. Restoring the three counties and creating effective county councils promise to improve administrative efficiency. Counties should be empowered to impose taxes and administer their designated area. A number of issues now handled by the national parliament could be devolved to counties and municipalities. Devolution works successfully in Spain and in Great Britain and could apply efficaciously to Jamaica.
It is time to revitalise the educational system at all levels and emphasise the importance of education by rewarding teaching professionals handsomely as done in progressive countries like Germany, Japan or South Korea. Teachers are more valuable than politicians and deserve to be better paid. At the same time there is a need to emphasise basic mathematical and language skills. Proper English should be mandatory and Spanish should be taught in all elementary schools. High schools should offer at least three modern foreign languages.
Geographical location and the global economy demand no less. An island surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries and importing most of its necessities from Asia cannot afford for commercial and practical reasons to remain monolingual. Moreover, language skills are of paramount importance in any country that emphasises hospitality as the tourist industry now brands itself.
With the world's population ageing almost everywhere, Jamaica should put priority on geriatric medicine. This offers an excellent opportunity for all sorts of public-private synergies. Government should encourage the construction of modern hospitals and attractive retirement homes in every parish. Good hospitals and retirement homes generate multiple collateral enterprises in pharmacy, mortuary sciences and caretaking. This development would expand the demand for training facilities for physicians, nurses and hospital attendants at Mona to supply the new units and elevate health tourism as one of the island's attractions. If Cuba, Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore can run attractive health tourism industries, so can Jamaica.
Besides, health tourism catering to Jamaicans and foreigners alike could be a reliable, self-sustaining dimension of the hospitality industry.
Finally, Jamaica needs to go green. This is indispensable, fundamental and long overdue. Environmental considerations are of serious global significance. Jamaica cannot keep up with the energy wasters of the world, but should be prudently creative about present energy use. Solar and wind power should be harnessed to reduce national demand for foreign petroleum and natural gas as is done in Germany, Holland, Spain and Turkey. All new public buildings should by law be energy self-sufficient as well as environmentally friendly. The technology is available and economical.
MacDonald Technologies of Warrenton, Virginia, recently designed a beautiful multi-purpose Alumni building commissioned by the Washington DC branch of the University of the West Indies Alumni Association for the Mona campus, which demonstrated the absolute feasibility and cost-efficiency of going green. The four-storey model respected the Mona environment and provided adequate space for an art and culture museum, general administrative offices, a cafeteria, dining and meeting rooms, as well as deluxe residential rooms and suites.
The building would be hurricane-, earthquake-, flood-, and fire-resistant. It would collect its own water, grow oxygen-generating plants on three levels, and from its roof-top solar panels produce more electricity than it consumed. One especially creative feature of this building is the use of its excess electrical capacity to charge electrical vehicles for local campus transportation. For Caribbean countries, going green is long overdue. Further delay is tantamount to criminal irresponsibility.
Franklin W Knight
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
It would be nice to hear some timely ideas about changing Jamaica's future ventilated at this important period in its history. But for perverse reasons, election campaigns seem incompatible with fresh thinking.
Nevertheless, at the risk of being presumptuous, this columnist offers six ideas that are worth ventilating during this controversial electoral season. None is entirely original, implausibly futuristic or excessively expensive. These are ideas, however, whose time has fully come and whose inordinate delay invites some degree of national peril. While related in some ways, each idea may be considered individually.
Perhaps the high level of crime represents the most urgent issue confronting Jamaica today. Nothing substantial will be accomplished without the drastic and immediate reduction in criminal violence. A general agreement exists on this point although there remains understandable division about the means to that desirable end. General violence constitutes a major economic drain on national and individual resources in two ways.
In the first place, violence haemorrhages national resources that could be better employed in maintaining and improving social services such as public health, education, transportation and emergency relief services in times of natural disasters. In the second place, violence discourages individual productive investment in homes or businesses that are vital to the overall economic viability and sustainability of the island.
It is high time for Jamaica to eliminate the private holding of firearms as is done in all sensible and civilised countries. Jamaica must disarm the entire civilian population and restrict guns only to members of the army and police. Restoring the old gun courts and incarcerating illegal gun carriers immediately and indefinitely would be a desirable first step.
It is time to create an intelligent new master plan for the Kingston Metropolitan Area with an emphasis on effective transportation and improved drainage. Traffic gridlocks result in enormous waste of time and resources. The government should create a rational system of throughways with limited exits and with convenient overpasses and underpasses that allow simultaneous free movement in multiple directions. If the airport is to remain on the Palisadoes peninsula, a better way of reaching it must be designed with tunnels or bridges across the harbour and routes that bypass the city centre.
All streets should have sidewalks and be passable during rainy periods. Kingston urgently needs a carefully planned system of waste-water disposal, not by channelling it into untended gulleys that empty into the harbour but by directing it to a series of reservoirs for proper treatment and future use.
It is time to reorganise the administrative structure of the island. Restoring the three counties and creating effective county councils promise to improve administrative efficiency. Counties should be empowered to impose taxes and administer their designated area. A number of issues now handled by the national parliament could be devolved to counties and municipalities. Devolution works successfully in Spain and in Great Britain and could apply efficaciously to Jamaica.
It is time to revitalise the educational system at all levels and emphasise the importance of education by rewarding teaching professionals handsomely as done in progressive countries like Germany, Japan or South Korea. Teachers are more valuable than politicians and deserve to be better paid. At the same time there is a need to emphasise basic mathematical and language skills. Proper English should be mandatory and Spanish should be taught in all elementary schools. High schools should offer at least three modern foreign languages.
Geographical location and the global economy demand no less. An island surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries and importing most of its necessities from Asia cannot afford for commercial and practical reasons to remain monolingual. Moreover, language skills are of paramount importance in any country that emphasises hospitality as the tourist industry now brands itself.
With the world's population ageing almost everywhere, Jamaica should put priority on geriatric medicine. This offers an excellent opportunity for all sorts of public-private synergies. Government should encourage the construction of modern hospitals and attractive retirement homes in every parish. Good hospitals and retirement homes generate multiple collateral enterprises in pharmacy, mortuary sciences and caretaking. This development would expand the demand for training facilities for physicians, nurses and hospital attendants at Mona to supply the new units and elevate health tourism as one of the island's attractions. If Cuba, Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore can run attractive health tourism industries, so can Jamaica.
Besides, health tourism catering to Jamaicans and foreigners alike could be a reliable, self-sustaining dimension of the hospitality industry.
Finally, Jamaica needs to go green. This is indispensable, fundamental and long overdue. Environmental considerations are of serious global significance. Jamaica cannot keep up with the energy wasters of the world, but should be prudently creative about present energy use. Solar and wind power should be harnessed to reduce national demand for foreign petroleum and natural gas as is done in Germany, Holland, Spain and Turkey. All new public buildings should by law be energy self-sufficient as well as environmentally friendly. The technology is available and economical.
MacDonald Technologies of Warrenton, Virginia, recently designed a beautiful multi-purpose Alumni building commissioned by the Washington DC branch of the University of the West Indies Alumni Association for the Mona campus, which demonstrated the absolute feasibility and cost-efficiency of going green. The four-storey model respected the Mona environment and provided adequate space for an art and culture museum, general administrative offices, a cafeteria, dining and meeting rooms, as well as deluxe residential rooms and suites.
The building would be hurricane-, earthquake-, flood-, and fire-resistant. It would collect its own water, grow oxygen-generating plants on three levels, and from its roof-top solar panels produce more electricity than it consumed. One especially creative feature of this building is the use of its excess electrical capacity to charge electrical vehicles for local campus transportation. For Caribbean countries, going green is long overdue. Further delay is tantamount to criminal irresponsibility.
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