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(Karl - for you)
Work - just do it!
Jean Lowrie Chin
Monday, October 08, 2007
"Get rich! Get happy! Get working!" Various slogans about work have been occupying my mind because this country must begin to market the honest-to-goodness benefits of energetic, focused labour.
Jean Lowrie Chin
We must sell the message that we are certainly not getting from the social pages: that it took years of effort and perseverance to have eventually, the mansion on the hill and the millions in the bank.
While there are a few good programmes like Owen James' The Achievers, Ian Boyne's Profile, The Susan Show, and also the Observer's Business Leader Awards, media should reserve more airtime and column inches to describing the journey and not just the arrival. We have to be careful that we do not breed envy, creating a dangerous society where achievers will be constantly under threat from underachievers.
How many of our unemployed feel motivated to learn a trade and start their own small businesses? Many desperate young men have never seen a father pick up his tools of trade and go off to work. Their role models have been the intimidating big man barking orders to his trembling underlings.
We need to lionise not just the business leaders, but the ordinary, God-fearing working people who labour to certify themselves, get a job or start a trade and ensure that they provide the important needs of their children.
There is still a perception some people are "to the manor born", which is far from the truth. When Butch Stewart started out in the air-conditioning business, he would not only market his product, but also install it himself. Those were not the days of split systems, so he and his one co-worker were literally hacking holes in walls and putting in the units, impressing new customers that they could take and fill orders within 24 hours.
Aaron Matalon had to drop out of Jamaica College at age 14 and find work when his father became ill. Lascelles Chin started out from a carport, travelling by bus to corner the black pepper market in Jamaica in a few months. His Lasco Group is now a multi-billion distribution and manufacturing company. Kenny Benjamin started his guard business with two guard dogs and one man - himself. His Guardsman Group has gone Caribbean-wide and now employs over 6,000.
(From left) STEWART... LEE-CHIN... BLAIR... MARKS... years of effort and perseverance
There is the phenomenal Dr Herbert Thompson under whose watch the Northern Caribbean University has made tremendous strides, dazzling the world with its IT Team, Western Hemisphere champions of the Microsoft Imagine Competition. I have never attended a better organised event than their recent graduation ceremony.
The Deliverance Evangelistic Association founded by Bishop Herro Blair has, through his faith and energy, spread far beyond our shores. The association has more than 20 churches in the USA, Haiti, Africa, Canada and the Cayman Islands. The bishop has uplifted and affirmed many who had been thought irredeemable.
Michael Lee-Chin, while at Titchfield High School, took his first summer job as a yard boy at Frenchman's Cove. He is energetically expanding his local investments, creating jobs for thousands, while pouring his millions into education initiatives for young Jamaicans. After setting a blistering pace in marketing Digicel, we understand that Harry Smith is now setting his sights on education and outreach.
Audrey Marks has built Paymaster into the ubiquitous bill-paying establishment, employing hundreds of Jamaicans. The understated Ryland Campbell has established and grown the well-respected Capital and Credit Merchant Bank.
The positive, hands-on approach of our new Cabinet members has been encouraging. Their big task is to ensure that before they get up to full throttle, their ministry teams are in the correct gear.
We have a very large civil service which is more than equal to the task of doing the nation's business. For sure, unemployment is a national crisis, so it is distressing to see many individuals in both public and private sectors who have jobs, but an extremely poor attitude to real work.
We have been seeing government campaigns on health, road safety and HIV prevention. Now we need a powerful campaign to explain to our people the joy of work, the dignity of labour, the supreme satisfaction of a job well done.
One of my favourite projects was using the Buju Banton music video Not an Easy Road to drum up support for Jamaica's 96 Olympics team. This could be a great theme song for a "Get Jamaica Working" campaign.
Buju gets the last word
"It's not an easy road/them see the glamour and the glitter/and they think a bed a rose/who feels it knows/Lord help me sustain these blows. got to humble myself like a child/on my face I got to put on a smile/make up my mind just to walk more miles/cause I know that/it's not an easy road."
Congrats Don-Christopher
Don-Christopher Barnes was certainly a livewire in our First Communion Class at Stella Maris earlier this year. His lovely mother was always present when needed. No wonder this delightful eight-year-old had the confidence and heart to save his friend from drowning. Close attention to building the right values in your children will give Jamaica more Don-Christophers to rescue us from our lesser selves.
NB The correct email address for Vincent Hoo, whose kind letter was published in Saturday's Observer is actually vincent@lascoja.com.
lowriechin@aim.com
Work - just do it!
Jean Lowrie Chin
Monday, October 08, 2007
"Get rich! Get happy! Get working!" Various slogans about work have been occupying my mind because this country must begin to market the honest-to-goodness benefits of energetic, focused labour.
Jean Lowrie Chin
We must sell the message that we are certainly not getting from the social pages: that it took years of effort and perseverance to have eventually, the mansion on the hill and the millions in the bank.
While there are a few good programmes like Owen James' The Achievers, Ian Boyne's Profile, The Susan Show, and also the Observer's Business Leader Awards, media should reserve more airtime and column inches to describing the journey and not just the arrival. We have to be careful that we do not breed envy, creating a dangerous society where achievers will be constantly under threat from underachievers.
How many of our unemployed feel motivated to learn a trade and start their own small businesses? Many desperate young men have never seen a father pick up his tools of trade and go off to work. Their role models have been the intimidating big man barking orders to his trembling underlings.
We need to lionise not just the business leaders, but the ordinary, God-fearing working people who labour to certify themselves, get a job or start a trade and ensure that they provide the important needs of their children.
There is still a perception some people are "to the manor born", which is far from the truth. When Butch Stewart started out in the air-conditioning business, he would not only market his product, but also install it himself. Those were not the days of split systems, so he and his one co-worker were literally hacking holes in walls and putting in the units, impressing new customers that they could take and fill orders within 24 hours.
Aaron Matalon had to drop out of Jamaica College at age 14 and find work when his father became ill. Lascelles Chin started out from a carport, travelling by bus to corner the black pepper market in Jamaica in a few months. His Lasco Group is now a multi-billion distribution and manufacturing company. Kenny Benjamin started his guard business with two guard dogs and one man - himself. His Guardsman Group has gone Caribbean-wide and now employs over 6,000.
(From left) STEWART... LEE-CHIN... BLAIR... MARKS... years of effort and perseverance
There is the phenomenal Dr Herbert Thompson under whose watch the Northern Caribbean University has made tremendous strides, dazzling the world with its IT Team, Western Hemisphere champions of the Microsoft Imagine Competition. I have never attended a better organised event than their recent graduation ceremony.
The Deliverance Evangelistic Association founded by Bishop Herro Blair has, through his faith and energy, spread far beyond our shores. The association has more than 20 churches in the USA, Haiti, Africa, Canada and the Cayman Islands. The bishop has uplifted and affirmed many who had been thought irredeemable.
Michael Lee-Chin, while at Titchfield High School, took his first summer job as a yard boy at Frenchman's Cove. He is energetically expanding his local investments, creating jobs for thousands, while pouring his millions into education initiatives for young Jamaicans. After setting a blistering pace in marketing Digicel, we understand that Harry Smith is now setting his sights on education and outreach.
Audrey Marks has built Paymaster into the ubiquitous bill-paying establishment, employing hundreds of Jamaicans. The understated Ryland Campbell has established and grown the well-respected Capital and Credit Merchant Bank.
The positive, hands-on approach of our new Cabinet members has been encouraging. Their big task is to ensure that before they get up to full throttle, their ministry teams are in the correct gear.
We have a very large civil service which is more than equal to the task of doing the nation's business. For sure, unemployment is a national crisis, so it is distressing to see many individuals in both public and private sectors who have jobs, but an extremely poor attitude to real work.
We have been seeing government campaigns on health, road safety and HIV prevention. Now we need a powerful campaign to explain to our people the joy of work, the dignity of labour, the supreme satisfaction of a job well done.
One of my favourite projects was using the Buju Banton music video Not an Easy Road to drum up support for Jamaica's 96 Olympics team. This could be a great theme song for a "Get Jamaica Working" campaign.
Buju gets the last word
"It's not an easy road/them see the glamour and the glitter/and they think a bed a rose/who feels it knows/Lord help me sustain these blows. got to humble myself like a child/on my face I got to put on a smile/make up my mind just to walk more miles/cause I know that/it's not an easy road."
Congrats Don-Christopher
Don-Christopher Barnes was certainly a livewire in our First Communion Class at Stella Maris earlier this year. His lovely mother was always present when needed. No wonder this delightful eight-year-old had the confidence and heart to save his friend from drowning. Close attention to building the right values in your children will give Jamaica more Don-Christophers to rescue us from our lesser selves.
NB The correct email address for Vincent Hoo, whose kind letter was published in Saturday's Observer is actually vincent@lascoja.com.
lowriechin@aim.com
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