Y'all remember the funny but controversial Volkswagen ad, featuring a white actor putting on a fake Jamaican accent to sell its product. Well, Jamaica's tourism board has snatched him up to promote its brand. Mr. Henry, a Jamaican communications specialist, argues that it's going to take a lot more to turn around the country's brand: "While [actor] Erik
Nicolaisen, in his jeans outfit, was doing Montego Bay, whose shiny
convention centre is yet to attract serious business and make a dollar
of profit, the pinstripe-suited IMF [International Monetary Fund] men were in Kingston helping to fix
the macroeconomy. But who is going to fix those behavioural and
attitudinal problems, which are at least as important as hindrances to
progress, if not more, than the macroeconomic problems? We are not
heartened by the stories and experiences of our work-work-work prime
minister's chronic lateness for engagements."
Mr. Henry zeroes in on social issues: "Family Life Ministries joins a long line of
do-good organisations which, since Emancipation, have been trying to get
Jamaicans to commit to marriage. According to the 2011 census, only 24
per cent of the adult population is married, with the vast majority of
the others having never married at all. Major Neil
Lewis, an organiser of the Family Life Ministries event, puts it
starkly: 'We can't continue the way we are with more than 86 per cent of
our children being born out of wedlock, with half of those not knowing
their fathers' name and having it on their birth certificate. It is
crippling to our society, and if we can change that statistic and have
men, in particular, think of family as a dynasty, thinking long term
other than short term, I think we can change this nation
fundamentally.'"
More: "When we add to our lackadaisical
attitude towards time and work and our dismal family life the high
levels of endemic violence, indiscipline, and distrust, and low levels
of public order and of commitment to anything but individual
here-and-now 'benefits', we have a behavioural and attitudinal mix from
which, economically, we are not going to be VW's Germany or Erik
Nicolaisen's United States, any time soon. It's a lot more than money. 'But no worries, mon. Everyt'ing will be a'right.'"
Martin Henry: "Jamaicans Must Delve Into The Behavioral & Attitudinal Problems Which Affect Our Economic Performance"
