I know we’re in the midst of hard times. Tourism continues to take its lumps, and what’s happening in Jamaica scares the hell out of us.
But we have to stop our social fabric unravelling. Otherwise our economy will implode. Ask any foreigner who has settled or invested in Barbados what’s our most attractive feature: stability.
I know we’re worried about crime; the unsociable behaviour of some of our young people; growing indiscipline; decline of civility.
But we don’t run away from problems. We don’t flee the country. This is not just a place where we make a living. This is where we live.
Plus gut-wrenching change is a universal problem.
So what do we do?
Urging a return to biblical precepts is fine, but it won’t solve much. Deeds speak louder than words. Many of our young, poor and unemployed have grown cynical because of our rank hypocrisy. We preach one thing; we do otherwise. Social rot usually starts at the top.
We demonise young people, ZR drivers, vagrants, vendors, and purveyors of music. What does that achieve other than widen the gulf of incomprehension?Let’s reason together.
Acknowledge that the social policies and mechanisms put in place several decades ago to uplift masses of people out of poverty and create a broad middle class, while hugely successful, now tend to function largely to the benefit of that same middle class. The poor, in increasing numbers, are dropping through the cracks, and the middle class now sees Government as a free public trough in which to wallow.
The problem is complex and requires carefully thought out and sustained responses. Here, in no particular order, are some of them:Law enforcement. Everyone’s favourite. If people think the law will be enforced they tend to respect it. But a word of caution: law enforcement must be impartial and must itself stay within the law. Think Jamaica.
Reform our penal system. Our prison is full of people who should be doing community service or in rehab. Drug abuse is a health problem before it is a law enforcement matter. Require all prisoners under 30 and with sentences of less than five years to acquire job and life skills and pay for it by community work.
Reform our educational system. Whatever the good intentions, our system produces too many students without the qualifications for a job. Moreover, using the Common Entrance to allocate primary students to secondary schools results in the schools at the bottom of the hierarchy receiving mainly children in need of remedial education but not having either the special curriculum or resources to provide it.
We should not fear educating more people than there are jobs. Ideas are our most productive assets. As Paul Romer, the American economist, has persuasively argued, prosperity is largely limited by ideas, not by material things.
Encourage entrepreneurship and self-employment. Roadside vending is an immediate opportunity. Give priority to those selling local products. Don’t pamper the vendors. Force them to regulate themselves.
Hold them accountable. But give them opportunities to sell where people pass or congregate. Don’t shove them behind God’s back.
Stop doing things for communities. Give them resources; let them do things for themselves. Hold them accountable.
Encourage civility. Impose and enforce sanctions (community service) for littering and cursing in public.
Improve economic equality. A recent book, The Spirit Level, by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, shows statistically that countries with higher levels of economic equality fare better on most measurements of social well-being, including lower crime rates.
Finally, and most important: when the better off in our society become fearful, we can seek two outcomes: private solutions, whether in education, health, transport or recreation, leaving the public area to deteriorate into squalor; or making the entire society a secure, just, liveable place.
The latter is our only hope. • Peter Laurie is a retired diplomat and a commentator on social issues.
