Plants are fashioned by cultivation, men by education. – Jean Jacques Rousseau
While pleading recently for a better deal for the members of the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF), the issue of how to deal with the manpower shortage occupied the attention of the island’s top cops and the Attorney General.
The issue that interests me most, however, was the realization that we seem to have reached the stage in Barbados where in spite of our boasting of having the best education system in the region, we still have not been able to produce and attract locals to do certain jobs. Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite told the gathering at the general meeting of the Barbados Police Association that though the stage had not yet been reached where the island would have to import foreigners to do our policing, the time was drawing nigh.
Migrant labour is nothing new for most Caribbean countries. I recall that back in the 1970s we had to bring in workers from St Vincent to cut our canes. The 1990s saw us being forced to seek non-nationals as nurses at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. More recently, the construction and agricultural sectors have had to rely heavily on labourers from Guyana.
So reliance on migrant labour is not entirely new for Barbados. Globalization and the free movement of people across the Caribbean all imply some reliance on foreign labour markets.
It is my contention, however, that when a country cannot produce its own police officers, it is a completely different matter. Indeed, it raises many questions. Among them is the issue of policing not being attractive to many young men and women, many of whom are much better qualified than 30 years ago.
It might even imply that the divide between the Royal Barbados Police Force and the community has widened to the point where citizens prefer to collude with the criminals rather than be part of the country’s crime-fighting mechanism.
What is worrisome is that this is happening at a time when, as The Economist puts it, “our communities are overwhelmed by well armed gangs, international drug traffickers and systematic corruption”. It is against this backdrop that Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda have looked to Canada for their top cops and Jamaica has turned to Britain.
English-speaking Caribbean countries dominate the world’s violence rankings. The Economist notes that Jamaica has the planet’s second highest murder rate, while St Kitts and Nevis, whose police chief’s son has just been murdered, ranks third. Using very terse language, the report notes that “safety concerns have driven the middle class into gated communities and the tourists into all-inclusive resorts”. It continues that “crime-fighters compete with rappers for celebrity status . . .”. (www.economist.com/node/16595062)
We have had to live with foreigners cutting our canes and working our land; and we have come to accept foreign nurses at our bedside. The construction sector has been transformed by the Guyanese factor. Yet I am not convinced that we must turn outside for people to fight our crime.
The RBPF must devise a rigorous public relations programme that promotes the virtues of policing in the 21st century. The blocks and our secondary schools must be targeted and last, but not least, a better remuneration package must be devised.
Yes, Mr Attorney General, I agree there are certain minimum standards below which we cannot go. Obviously, recruiting persons with a history of drug abuse is totally out of the question. Who is to say that foreign recruits will not have these same challenges? Are these foreign recruits coming from Mars?
Also capturing my attention this week was the corresponding concern among teachers as to how to police members of their own ranks. Issues relating to the licensing of teachers and the establishment of certain minimum standards came into sharp focus at a meeting convened by the Caribbean teachers and the Ministry of Education.
To cut a long story short, after 38 years in the system, it is neither here nor there as far as I am concerned. If establishing a teachers’ council and the licensing of teachers in the Caribbean will cause teachers to be more professional, I am for it.
If importing these foreign systems for my profession will reduce the high level of absenteeism confirmed by Trinidad and Tobago’s minister of education, I will embrace it. If these systems will see more effective planning and preparation among classroom practitioners, I will laud their introduction.
If licensing will see teachers dressing more professionally minus the visible tattoos and the nose, cheek and tongue rings, I say, let’s fast-track it. If however, it is just another “follow pattern” strategy, then it will do nothing more than “kill Cadogan”.
Matthew D. Farley is a secondary school principal, chairman of the National Forum On Education, and a social commentator.
