The PNP needs to quit use of Chaos Theory
“Change is the only constant in life,” said Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher. History has taught us humans that ‘normal’ lasts but for a season.
In today’s fast-paced, technologically-driven world, people across the globe are constantly inventing faster and more efficient ways of doing things. That which is a trend, a brand, or modus operandi today, quickly becomes outdated and is thrown on the scrap heap of yesterday, tomorrow.
Go to school, get a job, get married and have two children made up the prevalent advice to youngsters 50 years ago. A job at a blue chip company was a major aspiration back then. It was a common practice to work for an employer for 20, 30 years and sometimes straight up to retirement. Fifty years ago life was dominated by a kind of overt and covert characteristic sameness. Like all else in life, that period succumbed to change. I believe its demise was precipitated in large part by unbridled neoliberal politics and economics, which were promoted globally in the 80s and 90s. Relationships between labour and capital seismically shifted.
Labour revolution
Those who are shouting the sky is falling need to understand the adage: “Change is the only constant in life.” History has taught us that adopting a chaos mentality is not a strategic method of preparation for change. One can embrace change, reject change, or stand idly by and become a causality of change.
The social, political, and economic consequences of the novel coronavirus pandemic have ushered in and amplified powerful forces of change. In the last two and half years millions of workers have been working remotely.
Recently, I was watching an interesting programme on America’s Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) which cited a Pew Research Center survey, which found that there was a decisive and overwhelming reluctance by workers to go back into the cubicles of the industrial, office complex. Millions of workers have found “a new freedom which, for them, offers a better work- life balance and they will be hard-pressed to give-up it”, said one expert in employment relations who was interviewed.
There is an acute shortage of skilled labour in the United States at present. Experts have termed the massive exodus of workers from the traditional workspaces as the “Big Quit”.
Consider this from a CNN Business report last week: “More than 20 million Americans quit their jobs in the second half of 2021. There are more than 10.5 million job openings right now.”
Ponder this recent statement from the United States Chamber of Commerce: “The pandemic caused a major disruption in America’s labour force — something many have referred to as The Great Resignation. In 2021, more than 47 million workers quit their jobs, many of whom were in search of an improved work-life balance and flexibility, increased compensation, and a strong company culture.”
The shortage is particularly severe in the areas of food services and hospitality, a myriad vocational specialties, health, and education. At present there is an almighty scramble for teachers and health-care workers in the USA, Britain, and numerous other countries. In America the scramble is causing education administrators and key stakeholders to have sleepless nights.
An article titled ‘Never seen it this bad: America faces catastrophic teacher shortage’, in the globally respected The Washington Post, of August 4, 2022, noted among other things: “Rural school districts in Texas are switching to four-day weeks this fall due to lack of staff. Florida is asking veterans with no teaching background to enter classrooms. Arizona is allowing college students to step in and instruct children.
“The teacher shortage in America has hit crisis levels — and school officials everywhere are scrambling to ensure that, as students return to classrooms, someone will be there to educate them.”
In Britain, the scramble for teachers is just as critical as in America. Consider this from a recent Education Business UK article: “53 per cent of teachers are considering leaving teaching, according to a recent YouGov poll, and it isn’t just experienced senior staff. 11,000 young teachers actually leave in training, an exodus that has tripled in the last six years and points to a terrible loss of energy and new talent into teaching.”
The revolution is real.
Political opportunism
Here at home the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), in recent weeks, has been shouting in the highways and byways that a new, terrible and unprecedented migration of teachers from Jamaica is upon our land. The reality is teacher migration from Jamaica is a long-standing problem.
Consider this: “Education Minister Ronald Thwaites has disclosed that Jamaica lost about 500 of its best science and mathematics teachers last year to overseas employment.
“Thwaites, in an interview with RJR News, said this was not a new phenomenon, it was worrying, given Jamaica’s deficit of expert teachers in these areas.” (RJR News, January 30, 2016)
I remember while I was an undergraduate at The University of the West Indies, in the early 90s, there was a massive recruitment of teachers. Some 300, went to America, and another 100 or so to Britain.
The Opposition spokesperson on education, training and competitiveness Damion Crawford would do well to, at a minimum, acquaint himself with the history of teacher migration in this country. I believe Crawford needs to arm himself with a thorough understanding that the Caribbean region has long had the world’s highest emigration rate as evidenced in Figure 3.
Those who are in the business of pricking political blood should not feel that they can stand on soapboxes of ignorance in the Information Age and feel comfortable. As Shakespeare said: “Truth will out.”
On the matter of truth, Crawford seems to have had a very curious Damascus Road experience on the matter of migration only recently. Think about this banner headline: “Migrate, seek better opportunities and contribute to Jamaica, advises Crawford’, in The Gleaner of January 20, 2015. The news item noted these details:
“Junior Government Minister Damion Crawford, says he is encouraging Jamaicans to migrate to developed countries to get better opportunities and contribute to Jamaica’s development.
“According to him, Jamaica will benefit from the increased migration in areas such as remittances as well as from the new ideas that will come from returning residents.
“Crawford’s comments this morning on TVJ’s Smile Jamaica shocked hosts Simone Clarke-Cooper and Yendi Phillipps. He responded that most people are usually shocked by his views, adding that logic is a ‘bad’ word in Jamaica.
“The junior tourism and entertainment minister says he is not declaring that Jamaica cannot provide the opportunities being sought.
“However, he says there is a perception of better opportunities overseas. Crawford says the view advanced by some politicians urging citizens to remain and build Jamaica was only relevant when globalisation was not a reality.”
Is Crawford’s recent comments on teacher migration part and parcel of another effort to pull wool over the eyes of the people of this country? I do not believe the people of Jamaica will succumb to false narratives. Those who are fixated on razzle dazzle, fluff, political ambulance-chasing, and bloody shirts — symbols used to excite people to partisan outrage — are operating from the crumpled pages of a book that has been outdated for decades.
There was an era in our politics when belligerence fetched a premium price in the political market. That unfortunate epoch ended with Jamaica technologically and economically far behind our neighbours in the Caribbean and Latin America. I believe today’s political market is demanding a more conciliatory type of politics, which is overtly aligned with the pulse and feelings of, especially, ordinary folks. We owe Jamaica that!
Chaos theory
Those who understand the twirling of the political tea leaves would have noticed that in recent weeks the PNP has massively increased its predictions of doom, gloom, brimstone, and fire for Jamaica. Why? I believe the rotten strategy of the Chaos Theory is at work.
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He famously said, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.”
I believe 89 Old Hope Road has increased its application of the Chaos Theory. The PNP has to rile up its base prior to its national conference. As we saw in local parlance, they need a “forward”.
It shouts of chaos, here, there, and everywhere and is an old political strategy. Note in recent days the predictions about chaos in the transportation sector regarding the upcoming reopening of schools, chaos in education, chaos in the Administration’s management of the economy, and I could go on. I believe agitation of political anxieties at its base is the PNP’s primary objective.
The PNP does not get it that the mere arousal of its base will not enable it to retake Jamaica House from the Jamaica Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). It needs the support of the majority of the voting public.
A little birdie has warbled that recent scientific poll findings are not showing the PNP and its leadership in any better light than several similar polls which were done many months ago.
It is obvious that many at 89 Old Hope Road are realising that it is becoming increasingly more difficult for the PNP to win an election, any election.
Recently on the political hustings former senator, Kern Spencer, said, among other things: “Comrades, if the PNP should lose a next election in Jamaica dawg nyam wi suppah. Comrades, if we don’t win this one [read local government election] it is going to be even more difficult to win any more election for the People’s National Party.” (Jamaica Observer, June 14, 2022)
Mark Golding, the president of the PNP, knows that if he does not get a win in a consequential election, or at least manage a respectable draw in the next local government poll, his political goose is cooked.
Noted political strategists say that an over-reliance on the application of the Chaos Theory to win state power invariably forces political parties into a cul-de-sac. We are seeing exactly that happening in the PNP.
Consider, for example, the recent imbecilic attack by the Opposition spokesperson on agriculture Lothan Cousins on the Jamaica Broilers for what he says is a minor price decrease.
Cousins’ rant went further. In an apparent moment of asinine fervour he said he was surprised that any black Jamaican could vote for the JLP. Clearly injecting race and class into our politics.
A microphone is a most dangerous instrument in the hand of some of our politicians. Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) head, Keith Duncan, has called Cousins statement “illogical and divisive”. I agree!
Then there is the continual contradictory statements from Peter Bunting, Opposition spokesperson on national security, and his party leader as to the precise circumstances in which the PNP is prepared to engage the Holness Administration on the matter of crime and violence which is destroying the lives and livelihoods of thousands of Jamaicans.
The contradiction in directions from Bunting and Golding was brilliantly captured in an editorial by this newspaper. It noted, among other things: “We in this space are trying to parse, with utmost difficulty, the outburst by Mr Peter Bunting, the Opposition spokesman on national security, that an apology is needed from the Government before any political consensus on crime…
“At the very least, Mr Golding must tell the country if Mr Bunting is speaking for the party, otherwise he is going to fall right back into the narrative of his early leadership that he was just a figurehead while the real power was being exercised by Mr Bunting.” (Jamaica Observer, August 18, 2022)
The PNP must change its strategy if it hopes to take back Jamaica House. Slash and burn politics ‘nah keep again’.
We, as a country, must also adjust our perspective on the migration of teachers to ‘greener pastures’. Noted psychologist Dr Leahcim Semaj recently tweeted that: “We can make this work for us; individually and nationally. Contract with potential employers to get upfront payment for the training cost.” I support that view.
The reality is, Jamaica is now not able to match the salaries and benefits of developed countries. There are strategies that can be explored, agreed upon, and implemented to enhanced teacher retention. While Crawford has to make a pitch for the top political post at Heroes’ Circle, he needs to understand that education is too important to be used a political football.
Garfield Higgins is an educator, journalist and a senior advisor to the minister of education & youth. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.