Rethinking Fundamental Relationships in Caribbean Human Resource Development

• Author: Kenny D. Anthony
• Pages: 1-7

1

EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS

We often say, somewhat apologetically in this region, that our people are

our greatest resource, as if this were not true for all countries. We

acknowledge regretfully that we are mineral poor, implying that this condition

throws us back upon that secondary option which is our people. We enter the

development arena with the foregone conclusion that we are too insignificant

to change the world, and like the country girl newly arrived in the big city, we

decide that we are poor but pretty. We catalogue our attractions in full colour

brochures and advertise for the role of victim.

Changing this mindset, this overwhelming premise of insufficiency, is

the primary human resource issue facing our region today. This is not to

suggest that the condition is universal and without exception. Some of us are

very well prepared academically, but by whatever means we arrived here –

often from the most modest beginnings – we are the few, the lucky, the

privileged. By whatever means, we have left too many in our wake: the unlucky,

the unprivileged, and the runners-up.

An unnecessary and debilitating competition for scarce and dwindling

resources is distorting our vision of our world. A majority of our people –

particularly policy makers – approach development with the mindset that

there will never be enough anyway: the poor and the dispossessed will always

be among us. It is not surprising then that a recent poll shows that more than

half of Jamaicans would emigrate today if given the opportunity. For many

others, life has become an unkind and ungracious scramble to capture as

much as possible, as quickly as possible, by whatever means necessary. The

outcome is anarchy and it is not acceptable. But the alternative is a passive

subsistence on crumbs.

Rethinking Fundamental Relationships

in Caribbean Human Resource

Development

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