JAMAICA AND the Caribbean will continue losing out on big bucks and future development if their citizens do not conduct more culture specific research and use the findings and solutions to generate income, says Prof. Errol Morrison, Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of the School for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of the West Indies (UWI).
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Medical Association of Jamaica's (MAJ) 2003 Symposium, he warned, "If we do not observe what we do, if we do not study what we do, look how we do it, why we do it, when we do, where we do it and use these observations to create income and generate wealth we, as a people, and the region are destined for permanent under-development."
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Using examples from noted sociologists and researchers, he said that the World Bank has reported the greatest sources of income from tourism, but that the region was not putting enough in place to monitor and train persons to develop and put it to greater earning use.
"Look at reggae music. In two decades, it has grown to be a $2 billion industry and, while it was evolving from the crowd, evolving among the people, we chose to ignore it... Supposed we had created courses, monitoring programmes and training to promote the whole development of that industry, can you imagine what we could have achieved in this time?" he said.
He also asked doctors in the MAJ to give back to "their roots" by going into schools, community centres and youth groups to teach lessons in areas such as hygiene.
He said the MAJ has not taken up a challenge issued years ago by Professor Rex Nettleford to contribute to the values and attitudes of Jamaican youth.
