Letter of the Day | STEM, sovereignty, and the soul of a nation

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I am not an iconoclast. I too join in celebrating the towering achievements of Robert Nesta Marley – a creative genius whose discipline, independent thought, tenacity, and resilience remain unmatched. These were not merely inherited traits, nor were they bestowed by formal instruction. They were self-evident qualities, honed in struggle, often unrecognised, but which nonetheless define his greatness.

Yet even as I honour his legacy, I cannot help but reflect on a troubling reality: what if the time, tools, and resources we so heavily invest in music and sports were redirected – at least in part – toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)? Would we, as a nation, still be content with a meagre economic growth rate of one per cent? Or would we, like Singapore, be standing confidently among the world’s most advanced and productive societies?

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SKEWED

We are quick to build monuments to genres, to rhythms, to cultural exports, but slow – painfully slow – to honour our pioneers in science and innovation. Where is the national reverence for Dr Thomas Lecky, whose groundbreaking genetic research produced a breed of cattle uniquely suited to tropical conditions? His contributions to food security, agricultural science, and self-reliance are of monumental significance, yet they remain buried beneath the beat of a drum or the flash of a medal.

This is not to pit the arts against the sciences, nor to deny the power of cultural expression. But we must acknowledge that our national development has been skewed. Leisure and entertainment have become the pillars of our economy, not by the natural evolution of our people, but as the imposed architecture of a post-plantation society – where the commercial elite and commission agents replaced colonial masters and continued the model of buying and selling, not building and innovating.

I did not grow up in a world of abstraction. I was the son of a blacksmith. I came of age among people who made things, who planted things, who built their livelihoods with their hands and minds. I remember Poppy McGhie, who dared to build an aircraft – not for spectacle, but as a testament to possibility.

Had we invested in STEM education – with the same zeal we pour into festivals and football – we would have not only grown economically, but we would have become a more disciplined, more productive, and less violent society. The indiscipline of “Jamaica no problem” and the culture of “soon come” are not benign quirks; they are symptomatic of a nation whose energies have been diverted from the engine of progress.

Let us celebrate Marley, but let us also build a society where the next Lecky, the next McGhie, and the next blacksmith’s child can shape the future – not just dance to its rhythm.

O. DAVE ALLEN