I continue to explore the fundamentals necessary to build a great nation — the new Jamaica. I am convinced that we can and must do it, and the time is now.

Passing the batonThe experience of the old should match the strength of the new (younger generation) with a clear vision and smooth transition in the baton change. As a nation, we must be honest with ourselves that we started out well in 1962, but dropped the baton along the way. It has cost us severely, but the race is not over. We can recover and yet become the great nation we are destined to be and shine as a beacon to the world — a beacon that displays us as the place to live, work, raise families, and do business.We have made serious mistakes that have placed us on a downward path which we cannot continue to follow. We must learn from these mistakes, make the adjustments, lay new foundations, and effectively coach the receivers of the baton to take us around the bend into the straightaway to medal among the top developed nations of the world.Building the new Jamaica needs people with a mind to produce for our national economy. We must select leaders with the right heart and with the ability and commitment to guide the process of greatness. More on leaders later, and exactly who they need to be. 

Want a work or a mind to work?Let us look at the central element needed to achieve greatness — a people with a mind to work. The first recorded use of this phrase in the

Bible is in the book of Nehemiah. It referenced a certain attitude, a mindset that was willing to work with enthusiasm and do all that it lawfully takes to rebuild one’s nation and produce for our national economy. Notice I didn’t just say people who want a work. When you hear the word ‘work’ you probably think of ‘the daily grind’, the ‘9 to 5’, where you eke out just enough to sustain self and family.A mind to work means working with all your heart and with all the enthusiasm you can muster because you understand that you are your nation’s greatest asset. You know that you play a crucial role in rebuilding your nation and in ensuring that our economic ‘pie’ keeps expanding so that you and others can achieve more and more. Do we all have a mind to work to build the new Jamaica? 

The importance of peopleThe people are a nation’s best assets (resources). A nation cannot be built by the leaders only, although they have a significant role to play. The people must be prepared to unite and get behind their leaders with a certain mindset, attitude, determination and commitment to produce and develop great things and greatness in that nation.The people’s attitude, will, commitment and determination are vital to a nation’s greatness. We have to ask ourselves, as a nation, do we have people who don’t just want a work but have a mind to work to rebuild our nation’s broken walls, repair our society’s social fabric, and produce to ensure our nation’s economic prosperity?If we do not, then why not? How do we now get our people to embrace and express that mindset? What is the process that got us to where we are now, with only a few having the correct mindset and attitude? Can we reverse it?These are questions with which we must wrestle at the highest levels of leadership, in governance and in academia in order to find answers and solutions.I do not believe we have the luxury of time, for there are other countries that have preceded us down this slippery slope and some have already imploded. We must make the most of this season of opportunity to transform our nation now. Radical, courageous, out-of-the-box thinking and action will be necessary if we are to do so. This has to move beyond political partisan squabbling. This is about national survival and rescuing a nation.

Our challengeOur Economic Growth Council listed citizen security (nice phrase for crime and violence), access to financing, and bureaucratic inefficiencies as three areas of hindrance to our productivity and growth as a nation. Simply put, citizens will not produce for their national economy if they fear for their lives, cannot get the money to finance their ideas, or keep getting hindered by some regulatory civil servant with a ‘chip’ on his shoulder.I do believe that, overall, our history attests to the fact that we are a hard-working people and high achievers who have overcome great challenges in our past. It is this mindset and attitude that drove us to challenge our colonial rulers for self-governance. However, something seems to have gone wrong that caused a change of mind and attitudes in the post-Independence period from which we have not yet recovered.We developed a generation who think differently. The ideology of the mid-70s, albeit unintentionally, sowed seeds of a dependency syndrome, an attitude of entitlement, and an expectation of handouts. The ensuing tough economic times cemented the mentality of ‘nutten nah gwaan’ and ‘beg yuh a ting’. The remittances from relatives abroad, although needed by most, have contributed to increase the dependency mindset. It is now ingrained and pervasive in the under-30 generation. It has to be reversed to get us ready to seize opportunities for success and prosperity.Further calamity was the advent of the ‘donmanship’ culture, drugs and gunrunning, scamming and their effects on the psyche of dependency. This resulted in a ‘something for nothing’ point of view, where earning was replaced by getting or taking. Lethargy and frustration have set in.Restoring and developing this ‘mind to work’ in the majority of our population has to become a priority. We cannot build a great nation with a large number of unproductive citizens who sit around twiddling their thumbs. Let’s be clear: Citizens by their attitudes and actions either produce to enlarge our economic pie (gross domestic product) or hinder its growth by their lack of productivity. Which group are you in?We cannot build a great nation with people who always have their hands stretched out and turned up to receive, rather than people who are prepared to give and to put their hands to the plough to work for change.It is time for straight talk and decisive action. We must face the truth that:• To sit down pon wall or pon di corner and rub out hand middle to make a spliff, smoke weed, drink liquor, or hold session almost nightly cannot build a great nation.• Sitting on the sidelines and only complaining and criticising everything cannot build a nation.• Drawing into your corner and living a life devoid of concern for others and for country cannot build a great nation.Can we say we are preparing a nation of people with a mind to work? If people do not have a mind to work, talking about building a great nation will only be a wonderful argument, but an empty hope that will never be realised.What gives people a mind to work?People will embrace a mind to work because of value. This comes in different forms. Value is seen in the esteem placed on an occupation. Value is also expressed in fulfilment; a person’s love for what they do because it meets a felt need that they have, such as service to others. Value is also evidently expressed as money; payment for a job done.These three aspects of work — financial, esteem and fulfilment — can create a motivated population with a mind to work because there is a sense of belonging and of feeling valued.What motivates people?1. Recognition of their current bad condition and a desire for change.2. A clearly articulated vision that they can embrace because they can see how their own dreams and aspirations can be realised within it to their benefit.3. Inspirational leadership with integrity that the people believe care for them and whom they can trust. Given the crisis we are facing, the political directorate, the church, social agencies, non-government and community-based organisations will have to be prepared to engage and carry the weight of preparing citizens with a mind to work and an attitude to produce for our nation’s economy.Where do we want to see ourselves and our nation in the next five to 10 years? What must be done today to achieve it? For, even if we were immediately able to harness easily accessible resources, such as water, sunlight and rare earth elements and transform them into jobs, our people would perhaps not be able to take advantage because of our current level of unpreparedness.Our citizens’ preparedness to build the new Jamaica will undoubtedly take a quantum leap if we are able to help them develop a mind to work. We must therefore come up with the appropriate strategy. What are the critical and practical necessities in order to position a nation to capitalise on the possibilities in the world today so that we can prosper?If we are not ready to make use of the possibilities, then the opportunity will come and it will pass us by. It requires visionary leadership who must paint a picture of what is necessary, showing where everyone fits in. We must speak with specificity. 

Al Miller is pastor of Fellowship Tabernacle. Send comments to the Observer or

pastormilleroffice@gmail.com.