We have seen encouraging signs from our newly elected Administration and are heartened by the confidence investors are showing in Jamaica. If you are planning an event before the end of the year, you are going to have a hard time booking a hotel in Kingston. The surge of traffic is annoying, but it signals that Kingston, St Ann, and Montego Bay are business hotspots.

The biggest challenge today is the issue of productivity, or lack thereof, and we need to address it urgently. You hear and read the daily complaints — poor service, unanswered calls and correspondence, and interminable delays. We see contrasting service in various operations, the result of excellent or poor recruitment and training.

Yet now more than ever we have tools to make us more efficient. We no longer must make long commutes to meetings as we have online options. We don’t even have to make notes as artificial intelligence (AI) is doing that for us. There are management applications which keep us on deadline, e-mailing us with reminders, and our smartphones carry our calendars and reminders.

So why is productivity still such an obstacle, manifested in the suffering of our people — waiting on pensions, waiting at hospitals, and going without basic human needs: food, water, and shelter? How did diligence get such a bad name? This requires serious examination of the mindset of our people.

We are happy that our unemployment rate is at its lowest in recent history, but too many still do not earn a liveable wage. It was surprising that there was such an outcry at the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) proposal to have a gradual increase of the minimum wage towards doubling what is now being offered.

As we consider our multi-billion-dollar budget, it is hard making sense of young doctors who cannot find work and nurses who are opting to migrate in our inadequate health system. The late GraceKennedy CEO and senator, Don Wehby, used to say, “It will not get done if it doesn’t get measured.” Let us ride this positive wave with enthusiasm and agility.

The dignity of work

Despite the marginal conditions of our humble workers they have success stories, many have educated themselves and eked out a decent life for their children. Shirley Pryce, a former household worker, now holds a master’s degree and was recently appointed a member of the UN-Habitat Advisory Group on Gender Issues (AGGI). Pryce founded the Jamaica Household Workers Union, now with 11 chapters islandwide.

When we examine this reach for excellence we hear stories of a dedicated parent, grandparent, or teacher who triggered the realisation in a child that he or she can do more and be more. This cultivation of work ethic should be formalised in the school curriculum, as we understand is done in Japan.

I remember a friend relating that when she picked up a piece of furniture she had ordered from a humble cabinetmaker and complimented his work he said, “Nothing make me feel good like a finish job.”

From her modest roots in Waterhouse our superstar Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce balanced her studies at University of Technology, Jamaica with training, motherhood, and entrepreneurship to emerge as one of Jamaica’s eminent role models. You can imagine our pride when she was crowned as an icon by tennis legend Serena Williams at the Athlos track and field event last Friday.

A wise friend commented “The process — those long, unglamorous hours of practice and repetition — gets overlooked. Yet it is precisely in these moments of unseen effort that true character is built. Diligence teaches patience and humility: lessons that no shortcut can replace.”

Congratulations, Gary Hendrickson

The Hendrickson family continues to make its mark on the Jamaican economy as one of the biggest investors and employers. From humble roots in Maggotty, the third-generation Gary “Butch” Hendrickson recently opened a new National Baking facility in Montego Bay, in addition to his state-of-the-art plant in Kingston.

Delano Seiveright, state minister in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, commented, “Their new multi-billion-dollar, 120,000 sq ft plus baking facility in Montego Bay will create jobs, expand exports, and strengthen the economy. Through the Bold Ones and extensive philanthropy, they continue to uplift small manufacturers, schools, and communities.”

As a philanthropist, Hendrickson is in a league of his own, sponsoring the Bold Ones of Manufacturing multimillion-dollar programme which has boosted fledgling companies to Jamaica Stock Exchange status: Spur Tree Spices, Lifespan, and AMG Packaging while Home Spice and Chocolate Dreams and several others continue to hold their own.

His National Baking Foundation has paid millions for the training of teachers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and for other scholarships. For his islandwide early childhood education programme he stops his operations for a day to pack over 25,000 school bags with supplies which are delivered by the company’s trucks at the beginning of each school year.

He also created a mobile training room with staff and driver to assist in the early childhood education programme.

He is famous for saying to his staff, “Let’s work hard and make money so we can give it away!”

Israel-Palestine Peace Deal

The Donald Trump Administration has brokered the long-awaited peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. The war was triggered by the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israelis in which 1,195 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. The war resulted in the death of over 60,000 Palestinians, half of them women and children. Residential areas were bombed to rubble and there are reports of war crimes as the Palestinians were deprived of food and medical care resulting in the UN declaring that Gaza had descended into famine conditions.

As the Gazans trudge to the north we can only pray that peace will be sustained, they will be able to rebuild, and Palestine will achieve statehood. We pray for healing and must remember that many Jews joined the movement for an end to the war.

Prayers for Jayden Smith

The police are continuing their search for 12-year-old schoolboy Jayden Smith who has been missing for over two weeks.

His guardians, aunt Ann-Marie Thompson and her husband Omar Thompson have been targeted by idle rumours about their treatment of the child, while their neighbours and acquaintances say they have been caring guardians. His aunt also noted that Jayden had no bank account, and he had taken $2,000 from his savings box because he said he wanted to buy pizza after school.

His classmates said Jayden accompanied them to the pizza parlour in Mandeville. Since then, there have been reports of Jayden being seen up to last week.

According to the Jamaica Observer, “Crime officer for Manchester Deputy Superintendent Dennis Simpson told journalists that if anyone is hiding the child, it is an offence. Simpson was speaking to the media during a search of Jayden’s family home and the surrounding area in Wales, Newport, Manchester, on Friday morning.”

We pray that young Jayden will be found safe and well.

Jean Lowrie-Chin is an author and executive chair of PROComm, PRODEV, and CCRP. Send comments to lowriechin@aim.com.

Gary “Butch” Hendrickson

An undated photo of missing Manchester High School student Jayden Smith, 12.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (right) being crowned by Serena Williams at an Athlos event recently in recogntion of “a lifetime of speed, excellence and legacy”. (Photo: Athlos Instagram)