“Miss Hanna, please come this way,” was the instruction I was given as the guards pulled a long, red rope as they barricaded the perimeter of the stage. No one was allowed to cross it, including me. I exited the stage left with everyone else behind the red rope.

This moment happened quickly on the evening in late 1994 when I crowned Miss India, Aishwarya Rai, as the new Miss World. How promptly do the perks disappear once another takes the title and position of prestige.

Sometimes the red rope, like a red card or red flag, signals immediate exit: “Do not pass ‘go’, do not collect $200.” At other times it’s an alarm to warn us there’s danger up ahead. If we do not see that red flag, we often make the wrong decision, which has repeatedly proven the difference between life and death — case in point New Orleans 2005.

General Mathew Broderick, former head of the USA’s Homeland Security Operations Center, was a man with great experience and exemplary credentials, having led the centre through many hurricanes. In addition, he had been involved in operations centres in Vietnam and other global military engagements. His experiences taught him a fundamental principle: Early reports are often wrong; wait for the ground truth.

On August 29, 2005, Katrina hit New Orleans. Broderick had received several reports of significant flooding and levee breaches. However, he trusted the conflicting accounts of The Army Corps of Engineers and CNN. The latter showed a tipsy crowd on Bourbon Street, near the city’s highest point, frolicking on television. Broderick’s years of experience told him that these contrary reports were the ground truth he was looking for. So, as the head of the centre, he issued a statement that night proclaiming the levees had not been breached and promised a further assessment the next day.

One minor but essential detail he did not consider with all his experience: New Orleans was below sea level. Katrina ravaged New Orleans that night, making the devastation to the city and people’s lives one of the worst disasters in human history.

After this catastrophe, Harvard University identified three factors that cause leaders to make bad decisions by encouraging them to see false patterns. They call these red flags.

(1) The presence of inappropriate self-interest, which often manifests itself in an improper personal weight we give to information resulting in us seeing only what we want to see;

(2) The presence of distorting attachments to how attached and bonded we become to people, places, or practices that impair our judgement; and

(3) The presence of misleading memories are those sentimental memories we hold on to that were relevant to past successes, but we transfer to our current responsibilities. When in reality, they are illusions likely to lead to significant error.

There’s danger up ahead

If our objective is to optimise the quality of life that we have left in this world, we must be conscious of how the world has significantly changed and how we are failing to adapt to the new realities that confront us.

What are today’s red flags we are choosing to ignore?

Currently, the most transformational shifts have been:

(1) climate change

(2) technological advancements and automation

(3) the proliferation of the Internet and easy access to all forms of data

(4) corporations becoming gigantic global entities

(5) the disrespect for the dignity of human life, truth, and integrity

(6) the declining importance for self-discipline and education

(7) the widening inequality gap

The list could be much longer. However, these seven issues are front and centre to the crucial challenges we must hurdle if we want to safeguard our peace of mind, good quality of life, and progressive society.

My deep concern is our inability as leaders to look at the big picture and successfully navigate a path to address them holistically.

The presence of inappropriate self-interest, distorting attachments, and misleading memories have forced us to depend on past successes. Many lean on this so-called experience, but experience could be a liability rather than an asset in our rapidly changing world.

For example, the sweeping adverse effects of climate change did not exist 20 years ago. Therefore, how does this impact our crop selection, growing, and reaping methods? Do we continue as before and hope for a different outcome?

Suppose we do not address the severe forces of income inequality among our social classes? In this case, the disrespect for the dignity of human life, truth, and integrity, and the declining importance of self-discipline and education, will allow crime to stay with us.

To survive economically in our current world, we must also consider these massive corporations who, by their share scale, can deliver products to your doorstep cheaper than we can buy the raw materials. Therefore, to become prosperous in their midst we must select niche markets in which we can be globally competitive. So it is not just going into business, but going into the right value-added business. Simply put, better to make coffee face cream than try to make running shoes.

Our import substitution policy, which is broad-based and still being pursued today, is a dead-end for several industries and has not created an export-driven economy or led to any significant export of manufactured goods despite substantial duty protection. Additionally, over the past 40 years the Jamaican economy has seen only anaemic growth. Per capita income has grown only marginally while other countries have increased. Few if any countries in the world have ever created true wealth for their people without developing their exports in both goods and services.

We need a fundamental mindset shift away from our past actions towards structurally transforming our economy into an internationally competitive value-added export country focusing on products and services in which we can identify a global competitive advantage.

The red flags have been staring us in the face for some time now, which is preventing us from commencing a process of strategic global repositioning based on a “foresighting” of international opportunities and a careful analysis of the goods and services in which we have or can develop a competitive advantage.

Unless Jamaica undertakes the goal of strategic global repositioning to foster agility and secure and sustain a competitive advantage in our rapidly changing global environment to create more economic opportunities, then our people will continue to leave our shores in search of better opportunities elsewhere. The Human Flight and Brain Drain Index for 2022, which is compiled by business and economics website the GlobalEcomomy.com, ranks Jamaica second out of 177 countries for the economic impact of our human displacement. This red flag must force us to wake up and take action.

Lisa Hanna is Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, People’s National Party spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a former Cabinet member.