Getting insight into Jamaica and the IMF

To be a part of an audience allowed to throw questions to a panel of persons that included Sis Helene Davis Whyte, General Secretary of Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO), Devon Rowe, Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Bert van Selm, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Advisor to Jamaica is something that one is not privy to in most occasions.

Sisters Jillian and Beatrice engage Bert van Selm of the IMF at the workshop in Kingston on Tuesday

However several trade union members from across the Caribbean were able to on Tuesday were treated to a presentation by such a panel and enlightened about different aspects of the IMF deal that Jamaica is currently undergoing. Persons would have known the background of the situation with Jamaica being in a tail spin when it comes to debt and a economy that keeps on climbing into the ground.

This provided great insight for members as some of them are familiar with the IMF with some countries having signed agreements in the past. However the feeling of the IMF coming to the workshop made the impact of what the trade union was about more profound in the minds of some if not all.

This in my estimation shows the important of the trade union movement to the global landscape and this should give us the impetus to push forward and ensure that the movement to protect the rights of workers is never neglected. To have the IMF in our halls and other persons that speak to the arrangement of the recent Medium Term Agreement makes is worthwhile as it shows respect afforded to us. 

Sis Sandra and others I believe asked pertinent questions but I think that the one that took the cake was if Jamaica couldn't get a write off of some of this debt. I wish  that we could have gotten an answer that suggested somethig in that regard but that wasn't to be.

Mrs Whyte a part of the oversight committee in relations to the IMF agreement in Jamaica was a wealth of knowledge and it is expected that the aspects related to workers rights will definitely have a voice in this period of financial regulation that Jamaica is currently undergoing. Mr Devon Rowe was able to bring great insight into the operations of the Jamaican Government and how they have posit themselves during this time of challenges.

This third leg of the workshop is only getting better and is proving to be a fitting end to a series of training that speaks to development and leadership.

Economic Growth - what does it really mean?

I've just read a really riveting article about economic growth.

Nobel-prize winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen have admitted that GDP does not capture the human condition and urged the creation of different tools to gauge the wellbeing of nations. This is why countries like Bhutan have adopted the gross national happiness in place of gross domestic product to calculate progress. We need to create measures beyond GDP, and economies beyond the global supermarket, to rejuvenate real wealth. We need to remember that the real currency of life is life itself.

 What are your thoughts?

Do you agree with the author, Vandana Shiva, when she says "The dominant model of economic development has in fact become anti-life. When economies are measured only in terms of money flow, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And the rich might be rich in monetary terms – but they too are poor in the wider context of what being human means."?

TED Talks - "the more good stuff that goes into your mind, the more good stuff comes out"

I just loveTED Talks.I am a big fan.

Technology, Education, Design. That's what TED stands for.

One blogger says of TED, "This is only the greatest repository of speeches and presentations by the most brilliant minds, most fascinating people, education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus, and music legends of our time."

As many of you know, I don't believe in re-inventing the wheel. So rather than try to find all the right words to tell you about TED, here are some from those perhaps more eloquent than me.

"In short, TED Talks are relatively short videos (around 18 minutes) from some of the most engaging speakers around the world. Some famous TED speakers include Bono, J. J. Abrams, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, and Stephen Hawking.These videos cover an endless range of topics, initially about Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED), but now incorporating any number of subjects. Plus, they are free to distribute and share non-commercially under a Creative Commons license."

See this really good article about TED. It has a reall, really cool infographic.

So, try out TED Talks. Sign up at TED.com

Its that time again where we meet and put forward our ideas and develop points to aid us in our development as shop stewards and leaders within our various trade unions across the Caribbean. It is imperative that we use this opportunity to garner as much as we can as this is the final prong of the three fold initiative.

Let us come together with the mindset that we will work our hardest during the few days afforded to ensure that we make it a success.

Climate change ... everyone has a role to play

Heavy flooding in St Lucia

"This has been one of the hottest Septembers that I can remember." "The weather pattern has changed."

Yes the weather is no longer the casual start of a conversation anymore. It's real, it's affecting us all, it's changing - dramatically.

In late September,  the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a summary report on the latest comprehensive science on climate change.  The report confirms what we instinctively know - the planet continues to get hotter and less stable. The IPCC's language suggests that the reason behind it all is human. They say that
human causes are “extremely likely”.

So we have to do something. Not only at policy level but we must take action in our workplaces, ibn our communities and in our unions.

Does your union have an environment policy? Need help in developing one?

Share your suggestions on what your workplaces your unions can do to reduce your carbon footprint?

Civil genocide by a virtual ethnic cleansing

Ginou Jean Baptiste, secretary of the CTSP's young workers' committee, gives her views on the recent decision of the Dominican Republic's Constitutional Court.

"I deplore with all my strength this senseless decision of the Constitutional Court which seeks to remove the right of citizenship from many people of diverse ancestry. This is typically contradictory and fundamentally flawed. The decision of the Constitutional Court Dominican is a violation and a civil genocide by a virtual ethnic cleansing. It does not apply specifically to Haitians but the whole world."

See statement from PSI Caribbean titulars 

Promoting the public good

In this article, Canadians Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage highlight the "taxpayer backlash" that public sector unions face when they seek to defend collective bargaining. "No-one is a disinterested bystander during a public sector strike"

And right-wing, conservative politicians and their supporters seek at every turn to blame the public sector for every wrong in the economy.

Ross and Savage argue that "to overcome these divide-and-conquer strategies, and defend against further attacks on the rights of public sector workers, unions will require new strategic thinking and modes of action. That means more effectively connecting the interests of public sector workers with those of citizens, by linking contract demands to the enhancement of the quality and availability of public services."

Public services are central and key to the quality of our lives and as a result unions need to strengthen the connections between the interests of  those who provide the services and those who use and need the services.

The article focuses on Canada but is equally applicable to developing countries in the Caribbean. We invite you to read the article.

What more can you and your union do to help the public understand and value public services?

Related link

Learn more about the authors and their new book "Public Sector Unions in the Age of Austerity"