Debbie Jacob
BY NOW we should realise that solving major issues like plummeting morale, unproductiveness and rising crime means investing in a major cultural change. Inefficient public service has a trickle-down effect, undermining productivity and even affecting how we deal with crime. Too much time gets wasted in long, tedious, demeaning bureaucratic procedures that demoralise the public and produce no results.
Two stories in last week’s news sparked hope that we might be recognising a shift in government thinking about how to create the cultural changes we need. The first story reported that the Ministry of Public Administration is working with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Advisory Services Ltd to develop a remote-work policy for civil servants.
The second is a government anti-crime music initiative – the Call to Order project, which sparked mixed reactions. Both plans are positive steps in the right direction to change the way we think about public service and the culture of crime.
The Ministry of Public Administration’s desire to develop remote work opportunities for public servants is more than an attempt to modernise. Adopting this initiative would boost public servants’ morale and increase productivity.
Remote work initiatives mean less time wasted in traffic and better motivated, more pleasant and more efficient workers – all behaviours needed to keep the perk of working from home. Parents would have more time to spend with children who aren’t in school. The social benefits for these children would be immeasurable. Workers would be more productive because they are not worn out from long, daily commutes, and the climate will benefit from less cars on the road.
A press release from the ministry said the policy is expected to be completed by December 2024. Hopefully, this is not one of those pie-in-the sky studies that ends up collecting dust on a shelf. Hopefully, the idea will trickle down to private businesses too. It shouldn’t take much thought for us to make this leap. It’s important that we adapt to this high-tech age.
The other story that caught my eye was the Call to Order project, inspired by a local reggae song, The Call by Isasha, Mr King, Ziggy Rankin, Prophet Benjamin and King David. In this admirable collaborative effort singers call for an end to gang violence.
This initiative encourages young people from eight to 24 to record videos singing lyrics they have written to the instrumental version of The Call. The winner will have his or her song recorded.
Those who find this project to be a soft approach to crime and advocate more police cars and police guns to fight this problem fail to understand that the most effective crime-fighting weapon is a cultural shift away from confrontation, which hasn’t produced the results we want.
One opposition MP’s puzzling reaction to this musical initiative was, “I don’t think we could sing our way out of crime."
No, we can’t, but we can make crime less appealing, encourage education, hard work and cultural participation as viable alter
