dominica2day: Real labour power

Real labour power
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lloyd on 16 October, 2007 11:31:00
 
Have you ever sat back and thought of the transformation that could take place
in Dominica if some of our brawny, energetic, young men whose lives have been
misdirected by some of the ills of society, were to be used in some
developmental enterprise? Our prison population has more than doubled over the
past 20 years. We need more jail space and more prison wardens to deal with
those crowds of young men. I recently visited the prison and was just totally
astounded by what I saw but I began to think, what if all of these unused
energies were utilized in National Development?
Let us look at agriculture, a sector that is dear to us in Dominica. The sector
suffers mainly because there is a severe lack of interest by our young people to
engage themselves in income generating activities in agriculture. In fact, there
is not much going on in terms of any large scale production of crops except for
what DEXIA has been attempting, with much difficulty, for many years now. I’m
talking here about the Hot Pepper and Dasheen contract programs that are
currently being promoted. They have to literally take farmers by the hand to
their farms and give them a pep talk so they can put a few dasheen or hot pepper
trees in the ground.
I looked at the job of keeping our roads, drains and sidewalks cleaned and
refurbished. Our parks need to be kept looking tidy with the grass kept to a
minimum level to facilitate sports. Our streets are littered daily with so much
garbage making them so very unsightly and sometimes the stench that comes from
these blocked drains in residential communities is unbearable.
I am here to give a simple, inexpensive but practical solution to this problem
that we face in Dominica. I am offering a suggestion that is increasingly being
used by both developed and developing countries around the world to address
their lack of labour power. In America for example, supporters of inmate
employment include law reinforcement officials who believe the programs helps
rehabilitate prisoners. Prisoners want to work, they say, and point to research
showing inmates who work are less likely to commit crimes when released. While
it is true that the trade unions repeatedly denounce China for its use of prison
labor at the same time, however, the union officials have virtually been silent
about the huge growth of prison labor in the United States
There are currently 2 million inmates in the US making it the largest prison
population in the world. China, which gets consistent condemnation from the US
and other countries, has a half-million fewer prisoners. Does it mean that their
system of using prison labour is working to their advantage?
Here in Dominica we need to make this work to our advantage. Our country
desperately needs some real strong labour power to regain our position within
the region as the number one supplier of fresh produce.