Jamaica News

Leaders urged to find a better way of improving people's lives

Jamaica's political and business leaders have been challenged to find a better way of improving the lot of the people they seek to represent, even as modern societies struggle to find common ground in achieving economic prosperity and social justice.
Morehouse College president, Robert Michael Franklin, in an address on Saturday night at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, challenged the Jamaican community to remember the proponents of "a higher way and better way - the way of shared prosperity - as the country seeks to improve the lives of Jamaicans".
He believes that a combination of sound political and business leadership is key to its achievement.

 

Morehouse college president Dr Robert Michael Franklin (right) greets Ingrid Munroe, wife of Professor Trevor Munroe (centre), at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on Saturday night. Dr Franklin was the guest speaker at a fund-raising dinner for Dr Munroe who is making a bid to become member of parliament for the St Andrew Eastern constituency. (Photo: Karl McLarty)

".Fortunately, I think a new generation of business leaders is emerging around the world," Dr Franklin said. "Business leaders who are proponents of corporate social responsibility, of social investing, of transformative philanthropy. Such leaders are emerging in every country, and every sector. They understand how a little bit of investment in our civic life, and in our community goes a long way, if implemented strategically."

Dr Franklin was addressing a fund-raising dinner for People's National Party (PNP) candidate Professor Trevor Munroe, who is seeking to unseat Dr St Aubyn Bartlett in the St Andrew Eastern constituency.

Franklin, in examining the topic 'Economic prosperity and social justice - compatible?' said that while the discourse over the achievement of economic prosperity and social justice remains a debate, it should be about achieving both.
"It is not either or, but both, and they are not necessary opposites of polarity, but they are complementary.," he said.
Franklin said two great camps have been engaged in a debate over the achievements of both for decades, and against this background he presented the arguments of two main proponents, the economists and the moralists.

"The economist says economic growth is a bit like sausage making. It may be a bit ugly in the process, but it produces satisfying results.," he said.
"The moralists suggest that perhaps it is the economists who are a bit naive about human nature and human community. A society predicated on dramatic disparities between wealth and power is fundamentally unstable and unsustainable."

In outlining some of the pitfalls in the pursuit of economic growth and prosperity from the economists' perspective, Dr Franklin lists tension, conflict over land, labour and capital and the means of production as factors which often result in asset inequality in the society.
The economists argue that these, however, are necessary to the engine of economic growth.
On the other hand, achieving a just social order, while also like sausage making, is ultimately more profound and satisfying in its outcome, the moralists argue.
According to Franklin, moralists often ask "what good is a society, however prosperous, that falters on its moral and social responsibility".

In his charge to political and business leaders, Franklin referred to Luke 12, verse 48, which he quoted as saying, "Those to whom much is given, much will be required".
The president of the all-male liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, paid tribute to Ambassador Andrew Young (whom he replaced at the last minute due to illness), Martin Luther King Jnr; Nelson Mandela; Thabo Mbeki; and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. These men, he said, nurtured the creative tensions in their various societies to lead to a breakthrough, which include a democracy that was inclusive of all people.