Cashing in on culture

Lisa Hanna, Guest Columnist

Recently, I had the privilege of being the guest speaker at the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association's 50th Anniversary Youth Awards. Nine prizes were handed out to primary- and secondary-school students whose entries had won a national competition that gave students the opportunity to develop the concept 'Tourism Opening the Doors to Our Future'.

What was interesting was that seven out of the nine awards went to students from schools that were in parishes that were not synonymous with our traditional tourism product. Furthermore, the first-place winners within the three categories came from Hydel in St Catherine, Rollington Town Primary in east Kingston, and Glenmuir High School in Clarendon.

As I observed our young people and their creative talent in the areas of music, art and essay composition, I could not help but think of the tremendous cultural talent we have given to the world. It also struck me that tourism was impacting on youth from communities that were not directly influenced by the 'sun, sand and sea' model that we have so perfected.

As Jamaicans, there is no doubt that we do things differently, and we have a 'swagger' that has captivated the world's attention for decades. Many would also agree that the success of our tourism model, in large part, has to do with the unique and vibrant culture of our people and their tremendous creative abilities.

However, even though we have made these strides, we have not addressed how to effectively leverage these and other successes to make them work for our economy and our people.

Jamaicans have not yet taken the risks to try new industries that will allow us to compete effectively in this global economy. The truth is, we urgently need to start looking at new industries that will give us the best global competitive advantage.

We have borrowed from the IMF to pay salaries, borrowed from the Chinese to build roads, increased our debt-to-GDP ratio by 40 per cent in four years, created world history by having 13 consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, created a labour force where 74 per cent is unskilled, facilitated high energy costs that stifle entrepreneurship and large-scale foreign investment, allowed crime to rob us five per cent of GDP and devalue our real estate, and faltered in finding new paths to increase our economic wealth to grow our way out and repay the debt.

Sadly, many of our young people don't realise that they will have the burden to repay the IMF and the Chinese, for example. Therefore, we need to give them the best platform to generate wealth for themselves.

Culture is one area that we already have the global advantage. We can gain so much by producing cultural products in the visual arts, music, food, and our identity as a people, by turning it into content delivered to the world in real time, using the proper support structures and technologies which will ultimately create job opportunities for our young people.

The Cultural Policy, in citing the Recording Industry Association of America, said reggae music earned US$14.5 billion for the United States. How have we benefited? We have a supreme advantage to leverage this status to add value to our economy. But we are not organised to claim our wealth, and so others take it!

Consolidate responsibility

We must overcome the fragmentation of responsibility for culture and bring cohesion to the State's approach. Currently, various aspects of Jamaican culture are divided among several ministries of government. For example, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), the Jamaica National Heritage Trust and the Institute of Jamaica are based in the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport; JAMPRO's film and entertainment commission is based in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce; the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office is also based in the Ministry of Industry; the Government's Entertainment Unit is based in the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport; and the Creative Production and Training Centre, Jamaica Information Service, and the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica fall under the minister with responsibility for information and telecommunications.

When we have responsibility for all aspects of culture under one ministry, we will be in a better position to see how much investment is needed for the synergies that can be best formed within our cultural industries.

Year after year, the budgetary allocation for culture gets smaller and smaller. For the financial year 2011-2012, $50 million has been allocated for new projects for our 50th anniversary celebrations. We will not create formidable industries this way.

As policymakers, we must implement this vision with the necessary policy framework that will (1) proactively develop the cultural talents of our people; (2) create the avenues that will incentivise foreign and private investment in cultural industries for job creation; (3) encourage significant venture-capital initiatives (national and international) to support and stimulate creativity and innovation in the creative sectors.

To start, we must:

1. Reclaim our cultural power as a nation, promoting Kingston as the cultural capital of the Western Seaboard by creating a heritage music/history/entertainment experience using Orange Street 'Beat Street', anchoring the radius with Liberty Hall, the Institute of Jamaica, the National Gallery, restaurants and performance arts on the waterfront that will woo the urban/cultural tourist.

2. Create opportunities that harness and develop the cultural talent of our young people for the accessing of jobs in the cultural industry; build three performance-arts high schools; give resources to strengthen the JCDC so that it can conduct more training of our teachers and students at the basic, primary and secondary levels; license our musicians so we can use them as outdoor performers in our parks and tourists centres and charge a flat tax.

3. Strategically position sound-system culture, another Kingston creation which is extremely popular worldwide. We need to encourage the setting up of entertainment zones to encourage and harness a new generation of deejays and selectors who will entertain tourists and Jamaicans in a controlled environment.

4. Aggressively market Jamaican cuisine for it to take centre stage at all the major food festivals worldwide with renewed energy.

Finally, Jamaica, as a brand, is among the top 15 in the world. Kingston, as well as other creative centres around the island, is experiencing a silent revolution in creativity and innovation. Let us invest in our young people and create the cultural industries needed to diversify our tourism product, and create wealth for our people.

Lisa Hanna, MP, is shadow minister of youth and culture. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.