EDITORIAL January 20th: Imagine... According to Websters Dictionary, imagination is the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality. There is a belief that imagination is a peek into the future that requires human interaction to bring forth into the present, whenever that is. Leonardo Da Vinci seemed to have a vivid imagination, almost a window to the future as so many of his designs that were drawn at a time when materials were almost limited to wood and stone suggests that he saw things that could be but were not yet, limited by the constraints of reality and even though the technology did not exist to sometimes even phrase his visions into words. Visionaries all through history have been revered for this ability to paint pictures of how things could be, and so much of what we take for granted today at some point started off as an idea or an image in someones mind. Clearly a powerful tool, I keep wondering why is our national imagination so stunted and almost rear view looking? One just has to walk into a school, a hospital, a police station or a government office to understand what I mean, it is almost as if these institutions are not only stuck in the past, that they are desperate to get there. Imagine if the House of Representatives was populated by full time Members of Parliament who were there about the peoples business and who could legally hold no other post, profession or job for the duration of their service? What would be the outcome of such a Chamber? Would we then have legislation, laws and policies derived from the wholesome pursuit of increase and improvement for all? Imagine our Ministers being more like CEOs, hired by and overseen by the vibrant Parliament we just spoke of, organized into oversight committees whose only focus was the deliverables and timelines on which these CEOs were hired? Sounds like things would start to make sense, doesnt it? How about Education? Do we dare imagine a world where the parents of the students and the teachers could conspire to deliver the highest development of our nations children? As they have the closest connection to that success, imagine if they could be formed into a management style structured PTA where they would be given full responsibility for the teaching and the performance of the school with the Ministry of Education limited to providing infrastructure and overseeing exams? Wouldnt this now all start to make sense? Imagine a world where we reward our schools and the teachers involved based on the level of their improvement over last years performance? Their bonuses and increases pegged to the students performance? What a magical and creative learning environment these currently backward looking, soul draining testimonies to incompetence our schools would become. Or the Trinidad & Tobago Police Service, how much imagination does it take to break it up into forty one semi-autonomous precincts over seen by one Central Authority responsible for crime reduction and policing in their own constituency? Will we then know what works where and who delivers? Would we then be able to apply resources where they were clearly demonstrated to be needed? Imagine a scenario where forty one Senior Superintendents, each now solely responsible for the numbers and statistics coming out of his or her own constituency and charged with bringing them in line with the national target and answerable to the Commissioner? Imagine they being able to design crime plans specific to the peculiar requirements and demands of their region and, being given the resources, material and manpower to execute their plans for crime reduction how much better they could all do? And imagine again paying performance bonuses for their performance against their own numbers the year before? How much more motivated they would be? Imagine giving the officers under their charge targets and serious financial and other bonuses for achieving them, how mush better they might perform and how less inclined they might be to seek or accept a bribe? Sounds almost too easy doesnt it? Yes it does, and sometimes I can be such a victim of my own vivid imagination, but i prefer to live in a world where we are not limited by our past experiences, where our imagination makes us infinite. Dont you?
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 01:18:20 +0000
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