THA chief challenges health workers to set standard for productivity

CHIEF Secretary Kelvin Charles on Tuesday challenged Tobago's public health workers to set the standard for productivity on the island, particularly as it clamours for greater autonomy.

Addressing a commissioning ceremony for a new $750,000 cesspool tanker at the Public Health Department, Signal Hill, Charles alluded to historian Dr Rita Pemberton's recent concerns about Tobago's poor work ethic and lack of productivity, saying there must a turnaround if autonomy is to be achieved.

"I charge you at public health today, with setting the pace and demonstrating really and truly, that we can do this. We can provide the kind of services that are demanded and we can do so with excellence and with pride," he told a small gathering.

"We need to see this investment (cesspool tanker), along with what we have already provided, as our way of saying to you, 'Here are the tools. We believe. We trust that you believe in yourself. Now go henceforth and make your fellowmen, yourselves and your island proud.'"

Pemberton spoke about Tobago's poor work ethic last week at the Scarborough Library, during the third instalment of a year-long lecture series, hosted by the Tobago Writers' Guild and Tobago Library Services.

Charles said lack of productivity in Tobago was a serious issue to which he alluded when he assumed office as chief secretary in 2017.

"There is currently the whole issue facing us about the level of productivity of us as Tobagonians. Indeed, the renowned historian Dr Rita Pemberton recently, in a lecture, addressed this issue and expressed concern that the Tobago she knew many years ago is not the Tobago of today. But, more importantly, the kind of resilience that she knew, the kind of industry, the inclination to hard work that would have characterised the Tobagonian or the Tobago personality years ago, has all but dissipated like thin clouds.

"And that eh good, because if you take up the newspapers you will see, as part of the headline, low productivity – a spoke in the wheel of autonomy for Tobago. So, on the one hand Tobagonians have gotten to the point, the majority that is, where we feel that we have the capacity – that we have the ability. We can acquire the technology to take charge of our own affairs."

Charles said while some people shared this view, there is a prevailing view that "unless we get our act together, we would place under pressure any attempt at greater autonomy for us in Tobago".

He said St Kitts and Nevis, with a population of between 10,000 and 11,000 people, has, in some respects, greater autonomy than Tobago.

"Believe it or not. And, therefore, the question must be, what is it about us that we would allow elements like what I have just mentioned to be limiting factors as we work to move to the next level."

Charles said for greater productivity to occur, there must be a transformation of the mind "because the simple truth of the matter is that our mindset, which really is the lens through which we see the world, has the ability to either hold us back or drive us forward."

He urged the gathering to fashion the mindset required to take the island forward.