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Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets
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influence of plantation society theorists, plural society theory and the legacies of slavery are all given attention. The work is about Jamaicans, by Jamaicans. Therefore, there is little apology about this being a ‘black’ book which addresses the history and status of black Jamaicans.
Still, paying homage to the researcher’s my first academic stop in the humanities, it is deeply historical and most importantly, it links the history of the West Indies (Jamaica) with that of Britain and how the two are deeply intertwined. Also, given that it touches on economic policy, the publication contains some 28 charts and tables, hopefully, satisfying the quantitative critics. Addressing policy, this crosses into political science. Notably, the foreword was written by one of our most prominent and respected political scientists, Prof. Rupert Lewis. For purveyors of the fine arts, the cover is an original drawing by this author. For persons studying the field of human resources development and management, especially the sub-field of labour relations, this book was designed to fill the vacuum in local academic research with practical application.
Therefore, the book is of use to all disciplines in the Faculty of Social Sciences as well as the scholars of history. Finally, although it is intended to be a strong policy-relevant, academically solid work, it is written with the same style as the researcher’s Gleaner columns, in which, true to his humanities background, he uses puns, figures of speech and other literary devices, which are generally absent in the social sciences and other disciplines. Being a public intellectual, with faithful readers, the researcher believes that a full-length book ought to read like the columns to which they have become accustomed.
Impact of the book and research
Some of the content of the publication made its way into the researcher’s Gleaner commentaries. This resulted in his receiving the Morris Cargill Award for Opinion Journalism for the
year 2014, from the Press Association of Jamaica. This is the first and only time that an academic (UWI or otherwise) has been so awarded.
Application to the policy maker
Contained in the pages of Broken Promises is an analysis of labour policy and legislation from the first piece of statute, the Masters and Servants’ Law of 1842, to the amendment of the Labour Relations and Industrial Act in 2010. It starts with a ‘menu’ of what a worker-oriented government needed to have done at the beginning of the post slavery period, and how those needs changed at critical junctures including the first world war, universal adult suffrage in 1944 and independence in 1962. Each subsequent decade is evaluated, with the notation made where there is regime change.
Ultimately, the state of the country’s labour policy and legislative framework is juxtaposed against the menu of international and regional standards and weighed. Ending the book are 19 pages of recommendations, which it is hoped government will pay attention to.
It should be noted that two of the reviewers are industrial relations practitioners and academics with more than 65 years combined experience. Another is one of the foremost international intellectuals and researchers in the field.
The current minister of labour has indicated that he is paying keen attention to the contents of the book and wishes to see how the suggestions can be incorporated in both short and long term strategies.
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Recognising Outstanding Researchers 2016