The audio recordings are at the bottom of the page:
Summary / Abstract of Presentation
Like no other time in its history, the Caribbean is facing its greatest challenge. Today, we are plagued with a variety of social ills ranging from runaway crime, family violence, unemployment, poverty, the erosion of the middle class wealth, human / drug trafficking and corruption to name a few. Crime is soaring to such astronomical proportions that in February of 2013, St. Kitts and Nevis was ranked 9th as the Murder Capital of the World with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago being ranked 3rd and 6threspectively. One recalls with much sadness Bruce Golding’s (former Prime Minister of Jamaica) statement as he exited the political scenario, “it is nearly impossible to bring back Jamaica” and he was right. When a country lives with social ills for 40 years as Jamaica has, that is in effect two generations. As such, the social fabric of lawlessness and criminal activity is entrenched in the DNA, in the socio-political landscape of the country. Unfortunately, the entire Caribbean has been facing this social decay for the past 25 years, so we do not have much time to correct these social maladies. Several Caribbean islands recognizing the social crisis they are facing have begun to address this situation in the hope that they can turn their country around and prevent the social fate that Jamaica now faces.
It must be noted that over the past 20 years a comprehensive socio-political economic assessment of the Caribbean and its accompanying solutions were examined and captured in many documents in the University of the West Indies. What was particularly enlightening is that our governance structure – a Top Down Model that we inherited from our colonial pre-independence rulers is still entrenched in spite of its inability to achieve the type of developmental objectives to which the Caribbean aspires. Recent research reveals that the alternative to this Top Down Model is the Ground / Bottom Up Model of Governing which is rooted in social and intellectual equity, sound ethics, the rebirth and the social transformation of practically all systems in our governance structure which will be all captured in a soon to be released book entitled New Caribbean Politics: A Ground / Bottom Up Model.
This lecture will enlighten UWI students as to what their role has to be to bring about the much needed social transformation in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Dr. Sharon-ann Gopaul-McNicol BA., MA., MSc., MEd., Ph.D.
Professor, Psychology
Former Member of Parliament, Senator
Licensed Psychologist (Clinical/Child/Development/School/Sports/Forensic/Community/Cross Cultural)
Author of 13 books on Cross Cultural Psychology/Assessment, Family, Education, Intelligence, Politics, Race Relations and Linguistics
Consulting Editor of the Caribbean Journal of Psychology
Former Assistant Director of the Accreditation Unit at the American Psychological Association (APA)
Introduction (7 min 23 sec):
Lecture (47 min 46 sec):
Discussion (1 hr 18 min 30 sec):
Ground Bottom/Up Model Website Trinidad and Tobago
