I always read Mary King's essays to learn something about economics but many of the comments seem to me to be premised on a very large population where there are a large source of very bright professionals. We have a population of between 1.2 and 1.5 million people yet we have to provide the essential services of a large country.
Statistics show that we just don't have sufficient innovative people and I don't mean scholarship winners. We seem to have a disproportionate number of excellent sportsmen and Carnival people but not technical people.
I worked in the creative department of a large organisation and did my best to recruit the brightest Trinidadians both from local and foreign sources. The truth is we seldom found creative professionals. They were academically very good but not outstanding in creating or applying existing technology. There were very few original ideas.I have no recommendations of what UWI can do given the normal distribution of brains, but then again I am not an educator.
Christopher Farrell
D'Abadie