Letter of the Day | Dispel ‘chilled’ myth to unlock productivity

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Kristen Gyles has rightly diagnosed Jamaica’s bureaucracy as a chokehold on productivity, but her analysis invites a deeper probe into the cultural myths that sustains it. When we brand Jamaicans as a ‘chilled’ people, we invoke an exported image: unbothered, easy-going, slow to anger, quick to laugh, “irie and mellow”. Yet physiologically and structurally, much of our lives pulse at the opposite pole.

Cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone, surges under sustained threat: economic insecurity, violence exposure, unpredictability, sleep deprivation, debt, bureaucratic obstruction, unstable utilities, transport uncertainty. Chronic elevation breeds hypertension, diabetes, impaired concentration, irritability, reduced impulse control, and cardiovascular risk. It warps cognition and behaviour.

Consider the depressing Jamaican ecology:

– Commuting amid gridlock with unreliable transport;

– Constant exposure to crime or fear;

– Soaring energy costs against wage stagnation;

– Bureaucratic friction in licensing, customs, land titling, school placements;

– Hyper-competitive education sorting - then creepily inadequate school transcripts;’

– Underemployment despite qualifications – while pretentious MPs scorn accountability;

– Climate vulnerability and hurricane dread.

This is a high-vigilance arena and the contradiction is costly. Branding ourselves ‘irie’ trivialises our physiological burden. Policymakers underweight stress as a productivity factor; employers mistake fatigue for laziness; teachers read cortisol-driven distraction as indiscipline; citizens internalise exhaustion as personal failing, not systemic strain.

Our cultural coping – humour, music, expressive patois, faith – serves as collective regulator. Reggae and dancehall are not low-stress proofs; they are adaptive release valves. Laughter coexists with elevated cortisol; it aids survival.

Economically, chronic stress narrows cognitive bandwidth. Behavioural economics reveals how scarcity devours executive function. When minds fixate on threat management – bills, danger, red tape – planning and innovation atrophy. Productivity falters not from innate laziness, but neurobiology compressing horizons.

The ‘chilled’ narrative exacts a price: it masks reform urgency. A productivity-serious nation must tackle commuting reductions, public safety overhaul, energy affordability, bureaucratic streamlining, youth employment pipelines, and friction-minimising urban design.

Lower cortisol is hard economic strategy.

Morally, pretence erodes empathy. Insisting on relaxation ignores strained households: the hypertensive market vendor, sleep-deprived taxi driver, burned-out civil servant. Jamaica is culturally expressive, not physiologically relaxed. Until we slash structural stress, the chill myth veils a high-cortisol society.

Gyles’ line is diagnostic, challenging self-image for honest reckoning. Jamaicans, should face realities and rebuild for a productive, resilient future.

DENNIS MINOTT