Submitted by Looking Glass
The BLP may be guilty of many sins of commission and omission more so in the last 25 or so years but the demise of sugar is not one of them. Sugar was awarded preferential treatment in the UK market and enjoyed above world market price since colonial times. Guaranteed prices, not competitive advantage, enabled the extensive cultivation of sugar cane. Without it Barbados could not have achieved its present state of development. The end of preference in the post EU/ Free Trade era meant declining profitability for the labour intensive industry (the region’s banana industry suffered similar fate when the Clinton administration prevailed on the EU to remove the “preferential barriers” to free trade). Don’t be too quick to blame the plantocracy. Sugar is a brutal reminder that now, as always, our existence depended on hand-outs.
Naturally land went out of production. Why we did not diversify? Diversification, hardly a buzz word at the time, required capital, technology and human skills, all of which were and remain in short supply. Up to now we don’t have proper science lab facilities for high schools students or in which to carry out research. The one at Harrison College is best suited for a museum. Yes the plantocracy had invested in the plant and made it more efficient. But it was also easier to invest profits in Africa and elsewhere and get a 10% return for doing nothing, which is quite natural. Contrary to popular belief one goes into business primarily to make money not to develop the economy.
That said, by the 1980s and certainly the 1990s when the fate of sugar was patently clear to all the government and the private sector should have ‘intervened’ and design a clear cut agricultural policy. Here both parties must be faulted, but most of the blame lies with the previous administration. The latter sold out the country in more ways than one.
Dark Knight the man may or may not be bright, but be careful how you state the case. The statement could give readers unfamiliar with Harrison College the wrong impression about the school, especially the inherently biased who are wont to believe that anything black could be superior to theirs.
Harrison College was one of the very best institutions of its kind found anywhere in the western world and, as Oxford and Cambridge will attest, noted for the quality of scholars it produced. Four Rear Admirals passed through its portals, and so too the only Negro, Henderson Clarke, to win a case at the world court before returning home. Others, black and white, attained prominent positions in the world of academe and elsewhere. For this we must give thanks to the white Headmaster. That the school is no longer what it used to be is a testament to the declining state of our socio-cultural environment.
That a person did not demonstrate ‘brightness’ at school does not mean he is of limited intellect. The men who founded Kentucky Fry Chicken and Disneyland never finished high school. Bill Gates (Microsoft) dropped out of university after a year, so too Austin Clarke. At Combermere not much was expected of my class. Today, with the exception of one who was too poor to live and a couple I’m unable to track down, all the others are successful professionals: chemical and mechanical engineers, psychiatrists, dentists, accountants, lawyers, professors and economists in North America and England. And so too a plethora of Harrisonians. Unlike the bright boys who ended up in the civil service they went abroad.
GBL opines it seems easier to collect in the short term than to…take a little longer to generate wealth for the country. Well in the short term prices and the cost of living will continue to rise, personal income will remain stagnant at best and debt will continue to rise. Tourism, construction and services are basically low wage industries whose employment generating capacity depends on and is severely impacted by circumstances beyond our control. To date the labour market has been and will be unable to absorb school-leavers and university graduates, which means that unemployment and under-employment will rise.
The doors to low level manpower export—seasonal migrant workers in US and Canada— are largely closed. With the supply of manpower greater than the demand, wages will likely remain stagnant or fall. Soon university arts graduates will have to settle for the clerical jobs…like bank tellers… normally reserved for high school grads who will have to look elsewhere for employment. The result: diminishing returns to investment in education for both the individual and the country. Given this scenario, optimism notwithstanding, it is difficult to see anything other than ongoing progressive retrogression. The subject of education will be addressed at a later date.
BAFBFP suggests our population is too small to support the manufacture of processed foods and we should look toward semi-processed goods. Externally determined market prices and high media costs are cited as impediments. I’m talking about small industries. Like sugar, the vast majority of today’s mega businesses began as small enterprises. Am I to understand that Bajans don’t eat and drink? It wouldn’t cost a fortune to start small and service local demand.
Fish is a natural chemical free product and more healthy that imported meat and meat products. A constant supply of low cost fish would more than offset the increasing high costs of meat and meat products. Consumers will have a little more money to spend on other things, enhance employment and revenue for government. The same is true for the other products alluded to. If there was no external demand for our fish a certain country would not be in the process to take them out of our waters.
Flying fish is a rare, unique commodity not much known outside the region. The fact that it is a delicacy in some high-end hotels suggests there is a market, and by extension fish related items. People can’t buy what they can’t get or don’t know about. Perhaps our problem is not cost of production per se but the lack of vision, knowledge about the world, organization, market targeting and penetration.
Remember the shirt jack? Many moons ago the manager of a large department store in Toronto saw a friend of mine with one, fell in love with it and expressed an interest. My friend approached his friend at Mapps, apprised him of the possibilities and requested a few to present Canadian business houses; and was told that he would have to buy them. Where is Mapps today?
A large order for shirts from Germany fell by the wayside. True we could not fill it. But they were shirt factories in some of the islands (Guyana and Trinidad) through which we could have out-sourced—they make some of the parts and we put them together. Outsourcing was not a novel idea at the time. Boeing, Airbus and General Motors are basically assembly plants. But not only did we not understand; among other things we wanted the whole hog or nothing.
Sears fell in love with a mahogany desk on display at a show and placed an order for 200 which also fell by the wayside. We had the skills and know-how but not the mahogany. It occurred to no one that the mahogany could have been imported from Honduras. Nor have we thought of planting the trees.
In the 1940s and 50s they were black business houses like the Maxwells, Webster, Stuart and Sampson and the Tudors on the island. These businesses were started by persons without a high school education. James Tudor had what operated a successful franchise at a time when franchising was in its infancy in North America. Few of their offspring headed for a university education, but none got involved to carry on the business. As a result they all went under.
Then Dipper came along and placed business in black hands, the idea being that they would help other blacks to start their own business. Wishful thinking. Only about three of them are alive today including Rayside and Leacock which are now foreign owned. Meanwhile a young, white Harrisonian left the bank to enter his father’s small business in Roebuck Street. Today he is a very successful businessman. Are whites smarter and better disposed than blacks? Does the now generation have the smarts, integrity and desire to go into business for themselves? Or would history be repeated if given a leg up by the current administration?
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.