Submitted by Looking Glass
One admires the peacock for the grandeur of his plumes only to be driven away by the discordant tones of his voice. Bajan Truth deemed Dr. Worrell’s first quarter presentation to be unprofessional; his sin not “sharing objectively on the economy.” According to him Dr. Worrell, having noted that “there was a 2% drop in the economy in the economy for this quarter,” concluded the economy was steady. The conclusion is said to be untruthful because “a recession according to economic textbooks is if growth is less than 2% over a year,” and because “we experienced further 2% negative growth after losing 10% last year.”
There is no need to defend the Governor. An economic textbook defining recession as less than 2% growth over a year is yet to be written. Can the businessman who “relies on these reports to guide decisions or anticipate outcomes” be objective and truthful? One wonders if he ever looked into a textbook. Dr. Worrell might have been untruthful but the food retailer is an embarrassment to Bajan businessmen
Yes, our reserves like the economy are in deep trouble and have been so for a long time. For years we hid the truth. We have a history of borrowing to shore up reserves to meet requirements, then spend the money and borrow again to prop up the economy. The practice, a band aid solution, has had significant implications for our indebtedness and the GDP (Economists and the Bank Report). Thirty million could be indeed a strain on the foreign reserves if the government decided against going that route. Right now our foreign reserves are probably less than $1bn.
Some blame everything from government, the capitalist system and race for our current condition; yet the suggestions/solutions offered and expressed in broad generalities are essentially those handed down from on high. In the process they demonstrate vague understanding as to how the world spins and spurious knowledge about the country. Broad generalities are essentially self-defeating. We need to be specific, within the context of local resources and prevailing externalities. We have political sovereignty but remain prisoners of an international structure over which we have no control. No government however well educated can work miracles with only limited resources. To be successful the people have to pull their weight and live within their means not on borrowed time. Look around you time has expired. We are well into the 11th hour.
Development rationalised to the country’s resource capability is different from that rationalised to accommodate perceived external life styles/standards. The latter more often than not enhances dependency. A major problem underlying our development is not the economy per se, but the need to approximate what we believe to be American living standards in a hurry, and reluctance to put feet to the grind. By the sweat of the brow you should eat has fallen on deaf ears.
Foreclosures, more and more big homes coming on to the market, bailiffs kept busy and household debt reaching for the stars. Is the government and or banks to blame? About 40 of the 320 or so workers in the recent crop season were Bajan. The Community College offers a nursing programme yet we employ nurses from the Philippines and elsewhere. Is the government and or the white man responsible for our mindset?
Bajan Yankee offers a number of suggestions from accountability and wealth distribution to education. Look in your backyard supposedly awash with an overflow of resources, experience, wealth and education. Poverty abound, wealth disgustingly skewed and the majority of people living on credit. Accountability in and of itself does neither address nor solve the problem. Nor does changing the Westminster System, or a government of educated and experienced souls. We have never been short of educated and experienced people in government. Some were scholars tutored in some of the best institutions and followed the letter to the law so to speak. You don’t find experience in textbooks or the utterances of some ‘significant others.’ Experience in a highly differentiated resource limited world is not linear. The circumstances and processes are different.
We want everything from call centres to export manufacturing facilities for which we have no comparative advantage or cheap technical expertise except within the mind. We don’t even have a proper science lab to enable those inclined to do research, experiment and to innovate. The American experience cannot be replicated in Barbados? An18 month degree, a graduate in every household and a Multi-faith building only aggravates the problem. Regarding financial services Canada Tax Court recently overturned “more than 30 years of what taxpayers considered “the law” with respect to offshore trusts.”
Yes, we have a culture/mind-set that said white and foreign is right. We also have a mind-set that says we should not soil our hands, and believe the world and others owe us a living. Then there is the redistribution of wealth. Exactly what is meant and how it should be effected? Am I to understand that it is the job of government to redistribute a person’s wealth? The notion of redistribution and of equality is a useless pipe dream
Education, certification and learning are not one and the same thing. Education, the act or process of acquiring knowledge, becomes the magic wand from whence all goodness flows, a prime solution for our woes. Among other things it should inspire motivation and innovation. Really? I suppose the household and immediate surroundings don’t factor into the equation, the individual without onus. I suppose it is accidental that most of the world’s largest and most successful corporations were started by persons of limited education and without government support. Bill Gates (Microsoft) quit university after the first year. In contrast the educated, experienced, motivated and innovative souls gave us the global meltdown, not the lowdown and uneducated.
Racism: The White Man in spite of his discrimination and other attributed ills built the country and all that is therein (From Seed to Seed). Plantation economy may not have accommodated the population, but few went without food, clothing or reasonable shelter. Perhaps most importantly many supported their black offspring of whom there are many (Slavery: A Specious Dispensation). Within black Barbados discrimination, a form of racism based of the lighter shades of black and social standing, was and is in many ways worst than that experienced in black-white arena. Even in social relations preference was given to the lighter shades of black, the midnight blonde and knotty hair had to stand back. We had to raise the colour of the offspring. Today landing the job depends on pedigree and other social factors moreso than merit. Undue preoccupation with race and racism suggests a psychological deficiency that is in itself self-defeating.
The racist plantation economy produced black businessmen like the Tudors, Maxwells, and Stuart & Sampson, few of whom had much more than an elementary education. Ditto for some of the existing white companies that employ you today. My black grandfather was a successful businessman. We even had a small bank known as the Penny Bank and a few agencies. James Tudor who got his goods from a local white import/export agency was in the franchise business before it was popularized in the USA. Few of their children chose to follow in their fathers’ footsteps.
Dipper Barrow gave some like Leo Leacock (at the expense a family member), Rayside and Sam Ashby and others a flying start. Who owns these companies today? For sure the white man didn’t take them away. That two former Combermerians, hardly scholars, went to work in the city and later established successful businesses attests to the fact that possibilities existed even in plantation society. The success of changes in structure and policy however well rationalised to the economy depends in the final analysis on you the people. Champagne taste/ sweet-water coppers mindset increases our indebtedness.
PS: I understand the remainder of what was once established plantation land is up for sale. The asking price: $28 and $12 million for 2.35 and 1.96 million square feet respectively. Questions are being asked about the owner and how it was obtained. Also the recently retired top lawman in charge of the judicial system will briefly revisit his old job to help clear up the backlog. Why would one rely on someone they not only deemed unethical, but according to reports denied that person an extension? Reliable sources think it could be Kynsland/Kliko related. Be careful. The die has already been cast and ironclad. Stay tuned.
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