In their next life, I would suggest that the current leadership of the Barbados Labour Party become missionaries. No other group of persons I know has come close to carrying a message of imminent rapture as has those who have for the past 30 months predicted the total destruction of Barbados and its economy.

Growing up in Barbados for the past two score and more years, I have been told that “we are living in the last days” and “Christ is about to come”.

Two things we know, for sure, are that the second coming is closer today than it was 40 years ago, and that no man knoweth the day or the hour when Christ the King shall appear. Our mandate therefore is to be prepared!

Ever since the change of government in this country 30 months ago, we have had a tri monthly avalanche of soothsayer’s advice, telling us the collapse of the Barbados economy is imminent. Indeed, two estimates debates ago, we were told the country could not have gotten through the financial year and that all systems would have grounded to a halt.

Those in the Barbados Labour Party who still have not come to terms with the election result of January 15^th 2008, have made a favorite past time of coming to the country every three months with the most outlandish of forecasts; warning that the meal we eat could be our last and that the job we have and the home we possess will all be taken.

We are currently in the throes of that quarterly cycle, where, irrespective of whatever the Governor of the Central Bank said in his report, the analyses by some in our midst would have predictably been that once again “we are living in the worst of times” and that “collapse of the Barbados economy is imminent”.

I am not one for bringing tales out of school and am not even sure that my friend, the current Prime Minister of Barbados, the Hon. David Thompson, would appreciate my saying this, but we spent 14 long years in opposition and for most of those years, we drafted the ‘reply to the budget’, even before the budget was delivered. In other words, as opposition practitioners, there were certain things you knew you were going to say, irrespective of what the Minister of Finance actually said.

Of course, we were never as doomsday-oriented as this current bunch, but we strove, nonetheless, to get across the message that life in Barbados could be better and that the government of the day was going down the wrong road.

We were talking back then about a period when the treasury was full and the economy was operating at full throttle. The government of the day ran up in excess of $750 million in cost overruns and no one bashed an eye lid, because we all had money in our pockets, food on our tables and a roof over our heads. They were not doing anything more than what the current government is doing, but money was plentiful.

How else could they have gotten away with building a prison for twice the sum originally quoted and which we are told will now end up costing $700 million? How else could they have thrown $300 million into Greenland, $300 million into Edutech, $300 million on the new Kensington Oval, $400 million on Jaws and Gems, and a still emerging sum of several hundred million dollars on the widening of the ABC Highway? Yet, they never fixed or replaced the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. They never fixed or replaced the Geriatric Hospital or any of the District Hospitals across Barbados.

We are talking about a period when in excess of 23 consultants each carried home somewhere in the vicinity of $15 000 a month, and yet the sum total of their work does not add up to that of the lone Advisor to this Government who they insist is not worthy of a sum far less than that.

So, Prime Minister Thompson and I understand the nature of opposition politics and the practice of throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at the government of the day. We criticized them for their management of UDC and RDC. They repaired in 14 years less homes than Denis Lowe and Chris Sinckler have in the past 30 months. They built less homes for purchase in 14 years than Michael Lashley has done in two and a half years. They sunk QEH to record lows, to the point where we dreaded going there and where we wished our friends and relatives “fond farewell” on admission to the then facility. Yet today, with all the work that Donville Inniss is doing and has done, they are predictably burying their heads in the sand with respect to the gradual progress that is being made at that institution.

So opposition politics, as practiced by this current Labour Party administration is nothing new, but we have never had it pursued with such venomous anger and determination. Every quarterly report from the opposition tells us that the economy is on a precipice and about to crash land. Owen Arthur, Clyde Mascoll and Mia Mottley have effectively run out of verbs and adjectives. They are beginning to repeat themselves.

When Owen Arthur finished his speech in the estimates last year, my knees were knocking. I couldn’t focus on the road while driving home. I told the wife ‘it is over; let’s get the family out of here’. Owen Arthur, I must confess, frightened the living daylights out of me. Mia Mottley had me trembling and Clyde Mascoll made me believe that by now we would have been feasting on each other, as human beings. Yet, somehow, miraculously, we are here one year later and none of the predictions has come to past.

On the regional and international scene, the aforementioned three acknowledge we are in the midst of a global economic recession and that the region is going through its worst of times. Yet, here in Barbados, when the Devil’s horse kicks them, they insist that David Thompson, Darcy Boyce and David Estwick are the ones who brought about and are perpetuating this downturn.

Clyde Mascoll is part of a team of consultants being used by the government of the Cayman Islands to help defend its failings. Ask him to share the advice he has given them for defending the poor performance of that economy. The same applies to Owen Arthur in Antigua. Somehow, they can trace the poor performance of other regional economies to the vagaries of the global economic recession, but the slowdown here in Barbados is the fault of the government of the day. What economic voodoo!!

Somehow, politicians fail to remember that the electorate is constant and that the same electorate who heard Clyde Mascoll as Opposition Leader also heard him as Minister of State. They recall the days of Jaws and the touring of Eastry House. They also recall him lying prostrate before Owen Arthur saying he would accept anything his new master gave. Many too are still recovering from the pain of the phantom experience, known otherwise as Hardwood Housing. I do not know how Clyde Mascoll could call a radio show on a Tuesday as an Opposition politician and demand to be invited the following Sunday as an independent economist. But, this is the same Clyde Mascoll who left Parliament one Tuesday as Leader of the Opposition and returned the next Tuesday as a Government minister. So with Clyde Mascoll, we know that when it comes to promoting a personal agenda, all things are possible.

The illness of the Prime Minister clearly created a difficulty for the opposition Barbados Labour Party, as for the past four months they have found it difficult to sustain momentum in terms of their gloom and doom campaign. They are human beings and they are politicians. Therefore they knew that to flog a man while he is down would not have been appreciated by the country. So, they bated their time and from the moment PM Thompson temporarily relinquished the reins of office two weeks ago, it became hunting season for the guys in the BLP and their sidekicks in the media. The person who wrote the Albert Branford article last week had no bounds. Never before have we witnessed such journalistic savagery in this country of ours. But, these are the signs of the times.

I am therefore now of the view that despite the fact that my friend Prime Minister David Thompson is with his family battling a life-changing circumstance, I don’t want the critics and the commentators, columnists, partisans, yard-fowls or anonymous bloggers to feel deprived. Let them unleash their anger. Let them bring on their criticisms. Don’t let his illness be an excuse for the critics and, in particular the Opposition, to stem the tributaries of patriotism which have so ceaselessly coursed through your veins.

As those who feel stymied by the lack of muscular politics at this time, “country comes before one man!” The Prime Minister has spent nearly 25 years in parliament, 30 plus years in politics and has probably met and worked with or against five of our Prime Ministers. I think he can take any ball that is delivered to him personally or his government. If I was in any doubt, Reverend Guy Hewitt’s careful reading of Psalm 40 convinces me that our leader will return with a new song for those critics.

This is still a democracy and, even though ours is a fragile flower not uninfluenced in colour or texture by base political, financial and corrupting influences, let it bloom. So I say to the economic gurus, start the debate! Get cracking. Let’s hear your most considered views and theories.

I am no longer going to be blamed for trying to protect my friend’s “halo” as one BLP operative accused me last week.

In the last few weeks, we have heard that Barbados is on auto-pilot, we are rudderless and adrift and there is no economic leadership.  The facts clearly do not support this contention.

The US stock market crashed in October of 2008 signaling for most people that the world was in the worst economic recession since 1938.  As an immediate response, in November of 2008 Prime Minister Thompson and the DLP government put together a non partisan team of experts to help come up with a plan of action for Barbados.  After careful consideration of the various options the Thompson administration developed a comprehensive program to pilot the Barbados economy through what it knew would be a most difficult period.  As part of its program, the government moved quickly to bolster the foreign exchange reserves (we now have more reserves than we had in 2007, when there was no global crisis), ensuring the safety of the Barbados dollar.

The government set up a support scheme for the tourism industry which has kept hotels open, people employed and the economy ticking over.  The government expanded the social safety net to protect the most vulnerable in the society, implemented a modest stimulus program and is providing various forms of support to the private sector.

I cannot claim to be a great economist, but if someone had told me that the world would be two years into the worst recession since 1938 and no one would be talking of an IMF program or devaluation of the Barbados dollar, I would have taken that as an excellent outcome in the circumstances and given the leadership some credit for its planning and foresight.

If they had told me that confronted with the worst recession an independent government in Barbados has had to face, the government has not laid off workers, and in fact, is offering support to the private sector, I would have taken as an excellent outcome in the circumstances and given the leadership some credit for its planning and foresight.

Those who are suggesting a lack of leadership are conveniently ignoring that the estimates for the current financial year have been passed in parliament, and a Medium Term Fiscal Strategy was published in April 2010.  The estimates and the Medium Term Fiscal Strategy provide clear guidance for economic policy in Barbados.  The nay-sayers have not pointed out that as a result of the current plan, government spending is down by $93 million so far for the year. As a result of detailed planning and careful implementation the Thompson administration has been able to find $93 million in efficiency savings without curtailing social services.

This economy is far from being on auto pilot.  The comments from the dooms day prophets are uncannily similar to the comments coming from the Republicans and their spokespersons in their attacks on President Obama in the United States.  But that’s what you get from bitter, arrogant, power hungry people who think that because of their pedigree they have a right to rule.

The fact of the matter is that the global economy recession has proven to be deeper and more resilient than most forecasted, and we all have to be patient. President Obama has told this to Americans. The new Prime Minister of Great Britain has told this to the British. Administrations in Canada, Eastern Europe, China and as far as Japan and Australia are saying the same thing. The only persons in positions of influence and responsibility who see the time as right to ‘go down the wicket and play rash shots’ is the leadership of the Barbados Labour Party. They want the David Thompson Government to swipe and get out cheaply so they can resume the innings from which they were fired 30 months ago.

Mind you, these last three months was a period when the Prime Minister of this country first broke news of his illness and reduced work load. It was a period, when the government of the day was obviously in a state of shock and distraction. Yet it is an economic quarter in which this “auto-pilot and rudderless” government, despite the entreaties of the Opposition Leader to delay them, opened two new Embassies in two major emerging economies.

If you are talking about a government that is thinking strategically, the historic establishment of diplomatic, investment and tourism offices in Brazil and China has to be given credit. How we have done without them for the last decade speaks to insular and backward thinking on the part of the previous administration.

China is the most populous nation on earth. Its economy is huge, opportunities are endless and yet it falls to a “rudderless and auto-pilot” government to insist that these were priorities. I salute Prime Minister David Thompson for that.

As if to confirm the point I am making – and other progressive citizens and entrepreneurs – have made; even before the ink was dry a new air service out of Brazil was launched. A new tourism market was opened and new business ventures are being explored both by traditional businesses and new entrepreneurs. This from a government on “auto-pilot and which is drifting.”

I am told of the story of a meeting between the President of Panama and Prime Minister Thompson in Cancun in March 2010 leading to the signing, within a record three months, of a Double Taxation Agreement with Panama and preparatory talks with Panamanian airline COPA to establish an air service out of Panama and a visit to Barbados by the Vice President of Panama. This record still apparently stands to be condemned by some as a government on auto-pilot and rudderless.

Last month, I saw billion dollar development after development that have the ability to transform our country being approved, starting in St. Lucy with the Pickering Project involving black Barbadian investors, Canadians and others. Seeing ordinary St. Lucy folk in the equation made me feel good as a Bajan.

Then, the Prime Minister announced that his last act before leaving Barbados on extended leave was the signing of the Four Seasons Agreement/Guarantee in which the Leader of the Opposition plays a major role and stands to benefit immensely. That apart, this “visionless, rudderless, drifting and auto-pilot government” once it got those two projects under its belt, then turned its attention to the major tourism project to be constructed at Merricks. Now approved, the developers are waiting on the Prime Minister’s return to break ground and get it going.

In the coming weeks, there shall be the start up of the waste to energy project and the water mains upgrade programme; each valued in excess of $50 million and creating hundreds of new jobs for Barbadians. Yet, they say, nothing is happening.

Of course, it was an “auto-pilot” government that in 2010, and without a single hitch, hosted the ICC 20/20 competition without all of the controversy, cost and inane decision making that characterized the Cricket World Cup!

These are the big ticket items. To them I have to add the new Cultural Industries policy that was languishing under the previous government for years and that this government endorsed and will implement as the fifth plank of economic development.

No less so the hundreds of Barbadians who have received keys to houses at Marchfield and – next – Coverley, followed by Greens and Constant in St. George, Country Road and Tweedside Road in St. Michael and Four Hill in St. Peter…to mention but a few. No doubt the National Youth Forum launch and the imminence of a National Youth Policy would not be of interest to those who believe that we are on auto-pilot. They downplay the fact that even in these hard times, we are hosting thousands of children in summer camps and have placed hundreds of thousands of dollars at the disposal of ordinary Barbadians to further the development of communities. Yet, this is an auto-pilot government.

The Leader of the Opposition says she wants a Budget. No doubt she does. For this, she and Cynthia Forde can dress up, parade on television for a while and “share some lashes”. At least it would bring Mr. Duguid back to Barbados and permit Owen Arthur to be marked as “present” for a change.

The Prime Minister is in the fortunate position that he can have a budget, report to the nation and have a conversation with the people at any time. He has done that every quarter since being elected. He has a record that is worth defending. We have weathered the economic storms. He has galvanized the nation around timeless themes that place our humanity above our economy. He maintains that ‘Man does not live by bread alone’ and that there is more to Barbados than its economy.

The dooms day stories and prognoses shall continue for another two weeks. We shall be told all that which we were told last year and the year before in even more colorful language. The recurring theme shall continue – the economy is about to collapse, the economy is about to collapse.

There shall be an abatement of this for the next three months and then the chorus shall start all over again – the economy is about to collapse, the economy is about to collapse and this shall continue right up to the next election and thereafter when another five year cycle of economic doom and gloom forecasting shall commence. Mark my word…even when the economy picks up and the official reports reflect this, you shall still hear from Clyde Mascoll, Owen Arthur and Mia Mottley that we are “on the brink of disaster” and “the economy is about to collapse”. After all, for them, Barbados is just an economy. What else can they say?