Submitted by William Skinner
The Hal Austin blog will return in two weeks.
– David
Once again the powers that be, following blindly the developmental models of larger countries have blundered in their attempts to beautify Bridgetown. In this case, they spent millions of dollars to create a green space and forgot the vendors that are forced to set up their trade all over the place, in order to make a living. Supporting our families should be the goal of every single man or woman however believing we can only do so in urine infested allies is not my idea of black development. Also constructing ugly bits of rubbish with no proper storage facilities only encourages rodents. I am sorry but if this is all that black business people are going to aspire to in 2014, I politely ask to be excluded from that fan club.
I have marched with the vendors and have paid very close attention and support those who rightly defend them. I remain fully committed to regularizing vending but I fear that some people who are defending the vendors are also bit short sighted. In many cases they seem to suggest that the vendors should just be allowed to ply their trade but they seldom speak of really lifting the vendors up to another level. This vending issue is as old as slavery itself and colonialism. There were direct attempts by our colonial masters to stop Black people from vending and when several Black Barbadians returned from Panama with funds to buy land and businesses, there was legislation enacted to prevent their economic empowerment.
My involvement with beach vendors over thirty years ago taught me a very hard lesson-our politicians will exert any amount of effort to accommodate those who don’t look like them. I have seen the so-called planners fail to get the true economic rewards from St. Lawrence Gap and the famous Rockley Beach because they paid more attention to the propaganda of hoteliers, some local, who in my opinion were more racist than anything else. Those of us, who have addressed the designed exclusion of the small man from the bounty of the tourist industry, are usually called alarmists. Don’t forget how the beach vendors were harassed by the hoteliers and the politicians. Eventually they put some of them in little stalls. We note, how easily, the big boys have successfully moved their operations from Broad Street to Warrens while the vendors are all over the place like business vagrants. This is a very sad commentary on our country as we move toward fifty years of independence.
Once again the true feelings of the political management class toward the small struggling black business person are being exposed. What would it have taken to bring the vendors into the mainstream of economic planning? Why did they not understand that proper facilities provided by the state with classes in business and accounts keeping etc. could have lifted the consciousness of these creative business persons? Why could they not instil in the vendors that with proper planning, they could pass on a viable business to their children? Like everything else the BLP/DLP has turned the vendors question into a political football. It saddens all right thinking citizens that far from providing real assistance to those who want to help themselves ,these two parties have with great accuracy attached the price of a vote to every single thing they do for poor black people.
The story of Mr. Herbert Courtland, the vendor who tried to set up a shack on the green space is instructive. Here we have in 2014 and people being fired left, right and centre, a citizen trying to get away with putting up another shack. The bigger question here is: Are we the majority people going to be always by highways, byways and alleys? Are we always going to be “trying to do a little something”? I now publicly ask the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party: What are your real plans for the poor black people of our island state. Tell me why are you making spectacles of the poor and exposing them to economic humiliation while you wine and dine with the haves. Do you really care about the haves not or are they only there to prop up your selfish and self cantered ambitions? You may choose not to answer me but at least have a little chat with Mr. Courtland. Tell him and all the vendors that next time you will remember them when you upgrade Bridgetown.
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