Submitted by Douglas
As I reflect on our 48th year of Independence and take the time made possible by this important weekend to catch up with the local news, I turned to Barbados Underground after reading most of 154 pages of Barbados Today. As I read in BT the reflections of a diverse mix of Barbadians: a volunteer Barber, Artistes, Priest, Politicians, you name them, from hey and away, I felt proud to be a Bajan. I call myself a child of Independence. I am a beneficiary of free education. Bajans were expressing their pride about being Barbadian. They spoke of what they love about our food, our traditions, our sayings, what Independence means etc.
They love this rock, they are proud of how it has shaped us etc., etc. and finally they spoke of their wish for Barbados as it celebrates 48 years of Independence. Read for example the feature on Janeil Odle, Rev. John Rogers or Akela Jones.
Then I read David’s article “Broken Trident and Broken Promises – What Next”. I share the concern that “One of the biggest disappointments for BU in the post Independence era has been our inability to capitalise on the investment of billions sunk into education to create a sustainable economic model by developing the human resource of Barbados.’’
However I did not share your view that we have “surrendered our right to mould the best society to a few members of the political class who have themselves surrendered to the money class.”
I therefore looked forward to reading the contributions as I expected this article would have stimulated some serious discussion on what we must or can do going forward. “We” here refers to Joe and Jane Citizen (rather than the politicians). Many of us long for such exchanges. I however got totally turned off by John Hanson who sought to denigrate the Prime Minister of Barbados and politicians. I asked myself if what the Barbadians spoke of in BT was of another place. I however still hope for more uplifting contributions.
I then went on to ask myself some questions which can hopefully take us into some serious discussion:
· What is Barbados?
· What have we achieved?
· What more can we achieve?
· How can we individual citizens seek to help ourselves?
As I said I want to park the politicians/the Government for the moment, and zoom in on some self-help possibilities, to focus on at least one strategy that ordinary Barbadians can use to help themselves. We complain that non-nationals are buying up Barbados, yet we are not willing to do much to create the opportunity for our indigenous business persons/ aspiring entrepreneurs.
We have SAVINGS. I will not even focus on those in the Commercial Banking sector. I will focus on the credit union sector which is perhaps about 10 to 15 percent of the domestic savings in the Commercial Bank sector. I recommend that readers spare a moment to look at the Annual Report of the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions which reports on the position of regional credit unions at December 31, 2013.
How can we help ourselves? I will zoom in on our SELF- HELP potential. As I said we do not have to go far, look at our credit unions and how they have grown since the 1980s. I will share a few statistics: [FIGURES ARE IN US$]
| Country Members | Total Shares & Deposits | Loans | Total Assets |
| Barbados | US$706,569,919 | $621,388,908 | $840,813,858 |
| Trinidad | $591,014,596 | $427,324,986 | $697,470,706 |
| Jamaica | $953,934 | $553,956,438 | $719,633,145 |
These figures paint a picture: as the smallest of the three countries Barbados has the highest level of savings (recognise the difference in currency strength). The average savings per member is approximately US$4398.00 for Barbados; US$1690 for Trinidad and US$581 for Jamaica.
Now let us assume that in Barbados every member decided to borrow Bds$1000 or US$ 500 (leaving their shares and deposits in the credit union) to invest in local businesses, focusing on new businesses or businesses started by our youth. This would immediately do two things:
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Generate additional loan activity for the credit unions ( which will benefit members)
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Create a pool of potential investment capital of Bds$ 160,654,000 (almost a 165 million)
If only 10 percent of the membership invested in this way, we still have an initial fund of 16.5 million. Imagine if there was commitment to do this for a decade or for the next 2 years as a conservative projection.
Now assume that the credit union members were to use the administrative and technology structures of the credit union movement to manage this fund, to finance viable business ventures. I mean businesses that have the potential to simultaneously transform the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Barbadians who want for example to invest in:
· Agriculture/Agribusiness
· Home Construction
· Various technology-driven ventures.
Such a venture capital mechanism would serve to do what we did for many years in Meeting Turns, Friendly Societies, Credit Unions, but it is not intended to build a Savings pool, but instead use the power of our already pooled resources to pool at a new level. Profits from businesses will return dividends to ordinary Bajans. Profits will remain at home and not be repatriated to other lands. Credit Unions will be strengthened, the business ownership base would be widened, and we would create jobs for ourselves if we choose to do business with our own. John Hanson your comments please.
BEWARE OF THE SLICKSTERS WHO MAY WANT TO TRY TO TAKE THIS AND CORRUPT IT. THE CREDIT UNION MOVEMENT IN BARBADOS DEVELOPED AND GREW IN THE 1980S BECAUSE OF THE HARD WORKING VOLUNTEERS WHO WANTED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IN RECENT TIMES THOSE PERSONS HAVE MOVED ON OR HAVE BEEN PUSHED ASIDE BY THOSE ABOUT BOARD FEES, CREDIT CARD ACCESS AND EXPENSIVE PERKS.
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