Hi David:
I noticed that only Hartley Henry’s clever and impressive redefinition of Solutions Barbados was carried in today’s nation, and not my rebuttal. I am asking you to allow us to respond.
Solutions Barbados is very concerned with all of the principal problems that hinder Barbados’ and therefore, every resident’s development. We have defined workable solutions to these problems and published them on 1st July 2016 on SolutionsBarbados.com for public discussion and improvement. They encompass: governance, regulations, criminal justice, procurement, education, transportation, health, welfare, business development, taxation, agriculture, and national infrastructure. All of these comprise Barbados’ economy.
With workable solutions in hand, we then invited the other political parties to implement them. Being aware that both parties have not implemented similar solutions despite 15 years of my active lobbying, we also invited persons to consider running in the next general elections in order to implement the necessary structural changes to the economy.
We recognize that in 1991, the NDP had a superior message and more accomplished candidates, and the time was ideal – since they were the formal opposition during a recession. Yet they could not convince the electorate that they were more capable then a party with less opposition members.
The Caribbean has been run by single professionals and former employees who have, by any reasonable measure, generally mismanaged the public services and their national economies. The problem appears to be one of individual preparation. They were simply not properly prepared to manage, and therefore, not capable of managing a national economy.
We are convinced that employers, who risk starting a business and employing others, is a good preparatory path. However, they need to demonstrate that they can improve their product and expand their business through increased employment. They also need to have survived an economic down-turn by choosing reduced profits in order to maintain their employees. Therefore, we set the standard at 10 employees for a decade, or thereabout.
Given that most people are employees, we understand that they would rightly feel uncomfortable if their only experience of an employer is someone who was more focused on increasing profit rather than on improving the product. Please note that an employer includes: engineers (like myself), doctors, lawyers, contractors, merchants, hair dressers, landscapers, barbers, and every other professional and non-professional who took the risk of starting their own business and employing others. We just happen to believe that such a path better prepares an individual to implement the published solutions.
If someone can identify a better preparation path, then please provide it.
Best regards,
Grenville Phillips II
Founder, Solutions Barbados
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.