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Barbados Small and Proud – Mia Mottley and Rihanna Successfully Negotiating the Global Space

How many times have we heard references made to Barbados being a country punching above its weight? Through the years the comment made but former United Nations Secretary General Koffi Anan has been striped of its obvious meaning by political opportunists.  The challenges for a 21 by 14 small developing island with an open economy…

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National Hero Rihanna
The Honourable Prime Minister Mia Mottley

How many times have we heard references made to Barbados being a country punching above its weight? Through the years the comment made but former United Nations Secretary General Koffi Anan has been striped of its obvious meaning by political opportunists. 

The challenges for a 21 by 14 small developing island with an open economy in a competitive global space will always be many. While it is true Barbados lost its leadership anchor in recent years by our high standards there is hope, as a people we must never surrender to despair.

The list was determined by four main metrics: money, media, impact and spheres of influence. For political leaders, we weighed gross domestic products and populations; for corporate leaders, revenues and employee counts; and media mentions and reach of all. The result is a collection of women who are fighting the status quo.

FORBES

The blogmaster has attended several social events in recent weeks and observed up close the unbridled well spirited Bajan. We have a core of well meaning Barbadians who are waiting for astute leadership from all spheres of society to rekindle that indomitable spirit which provoked Koffi Anan’s comment. 

In the respected international Forbes publication for 2022 TWO Barbadians are listed in the Top 100 Most Powerful Women. The international pop star, business woman and National Hero Robyn ‘Rihanna’ Fenty at #73 and Prime Minister Mia Mottley at #98. Some will disagree with the criteria used to determine the selections, however, it does not change the fact a global opinion shaper selected TWO Barbadian women to be on the prominent list.

The blogmaster is hopeful our small country and population- although limited in natural resources however rich in human resource talent- will never stop believing that the world is our oyster. If there is any doubt be inspired by home grown talent National Hero Rihanna and Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

57 responses to “Barbados Small and Proud – Mia Mottley and Rihanna Successfully Negotiating the Global Space”

  1. John Avatar
    John

    Hants on December 18, 2022 at 8:56 PM said:

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    The new reservoir at Castle Grant is across the road for the old one.

    If BWA had problems keeping water levels up in the old one during drought and many were inconvenienced, do you think a new reservoir across the road is really going to make any difference?

  2. John Avatar
    John

    TheOGazerts on December 18, 2022 at 8:26 PM said:
    Rate This

    @John
    Would be interesting to hear your thoughts on our ‘water scarcity’.
    I left home fully unaware that we were a water scarce country and at that time, there were standpipes at almost every corner.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    The ratio, available water/population, determines if a country is water scarce.

    We produce about 44 million gallons of water per day from our underground resources and our population is about 300,000.

    Some of the 44 million goes to agriculture so we are in theory good for 100+ gallons per person per day.

    Leakage reduces the amount of water per person further and if we were to bring in another 100K, particularly if they had to live in lush green surroundings, the amount of water per person would fall, perhaps drastically.

    Sam Lords monstrosity is going to be a severe drain on our water resources. My experience with hotels in the 80’s tells me our guests consumed about double what we did back then.

    From hiking I know a person does not really need more than a couple of gallons of potable per day to survive.

    During slavery, there were no standpipes at any corner and no house had piped water.

    Most plantations had tank(s) in the yard which were filled by catching rain water off the roofs during the wet season.

    That’s probably where everyone on the plantation got their water.

    I know of some examples of smaller tanks lined with copper in some plantation houses which provided solar heating. I was involved in a renovation 40 years ago and saw how it worked, remarkable.

    Many houses were located close to the coast where water wells could be dug and water could easily be drawn from a few feet.

    I have dug in the sand from when I was a boy and seen the water.

    So, in theory, how can any Barbados be deemed water scarce?

    Any house can catch rain water and in our case any house close to the sea can dig a well!!

    But here’s the problem, health issues can and do arise.

    Government ends up supplying water from whatever water resources are available and those are limited by rainfall and catchment size, both fixed.

    If demand exceeds supply, then there is a water shortage and is an indicator of water scarcity.

    Where I live gets water from the St. George Valley which holds 60% of the available water resources in Barbados.

    There is always water, so far but I know the day is coming when it will be rationed.

    I know developers of some of the desirable spots in the Heights and Terraces receive permission for development only if they release the GOB from the liability of having to supply water.

    Take for example Fort George Heights.

    It is supplied from Fort George Reservoir, but so too are all elevations down to 200 feet below. It stands to reason that the closer you build your house to the reservoir the more likely you are to go without water as the lower elevations “suck” it all away from you.

    I live 100 feet below so I get all the water I want!!

    But I have worked on water storage systems in the Fort George area without which persons in that will at times have no water.

    Same principle is in operation up in St. Joseph.

    The higher you build, the more chance you will go without “Company” water, and unless you catch the rain you are in potter.

    Part of life.

    If you look at it overall, there is a fixed amount of water from our underground resources but a variable population.

    It doesn’t matter if Chelston Braithwaithe or I get all the water we want for the time being or if there are floods in Barbados.

    All that matters is that fixed volume underground, housing development …. and population growth!!.

    Why do we need housing development?

  3. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    More gun violence.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/vaughan-condo-shooting-1.6690582

  4. John Avatar
    John

    Another way of looking at water scarcity is to measure what percentage of the available water resource is used up.

    In our case, our available yearly water resource was in 1995/6 completely allocated.

    If we look at BWA extractions after that, they are constant as no more water is available for extraction.

  5. interrogation Avatar
    interrogation

    The Black campaigner Ngozi Fulani who was in the UK news for being questioned by the Queens Consort about where she was from and replied Hackney which caused derision and more interrogation to cross examine her if she was from Africa or Caribbean which she replied both was in fact born in Kilburn to Barbadian immigrant parents.

  6. John Avatar
    John

    Bajans still punching way above their weight and achieving remarkable results.

  7. Hants Avatar
    Hants

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