“They can because they think they can” is the motto of The Lodge School which I believe celebrates its 269th anniversary this year. It holds a special place in my heart since it was the school my brother and many of my cousins and childhood friends attended. Although its fortunes have waned somewhat in recent years, Lodge School produced a number of Barbados scholars and boys who made names for themselves in many areas of endeavour. It even boasts the first Barbadian to win a medal at the Olympics.
These achievements were perhaps driven to some extent by that motto “They can because they think they can”; in other words, a positive approach. We need this type of inspiration now more than ever. We can’t continue to be satisfied with what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, although of course we mustn’t change for the sake of changing – we must change for the better.
All this was brought to mind by two publications I read recently. The first, Tiny Barbuda Grapples With Rising Seas, which described the effects of climate change on the island. What interested me is the fact that while Barbadians often use our small size and lack of natural resources as an excuse not to help ourselves, Barbuda, which is a mere 62 square miles with a third occupied by lagoons and wetlands, has a culture which is firmly based in “living off the land” and is determined to be sustainable.
With the advent of climate change, they’re struggling to overcome these challenges so as to sustain this tradition of feeding themselves protein-wise and-vegetable wise.
Climate change hasn’t only affected the land, but the coral reefs which were their main source of protein, so they are developing aquaponics (growing fish and vegetables in a closed system) in order to provide some food security. In fact, the entire population is being educated in aquaponics technology.
The other article was a Reuters report that Haiti, “the Western Hemisphere’s least developed country, has made a surprising entry into the high-tech world with its own Android tablet . . .”. A Haitian-founded company has begun manufacturing the low-cost tablet called Sûrtab, a made-up name using the French adjective ‘sûr’, meaning ‘sur’, to suggest reliability. Sergine Brice is proud of her job. “I never imagined I could one day make a tablet by myself,” she said. “When I arrived and realised the job deals with electronic components, I was wondering if I would be able to do it. But when I finished my first tablet . . . I felt an immense pleasure,” she said. “Haitians have in our minds the idea that nothing can be done in this country. I proved that yes, we Haitians have the capacity to do many things. It’s not just Americans or Chinese. We’ve got what they’ve got, so we can do it too.”
“A product such as Sûrtab shows that Haitians are not just destined for low-wage, low-skilled jobs,” said John Groarke, country director for USAID. “It’s the sort of high-skilled job that the country needs to work its way out of poverty.”
We in Barbados need to explore all opportunities available to us. How many more malls and supermarkets do we need? We no longer repair anything. We replace. We think the world owes us a living. Have we lost confidence in our ability?
It was therefore so exciting and encouraging to hear last week that a local company, Caribbean LED Lighting (CLL), had won a contract which would earn Barbados a considerable sum of foreign exchange. What was even more interesting was that the company had won the contract ahead of such giants as Samsung, Phillips and Osram.
At the opening of their new location in Lower Estate, St Michael earlier this year, the chief executive officer noted that the company had distributors in Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, St Vincent, Turks & Caicos, Puerto Rico and Suriname; created new “green collar” jobs in Barbados, and the team of high-calibre individuals was making CLL a Bajan and Caribbean success story. He added: “We no longer have to import these products from the USA or elsewhere. We can make them just as good – if not better – right here!”
This success should go a long towards restoring our self-confidence. “We can because we think we can.”
• Dr Frances Chandler is a former independent senator.
