The idea of Barbados is in danger of being undermined if the political system fails to renew and replenish on an ongoing basis its leadership stock from the best and brightest of Barbados. – Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
I SUPPOSE THAT we should tell him to “butt out”.
In a scholarly article carried by Barbados Today recently, Prime Minister of St Vincent Dr Ralph Gonsalves stopped short of saying that Barbados needs a fresh Government.
He says that the idea of Barbados “encompasses more than a nation state or a natural community”.
From way back in the 1940s, Barbados had an oversupply of talent that it exported throughout the Caribbean region. Be it in teachers who enhanced higher education at schools even as far north as Jamaica, in keeping order with policemen and detectives who were needed in St Lucia and The Bahamas, in farming as in the sugar industry in Guyana, in technical expertise as in Aruba in the oil industry, and in countless other areas.
People from the Windward Islands used Barbados as a convenient market for the disposal of fruit and vegetables, and for opportunities to improve their status or to cohabit. Most foreign embassies headquartered here to serve both the Windward and the Leeward Islands. Doctors’ and lawyers’ services were sought here or were offered in the other Caribbean islands.
Barbados was seen as a mecca. It offered all of the services that a big country could offer. Earlier in the 20th century it was one of the recruiting grounds for people destined for Panama – the Wild Coot’s grandfather was one of those people (Jacob Taylor). When there was a surplus of labour, the United States, Britain and Canada were places that absorbed already literate and skilled people for their hospitals and transport services.
Little wonder then that Prime Minister Gonsalves was moved to write his thesis. He knows Barbados through and through. You are encouraged to read his exposition, but I believe that he fell short of calling for a change in the present direction in which we are going. What else does he mean by “to renew and to replenish on an ongoing basis its leadership stock from the best and brightest of Barbados”? Since when is the renewal necessary? From 2008? That would be apparent since that is the genesis of the slippery slide of the economy.
We used to balance our budget, that is, live within our means, but this lot, including the chief economist, have been printing money left, right and centre, creating a huge deficit and stubbornly refusing to check spending. No notice is taken of advice from world organisations. Bad concessions are granted; one wonders who are to benefit or how Barbados’ foreign exchange will increase. People are appointed to boards of directors willy-nilly. No Wild Coot, you have to contribute a million dollars. And boast about it too!
We ask ourselves why people are advocating pushing down Almond . . . . Artisans are suffering as they see their work absorbed by the mass production of huts.
The present lay-offs, now necessary, will widen the gap between the rich and poor. Who are the rich and who are the poor? The budget target is predicated on the wrong premise, and even value added tax will suffer. Are many of those now laid off the ones whose bought votes were responsible for the Government’s success? We could say it serves them right, except that some innocent people have been caught in the trap.
Hear Dr Gonsalves: “I am of the considered opinion that Errol Barrow is the greatest leader that our CARICOM region has thrown up since universal suffrage.”
Our Central Bank makes a loss, compliments of the Government, which is unable to help it now.
Renew and replenish leadership, my backfoot.
But isn’t Barrow’s leadership forgotten now by the silence?
Harry Russell is a banker. Email quijote70@gmail.com
