I AM REMINDED by the picture Blood Diamond where the peasants were used as labourers but the real benefits of the diamonds were exported by the owners of the mines.

Currently, China is mining the minerals from many poor African countries in exchange of token developmental aid.

We see some Chinese companies receiving many building contracts here in Barbados, while our native contractors who pay decent wages to ensure workers enjoy a decent standard of living are closing down. When will we understand home drum beats first?

I had a dream that the Chinese were running the Transport Board, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Barbados Water Authority and the reason the Government of the day gave was that they could do it cheaper because they have their own bus drivers, nurses and doctors. Caribbean countries such as Trinidad have allowed foreign fishing fleets to fish within their territorial waters unhindered.

China is going around the world buying up minerals and even asking countries such as Brazil to plant food for Chinese citizens, thus we can also sell all the flying fish in the Caribbean sea to china to feed its population.

Self preservation should be paramount for every government. Any future world war will be fought over food, water, or energy. We as a people operate as if we are new to money and forsake long-term benefits for short-term gratification.

We tend to treat any person dressed in a business suit of a different complexion with such reverence that we are blinded to common-sense. This indicates persons of inferiority complex displaying the long-term effect of mental slavery.

I wish to remind the decision makers who have the mandate to be craftsmen of our fate, be it politicians or civil servants, to put country first and not social or monetary tokens of appreciation.

Please be reminded of the below Indian Creed which is as relevant today as it was hundreds of years ago.

Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught, will we realise we cannot eat money.

– MAC HOLDER