Barbados?should?have a “mega industry” built around its biggest entertainment figure, Rihanna, says principal of the University of the West Indies (UWI)?Cave Hill Campus, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles.
The academic and historian noted that Rihanna had risen from working-class origins to become a billion-dollar enterprise but this was not reflected on the island.
However, he suggested that the pop star’s global success should be used to benefit the island’s economy in the same way that Bob Marley’s fame helped to launch Jamaica’s cultural industries.
“Here is a small island trying to balance its fiscal deficit and all it needs to do so is $600 million . . . and she makes that in a month. We have no linkage between these things,” he said. (NB)