LOCALISATION FIRST
Monday, February 22nd, 2010DENIS KELLMAN’S COLUMN- THE DEBATE
JULY 11, 2007
The late Right Excellent Errol Bar-row always said that he was prepared to deal with persons who were offering opportunities. He said that he was not interested with persons offering aid with conditions.
I could imagine what he would have said about those persons who are procrastinating about Stanford’s 20/20 World series. This tournament will allow some of the Caribbean Governments to earn their way after spending millions of dollars on infrastructure for the World Cup. These properties have to be paid for and no soft loans can correct these problems. It seems to me that we do not mind receiving soft loans, although we do not have any means of earning revenue to repay the loans.
The 20/20 series will allow us an opportunity to service our cricketing debt. Everything that is good seems to be caught up in controversy. This tournament is a blessing in disguise and offers tremendous opportunities to all players.
The WICB should be happy to sit clown with Mr. Stanford and speedily resolve this problem. I have said previously that WICB should have endorsed Stanford’s plan, and that they should have been the one negotiating on his behalf with the ICC . We in the Caribbean have an opportunity to be leaders in something again and the originality of this concept should be exploited.
In the lead up to World Cup, I said that this issue should have been seen as a national issue and the various Governments should have played a major role in administering the tournament.
It is clear, the Caribbean is well positioned when it comes to educated persons, but these persons seem to lack wisdom and understanding. These values cannot be inculcated by only using the textbook. The Caribbean, because of its dependence on the text book has now deprived itself of forward thinking persons who have been ignored. What is required is the right blend, because we have over used theory instead of blending it with the practical. This approach has led persons to be more interested in acquiring a piece of paper instead of appreciating the virtues of thinking.
We are still stagnated in the belief that we cannot be leaders but must be followers. We are quick to tell originators what the world is doing without having confidence in oneself.
Small Caribbean states must understand that if they try copying all international standards, they will find themselves lagging behind, because these standards were created to give the originators the advantage. We are different and must understand that what is good for the goose is not good for the wood dove. If the wood dove is not happy with a concept of a house it should find something that is more suitable instead of giving up.
We in the Caribbean have always exploited our players to the advantage of foreign players. It cannot he accepted that if we treat our own properly, everybody else would want to be part of what we have to offer. Instead, we continue to offer all sorts of concessions to foreign investors who are in-transit. These persons exploit our concessions and then move to suit the market.
This major problem in dealing with our own cause us to keep our neighbours poor. We did not mind keeping the property transfer taxes high when locals were selling, but now the locals have sold all their land on the West Coast and the new owners have built their condos and are preparing to sell their properties before election we can promote the virtues. These new owners are now being reminded of the new cash flow and not to forget the ones responsible for this new wealth creation.
The new tax change will see Government giving up $40m to these land developers. These persons did not force anybody to act, and should not be blamed for this new bounty. These persons will have more money, that would have gone to Government to look after the needs of workers to buy out the masses. Apparently, we should not worry about this, because in return
Government have requested that 25% of any future development be given to the poor. How this will be executed, the country is still waiting to hear.
It is regrettable that a country that brags internationally about its progress and has given its people Free Secondary Education for about 45 years can still be asking the owners of land to provide house spots for the poor even though we as a Parliament celebrated the agreement to abolish slavery.
I must admit that this Government has turned back the hand of the clock on this issue. This new economic planning when matched to Kellmanomics is short in social thinking and will be degrading to all self respecting Barbadians. The social needs of this country cannot be left directly to a too few. This has now given the lie to what occurred in 1981 when the BLP claimed they got the plantations to give up their hand.
Mr. Vernon Smith has to be smiling because it was he and Mr. Barrow who espoused the true reason for the plan. A leopard has a way of showing its true spots.
The unions, Government and the Private Sector should have openly endorsed Kellmanonics, but it will not occur. Jealousy will stop this from being implemented. The unions, the chief beneficiary, has not uttered one word on it so far. While they have not done what is socially correct, the workers are being forced back by 300 years in their development. It is clear that some persons do not want to see local workers as equal partners.
This country Barbados owes all its development to its workers and investors. When we opened the Development Bank it was for this said reason. We understood how local development would help investors, workers and Government.
The Development of Barbados must be done by the people of Barbados, and how we treat them must be attractive to those looking to invest here. The present system allows foreign investors to be happy at the expense of local players. These investors understand the importance of their players and they prefer to bond with their connections.
The present occurrence with the Chinese and steel is not surprising to me, because 1 have already said that this will only be an issue when it reaches the top. I also said that the banks will only cry out when bank loans are sourced outside of the country. It is alright to speak globalisation when it is not affecting you, but we should understand that localisation should be practised first. We are too selfish.
In Barbados we pay attention to the wrong people for the wrong reason, but we know their importance at death. We saw this example on Tuesday when we attended the funeral of late Carl Johnson and Marlene Cozier. These funerals were literally from the same area, but were able to attract large gatherings because of them and their families. Another example was when Randolph Harvey died and the church had only standing room. We should know how to act people to appreciate and gravitate towards us. lt is clear that we fool ourselves in terms of importance in the eyes of the public.
In Barbados we have to value the contribution of each person and it cannot be judged by a too few’. This country needs to see everyone as important and stop seeing bank accounts or classes.
1 also want to thank the international commentators who are teaching the local commentators the importance of a Dwayne Smith in a cricket side. Then again, they would prefer to criticize me for praising him. These same persons will now speak about his motivational skills to the team as if they did not hear it before.
People pay large sums to motivational speakers, but cannot appreciate motivational players like Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo and Tino Best. We praised the Australians for their motivational abilities, but criticise our own for displaying the same qualities. We are now prepared to give up everything to others and then praise them for taking what is ours with concessions from our Government. Let us start by stopping our bad habits. We always look to see what our own have on their plate and praise others for having good appetites.
Peace, love, unity, humility, wisdom, Kellmanomics and understanding.
Spencer, who is accompanied by Ambassador to the United States and the Organisation of American States Deborah-Mae Lovell, will make a presentation during the Summit on Services, which is his lead portfolio within Caricom.
