Don't Agonise! Organise! Part 6

[David Commissiong; Photo Credit:Web]

(14) Environmental Protection Projects

As a small island developing state that is located in the Atlantic ocean, Barbados is directly at risk from the negative effects of “climate change” generated by the so-called greenhouse gases produced by the large industrialized nations. Barbados is therefore entitled to seek out and to claim the grant-funding that is available under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for a multiplicity of critical environmental protection projects, ranging from reef and beach protection measures, to anti-land erosion programmes, re-forestation campaigns, hurricane risk reduction, the construction of drainage infrastructure, and water and sewage management systems.

All government departments and agencies that are involved in some way with protection of the environment should therefore be mandated to conceptualize concrete public works projects that – through the agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – could be presented to the relevant international agencies and institutions for funding.

A multiplicity of such sources of funding exists, inclusive of the UN’s Adaptation Fund, Australia Aid Program’s Adaptation To Climate Change Initiative, the World Bank’s Climate Investment Fund, Japan’s Cool Earth Partnership, the Asian Development Bank’s Cooperation Fund for the Water Sector, the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, and Germany’s International Climate Initiative, among many others.

(15) A New Relationship With Latin America

For several years now, the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been extending a hand of friendship to the Government and people of Barbados, inviting us to enter into more intimate economic, cultural and political relations with Venezuela, and through Venezuela to the rest of the sub-continent of Latin America. And the two most effective mechanisms through which such a deepening of our relationship with Latin America can take place are the Bolivarian Alliance For Latin America and the Caribbean(ALBA) and the Petro Caribe Energy Cooperation Agreement.

ALBA and Petro Caribe have been designed, not merely to enable Caribbean nations to access petroleum products at optimum prices and on preferential terms, but also to tap into sources of developmental funding for a whole range of social and economic development projects. The whole philosophy behind the Bolivarian Government’s outreach to the Caribbean is the revolutionary principle that international relations should be based on the notions of solidarity, sharing of resources, and a “prosper – thy – neighbor” attitude towards other nations.

Barbados should therefore – as a matter of urgency – sign on to both ALBA and Petro Caribe, and make full use of these institutions not only as developmental mechanisms in their own rights, but also as gateway instruments to more fully developed relations with the rest of Latin America. Indeed, Barbados needs to conceive of Latin America as a a large economic hinterland that our small city – state can provide with a multiplicity of services and products.

We should also have the vision and wisdom to perceive that our country could benefit immensely through the development of a special collaborative relationship with two neighbouring countries that just happen to be two of the most principled and progressive nations in the world – Cuba and Venezuela. Barbados should therefore seek to engage in a multifaceted economic and social cooperation and collaboration programme with these two large hemispheric neighbours, sharing and creatively combining the national strengths and resources that the three countries collectively possess.

(16) Engagement With The African Union (AU)

The 52 nation African Union (AU) – the CARICOM of Africa – has constructed a “Diaspora Initiative”, through which they are reaching out to Barbados and other countries of the African Diaspora and proposing a whole range of collaborative projects.

In the year 2012, the AU staged a Global African Diaspora Summit in South Africa, out of which emerged a Declaration containing such specific proposals for collaborations between Africa and the Caribbean as :- the employment of Caribbean companies in African infrastructural development; collaboration on the development and use of alternative energy technologies; development of tourism linkages; partnering in the commercial utilization and marketing of the cultural artistes and products of both regions; the promotion and commercial exploitation of sporting exchanges between Africa and the Caribbean; matching the expertise of Caribbean and African professionals to the development needs of both regions; and the list goes on.

The government of Barbados would be well advised to respond positively to these overtures, and to become the pioneers and “first responders” in this visionary process of building a nexus of developmental structures between the Caribbean and Africa.

(17) Solar Energy Development and Expansion

Barbados needs to move with haste to establish a genuine solar energy technology industry that will inter alia:- facilitate a drastic reduction in the foreign exchange that our country spends on the importation of petroleum based fuels; generate new industrial enterprises; produce jobs and new career opportunities; and provide a new national industry that could generate exports and earn foreign currency.

In light of the pioneering work on solar energy applications that the late, great Barbadian scientist – Professor Oliver Headley – engaged in since the 1960’s, this is an initiative that our Governmental authorities should have seriously pursued many years ago! But, as the saying goes, it is better late than never!

We need a concerted state-driven and directed effort to take Barbados far beyond our existing accomplishments in the use of solar water heaters, and to build upon the many initiatives that Professor Headley had advanced:- photovoltaic cells to power lights and air conditioners and for other related uses; solar energy designs to generate energy for icemakers and crop dryers; solar stills for water distillation; solar powered automobiles and engines; and the list goes on.

(18) Utilization of Un-used Resources

Some 15 percent of the Barbadian people are languishing in a state of unemployment – many of them equipped with impressive levels of education and valuable skills! Yet, at the same time, there is a tremendous amount of socially important work that needs to be done in Barbados, and there are hundreds of millions of dollars of un-used capital lying in the insurance and pension funds, and in the coffers of the banks and credit unions! Some-thing is fundamentally wrong with such a scenario!

There is absolutely no reason for the Government and other major institutions of Barbados to permit working-class Barbadian families to live in sub-standard housing, side by side with construction workers for whom we are told there is no work! Nor should we continue to accept the existence of thousands of functionally uneducated and untrained young adults who were ill-served by our educational system, overcrowded school classes in our public education system, and an over-burdened Queen Elizabeth Hospital, when there are unemployed teachers, nurses and doctors who cannot practice their professions!

Simply put,there is--in Barbados-- a perverse and unacceptable co-existence of unmet human needs, unemployed people and unused financial resources, and I am of the firm opinion that this systemic “log-jam” must be broken by our Government!

I am therefore proposing an employment-generating, State-directed programme of low income housing construction, agriculture/food production, construction of additional health and education facilities, production of alternative (solar) energy applications, and deployments of additional teachers, nurses and doctors, to be financed by funds mobilized from sources of income currently held by the insurance companies, pension funds, banks and credit unions. It is imperative that our Government engage with these institutions and construct a programme that will encourage them to use the workers' accumulated savings not merely for pension benefits in the future, but also to ensure a vibrant existence in the here and now!

(19) A national Research, Invention And Development Programme

Barbados must set out to create an enthusiasm and a capacity for research, invention and development at every level of the education system, and especially at the tertiary or university level.

This will call for a sea-change in how education is conceptualized and delivered at the Primary and Secondary level, with students being required-- under the revamped education system – to participate in a more “hands-on” method of educational instruction, and to exercise more creativity, independent thought and invention.

Our Government must also partner with both the University of the West Indies and the various technical institutions of the Caribbean Community to create and support relevant “Research, Invention and Development” institutions in such spheres as agriculture, marine science/fisheries, solar energy, manufacturing industry, and tropical construction and design.

A conscious and determine effort also needs to be made to establish strong linkages and collaborative research and development relationships between already existing relevant Governmental institutions in the Ministries of Agriculture Food and Fisheries, Education Science and Technology, Industry, and the Environment, and such UWI institutions as the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES).

The ultimate aim of these efforts must be to develop new applications of technology to be applied to both import substitution and specialty exporting initiatives. Indeed, one of the new mantras of our nation must be – “research, invent, develop, produce!”

(20) Getting The Public Service To Produce Economically

In a time of economic crisis it cannot be business-as-usual for our nation's Public Service! Rather, each Government Ministry and Public Sector agency must respond to the crisis with an "all-hands-on-deck" attitude, and with a recognition that it must consciously take on a new role of undertaking new policies and programmes that are designed to either add new value to the domestic economic structures of the country or to earn foreign exchange for our nation.

I am therefore suggesting that in this current period of economic crisis each of the fifteen (15) Government Ministries must work out for itself some new role that it can play in delivering economic resources to our country!

Thus, our Ministry of Education must-- in addition to its existing responsibility to administer our education system-- bestir itself and construct new policies and programmes that are designed to deliver a foreign-exchange earning Education Industry.

Similarly, our Ministry of Health must collaborate with our Ministry of Tourism in constructing a "Health Tourism" industry, at the same time that the Ministry of Culture Sports and Youth is forging ahead with Sports Tourism projects and concrete initiatives to market our arts, artistes and cultural heritage to the world.

Even Ministries that are traditionally far removed from economic endeavours should be required to get on board! Thus, the Prime Minister's Office, for example, could play a key role in reaching out to relevant indigenous Barbadian producers, and crafting joint Public/Private sector initiatives that are designed to propel the development and commercial use of such national assets as our rum, sugar, sea island cotton, classic furniture, pepper sauce, black belly sheep, and Cricket heritage.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security could be involved in the development of a new Cooperative or People's sector of the economy; the Ministry of the Environment and Drainage could assist in developing project proposals to secure funding for projects under the U N Framework Convention On Climate Change; the Ministry of Industry and International Business could rededicate itself to developing high technology manufacturing in Barbados; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could pioneer new economic relations with Latin America and with the African Union, and the list goes on.

-David Commissiong is an Attorney-at-Law, and President of the Clement Payne Movement-