These perilous times sent me scampering back to my early days. I started to reread The History of Rome.
It is said that world empires last approximately 200 years at the most. Rome is a classic example of the rise and fall of an empire. Other classic examples are the Britain, once a superpower that ruled the waves, now struggling to survive. Then there is The Soviet Union.
But what of the United States? Is it losing its superpower status?
Are we seeing the thin edge of the wedge when we note that Nigeria has made the decision to shift one tenth of its reserves into yuan. Perhaps. Although when we say A we must say B.
Nigeria has a healthy trade with China and could well afford to keep part of its reserve currency with the Chinese.
Nigeria has noted the downgrading of the United States rating from triple x. More than anything else, it has noted that politicians brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy. For what? In order to frustrate the will of the voted majority.
Nations throughout the world watched in awe and have had to have lost confidence in the United States as a superpower to rule the economic world. They see that naked political power is at the forefront of people whom they had perceived as world leaders. Even now, despite the president’s speech, we wait and see.
If they were prepared to jeopardize the economic confidence that the world placed in them, then the world has to reassess this confidence. This has come on top of the belief that the United States was the perpetrator of the present worldwide recession. In fact what is happening in Europe has a direct bearing on the United States.
The decision of Nigeria is based not on the United States alone, but also on the chaos that currently exists in Europe. The mood of citizens of Germany is touch and go as they consider bailing out the likes of Greece, Spain and possibly Italy (which is now starting to tremor). Here the problem lies with the people.
After living off the hog for many years, the chickens have come home to roost. As in Greece, Spain, Portugal and France, people have taken to the streets to protest – useless. They have to bite the bullet as unemployment rises.
We in Barbados cannot be mere spectators. Dr Courtney Blackman gave us some good advice for the little “trallya” that we have now in US dollars. Diversify because if push comes to shove and the United States system implodes further through the mysterious political system that they have, our well-being will not be considered.
Can you believe that the system can make a president helpless? The system, while trying to safeguard recklessness, can be a recipe for disaster, as it may well be now. After all, a president can only be a president for four years, and then you could get rid of him.
What is the idea that he must be hamstrung? Just imagine the Budget in Barbados being voted down!
We are already confronting serious problems, not only with the Government’s inability to do something about the rising cost of living, but also with the threat of further unemployment. True, Government is not laying off people – yet; but it is not paying all of them.
I remember while working in Uganda seeing people who had not been paid for a year sedulously going to work in the public service in collar and tie.
Worse yet, some in the private sector are paying lip service to the unions. How else can you explain that a labourer is now offered a job at 20 per cent less, that is, $50 a day. In 1981 when I was building my house a labourer got $45 a day – 30 years ago.
The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) cut the Civil Service when we were faced with the IMF. The Barbados Labour Party increased the Civil Service when civil servants got back the eight per cent. Then the DLP won the elections on the wave of a promise to further increase jobs in the Civil Service.
Now the DLP is stalled. Present policies are designed to try to keep the existing numbers because to reduce them will spell disaster in the coming elections. Moreover the wave of crime that has now confronted the island might very well have its genesis in the unemployed youth.
