In August 2009 I wrote an article captioned Et Tu, Yuh Brute. So the interest rate for the loan from Trinidad is still 7.8 per cent although the interest rates throughout the world are close to zero. Our fault, lack of expertise or Shylock?
I outlined the many udders from which milk is being drawn as Trinidad sucks the lifeblood out of Barbados.
But you know, God is not sleeping! After the “kiddie” is weaned the milk stops flowing. Almond gone through the eddoes!
Grand Barbados gone back to Holiday Inn, Knight’s reduced, JB’s cash diminish since people find it cheaper to economize with shopping at Price Mart. People not building, so despite the increase in price, sales of cement gone down! While we get bad diesel, the world price is decreasing.
Had it not been for the Barbados Mortgage Finance Corporation the Barbados National Bank would have had a serious reduction in profit.
As a matter of fact, in its last published report absent were the boasts about how much foreign exchange was being deported to Trinidad shareholders last year at 18 cents per share. It was also noticeable how the reduced spread and the non-repayment of overdrafts and loans are impacting on the bank.
The bank is now faced with the option to lay off staff or to continue like Tantalus to reach for the 50 million in profit. Changing the name might reflect well for Barbados.
There are still areas of profitability, such as the Nation newspaper, Sagicor or confiscated flying fish.
You certainly will not see them come to the rescue of CLICO because there are problems in Trinidad itself with that entity.
Those in Barbados who are holding out for a full reimbursement of invested funds from CLICO are due for an empty windfall.
The words of the Caribbean Development Bank boss ought to put some sense into their heads; instead, they are blowing in the face of a hurricane and holding out false hopes to poor people. If you are lucky (and an election is coming up) the Government may offer a political placebo in the form of 25 years zero interest marina bonds.
As the situation in Barbados weakens, as it must if tourists keep just passing through to cruise ships, the investment landscape will become progressively unattractive and Trinidadians who were targeting old Barbadian companies with juicy future profitability will have reduced expectations.
This year Barbados is facing problems in maintaining its Civil Service, despite the effective cuts in salaries. Barbados is facing the expected access to foreign exchange as the tourist industry fights to survive.
The National Insurance Funds if purged cannot be an effective spring – and certainly not until 2015. So Trinidad, if you are waiting for the Four Seasons’ profitability to repay the guaranteed loan, there are lawsuits on the totem pole ahead of you.
I said then that “the influence of Trinidad on the economy of Barbados, although helpful, is in a way unhealthy”.
But we are not even helping ourselves. Imagine signing a loan with FirstCaribbean International Bank with the conditionality that if our world rating goes down, the interest rate goes up.
When Mark Antony was apologizing to the dead body of Caesar he said:
To see thy Antony making his peace,
Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes,
Most noble in the presence of thy corse?
Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds,
Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood,
It would become me better than to close
In terms of friendship with thine enemies.
