There must be A CARIBBEAN ECONOMICS in the same way that there needs to be a Caribbean cricket.
In both cases, the basic worldwide principles of the disciplines have to be mastered, but in mastering the craft there is scope for creativity and innovation. The latter gives the discipline its Caribbean flavour.
Fortunately, given our excellence of the past, a Caribbean cricket must include (1) effective fast bowling; (2) batting that includes hooking and (3) captaincy that appreciates the history and sociology of the game.
In similar vein, a Caribbean economics must include (1) getting the size of government right; (2) pursuing effective social partnership and (3) guaranteeing a regional market.
The traditional West Indies batsman is more of a back foot than a front foot player.
Several reasons have been advanced for this bias, especially the once quicker pitches. In his book, Everton Weekes suggests that West Indian boys “enjoy playing the on drive off the back foot because it is the shot of the ballet player”.
He identifies Seymour Nurse as a master of this shot and concludes that the back foot on drive is more artistic but the front foot version is more dependable.
Ironically, he notes that “the correct way to play the on drive is the way it is played by Viv Richards. He played it better than anybody
I know, and with so much ease that spectators said for a decade that he was hitting across the line.
But Viv would get to the pitch of the ball with a straight bat, and from that position he could hit it nearly any place he wanted”.
The irony is that VivRichards, a West Indian great, perfected a cricket shot and yet West Indians believed that he was doing something wrong.
He so mastered the basics that his creativity and innovation allowed him to hit the ball nearly any place he wanted.
The key to greatness is to first master the basics. Thereafter performances have to be repeated. It is in the repetition that performances can be quantified and classified.
Therefore greatness is repeated mastery of the basics with elements and moments of creativity and innovation.
In the context of Caribbean economics, our history dictates a major role for government.
However, government must not be so invasive as to stifle the creative imagination of the people. Furthermore, the people must not become so dependent on the government that they confuse production and productivity.
They come from the same generic root but the former is measured by the system while the latter is a measure of one’s character.
The building of a new economy cannot be confined to how many tonnes of cane the workers cut as happened in yesteryear but rather it must be expanded to accommodate the least time taken to produce whatever the output, with the aid of new technologies in today’s world.
In short, the concept of a day’s work must be changed to measure productivity not production. There is a difference that speaks to the collective character of thework environment.
Just as new cricketing success demands effective fast bowling, a new economy commands a broader entrepreneurial class. Just as the cricketing success insists on batting that plays the hook shot, a new economy must desist from its dour defensive posture.
Just as a new cricketing success yearns for captaincy that appreciates thehistorical context, a new economy cries out for leadership that understands the context of the past in relation to the fresh perspective required for the future.
It is important to know that the market alone cannot determine the efficient allocation of our limited resources by fixing a price that only some are able and willing to pay.
In this regard, thegovernance systems must include room for an effective social partnership and economic regulation that is enshrinedin the law for the utilization of our most basic resources.
In this respect, recent developments in the cricketing world, where entertainment has a price and a value that empower the shorter forms of the game at the expense of Test cricket, again offer someinsights into building out a new economy where the market and regulation can coexist; or alternatively, where the old and the new can coexist.
In both cases, the new journey must start with mastering the basics, while allowing for creativity and innovation to add our own Caribbean flavour.
• Clyde Mascoll is an economist and Opposition Barbados Labour Party spokesman on the economy.
