I AM A BIT SURPRISEDby some statements that Harry Russell made in a recent column, because I find him a relatively thoughtful commentator.
Mr Russell decided that he would focus his literary guns on Sandals in this article, and arrived at, as far as I see, some alarming conclusions.
He asked: “How come every evening hundreds of workers are seen trekking up to St Lawrence Main Road and very few of them are Bajans?” Seriously, Mr Russell?
As far as I know, 90 per cent of those employed at Sandals are locals – Bajans! If you pause for a moment to think, you’d probably ask yourself, why would Sandals spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to transplant people to a country where they will then have to pay more money for work permits and possibly additional allowances such as housing, for these foreigners?
Your question makes no sense, sir! It is economic folly to try to import hundreds of workers into a country.
Which is why you see Sandals boasting so much about its corporate university that trains local staff in all territories where it operates, as well as hospitality training programmes for young persons, giving them a marketable skills set. How many young Barbadians have you helped make marketable, sir, to allow them to get jobs in an ever tightening market?
Then Mr Russell talks about ‘concessions’. If I am investing hundreds of millions of dollars into your economy, if I am providing hundreds of jobs, it only makes sense that some negotiation will be necessary, and any businessman worth his salt will negotiate to the best of his ability.
Concessions must be looked at against the investment. In one year alone, one Sandals resort contributed over US$26 million to thelocal economy basedon a report published earlier this year.Taxes of close toUS$4 million were paidto the Government. Millions more paid in salaries. I mean, how many other companies contribute to the economy in that manner? Not to mention the millions in global advertising I daresay Barbados cannot afford.
You think every foreigner coming to Barbados who Sandals ad stays at a Sandals resort? And when these people come, do you think they really don’t go out? After two days, any traveller is fed up of hotel food. What about the restaurants and tour operators who benefit? People don’t go around parading that they are Sandals guests, but I bet you a large chuck of them spending ‘Benjamins’ in Barbados are there because of Sandals.
My grandmother once told me a story about the goose with the golden egg.
Yes, in 2035 the 13-year-old boy will have outlived some of us. But in 2035 Sandals will still be employing Bajans. In 2035, two resorts alone would have put another US$1 billion into an economy facing involuntary restructuring after major downgrades, and that’s without considering inflation.
That’s the truth of it. Or maybe we’d be happy to tell Sandals pack up and go give those benefits to Tobago instead.
– MIKE JOSEPH