He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. – Isaiah 53:7
The sleeping giant having returned to his Ilarian hideaway after slaying the beast of the general election, there was nothing to be heard in the countryside except the silence of the lambs.
In Trinidad, the public was up in arms that the commission of inquiry into the insurance business CLICO and the Hindu Credit Union was unable to take evidence from CL Financial’s former boss and major stockholder, Lawrence Duprey, because its summons for him to appear was reportedly never delivered.
In Barbados, far from being up in arms, the lambs were silent over even the lack of any commission of inquiry into the operations of CLICO and another insurer, BAICO, here.
Nevertheless, if we are headed for an economic crisis, we will do so in style. Our dollar has been redesigned with a modern look, so if that terrible day does comes, it will be the best-dressed member of the funeral cortège.
The Government’s ministers, most of them re-treads from the last time around, and so part of the Cabinet which metaphorically fiddled as Rome burned, have acted like deer in the headlights since the elections. Frozen they stand, mumbling a few words about general policy direction whenever circumstances direct that they should make a speech. But they take no action.
No matter – they are simply following the lead of the sleeping giant himself.
We are like lambs awaiting the slaughter. Not for us the rigours of intellectual policy debate. We prefer to receive our fate – whatever it may be – quietly. We will go gently into that good night.
We were told that everything was going to be all right, and we believed it. We were told that privatisation would send home people, make granny pay for her bus rides, raise the cost of food and cause other dislocation to the great society being built for us.
Those who took the opposing view are being proven right with every day that passes, but they will have to fight on in opposition for some time to come. Maybe as many as five years, maybe not.
I am hard pressed to remember speaking to more than a handful of people who think this is okay; that this lack of policy, this lack of communication, this lack of governance at its most basic level – leading the country – is a positive thing.
Instead, the people I see shake their heads and ask, as if in unison, how can there be such a disconnect between the Government and its citizens? Don’t they know the hardships they have helped cause, and don’t
they have a plan to help us get through the coming years? I don’t know why they ask me. I think they are just speaking out loud to whoever might listen.
Instead, we only get those half-baked promises of things being looked at: promises of vouchers to tourists to stimulate local attractions and restaurants; promises to make Barbados’ international business sector more investor-friendly, more of a “one-stop shop” for foreigners to set up their enterprises; promises to stimulate the economy by giving out special privatization deals to contractors.
Oddly, one of the island’s top two construction companies last week sent out lay-off notices to dozens of its employees. Shouldn’t this be a time of rejoicing in the sector?
Or is this where the funeral procession for the Barbados economy starts?
I have no doubt that Barbados will improve its economic performance in times to come, because there is too much pent-up creativity here, and we have too many friends abroad who will come to invest once we become competitive again. But we have lost so much time due to inaction that our debt burden may be forever a drag on our best efforts to move forward when we finally get the engine re-started.
We are a country which is fumbling in the dark, unsure of its direction, with a Government which does not see the need to provide leadership. We will prevail, with little or no help from the present administration, who are the chief fumblers.
And to all my fellow countrymen, I say, stop being like lambs to the slaughter. Take some advice from the immortal words of Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night . . . . Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
• Pat Hoyos is a publisher and business writer.
