With no meaning . . . when something dies . . . pretending got harder and harder till it was (is) impossible . . . to pretend nothing’s wrong would be easy; but not to face you when something is gone. – Margie Joseph, Cynthia Schloss.
RICHIE (Dr Sir Richard Haynes) is gone, but not forgotten. I shall pay my tribute to this colossus after other tributes – some expected, some he would have classified as insincere – are paid. However, one must accede to the time-honoured saying, De mortuis nisi bonum nihil. Only speak good things about the dead.
I think that Mr John Williams might have been rather restrained in his delivery, since the contents of his remarks could have been delivered years ago when our tourism and other sectors were begging for help; and when it was obvious that the taxation imposed on Barbadians was onerous and indeed counter-productive.
The administration must have been aware of all of those things but foolishly was hoping that the statusquo would have been reestablished so as to normalize the world situation.
Here he was speaking to an audience consisting of union bosses whose position would be to oppose, or at least minimize, any downsizing of the Government’s labour force, (the critical mass mainly responsible for putting us in this debt position); additionally a Government bent on not wanting to cut the umbilical cord that it says maintains the society – the reason being that it would be apolitical.
Why don’t the Central Bank Governor and the Minister of Finance pursue the talk of going abroad to borrow US$350 million, later scaled up to US$500 million? Was it because of our junk bond status? Then if the strategy has failed, has it put our debt obligations against the remaining balance of our foreign holdings so that now the position is precarious?
Therefore, did our position come up against our junk bond status? That affects not only Government, but the business community and citizen as a whole. Why ask Barbadians (who are mostly sensible) to make the kind of sacrifice made in the 1990s without outlining the position clearly?
Are we now going to ask corporate Barbados and the general citizenry to bring back what dollars they have abroad so as to deny the clutches of the International Monetary Fund? Today there is a different Barbados and the results may very well be different.
Whereas one might have felt a sense of loyalty in the wake of an unfortunate position of the country, today one may feel that we have a bunch of leaders who do not level with the people; who are bent only on a political agenda; who placate and aggrandize only their political supporters that flood them with millions of dollars at elections.
Do you think that Barbadians are so immature as not to have realized long ago that there was need for conservation? Having delayed the decision for action so long, it will now be harder to get the cooperation of the citizenry.
Indeed, you may find it necessary to resort to the idiotic suggestion of cracking the skulls of the most intransigent among us who are hardest hit. I suppose there is personnel to lead the attack on the disobedient.
My take is that at this stage everyone will “brek” for himself. It is a case of too little too late; and even now there is no true disclosure. Didn’t you know of this do-or-die crisis over a month ago when the Central Bank drew it to your attention?
People be aware that if money is made scarce so as to protect foreign exchange, then taxes have to be high since for every dollar spent, over 50 per cent goes out. One way of reducing spending is to raise interest rates. Then people who took up the cheap mortgage rate have to seriously recalculate.
Uncle Richie told us on June 7, 1992, in the NDP column, Reduced purchasing power of the homeowner leads him to spend less which would affect the small businesses that depend on him and cause them to close and lay off workers. This starts a process of disinvestment because the laid off workers have to reduce saving (or not save) in order to survive. Check out the DAILY NATION of that date.
• Harry Russell is a banker. Email quijote70@gmail.com