From the tender age of 19, I was introduced to what may be called the ART of data collection and preparation for economic analysis at the Central Bank of Barbados. The data had to be Accurate, Reliable and Timely. This kind of exposure is invaluable in building character for life.
It may seem like just data, but there is a level of honesty and integrity required to ensure that in preparing such data, you do not choose the shortcuts; that you do not fill in the missing data and that putting in the extra effort to meet a deadline is a must. The process builds character and what I experienced was certainly not unique to me.
We all understood how crucial the ART of the data was to the country’s policymaking. It was about pride and industry. Therefore, when I make statements such as “information which I put in the public domain cannot be questioned by anyone”, it is not an idle boast; it is simply because the principles of ART have informed my public pronouncements and will continue to do so.
I recently listened, goaded by a friend, for the first time to a political speech delivered by an individual in the 2008 general election in which he suggested that I was unhappy at the Central Bank in 1994 and that is why the late David Thompson offered me a job at the Ministry of Finance. Furthermore, he said that I was uncomfortable at the ministry because I had left the palatial conditions at the bank to go to inadequate conditions.
It was not the physical conditions which I missed but rather the intellectual stimuli that was so evident at the bank in the mid-1990s.
The same individual then went on to describe an episode at a funeral service in which he imagined seven individuals standing – three standing either side of him and I spoke to all except him. In fact, the real story is that I was walking with my personal assistant, Michael Bowen, when this individual attempted to shoulder-check me coming from the opposite direction outside of People’s Cathedral at the same funeral service.
First of all, the then Prime Minister Erskine [now Sir Lloyd] Sandiford offered me a job as an economic adviser for which I was qualified. Secondly, I never had an unhappy day working at the bank in all the years. In fact, my ultimate departure from the bank was based on principle alone.
In 1994, two members of the Central Bank staff contested seats in the general election for either side. Having held the post of senior economist, I thought it was not becoming for me to stay on at the bank given that the party for which I contested lost the election. Furthermore, the position would have given me access to accurate, reliable and timely information that could have compromised my integrity.
All that was required was for information to be leaked from the bank and the fingers would have been pointed at me. I therefore took the decision to leave the bank. To this day, the other individual who was a candidate in the 1994 general election remains a member of the bank’s staff and indeed a childhood friend.
There are some things in life that cannot be bought and character is one. It is impossible for me to put false information in the public domain to score a cheap political point. Furthermore, the interest of my country comes first and that is why to this day, it is important for me to walk about with a sense of pride because of my industry and not my place of birth or a temporary assigned political position.
My life is guided by the motto that success is a journey, not a destination. Therefore it was never in my DNA that a particular position is my success but rather that the journey of life is defined by increments of betterment in the collective pursuit of social, economic and spiritual growth.
In all my years of commenting on the economy of Barbados, no one has ever refuted any information that I have used on grounds of accuracy. Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion but no one is entitled to his/her own facts. The latter ought to be available to all, except in cases of national security issues.
Unfortunately, the embrace of the once simple things of life is becoming a lost ART.
• Dr Clyde Mascoll is an economist and Opposition Barbados Labour Party adviser on the economy. Email [email protected]
