For the third time in the last few weeks, I have seen a public notice in the Press from a tourism-related entity stating it intends to apply for a non-Barbadian to fill a post.
The most recent notice in the Midweek Nation said: “Having not received a suitable application in response to our posting for a bar and lounge manager, promoter and marketer, we intend to apply for a non-Barbadian to fill the position.”
From a leading West Coast restaurant, it invited objectors to write to the Chief Immigration Officer.
It boggles the mind that after decades in the tourism business, no suitably qualified Barbadian applied for this job. To equip nationals to fill positions such as that advertised, academic and practical training programmes were sometime ago established at the Barbados Community College (BCC)?and University of the West Indies (UWI) to equip our sons and daughters to fill positions in our major industry.
In addition to that, it is a fact that for eons Barbadians have worked in the restaurant business at all levels. Yet against that background, in 2011 we are being told by a potential employer that a suitably qualified national cannot be located to be a bar and lounge manager, promoter and marketer.
Are we to believe that no Barbadian has developed theoretical knowledge and on-the-job skills to fill this job? I have no idea who previously held the position, but am constrained to ask: If he was not a Barbadian but expatriate on a work permit, during his tenure was a national not in training to hone the necessary skills to take over on expiry of the work permit?
If not, why not?
It is not just a major disappointment but more than passing strange that having produced top-quality tourism professionals who manage major hotels and function at every level in the business in Barbados and across the world, this high-quality restaurant says it cannot locate a suitable Barbadian applicant to fill this post.
Has neither BCC nor UWI produced a single graduate with the necessary paper qualification and on-the-job experience to qualify for this job? If not, is this experience indicative of the fact that these heavily taxpayer-funded institutions are deficient in the programmes being offered?
I understand that in our high-quality, top-end tourism industry we will need to recruit non-Barbadian professionals like chefs (though our indigenous ones are now world class), but a bar and lounge manager, promoter and marketer? Gimme a break! Barbadians should follow this closely.
Putting Barbados second
I have followed cricket for close on six decades and continue to be perplexed from time to time by some of the shenanigans and other happenings in this wonderful game which has catapulted this region onto the world map and covered a coterie of poor, black West Indians with global glory and adulation.
I was delighted to hear that the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) had for the first time contracted
15 cricketers to a national squad and would be paying them a stipend.
The days are over when men can be expected to be a patriot and world-class player on an empty stomach. This magnanimous move is long overdue and those responsible deserving of the heart-felt congratulations of all Barbadians.
It was expected that the team to represent this country would be selected from this squad. There is no greater honour of which I am aware than representing one’s country in whatever form of activity, be it in governance, diplomacy or sport.
When the team was announced for the upcoming regional tournament in Guyana, there was a simultaneous outcry that two of the selectees were seeking permission to represent the Combined Colleges and Campuses (CCC), a regional team, and turn their backs on their country of birth. I could not rationalize how the young men who were being paid and retained by the BCA would want to walk away from national duty.
Playing for CCC, I assume that they are students and would wish to remind them of Thomas Jefferson’s statement: “My affections are first for my own country, and then generally, for all mankind.”
Their priorities are confused.
If they are not familiar with that mantra, I would strongly urge someone on campus to bring it to their attention, pointing out that having taken the BCA’s stipend they have a reciprocal responsibility to complete their part of the contract. National loyalty is a virtue that should come naturally to all true sons of the soil.
Those who fail to understand patriotism should be brought to Christian understanding, told the BCA will stop their funding and put them out to pasture.
Cricket is a form of religion in the Caribbean.
There are myriad Christian principles which should guide these two young cricketers away from becoming national pariahs.
Peter Simmons, a social scientist, is a former diplomat. Email ppksimmons@hotmail.com