EDITORIAL

TWO major stories captured the attention of Barbadians last week.

One was the announcement that Barbados – this little 166 square miles, had remained the highest ranked country in the Caribbean on the 2016 United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report, with a position of 54th out of 188 countries. This country’s Human Development Index (HDI) value for 2015 is 0.795, which puts it in the high human development category.

This country has always treasured its history of being a stable democracy and promoting policies which create the means through which citizens can lift themselves up from any circumstance and make a difference in their lives. The Social fabric of the country is strong, with a successful transition being made from plantation life to a modern framework which remains the envy of many.

Education remains free from primary, secondary and even tertiary, with an adjustment made in 2013, with students at the University of the West Indies (UWI) being asked to pay tuition costs with Government continuing to foot the economic costs. As sanitation and postal services continue to be free at point of contact, the contract which Government has kept with its people remains intact and the HDI ranking proves that.

It puts the criticism of the challenges which this island faces into perspective. Many have sought for partisan reasons to suggest that this country has lost its way. They have argued that we have fallen from grace and taken cues from other external entities to pile on the criticism of this country’s performance. Had Government moved away from its commitment to shield the people from the worst impacts of the fiscal challenges, then this HDI ranking, it could be argued would not be possible. It requires us to take pause sometimes and be responsible in the things we say.

Only recently, did we notice that three countries in this region, with large economies have started to deal with economic slowdowns, similar to this country. While Barbados adopted a home grown fiscal stabilisation programme, others such as Jamaica, under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and now Trinidad and Tobago announcing it had to borrow to facilitate public sector wage increases, agreed to by the previous Administration, shows just how challenging the economic environment remains. Belize recently announced that it was creating its own programme to deal with its fiscal constraints as opposed to the IMF support.

That leads into the recent statement by former Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, Dr. Patrick Honohan, during a presentation “Recovering from Crisis: Lessons from Europe”, who raised caution against accepting foreign aid to address this island’s fiscal challenges. “Only the local people understand the economy… (and) there are various things you can do to deal with all of these problems. There are choices to be made and the choices are to be made by the government of Barbados, (in) consultation the people of Barbados. I think that is the only way to think of this,” he stated.

Former Prime Minister and ‘Father of the Nation’, National Hero the Right Excellent Errol Barrow, made this determination when he asked over three decades ago for Barbadians to look at their ‘mirror image’ and establish what we could be and what we would accept moving forward as a country. Have we honestly done that?

Finding solutions and standing together in tough times has been replaced by cynicism. Perhaps it is the reality of things coming too easy. Perhaps Governments over the years have done too good of a job, so that in tough times, people cry out for things others could only dream of.