THINGS THAT MATTER
Mahatma (Mohandas) Gandhi was asked “What do you think of Western civilisation?” He allegedly responded: “I think it would be a good idea.”
As I write this column, my brain is buzzing with the events of this past week, that together reflect the chaotic changes in civil but no longer very civilised society – from Washington to Venezuela, Britain to Brussels, and right here at home. I have warned that the new political culture in the USA would quickly spread, like a virus, into the Caribbean, and that is certainly happening. When dissenting voices are labelled alternative facts and those who dissent “enemy of the state” and enemies of the people, we must all wake up and safeguard our democracy, our humanity, our human rights and our (relative) freedom of speech.
Having said that, it’s worth reflecting on what’s happening here at many levels. Societal changes are insidious in some cases, such as widespread littering, corruption, the cell phone obsession and vulgarity, and dramatic in others. Rebellious behaviour, sexual activity, weapons and violence in school have all been followed this week by thugs robbing and beating school children and barbaric brutality meted out to a young schoolgirl – uncivilised and cruel mob behaviour among schoolgirls. Similarly, the increasing law breaking by ZR van drivers is now spreading like a virus among many other drivers, doing dangerous things without regard to anyone else, resulting in an extraordinarily high fatality rate on the roads. All of these social ills require urgent attention from the University’s social scientists and Faculty of Education. It is relevant to recall that when the University was established in 1948 the Medical Faculty and the Institute of Social and Economic Research were given priority, because of the urgent need to address our health problems and our socio-economic problems. Are the social scientists rising to the tasks of investigating and understanding the causes and possible solutions for our exploding social problems?
Meanwhile governance, which often seems to be suffering from IDD (the Implementation Deficit Disorder) and to be stuck “in molasses going up a hill”, is waking up and catching up in several areas. This week’s debate in the Senate on the National Petroleum Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2017 is a case in point. In a very lucid presentation Senator Darcy Boyce explained that the bill would amend the National Petroleum Corporation Act to make better provision for rates charged for natural gas and related matters; and he explained that the extremely cheap price of natural gas had remained at what seems to be a give-away price for many years. (He also pointed out that the population of St. John, St. Joseph and St. Lucy still aren’t able to benefit, and interestingly I’ve had calls from citizens in the privileged parishes who say they can’t get on to the supply.) This is one of many bills which have recently come to the fore to “sort out” unfinished business from way, way back. However, it set me thinking of the possible consequences of increasing the cost of cooking … the silver lining in the cloud.
My train of thought went like this: an increase in the price of natural gas could lead to householders cooking less and eating more raw vegetables, fruit and salads, and doing less frying. This would have several consequences – a healthier diet, lower in calories and higher in fibre; this should lead to significant weight loss, with less high blood pressure, diabetes and complications, and less health care needs. At the national level, increased vegetable consumption should stimulate local agriculture; this in turn would increase jobs in that sector, while leading to a decrease in imported food. Our gigantic food importation bill of three quarters of a billion dollars makes a huge demand on foreign exchange; it needs to be reduced urgently, and this is just one way of achieving that goal. And there could be a ripple effect, leading to cheaper local vegetable prices and more widespread healthier eating. The outcome would include a healthier nation, more food security, less loss of foreign exchange, more jobs and improvement in the economy. All from an increase in the price of natural gas; think about it.
There are, of course, other ways of reducing that huge food importation bill. If all those who are overweight or obese would accept that it is the major cause of our chronic disease epidemic and their own increasing ill health, and do something about it … i.e. cut food intake by half, while ensuring adequate protein and fluid and intake of filling fibre but significantly reducing carbohydrate and fat intake, there would be multiple benefits to the individual, the nation and the economy. One third of our over 18 population are overweight and one third obese. So some 210,000 to 220,000 people should address this major health problem with its serious personal consequences by a change in lifestyle. Health surveys carried out by the Chronic Disease Research Centre show that fifty per cent of Barbadians eat very few vegetables and a similar percentage take little exercise. The complications of our chronic nutrition related diseases are increasing almost exponentially, while Type 2 diabetes is now occurring in teenagers. A massive effort is needed to restore the health of the nation, and it would have a major effect on our economy – on the food import bill, foreign exchange AND health care costs.
Yet another approach to cutting the food import bill would be differential application of VAT as in some countries, such as India, where luxury goods carry higher VAT. If the majority of imported foods, many of which we can do without, carried a higher VAT while local foods carried no VAT, government would benefit from the taxes while the foreign exchange losses would be reduced. Think about it …
Bouquet: To the special Committee of the Social Partnership mandated to prepare an Action Plan to reduce the fiscal deficit. It is understood that the Report to the Chairman of the Social Partnership was submitted some weeks ago. The entire nation waits with bated breath to hear what action will be taken to tackle our increasing debt crisis.
Professor Fraser is Past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology. Website: profhenryfraser.com