A true treasure!

Barbados is sitting on a potential gold mine.

This is the belief of Kevin Farmer, Deputy Director at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, who stated that although there is great potential for the tourism industry as well as local enjoyment, there is also impatience at the length of time it is taking in terms of marketing and leveraging the site.

On June 25, 2011 Barbados’ Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. According to Farmer, who was speaking at the DLP Lunchtime Lecture Series at its George Street headquarters on Friday, “History and Heritage are key pillars of the economic development of our country and this starts with the teaching of history in school. If you don’t understand who we are, we will not have an appreciation for the things around us. We should not shy away from the hard stories, not shy away from subjects such as indentureship and the more honest we are about these issues the more we can tell others who we are.

“Barbados’ World Heritage site says to the world that we have a City and a military base that speaks to the contribution of this island to global history. It also means that it is a space in which all Barbadians should understand what that history is, to which policies, capacity and funding are driven to ensure those aspects of it that need to be up kept and restored actually happen.”

Farmer suggested, “In some instance it is not always about the money. Many vocational and architectural schools around the world will find an old building in what they would call their downtown and it would become a student project. Students that are learning particular skills such as Architecture, Carpentry, and Interior Design etc. over a period of time will be given this particular building to practice their burgeoning skills and over time the building becomes restored and can be repurposed whether as a business or residence.

“Urban cities are expected to be major spaces in which the human population is going to live by 2050. We live in a small island that is morphing into a large city state. It means that the value of historic properties will actually increase … We need from now to harness the capacity to understand how those buildings were built in order that thy can be restored in a manner in which they were built utilizing the materials from which they were created. That builds an industry, he said.” (NB)