“We need a balanced economy, not just a nation of bellhops and waitresses or even lawyers and doctors or economists..”
Hal Austin, London, February 5, 2010
Hal
I currently live in the parish of Jamaica. I am on the phone to Barbados at least 3-4 hours a day. I am currently undertaking a land development project in Barbados and I only go there when my presence is required. I am writing a series of memoirs including an extensive collection of Bajan traditional music and interviews with Bajans from all walks of life. Various Bajans in Barbados and North America are reading my manuscripts. I have a graphics artist in Barbados that is taking care of my publishing business.
Let me re-emphasize my point. I live in Jamaica just as you are in London and others who are all over the world.
I want to pose a few questions to all the recipients of this email. What are Barbados’ (the country and its people) strengths? What are the cultels (cultural elements) that are uniquely Bajan? Can we use these strengths and uniqueness to build, develop and market Barbados within the Caribbean and the World at large? Are there weaknesses in our society that can be corrected to achieve our objectives?
I read Rex Nettleford’s Mirror Mirror in 1970. There was a statement in that book resonated with me. It was “What we do for ourselves depends on what we know of ourselves and what we accept about ourselves” which I adopted as the motto for Yoruba Yard.
What do you know about us” Help me see if we can find common ground.
Elombe
Elombe,
ReplyDeleteHow are you? Hope the weather is better in Jamaica than it is in London. You have raised some interesting points, the most important of which I will reframe as: Who am I? Or collectively: Who are we? Since to answer this old question is central to our identify and motivation as an island people.
We can start with the fundamentals: I am Hal Austin, son of Viola and Samuel, etc, born in the Ivy and now living in London. But is that all? I am also a journalist, a cricket fan, a lover of soul music, a reader of the social sciences, of black literature, who enjoys the company of his wife etc.
But I am more than that. Although I live in London, and have done so twice as long as I have in Barbados, I am in no way a Londoner, even though my passport says so. I am Barbadian and am very proud to be a Barbadian. I am a Combermerian and am very proud to be a Combermerian; but I am also a St Giles old boy; I am from the Ivy and am very proud to be from the Ivy and have a deep sense of love for my family and friends.
Identity is very import, and, acting from self-interest, I am eager for Barbados - in all its manifestations - to do well: in sport, education, economy, etc. All these complexities form the DNA of my identity.
So, to answer your question: Barbadians are a proud people; this pride is based on our perception of ourselves: that we are educated, intelligent, resilient and sociable.
Our cultural strengths are, and this is a contradiction, based on what we have inherited from the Europeans during slavery and colonialism: a social sophistication, adaptability, a familiaristion with the rules of etiquette, educated in the Arnoldian sense and play sports with the Corinthinian ethos.
Our weaknesses are a dislike of the physical, or skills, such as learning a craft as a main source of income, a lack of a sense of duty or purpose, and an artificiality of nationalism. We prefer a administrative desk-bound job to being a mechanic or carpenter, etc.
Implicit in your question also is how can Barbados distinguish itself among the other Caribbean islands. First, by dismissing the nonsense that we are a First World or developed nation. We are a middle-ranking nation and, as such, are doing quite well.
We have no natural resources, but an abundance of human capital, which we must invest for the benefit of the nation and future generations.
We can do this by creating a dynamic culture industry - films, theatre, television, radio, journalism - funded by a hypothecated culture tax of about 50 cent per household per day, which would bring in over Bds$200m over two parliamentary terms.
This money would go to the National Cultural Foundation, the Community College and CBC, as the three key cultural institutions. I suggest that over a ten year period we would see the benefits of such innovation.
The second development government should introduce, and linked to the first, is to make Barbados the entertainment centre of the Caribbean, what I call the Rihanna dividend.
This will do for now, but there are a long lists of developments - all or at least most of them - away from core North American/European-focused tourism.
But let us continue to develop these ideas.
Hal Austin, London