This summer, all eyes will be focused on the Olympic Games to be held in London. As spectators, our interest will increasingly be peaked as widespread public promotions of the Games intensify. Some of us have already made travel plans so that we can be on site, or at least close by for the Games and the charged atmosphere that will accompany them. Barbados and the wider Caribbean region will be looking on with pride to see the performances of those athlete ambassadors who will be representing the tiny dots on the map. Unlike us though, whose attention for the most part has or will only return in the months and weeks leading up to the event, athletes have been spending the last four years in training, preparing for the day they will match themselves against other competitors to see who is the fastest, strongest, steadiest. To the athlete, the prize is well worth the many hours spent in training. Good things seldom come without cost. For the most part, barring some genetic or other debilitating factor, we have just as much an opportunity to train towards games of these levels. The question is: "Are we willing to pay the same price other athletes go through in order to be where they are?"
While still thinking about the pain of discipline needed in order to reap its reward, the Government of Barbados-along with its fellow small islands-is being consistently told by the international community that it needs to intensify its disciplinary actions regarding the current debt to GDP ratio and fiscal deficit. Dr Arnold McIntyre, programme coordinator at the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre, told members of the business community that though intensifying its fiscal consolidation did not mean "that overnight you try to reduce your debt to GDP by some unsustainable amount," he warned that our policy framework still needed to be "tightened."
Negligible Growth
Standard and Poor's Olga Kalinina also warned that there was a 33 per cent chance of Barbados facing another downgrade if it did not, among other things, improve its growth prospects. The issue of negligible growth, she said, led to the increasing risk of structural weakness in the economy such as low investments, a continuous declining revenue as a percentage of GDP, despite already low growth figures and rising inflation. Of course, all eyes and pointing fingers will be on Government as it continues to roll out the medium-term fiscal strategic plan in which it has placed its upmost confidence. However, a look at the story of Singapore-a country which many of our business leaders use as a benchmark in terms of public sector efficiency and cohesion of policies, institutions, attitudes and such, with national developmental strategy-reminds us that discipline must run through all spheres of our society.
No, we do not advocate that Barbados should become a carbon copy of Singapore. However, areas which have been highlighted time and time again, such as discipline in work ethic, compulsory saving, law and order, meritocracy in schooling and civil service, show us, if nothing else, that in order to reap fruits of economic growth, the entire country needs to be on board; each person, in a sense, contributes to the success of the country. For this reason, initiatives such like the National Initiative for Service Excellence's 100 Improvements in 100 Days challenge, launched last month, are welcomed as they enforce the view that national change must be driven by individuals, then teams, organisations and finally the nation as a whole.
Barbados Advocate