Fete over and back to work" was the famous quip of then Prime Minister George Chambers and it came at the end of the first oil boom 1974-1982. The world economy is in no less a difficult position today than it was then. Indeed, the international economy and our major trading partners in North America and Europe are far from being out of the deep recession of 2008-2010. It takes the merest of disturbances in the world political economy for the financial markets to begin what has become an accustomed jitter resulting in the decline in the value of stock markets.
It is of great peace-of-mind that the country will not be facing what would have been the inevitable turmoil and social agitation if a settlement to the Petrotrin industrial negotiations had not been hammered out. And while there are no assurances of an avoidance of similar kinds of possible eruptions from other areas of the public sector as negotiations come up for settlement elsewhere, there is now before the country the demonstration that both sides can sit and amicably arrive at an agreement.
On the social side, tens of thousands of Carnival enthusiasts have hopefully satisfied their appetite for fun and enjoyment and they can now focus on the discipline and industry required to earn another period of fun one year from now. The 1.3 million of us must come to the understanding that no one is out there to assist this country to make a decent living for ourselves. Fortuitously, the country's export sector is based on the extracted minerals that are in great need throughout the world. The demand generated for natural gas, oil and petrochemicals allows for relatively high international market prices for our exports.
That high demand however is far from being the whole story meaning that we cannot just sit back, do precious little and live off the rents earned by our exports. As is well known, there has not been a major oil discovery here in decades. Further, natural gas prices are not high as they were five years ago and competition in the market has increased significantly over the period. There are other producers-such as shale gas in the United States, in several African countries and next door in Guyana and Suriname- who are going to tax our ingenuity to keep our industry vibrant.
Moreover, it must have dawned on the country as a unit that it is no longer viable for T&T to be raw material sellers on the international market. Succeeding governments have talked for decades about building a downstream industry from natural gas into plastic producing plants and various forms of hard materials created from raw materials. Time is not going to wait on us.
What is more, given the dynamic nature of the world economy, it could very well be that another cycle of production could float by while we are standing and quibbling about effectively utilizing the potential given to us by nature. Directly related to the Carnival and notwithstanding the enormous economic benefits brought by the festival through the increased circulation of money and activities, there are economic, financial and social benefits that remain untapped. One characteristic of developed/industrial economies is that governments, the business community and people act on potential and create products and services to sell to themselves and to export.
Music and entertainment, tourist attractions such as cultural diversity, travel, the servicing of carnivals spawned by this festival through the utilisation of human creativity are in serious need of being fully exploited.
One motto which should be adopted is to live out the principle that we must earn the right to having pleasure in this pre-Lenten festival.