Barbados;Let Common Sense Prevail

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The Caribbean Is One Nation.

                                                                  Barbados: Let Common Sense Prevail

                                                                   


By Michael Headley



On a recent trip to Barbados, I was having a casual conversation with a 91- year-old dear family friend in regards to some of the current economic challenges facing Barbados when she simply said to me, that Barbados was built on common sense but the educated people were destroying it.  That struck a chord in me and she went on to explain her disgust with the frequency of either picking up her phone and having no dial tone or having conversations abruptly cut.  This is a serious inconvenience for a loyal daughter of the soil, who labored in the common sense period, and now only wants to enjoy her retirement and have uninterrupted telephone conversations with her friends.  Maybe a common sense approach, like regular maintenance on lines, can be applied to rectify this persistent problem. And also give subscribers credit for down time.   
According to Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, Common Sense is described as a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things, which is shared by ("common to") nearly all people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people without any need for debate.  In Latin it is sensus communis and in French bon sens.  Dictionary. com states that to be educated is to develop the faculties and powers of (a person) by teaching , instruction or schooling. 
In regards to the recent downgrading by Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Moody's downgrading of Barbados' long-term sovereign credit rating, on December 22, 2014, the leader of the opposition, Mia Mottley, urged that the international rating agencies should be respected for their independent judgment, 'whether we like it or not'. On the contrary, on the same day, it was reported that the Central Bank said that the downgrade was' without justification'. In his response, it was also reported that Prime Minister Freundel Stuart remained defiant in the face of the S&P downgrade and said that his administration was "firmly committed " to his home grown strategy, for growth and development, which had already begun to show positive results."  Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who served as Minister of Finance for 14 years, chimed in and said that Barbados' economic recovery would be based not only on Government  proposals and doing things, but that the private sector, citizens and other stakeholders had critical roles to play. 
At this juncture, the educated debate continues but I wish that common sense will eventually prevail so that the country can resume building.  

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