Barbados

What is Barbados like?

Herein, I try to explain what Barbados is like, for enlightened, ambitious, geek.

Summary

What if a benevolent dictator (all-around nice guy with a brilliant mind and natural leadership ability, such as Linus Torvalds) decided to take over a small country of circa one-quarter-million people?

What if a conglomorate had, due to co-incidental economic advantage of his foreparents, built itself into a monopoly (which controlled not one relatively important sector such as technology, but all major sectors such as Shipping and Trade, retail, wholesale, distribution), such that one man now controlled 75% of the private sector in this country?

What if your country gained independance in 1966, but the constitution had the following flaws:

• explictly protected laws passed before independance / the formation of said constitution
• was designed in the country from which you became independant, and implemented unmodified
• was not based on input from the populace
• was passed by the political system of the former overlords of the land, and hence, could technically be repelled by them at any time

What if these flaws were overlooked in the interest of time, considering that the Father of Independance of the time was under considerable pressure to acheive independance (even if it was only ceremonial), which would raise social awareness of the importance of your country becoming independant socially, politically, and most importantly, economically?

What if the average young person (and remember, all young people of today are potentially the leaders of tomorrow) felt that politics was intrinsically evil because:

• politicians have lost touch with the "pulse of the people"
• rampant corruption within government, which is due in part to economic turndown causing people to find alternate, and sometimes unethical, methods of gain
• the stagnant private sector, caused by not one, but two monopolies (I forgot to mention that the telecommunications sector is totally monopolised as well)
• a prevailing attitude amongst political, financial, and legal insititutions that money talks, and small business should magically become big rather than asking for help, or expencing any sort of protection, support, investment, or assistance
• an omnipresent sense of cluelessness within all places of authority (schools, businesses, governement). Schools which do not teach well, but think they do. Businesses which treat customers badly, but don't care. Employers who treat employees badly, but think this is the one and only way to go. Goverment services which are ineffective at actually serving anyone, or anything, but gross wastage
• any individual who tries to change the system through conventional means (becoming part of it, trying to make a difference) is mysteriously removed, or overwhelmed, becoming either corrupt or disillusioned as they watch the system crawl slowly towards its death, oblivious to the clear and present danges which it faces
• all attempts to shed light on the situation for those who can do something about it fail. Thousands, if not millions, of trees have died in vain to produce comprehensive reports on the problems within the country. Those in power do little, if anything, to effect change. What little is done is masked by the much that is left undone.
• a prevailing sense of certain failure, practically, a national self-esteem problem, which causes all projects to be sabatoged and gutted for component parts before they have a chance to prove themselves as viable.
• a lack of accountability for public funds, which encourages corruption
• their general ignorance of what can be done
• a lack of history of larger-than-life myths which bring the History of the Caribbean, and Barbados in general, to the forefront
• a general fair of "being big" which is caused by constant harassment of medium-sized business by the local Shipping and Trade company

I could go on, and I will. First I will elaborate on each point, and in doing so, I will play to my strengths (Reading, Researching, and Reporting). Then, at least, there will be somewhere that comprehensively defines what the challenges are which I and others are facing.

However, I must point out one thing which I think is important: Barbados is a place with a unique blend of capitalism, democracy, and socialism. It is, from my prespective, the best type of country in the world, and has a rich history worth retelling.

For example, [Tom Adams re-running elections]