Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.
by Carl Moore
I loved to watch the Concorde in flight. It was graceful and futuristic. But I didn’t see why Barbados needed one; even a retired one. I wrote several letters to the editor opposing the idea to build a museum at our airport. I argued that there were several well-equipped aviation museums elsewhere in Britain, France, Germany and the United States – all countries with rich aviation traditions.
In 2006, some 14 years ago, I suggested: “Let us cut our losses, forget about an aviation museum, give back British Airways their Concorde, and direct that money toward the Barbados Water Authority which, the Public Utilities Minister Mr Anthony Wood tells us, is going to need close to $300 million to upgrade. How can we take the hard-earned taxpayers’ money and waste it on such flights of fancy?”
Politicians are good at spending taxpayers’ money.
We went ahead and set up a structure at the airport and called it an aviation museum.
This week, in your on-line publication, I read of another politician admitting that it would take a million dollars to restore the place that is running into ugly ruin, not unlike the St. Joseph Hospital and the nearby Barbados Workers’ Union’s Labour College at Mangrove, St. Philip.
Not to be outdone, another colleague, full of exuberance and ideas, countered with a classic piece of wishful thinking. She is promising a “new plan” to restore Concorde. At taxpayers’ expense, of course!
Concorde has no future here. Let us hand the thing back to British Airways, (it’s on loan, remember?), or place it alongside Lord Nelson where he now resides.
