The presence of COVID-19 in our midst and the imminent day on which we formally remember the father of our nation Errol Walton Barrow, provide us with cause for deep reflection.
We often boast of our development, and there can be no doubt that Barbados and by extension other islands in the region have made strides over the past fifty years. But have they been enough? Have we in the region been retarded by errant politicians who have failed to bring true expression to the Independence movement that has swept through the Caribbean over the past decades.
COVID-19, for all the despair, desperation and destruction that it has brought, might one day in the future be seen by historians as the catalyst that finally made Caribbean corporate leaders and regional politicians rise from their collective derrières to push for meaningful, revolutionary advancement.
It is with some degree of ambivalent feelings that over the past few weeks we have watched members of Barbados’ Cabinet and health officials, as well as other regional leaders and their health officials, speak to Caribbean people about accessing vaccines to fight this pandemic. And as they spoke about the possible sources of the vaccine, quantity, distribution, et al, one could not help but reflect on education in Barbados and the wider Caribbean, developmental policy, and Barrow’s exhortations more than three decades ago.
This region has some of the best universities in the world. These have produced some of the best brains in the world. The world has benefited from the academic brilliance of Barbadians and other West Indians across the globe. Barbadians are to be found in areas of science and technology, medicine, physics and a range of other disciplines.
It therefore begs the question, why in the year of our Lord 2021 are regional leaders appearing like beggars and individuals of straw on national televisions discussing the arrival of vaccines from outside this region? Why isn’t Barbados or Jamaica or Trinidad and Tobago or Guyana producing vaccines for our people? Are we so mired in a third world mentality that we automatically look outward for a solution to this problem because it is beyond us? With the exception of Cuba which has always shown an inclination towards giving true meaning to its independence in all spheres, are the rest of us in the region satisfied with the mirror age of an outstretched cap in hand?
The Barbados government – every one of them – has over previous decades failed to place emphasis or invest significant funds towards research and development. In our annual budgets why has government never stipulated that companies put perhaps 0.05 per cent of their profits or even their overall budget towards research and development? We have one major pharmaceutical company in Barbados but a substantial amount of money is needed to propel pharmaceutical research.
Sadly, this island’s private sector does not invest heavily in the research into new drugs. Perhaps it is time Barbados joins forces with Cuba at a regional level to do research into new drugs. They have been pioneering drugs for HIV/AIDS and now COVID-19 while Barbados’ and other regional leaders, prattle at press conferences about having things under control. What control!
The Barbados government gives corporate companies tax breaks and get nothing in return for such generosity. Has it ever dawned on our political geniuses that they could tie a one per cent contribution towards pharmaceutical research to the tax breaks which they bestow on undeserving companies?
The cumulative money raised could go a long way towards funding our own research into drugs, vaccines and the like. There is the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre in Barbados. What is going on there? What research is being done? Since the outbreak of COVID-19 early last year, has any related research been carried out into possible vaccines?
Have regional governments or the corporate communities sought to engage some of our best scientific and medical minds and provide them with the necessary financial resources and equipment to development a vaccine? The evasive, monotonous and sterile outpourings from press briefings, often sprinkled with political arrogance, suggest that this might not have even ventured into the collective craniums of our leaders.
Thus, in this time of despair we in the region wait on Pfizer, AstraZeneca and other suppliers and hope we acquire the requisite dosages for our people, while our leaders utter bland one-liners from the side of their mouths and urge us to breathe. That perfunctoriness does not compute with Barrow’s mirror image of us. The emphasis he placed on education then was not for us to look to Uncle Sam or Europe for vaccines, the vision was for us to make vaccines. We have the brains to do it but our political and corporate leaders do not have the will or vision.
Barrow asked in that famous speech in 1986: “What kind of mirror image do you have of yourself? Why don’t you sit down there and start trying to put people on the moon, too? Instead of using $100 million to develop the potential of the young scientists that we have, and the young doctors that we have, we spend it putting up an expression of a monumental edifice behind the Cathedral and call it a Central Bank Building, because we think that people develop by ostentation, by showing off, and not by developing people.”
We ask today, why are we still lingering on the doorsteps of people who are no smarter than us? Why are we pretending that tearing down monuments and ad-libbing about “who we are” contribute anything to a mirror image of which we can truly be proud?
