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by Jermaine Beckford
“Unemployment is bigger than a political party. It is a national danger and a national scandal.” – Ellen Wilkinson.
To many Barbadians at this time, these words will reverberate for they underscore in full what it means to have found yourself in an era that can only be described as a terrifying nightmare, during the period 2020 and 2021.
With the onset of the global health pandemic of COVID 19, many persons in this country have found themselves plunged into a cycle of despair, absolute indignity and barely existing above the poverty line.
Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, once commented during the Greek debt crisis that persons in Europe had built a vertebrate life for themselves only now to have realised that they had built their house on the sand.
Within Barbados, this is now the stark reality of many thousands of persons, who in some instances are completely unaware of where their next meal will come from or, how any bill will be paid.
Many persons now consider themselves to be surviving on borrowed time, given they are awaiting Court Marshalls to descend on them and enforce orders of possession for property, or simply serve notices to attend court regarding unpaid debts.
In the month of December 2020 like many thousands of other Barbadians, I found myself on the unemployment line.
Initially this was a shock given I had only a few days earlier had to deal with the passing of my mother. I had provided yeoman service to my then employer, however due to circumstances beyond the control of the Barbados operating company, I was selected to be retrenched.
Like many Barbadians from then to now, I have been feverishly seeking fulltime employment to earn an income, so that I can survive.
If one can be candidly honest, unemployment has its challenges from inability to satisfy debts to bouts of severe depression which has sadly led to some persons the most serious of impacts, committing suicide.
The Government has really tried, given the economic circumstances of the country post 2018 and the “Lost Decade,” and the now seen ravages of the global health pandemic, and have where possible in line with previously stated Government policy attempted to contain the fallout to Barbadians from the pandemic.
There are many thousands of graduates of the University of the West Indies who now find themselves in the most deleterious of circumstances in this country.
When former Prime Minister Owen Seymour Arthur envisioned the one graduate per household policy during his term of office 1994 to 2008, no one would ever have even contemplated a global health pandemic crippling economies worldwide in 2020.
It is my view that the Government of Barbados must immediately change direction on the endemic issue of unemployment and under employment which now plagues this country.
A society cannot function for all when there are persons approaching an economic cliff and there seems to be no end in sight.
We must finally come to the belief, that one man unemployed is one too many persons unemployed. No one expects a government to employ all persons, however the government has to set a strategic path and direction to promote enhanced business development in both the traditional and non-traditional areas.
These are not times which require traditional thinking, rather we need novel ideas, bold, progressive and earthshattering initiatives.
There must be a recognition that thousands of Barbadians are truly in a race against the clock and though we like to believe that pretty words alone will suffice, for some the game is approaching while for others, it is simply up.
In the BLP branch meeting of St. Michael Northeast constituency on Wednesday, September 29, 2021, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley stated her hurt and regret of the plight of more than 20 000 persons in tourism and other related industries alone who now find themselves on the breadline.
It is hoped that those in power will see this article as a wakeup call from the thousands of suffering Barbadians, a call-to-action vs inaction. As one of the many thousands on the breadline, I am asking Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley to immediately develop and roll out an “Unemployment To Jobs Plan, 2021 to 2036.”
Given my current circumstances and that of many I know, I am willing to give of my time to assist the government in the development of such a plan. I have a vested interest, and so do many thousands of Barbadians.
We have many knowledgeable and highly paid consultants who have been hired by this Government, let’s get our full worth from these minds. Barbados needs all who have strength and the will to achieve to step up to the plate now more than ever.
Jermaine Beckford is a host on the Online TV show Bajan Views and Online TV show “Voices of the Unemployed”. He is a University of the West Indies-trained former banking and operations professional who is currently unemployed.
