Delroy ChuckGLOBAL COMMUNICATION and the free movement of ideas, goods and people have made the world into a global village. On my computer, via the Internet, I can communicate with virtually anywhere in the world at the speed of light, i.e. instantaneously. The news network, via cable or satellite, brings the world into our living rooms and, nowadays, it is of little importance whether we watch from Miami, Sydney, London, or anywhere, as breaking news and issues of the moment come readily to our attention.
In our small part of the world, we are being left behind, far behind, as we fail to understand the world is moving forward and help will only come if we help ourselves. Soon, the grants, loans and remittances will dwindle and stop and then where will we be?
We can move forward, but only if we are prepared to follow good economics, find competitive advantage for our goods and services and tap the entrepreneurial acumen of our people. Our present approach to governance, in which we see ourselves at the mercy of globalisation and, thus, need further protection from harsh economic forces, can only take us into more debt, greater poverty, further decay and social unrest. We need to summon the energy, strategy and will to find our niche on the world market and start thinking and acting like businessmen in search of customers and a market and stop believing and behaving as if we can borrow and beg our way out of poverty and decay. Yet, we are unprepared to make the hard and difficult decisions that can take us out of the mess.
How can we ever hope to compete on the world market when the cost of producing virtually anything here can easily be matched elsewhere? When the cost of producing sugar is almost twice its value on the world market then something, perhaps everything has gone awry. When we have over 20,000 heads of cattle that cannot be slaughtered, as beef can be imported cheaper; when chicken and eggs can enter the market at half price; when vegetables and fruits from abroad are more easily accessible than local products, and so on, we are in crisis, and no one in government seems to know or perhaps even to care. In truth, I sit in committees of Parliament and listen to the tale of woes from the agricultural sector, the manufacturing sector, tourism, business, banking, in fact every sector, and everybody has a problem and falling over the precipice, yet the government argues it is on the right track.
Producers come to Parliament and beg for protection from foreign competition, goods and services. They argue that local production will never be able to compete as elsewhere the business environment and costs of production are more favourable and some claim local production will have to be protected in perpetuity. I listen but I am not impressed. Most will fail, as the global marketplace will soon devour them.
I believe it is unfair to hold our consumers to ransom and to force them to buy local goods at higher prices when they can get the same goods, produced elsewhere, cheaper. Yet, the problem cannot be that every sector is inefficient and uncompetitive. I think, and know, the problem derives from government's overall economic policies that have forced local producers of all kinds into financial difficulties and bankruptcy. Seeking protection is not the answer, the way out is to demand a revision of government's economic model, which should really be renamed 'Omar's Recession Model'.
Tourism is seen as the main foreign exchange earner and it can earn even more but, certainly, not in the present disintegrating state of our infrastructure and retarded way of thinking. Tourism is the best example of our comparative advantage over most countries but we seem to lack the minds to give it a competitive advantage.
We depend solely on sand, sea and sun to attract tourists but beyond that what else do we offer them? Soon, we will lose that comparative advantage.
Comparative
advantage
Recently, I stayed at the newly built Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas, and it has created a Caribbean white sand beach in the Nevada desert. Why come to the Caribbean when it can be enjoyed in Las Vegas?
In fact, why come to Jamaica if what I see in Ocho Rios is the best of what Jamaica has to offer? I am appalled at just how much the town of Ocho Rios has deteriorated, decayed and disintegrated? Last Friday, I walked through the town, and every inch of the way I asked myself why would any tourist want to spend time there? Let us not fool ourselves, unless we face the reality and seek to remedy the mess, tourism will suffer and we will lose even our comparative advantage. I have enjoyed cruises like a tourist, cruising on many ships around the Caribbean, and the other ports of call are clean, receptive and attractive; I cannot say the same for Ocho Rios, it is dirty and unattractive.
Then, instead of finding ways and means of giving Ocho Rios some competitive advantage by improving the beaches, Dunn's River Falls and the natural environment for everyone, we are gradually making it look like a concentration camp. Now, we put a fence and razor-sharp wires around the beaches to protect the tourists from the natives. It is a disgraceful and shameful development. It reminds me, and certainly the tourists, of Communism and Nazism, instead of a free and peaceful country. Until we treat our people as well or even better than we treat foreigners, there will be no peace, civility and decency.
In the global marketplace, leaders, businessmen and thinkers with a global vision will succeed. Those who seek merely to satisfy a few consumers instead of competing and satisfying the whole world will forever be crying foul, blaming colonialism, capitalism and now globalisation. In the global economy, our cries for help will soon be lost and become mere echoes of desperation. We can succeed, but we must stop begging, borrowing and whining. Start thinking, creating visions and resolve to compete and succeed against the brightest and the best.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at delchuck@hotmail.com
