Submitted by Ready Done
.
Many of us are of the opinion that our little island is in need of good leaders (not saying we don’t currently have any). The Barrows and Adams type leaders who had a clear vision and the will power to give us what was needed for 50 years and even beyond. Our new leaders have so many problems on their plates I can understand why it seems as though there is no medium term plan. This makes it imperative that each of us do more to guide this island in the right direction and not leave such a heavy work load on our leaders.
Looking at the most advanced societies and economies worldwide to see what we can aspire to be, we see they are mostly industrial. Unfortunately Barbados cannot be an industrial based economy because of the obvious lack of natural resources and our small size. What we need is to look forward to a post-industrial type society. In my recent quest to get a glimpse of this almost “utopian” world of what Barbados could be, I came across Ivan Illich. In his work he refers to the concept of a convivial society and explained in some detail the prospects of what the next level of society can look like. Such a type of thinking is based on a Euro-centric view but can apply to Barbados in my opinion.
We are hearing a constant call for more small businesses to be established and greater innovation shown. Our leaders recognise the need to harness the people talent/power to make this an efficient society.
The Internet has turned a world that was once run by the elite few who controlled the knowledge, to a world were a guy from Baird’s Village in Barbados can master* Aquaponics with the help of Australians who reside on the other side of the continent in real time. The result, I have a system currently ranked in the first 75 worldwide. Knowledge no longer “trickles down” to the masses but it is now readily available to whoever wants to know.
As technology is fully integrated into society, we are moving from unskilled to skilled in every aspect of work. A vital skill which we need to better cultivate is to comprehend and implement information. This shows up a critical flaw in the current education system, It teaches us to conform and not to use homegrown individual solutions to take Barbados to the next level. We need to encourage and exploit that individuality then we will see great leaders rise up from the masses.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.