St. Lucia Simply Beautiful

Recently, I have reflected on my professional life and have concluded that innovation, the successful application of new ideas in practice, has been my driving force.

In the Business Facilitation pillar we had an update on the “11-11-11 ON” project where BEF is working to establish free WIFI from “bus stop to rum shop” throughout Barbados before our November 2011 SUMMIT; also, this pillar has made significant strides in providing business facilitation support for fledgling entrepreneurs.

The leadership of a country, however small, is complex as it must embrace all aspects of society. As Dr. E. F. Schumacher said in his book “Small is Beautiful – Economics as if People Really Mattered”, there is an optimal population size administrative unit from a management perspective of 250,000 to 300,000 people.

My prediction is that as the Prime Minister seeks a mandate from the people, in his own right, as general elections become constitutionally due (in less than two years), we are going to witness a series of “Freundal” zones in the socio-politico-economic atmosphere in Barbados as the leading edge of the wedge, driven by a calm/cool personality, advances and retreats over the Barbadian landscape.

I researched and would like to share the following: “Humility or humbleness is a quality of being courteously respectful of others. It is the opposite of aggressiveness, arrogance, boastfulness, and vanity. Rather than, ‘Me first,’ humility allows us to say, ‘No, you first, my friend.’ Humility is the quality that lets us go more than halfway to meet the needs and demands of others.”

Today I am motivated to take a Caribbean perspective mainly because of a video that I watched which Johnson JohnRose, the Communications Specialist at the Caribbean Tourism Organization, posted on Facebook. It may be accessed as follows: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150212916850883&comments.

Remember the African Proverb: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito”.

A start-up “DNA of an Elephant” enterprise implies prospects for global exports in the medium term thus contributing to economic growth. We cannot grow Barbados, or any other small or emerging nation for that matter, on its own market foot print since the consumption potential is too small.

Whatever the area of endeavour in life, we have to be poised to respond to the challenge so that we can reposition ourselves to recover the situation and put us on track to the journey of sustainable success.

Last week Brian Griffith, in his “Jewels for Today” series, drew our attention to a Bulgarian proverb “New Day, New Destiny”. I was intrigued by this because, at first blush, it was apparently paradoxical. Certainly, in my mind, “destiny” connotes a predetermined course of events leading to a predetermined future. How then do we interpret the concept of a New Destiny which continually changes with the advent of a New Day?