This week felt like one where we should have explored the economic benefits to Barbados hosting matches and the finals of the T20 Cricket World Cup. Quite a few of my colleagues have been public with their views, all scattered across the spectrum. I still plan to lend my voice on the matter but all I can truly give to you, at this point, is my belief that history is truly a great teacher. You needn’t know much more than that to conclude where those impacts are likely to leave us as a country.
Today though, I just cannot contend with the topic and give what it deserves since I became quite troubled about life in Bim just two days before writing this. My grouse may seem dramatic but it merits that title unfairly. Essentially, I was disturbed by a sight that I had never witnessed before, happening right outside of my kitchen window. I had heard about what I was seeing for sometime since last year but to observe, in this case, was to feel it in my soul. It knew that I was staring at the beginning of the end of life as we knew it in Barbados. And as always, those who previously peeped or, at least, participated in it might not truly understand what the proliferation of this activity means for Barbados and also “Venezuela”. I quote as there is a part of what little is left of my spirit which says that maybe persons from other Spanish-speaking countries are involved.
Now last Tuesday, I watched a man walking about my village in the insufferable heat of the midday sun from my kitchen window. I so admired his strength as he took the most sure of steps going door to door with a boxed sixty-inch Samsung TV set strapped around his right shoulder. All the while he was with two boxed microwaves strapped to the other; a haversack straddled across his back; and two full plastic bags carrying something that seemed quite heavy. He was not dressed for the weather in my opinion. By the time he made it out of my sight some 15 minutes later, I came to the conclusion that this was indeed one of the “Merchandise sales for Gold” schemes I had heard about. I could be wrong but what was looking like a duck quacked like such. Regardless, people display the greatest fortitude in the name of survival. I could not bare to take his load for more than five minutes even if I had no choice but to. He never put that weight down while I silently watched on.
What I witnessed was not just a show of physical strength but one that revealed the depths to where human beings will go when they lose their standard of living and confidence in their government. In our hemisphere, there are quite a few places that people would subject themselves to such a life especially in a country not their own. Venezuela and Haiti form the top of that list in my opinion. It is a core belief of mine that cultures aren’t born, but that they are constantly molded. Some of the best stimuli are purely economic; impacting all that is societal. Venezuela has always had an enterprising culture, along with Haiti. Struggle continues to shape the latter, all since its independence and the controversy left in its wake. However, the post-Chavez period in Venezuela is a timely reminder of the malleability of cultures.
Venezuelans have always migrated for all intents and purposes. Everyone from has from everywhere. This occurred long before there was a field called economics. But as time went on, you can find, in a few comparatively rare cases, that drought and famine are leading causes of to migration. We should accept that both are as economic as they are climatic. I am reminded, and you should be as well, that Venezuela has gone through tremendously hard times economically since the death of Chavez, but simply stemming from prior extravagances.
Some readers may go as far as to say that major geopolitical issues with the USA is of greater impact. Regardless, this is also economic, principally, in nature. The weakening of its external trade balances led to a dire pre-Covid level of inflation; the remnants of which still bite to this day. At times, the Venezuelan Bolivar had as much worth as the napkin you wipe your hands with after you had your favourite souse on a weekend. Thrown away with as much frequency as well given the adjacent rising popularity of US dollars in the country. The economy still imported quite a bit of what it needed not just from the US in spite of embargo. The Bolivar itself is not quite fungible or tradable outside of Venezuela, even amongst its closest trade partners in Latin America. That’s fancy talk for the currency has no value in those other economies because the demand for products from Venezuela is paltry at best. If you’re thinking that its oil has demand externally then yes you are right to a point. However, it is fact that the state oil company is in a “state” itself and Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador have long filled that hole left since Chavez’s passing some eleven years ago.
Long have I heard that there are two sides to the economic situation playing out in Venezuela. Some say, as I believe, that its had worsened for a significant part of the population. Others believe that Venezuela remains one of the best places to live in Latin America. I would as well if I did not travel to Florida as frequently as I do. I also would have rubbished my stated view if I was not aware of the acts of piracy in the straits between Trinidad and the very same Venezuela. Further to this is the fact that the face of their society has changed so much this past decade that Venezuelans will have a huge impact on the next general elections in the twin island republic. Soo many have left regardless of the hardships that now face them in Trinidad as in where they work any and every job while taking accommodations that, in most cases, they would not live in back home.
This brings me to our guy peddling his merchandise throughout my village. I have no problem with his choice to do what he can for himself. It is physically harmless to me and my property. But I can say so much more on the negative ramifications economically with his supposed preference for gold over cash and what it means for Barbados. However, to put himself under that pressure and that weight reveals what a lack of confidence, brought about by economic demise, can do the psyche of people. They will remove themselves from the barely comfortable to the barely familiar and worse conditions if they can at least feed themselves consistently. Maslow’s Theory holds here as wekl.
I then resumed peeling my potatoes after our gentleman disappeared out of sight. The fifteen minutes were up. At that point, I just could not help but think of why we believe that because we are familiar with a “sweet” life in Bim that people would not find a way to put themselves in trying conditions elsewhere. All so that they could consistently make a living. It only takes a major failure by a government for Bajans to easily become Venezuelans.