Sale of Creative Assets miss the Forex boat fuel Exodus
Dr Kris Rampersad 
In my ongoing assessment of new development fronts for the Global South, and using the day of rest and reflection which turned into a month of contemplation, this happened…
NGC Lapse ‘Horrifying,’ PM Mottley’s Rescue ‘Strategic’
I sit with the rest of my country folks applauding the Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley for her rescue of the Banyan audio-visual archives.
I applaud her too for recognizing its value to supporting her strategic vision of what constitutes the new emerging economic opportunities for the Caribbean and crucial in Barbados’ realizing and strengthening its economic base in the creative, cultural heritage and education sectors
Floating the boat on new Forex flows
That she has been able to blend this with her regional vision, civic-mindedness and natural warm human instincts is also admirable. And that she is building her economy to tap into these arenas for multi-million dollars of Foreign Exchange is nothing short of genius.
Unlike Trinidad and Tobago which has a multi-pronged resource base, Barbados is augmenting its leverage of sun sea and sand to accompany its offerings from the knowledge sector with strong creative and educational pulls.
That makes its deal on the fringes of CARIFESTA XV to acquire the Banyan Archives both globally and regionally focused.
TT Misses the Boat
Unfortunately, it also signals that Trinidad and Tobago is missing the boat on developing its own heritage, creative and educational sectors that can pivot the knowledge economy as an equal player alongside its efforts to resuscitate the old and ailing energy sector. And that is compounded by the reality that Trinidad and Tobago is no longer the only player in the energy field with Guyana emerging as the regional giant commanding its own oilfields, alongside a multipronged development thrust of other sectors in IT, heritage and IT.
Aligning Creative Knowledge Sector with Innovative Bridgetown Initiative
Many posit the evident civic-mindedness motivating Mrs Mottley’s decision. But it is clear to me it is also in keeping with Mottley’s vision of positioning Barbados as a leader in the service sectors of Education, Creative, Heritage, Culture and Tourism as the worlds ‘new black gold’. It aligns with her innovative remolding international relations in her debt-to-climate financing mold known as the Bridgetown Initiative.
From SIDS to BOSS
Incidentally, Barbados was among the first countries in the region to seize on the acronym I piloted at UNESCO for rebranding Small Island Developing States (SIDES) to Big Ocean Sustainable States (BOSS) while rallying the Caribbean and Latin American Region and international community to support Barbados when it was bidding to Chair the UNESCO General Assembly, against a lot of divisions within the Caribbean and jostling with the LAC representatives
SIDS to BOSS is part of efforts to not just changing the narrative but to redefine the global agenda and how the global community engages, treats and interact with us as a region and as a people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tagged on to the BOSS acronym when he addressed CARICOM during his visit last year. Yeah – that’s what being an effective policy influencer means! Not battling with SEO already weighed against us as small nations, but reaching the right ears to action decision makers!
Hope for Caribbean
I cannot begin to lay out how refreshing Mrs Mottley’s intervention is. It gives hope to so much of the efforts of myself and others over decades towards removing roadblocks to position Caribbean knowledge sector in the global arena and my ongoing reach to build more sustainable ‘community knowledge banks.
The NGC fiasco that allowed the valuable archives to slip out, with the easy exodus of much else, is only a symptom of the deeper national malaise that shows Trinidad and Tobago fast losing its place as a leader in Caribbean development to countries Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica which has central focus on heritage.
NGC Lapse, National Applause
I am as much horrified by the lapse by NGC in the acquisition, as by the national applause.
For a nation that boasts of being the Caribbean’s largest economy to let go off a valuable archive for such a meagre pittance, it is a national disgrace.
It is pure ‘cockananny’ – that excuse purportedly from an anonymous source in a newspaper – that a legal hiccup inhibited NGC from finalizing the purchase.
Did NGC envision itself becoming a production house when it agreed to the purchase? Pure BS!
Cut off Nose To Spite Face
This is what happens when you discriminate against individuals and critical groups in your society. You cut-off access and lose valuable guidance that could help build out solutions for the way forward.
I have faced similar flippancy in trying to ignite interests in conserving heritage archival material.
I can’t begin to count how many times individual and groups, including the universities and these agencies use my advocacy and proposals to go after funding without having the expertise and know how to move initiatives forward.
Dropping the Ball
So they end up like NGC, dropping the ball after considerable expense and effort, and even after getting funding so funders wonder why their donations are going down a black hole.
If NGC or any other agency needs expert advise, I am sure it knows where to find me for who has been more consistently vocal and active in efforts for leveraging the intellectual assets for development of the knowledge sector as a driving force for economic and social transformation.
Meshing Knowledge Traditions with Technologies
As you well know, I am in the processes of streamlining my knowledge and experiences to develop out our regional sectors in these emerging arenas through meshing traditions, knowledge and technologies including through this novel multimedia rendering of EPIC Landscapes of World Heritage and History that connects Caribbean with global heritage beyond colonialism, building out from the experiences of LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction, LiTTours and LiTTributes. (Make contact to find out more and partner, collaborate, sponsor, donate)
Ongoing Tradition of Losing Patrimony
As a journalist I broke the news of Nobel Laureate Sir Vidia Naipaul’s sale of his manuscripts to a university in the US oil State of Oklahoma. Later as a PhD student I went to Oklahoma for my research – this means that the US economy – air, transport, hotel and the like benefitted from my seeking knowledge. We never learn it seem.
It seems we have learnt nothing and could not be bothered. We will wake up one day and see the world has moved on to new economies riding on knowledge and intellectual resources of the creative, education and cultural sectors and left us floating among the debris our petro economy.
Active Agents of Social Strife
NGC, the universities and other custodian agencies have been active agents of fragmenting the creative, cultural heritage, education and tourism sectors which further make them dependent on the patronizing pittance from policy and other actions commandeered by the energy sector leaving all unable to become self-sustaining and viable entities.
We see in the media a whole lot of flapping and flaring failed tired old economic models.
New Cultural Economic Development Models
Well, we should really tear all those and look to some of these new blueprints I am developing where we can shape our destinies in our own image. Not the ones set by funders or international agencies promising recognition. These that respond to our realities and needs, can excite our children and communities once we get pass the gatekeeper funders garbed in their tunnel vision.
That’s what Independence should mean, to be liberated into a new era of self sustaining governance and decision making where institutions are committed to country first to stimulate the knowledge sector in conjunction with the energy sector, blending traditions and technologies to activate new emerging digital sectors, heritage, tourism and creative education.
Happy Independence, Happy Republic
See Related Posts: PM Mottley: More Sweetness to the Culture Market Basket https://krisrampersad.com/pm-mottley-more-sweetness-to-the-culture-market-basket/
Sovereignty Sale Buy Out Culture Gaslight Feuds Fuel Crime: https://krisrampersad.com/sovereignty-sale-buy-out-culture-gaslight-feuds-fuel-crime/
See Innovative Approaches:
About Dr Kris Rampersad
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