Change is needed
Grand Bahama is positioned geographically in a very good position to prosper. It has the right amount of sunshine each year, as well as beautiful beaches.
It has a lot to offer and has offered a lot in the past, but not so much in the recent past.
This blog which began July 5, 2013 has but one aim, and that is to change the thinking of the people on the island which could be whats needed to change the island itself.
As the years have gone by, especially the past thirty, the feeling and mindset of despair has been over taking a lot of the residents. What is worst is that the people have been speaking negatively about the economy for a long time and some may not have felt the effects of the things they speak but without being mindful of the fact that the tongue carries a lot of weight, they say the negative things anyway.
This negativity has permeated many areas of the island and is the downfall of many businesses.
There is still a thought that the economy needs a large influx of people to make it work, but I noticed an article last month which said two smaller countries saw significant growth over the past year.
According to the Caribbean Development Bank St. Kitts and Nevis and the Turks & Caicos Islands were the fastest growing small economies in the Caribbean last year showing four percent growth.
The Bahamas on a whole numbered in the second group that saw one percent growth.
In population St. Kitts and Nevis has about the same population of Grand Bahama, while the entire Turks & Caicos Islands has much less people than in Grand Bahama.
Question, what makes them grow that we need to adopt.
As one person told me recently about a trip to Turks & Caicos, as you step of the plane not only do you see the potential but you also feel the vibrations in the air that things can be done.
Is that all thats lacking in Grand Bahama? A feeling that we can do it "forgetting the past and reaching toward the higher calling"?
What if we stopped looking to be rescued which is something Flipping Grand Bahama has been advocating? What if we felt it could be done ... a change in our economy in our homes and on the island? What if this feeling is caught on by investors who are given the opportunity to join with us to make it better?
When we say Flipping Grand Bahama we are talking about bringing back that idea that came about with Wallace Groves when he felt that there is much more to these pine trees than just wood for the coal mines in the UK. When people packed up from Germany, Canada and the United States to move here simply to start a new life and bought homes to live on an island working and playing in a new world just sixty years ago?
The sight of the unpaved roads meant an opportunity to pave them.
With the right conditions the lack of many things in our economy today could be changed simply by changing your mind to not only see the potential but to go after it believing you can.
I was listening to Norman Vincent Peale who said being the morning with the verse "all things are possible" drowning out doubt and fears, believing that you can succeed in this day can make all the difference. The difference in one life can transfer to others and change a world.
Sometime ago I listened to the story of Singapore and wondered about other countries and especially this country.
Back in the 1990s while working at a newspaper I was always dismayed during graduation season wondering about the future of the students coming out to join the workforce. I advocated a study of what was needed in the country that the students going off to school should be able to fill those posts and there to be a perfect fit to create a great and prosperous country. One year I even created a list .. of course new areas have opened since then but of course all words fell on deaf ears.
The story of Singapore as I heard it was that the education system looked at what areas would be needed in the future and streamed the students according to this. Well... the difference here was that Singapore is communist so this model can only work so far here, but there is some merit in the thinking that can make the necessary changes.
We don't like it but a change is needed and should be welcomed. We may never like the beginning but the end may be what was required.
My five cents.
It has a lot to offer and has offered a lot in the past, but not so much in the recent past.
This blog which began July 5, 2013 has but one aim, and that is to change the thinking of the people on the island which could be whats needed to change the island itself.
As the years have gone by, especially the past thirty, the feeling and mindset of despair has been over taking a lot of the residents. What is worst is that the people have been speaking negatively about the economy for a long time and some may not have felt the effects of the things they speak but without being mindful of the fact that the tongue carries a lot of weight, they say the negative things anyway.
This negativity has permeated many areas of the island and is the downfall of many businesses.
There is still a thought that the economy needs a large influx of people to make it work, but I noticed an article last month which said two smaller countries saw significant growth over the past year.
According to the Caribbean Development Bank St. Kitts and Nevis and the Turks & Caicos Islands were the fastest growing small economies in the Caribbean last year showing four percent growth.
The Bahamas on a whole numbered in the second group that saw one percent growth.
In population St. Kitts and Nevis has about the same population of Grand Bahama, while the entire Turks & Caicos Islands has much less people than in Grand Bahama.
Question, what makes them grow that we need to adopt.
As one person told me recently about a trip to Turks & Caicos, as you step of the plane not only do you see the potential but you also feel the vibrations in the air that things can be done.
Is that all thats lacking in Grand Bahama? A feeling that we can do it "forgetting the past and reaching toward the higher calling"?
What if we stopped looking to be rescued which is something Flipping Grand Bahama has been advocating? What if we felt it could be done ... a change in our economy in our homes and on the island? What if this feeling is caught on by investors who are given the opportunity to join with us to make it better?
When we say Flipping Grand Bahama we are talking about bringing back that idea that came about with Wallace Groves when he felt that there is much more to these pine trees than just wood for the coal mines in the UK. When people packed up from Germany, Canada and the United States to move here simply to start a new life and bought homes to live on an island working and playing in a new world just sixty years ago?
The sight of the unpaved roads meant an opportunity to pave them.
With the right conditions the lack of many things in our economy today could be changed simply by changing your mind to not only see the potential but to go after it believing you can.
I was listening to Norman Vincent Peale who said being the morning with the verse "all things are possible" drowning out doubt and fears, believing that you can succeed in this day can make all the difference. The difference in one life can transfer to others and change a world.
Sometime ago I listened to the story of Singapore and wondered about other countries and especially this country.
Back in the 1990s while working at a newspaper I was always dismayed during graduation season wondering about the future of the students coming out to join the workforce. I advocated a study of what was needed in the country that the students going off to school should be able to fill those posts and there to be a perfect fit to create a great and prosperous country. One year I even created a list .. of course new areas have opened since then but of course all words fell on deaf ears.
The story of Singapore as I heard it was that the education system looked at what areas would be needed in the future and streamed the students according to this. Well... the difference here was that Singapore is communist so this model can only work so far here, but there is some merit in the thinking that can make the necessary changes.
We don't like it but a change is needed and should be welcomed. We may never like the beginning but the end may be what was required.
My five cents.
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