Unity Bar Lecture: June 25, 2010: Robert Verdun discussses "15 Ways to Improve our Number One Industry without Expending a New Penny"

The next lecture in the series will be delivered on Friday, June 25, 2010, by Mr. J. Robert (Bob) Verdun, Specialist in Social & Environmental Responsibility, Hotelier and Columnist, at the "Errol Barrow Gallery", DLP Headquarters, 'Kennington', George Street, Belleville, St. Michael; his/her topic will be "15 Ways to Improve our Number One Industry without Expending a New Penny". As usual lunch will be served from 12.30 pm and the lecture will start at 1.00 pm.

Turn Off The Lights

Tonight will be another Earth Hour, see http://www.earthhour.org/. So, at 8.30PM turn off the lights for an hour. How you spend that time is your business :-)

Gave Instead Of Lent 23, 24

March 14:

• Gave up any semblance of a morning lie-in when a little finger poked me in the face. Have to see that the same as a sleepy hug at midnight.

• Gave Barbados a taste of me as a radio show moderator.

March 15: Gave thanks for the rain that came several times during the night, then for over one hour during the morning. A blessing but not salvation.

Man-Made Islands In The Caribbean Sun

Paul Altman knows about putting development ideas into action. Barbados is well known for project that bear his hallmark. Now, he has an idea to create man-made offshore islands that will give a new 'lifestyle'. Judging from the artist's impression, that vision for the project at Lime Grove will indeed be an amazing change of style. The development will have 12 commercial/retail buildings, plus 56 planned residential buildings - the first 8 townhouses - a show home to be open in Spring 2010. The Nation gives a good outline of other elements of the project. More information is also available at the Limegrove website. But, the idea of reclaiming land is bold, as is the notion of bringing in major high-end retail names.

When he spoke at yesterday's Broad Street Journal Business Breakfast, at Tamarind Cove, you could sense the suspense in the minds of the audience as he outlined his project. Two islands off the west coast, which will include a small island that has a national park as intended recreation space for locals.Admittedly, the main island and development seems geared at tourists, as a means of getting them to 'linger longer' and to part with more of their foreign exchange. But, one of my constant concerns about what I see of tourism here is that it does not seem driven enough to maximise tourists spending in a way that is consistent with the market it has set up for tourism.

Barbados is not Dubai, and should not aim to be. But Barbados needs a image make over. I personally wonder why Barbadian tourism has developed a sort of brand less image--nothing wrong with boutique hotels. But, when the market has been to target high-end tourists then they will not be attracted by faceless and nameless items of indifferent quality; they would be attracted by brands, which have a pedigree. Mr. Altman's project will have some of that with its Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Cartier flagship stores, and a dazzling array of world renowned brands on sale in other stores. It will also try to blend in some of the historic character of the island, which is also something that should be better stressed across the island. It will be a very interesting visit to see this project in 12 months' time.

Water: Not A Drop To Waste

The following piece was offered by Kammie Holder. He will start new column, "Swimming Up Stream", in the Saturday Nation from next Saturday March 5. He writes that 'It will offer serious critique, humor and obviously mobilization of your thinking'.
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Something is fundamentally wrong with our decision-makers’ brains: there seems to be a fault in their logic and reasoning area. It`s Tuesday morning, 1:30am, yet sleep eludes me, because something is bothering me. I took my usual trip to the bathroom and and without much thought depressed the tank lever and the toilet was flushed; a function we take for granted and other Caribbean countries, even those with rivers cannot, because of drought caused by climate change. Jamaica, Trinidad and even Guyana with their rivers have being experiencing dry taps and saw it fit to ration their water supply.

People, thanks to global warming, droughts in one area and flooding in others will be the norm so get used to it. A growing population, urbanisation, deforestation, global climatic changes and pollution are some reasons for the increased pressure on the existing water bodies. Population expansion is the single biggest reason behind the increased pressure on fresh water resources. Water consumption has almost doubled in the last fifty years and naturally, per capita availability of water has steadily decreased.

I have heard lots of talk on Barbados not being a water scarce country so I will inform the uninformed that water is a finite commodity. If a country has less than a thousand (1,000) cubic metres (m3) per capita per year it is designated a Water Scarce Country. Barbados’ available water resources are currently rated by the FAO at (390) cubic metres per person. One cubic metre is equivalent to 220 gallons. We are adjudged to be the fifteenth water scarce country in the world.

Though approximately 70 per cent of the earth’s surface is covered by water, only 2.5 per cent of it is fit for drinking. The rest is all salt water, which fills up the vast expanse of the oceans and seas — unfit for human consumption. Why then in 2010 are we still flushing expensive potable water down our toilets and using it for agriculture?

Common sense also tells me that the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) should have long ago been encouraging persons to conserve water and start water rationing. Logic suggests to me that the BWA is leading the Minister responsible for the BWA rather than the Minister leading the BWA. This modus operandi can only lead to poor judgment and chaos, as well as poor decision-making. Thus it’s like a case of a private leading a troop into battle, rather than the Commanding Officer. Will it take our taps in hotels, schools and restaurants to run dry before we act?

Mr Lowe, this is an issue of national security. Please show some leadership and stamp your authority. Our inability to imagine what we may be faced with and be proactive is because we have never experienced the stench from unflushed toilets. Can someone tell me if the BWA management has employed an obeah man or some seer, thus the delay of a water caution decision until March? Or is this another case of poor advice from technocrats to ministers who are afraid to manage their ministers for fear of been accused of micro-managing.

Mr Lowe can you please pilot legislation as your legacy, so that all homes can be encouraged through a tax rebate to install water tanks for water harvesting?

Finally, I genuinely recommend the reading of the Biblical parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) to those responsible for the managing of our water supply.
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The Link(?) Between Garbage and Economic Prosperity

Fellow blogger, and soon to be MBA graduate, Amit Uttamchandani, has had enough of how Bajans treat their environment, so he's written about it in the letter below. It's very pointed and for many of us who live in Barbados, very familiar. Many would say to Barbados "It's time to clean up your act: Barbados is littered with litter". Some of us have written on this topic of abuse of the environment, as observers and sometimes as cleaners-up after others in various 'beauty' spots. Amit's letter is a spoof. I sending it to me, he wrote "...of-course I'm being silly and sarcastic, but maybe it'll make people thinking about the environment a bit". But, he is being anything but silly, and I encouraged him to send it to the local papers. Whatever they choose to do with it, it will be seen by a part of the world's public on his blog (see http://pullpush.net/)and other blogs, such as mine.

Barbadians say they care about their beautiful country. But they have a funny way of showing it.

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Dec 2, 2009

Letter to The Editor

Sir, I am writing this letter to you today because I would like your assistance in thanking someone.

A few days ago, while driving home from work, I noticed someone throwing their garbage out of the window of a bus waiting at a junction.

Sir, it is this individual that I would like to thank and I am seeking your assistance in doing so by asking that you publish my letter. What follows is for him (or her):

You see, when you (i.e., the throw-er of the garbage) threw whatever you threw out of the window, you weren't littering, you were doing your bit for the economy! You were trying to show us that there is another way besides tourism!

You probably figured that if everyone else were to throw their trash out of the windows of buses and cars and trucks and whatever other vehicles that had windows that were available to throw trash out of, that it would result in the SSA going on a mass recruitment drive, or, increasing the salaries and wages of its current employees (as a result of the increase in trash).

You are clever, whoever you are. They (whoever 'They' are or were), wouldn't just let the trash sit there and pile up. No, you knew that someone would come behind you and clean it up at some stage.

You never intended to act in a selfish, dirty, disgusting, shameless and disrespectful manner. You were merely trying to achieve two important objectives: 1) Job creation and 2) Increased wages and salaries! How noble of you!

An increase in employment and/or wages would be good news for everyone! Wouldn't it? Yes Sir! More people working (and earning more we hope) means more money being spent in the local economy. Hah! Who needs tourism?

However, tread lightly here, my friend, be wary of inflation. IANAE (I Am Not An Economist). Inflation is, from what little I've read, a general increase in the supply of money and/or credit. This in turn may cause the prices of goods to increase (so long as there is no equal increase in the supply of goods).

More money in people's hands means they can offer more for various goods and services. This may result in people themselves driving up the prices of said goods and services (provided that the amount of goods and services remained at pre-inflation levels and did not increase in line with inflation).

A poor simple example: A and B want to buy a car. C, the seller is offering the car for $5,000. A and B can't quite afford it. However, because of every one's increase in littering, the SSA recruits A and B (or increases their existing salaries or wages).

A and B can now afford the car, maybe even afford to pay more than the asking price. Assume that C, the seller, knows of A and B's new found wealth (hmm, no information asymmetry here), C, may increase the price of the car knowing fully well that A and B can afford it and provided that D, E, F, G etc, don't plan on selling their cars (the amount of goods and services after inflation is still the same, but the amount of money available to buy said good has increased), C raises the price.

But you know what? IANAE (I Am Not An Economist).

In conclusion, I'd like to thank you, but be careful of this inflation thing. Carry on smartly! We need more like you! Folks like you who care about this country by adopting unusual methods in order to secure economic prosperity (i.e., throwing your garbage out out of a bus thinking that it will create employment and raise salaries and wages).

Happy Holidays!

Yours,
Amit Uttamchandani.

Mountain Tensions Calmed Spirits

If you have never visited Jamaica, you cannot begin to imagine what the Blue Mountains are like. If you have never driven up toward Catherine's Peak from Kingston, you cannot begin to imagine how a city could have such breathtaking beauty casting its shadow from on high. People who live in those mountains retain much of the simplicity and generosity that one finds in many rural areas in Jamaica. Young children walking from school idle their time away pulling bushes; older ones will pick berries and guavas. Old ladies who work in one of the large houses that dot the mountainsides or little valley will tell you all of their business if they feel that they know you or that you know the people for whom they work. They will love you more if you know the church to which they go and the recent funerals that have taken place. The water you drink is so sweet and refreshing. The mango and ackee trees that overhang the road offer fresh fruit all year round. But there are dangers, or apparent dangers.

I took a drive up to Newcastle and then to Hollywell National Park today, both situated about 4000 feet above sea level. Newcastle is the site of a Jamaican Defence Force training camp, established nearly 170 years ago by Field Marshal Sir William Gomm (see Jamaica Defence Force site). Gomm pressed for years for the construction of the camp, believing that its location in the cool environment would help reduce deaths among the soldiers. He pressed ahead to start building without government approval, but with the approval of the Governor. After the camp was built, the declining death rolls at the camp vindicated Gomm's actions. the camp is now filled with young recruits.

As my friend drove up the hill we were startled by a young man in fatigues and floppy hat coming out of the bush to stop the car. "Please. There is shooting. You will have to wait." I misheard him to say "There has been a shooting..." My antenna went up fast. I asked the young man what ID he had and how we could be sure that he was not a bandit waiting for us to stop and then become his latest victim. He understood how things could be construed, but politely explained what was going on. He explained to us that other young recruits were having target practice some 100 meters away. We asked where the bullets were heading. He said "Up there," pointing further up the road. You cannot see flying bullets and we were scared that a stray bullet might hit us. We looked at the red flag draped from a tree. Red means danger. We argued no more. So, we parked and waited and talked to Taxter Kay. After 10 minutes he heard the all-clear whistle and allowed us to go on. We moved on and drove through the camp. We watched the marching drills briefly before heading on to Hollywell, passing many fine, large houses nestled off the road. Young men walked along with their cutlasses on shoulders and knives in hand.

When we reached Hollywell, our breath just went into the air. So quiet and so lush. We enjoyed the gazebos. The solitude. The falling mist. The cool air.We walked around and looked at the many varieties of trees. Not a soul was there and we heard no birds. We imagined how it was at weekends or during holidays, when people would take the long drive up from town to have picnics. As the mist descended the light faded fast. We decided to return to the city as it was now late afternoon.

On our return trip we passed the camp again and wanted to picture the recruits. They wanted to be pictured too and some posed. I also took some video clips with my mobile phone. We were mesmerised by the way the instructors treated them. Roughly but kind would be a good description. "Look, you tall piece of wood. Make those arms move." "You know what you are? A de tall man dem a mash up de platoon. You are just one LBW. Long, big, and wutless." "When I say left, I mean left. Left is not right. I want to meet your teacher." The instructors hummed the tunes to which the recruits would march. Tum, Tum , Te Tum, Tum, Te Tum, Te Tum, Te Tum. They walked alongside then behind the recruits, along the parade ground, again and again. Like sheep dogs corralling the flock. The young soldiers looked awkward but never uttered a word.



We left the recruits to their fate and proceeded down the hill. The target practice was still going on and we were met by another halt-who-goes-there young recruit, this time named Dominic. I asked him if he was a priest. "No, sir," came the reply. We asked more questions about the shooting practice and he told us the same story as had Tasker. I asked him what he had done before and he said that he had worked as a customer service agent for a calling centre. I quipped that he was now customarily serving as an agent of his country. He smiled. I asked him what he was being trained to do. "Protect the country," he said. I asked again what he was being 'trained' to do. He got the idea: "Kill, sir." I asked him if he looked forward to shooting people: "YES, SIR!" I asked him who would he shoot: "Who ever needed shooting, sir." There. I had it. He was very polite about how he was treated at the camp. He slept when he was allowed to; yes, sometimes he would not have sleep. He said that discipline was good. I asked if the recruits had contact with families and friends during their 3 month stints. No. Did they get to sneak in 'people of the opposite persuasion'. "NO, SIR!" It was lock down. Fatigues. Being fed. Drills. Target practice. Discipline. I wondered about ideas for national service for Jamaica to deal with the errant youths. Dominic got the all-clear. "Affirmative, sir!" We could pass on. He thanked us for our patience and wished us a good day. How quickly the young men had absorbed the demeanour of a soldier.

We had taken lunch at a hillside cafe and the baked chicken and rice and peas tasted sweeter than usual; so did the water. We realised that food cooked with the spring waters of Catherine's Peak, which is up near Newcastle, gave a special flavour. We drank glasses of the water as if they were nectar.The coffee and tiramisu likewise tasted special. We had promised to stop again for a glass of water on the way home. The sweetness had increased. Delicious, fresh water.

We picked up an old lady who wanted a ride to town. She told us all we needed to know about people whom we barely know. She was comfortable with our kindness. We dropped her at Red Light, her village, and she looked at the rum shop and then up at her church alongside. "Bless you," she said. "Walk good," we said.

We rolled down to the hill to Papine, the little market area at the top of Hope Road, near UWI. For many who lived up the mountain, Papine WAS town. For them it was always Kingstown, not Kingston. These people lived in a world apart. I wished I could join them.

Barbados Clean Up Day And International Beach Clean Up

How many meals on plastic plates? How many cups of soda in plastic cups? How many special journeys to dispose of household materials? How many days that the wind just blew plastic bags hither and yon and they landed on the beach? I have no idea what figures to put to these questions but they still went through my head as I walked along Browne's Beach on Saturday morning, filling large black plastic bags with the debris from those innumerable events.

The Optimists with the help of other clubs such as Lions were out in force and with friends bright and early. It was a beautiful morning and not going for a walk along the beach was hard to resist. But, we stuck to the task and found ourselves combing undergrowth and under boat hulls and into drainage channels to pick up the stuff that others had not seen fit to remove.

Most were keen to tackle the task. The children went for it very well, and shared bags or went alone to haul back their findings. Naturally, they did not like the feel of some of the garbage or the smell but they realised the worth of what they were doing. After all, it will be their world after it has been ours.

The reactions of some who were at the beach for the more usual activities were interesting. Some sat near garbage and were happy to point to it to be collected. Some lamented that we had to be there at all and if only the worked could be careful of itself. Some were not really checking at first, but soon noticed. A group of Filipinos were having a game of volleyball and then breakfast--serious food, like rice, barbecued chicken, pickled egg plant and more--all before 7am. They were quick to offer me some food, and never one to refuse such an offer, I found myself hailing the world in Filipino. Viva international cooperation!

Some were very aloof. In fact, one lady made a special point of not touching any of the trash, and insisted that the National Conservation Council should be clearing up. We could agree, but we could also do the cleaning. I asked if she would be happy to leave the beach as it was. I was shocked when she said "yes". I wondered why she was there, combing through the pages of the Nation, which she also did not want anyone to touch.

The work had begun with prayer and we were well supported by faith as we grubbed and pulled. At the end of the collection, the trash had to be sorted so that recyclables were apart, and general rubbish like wood and pipes and other unmentionables were put into different piles. Then the collections were weighed. The tally was 240 kilos/530 pounds; a horrible amount. (The press report that some 17,000 kilos/35,000 pounds was collected from 28 beaches and illegal dumping sites by 778 volunteers, see Advocate report.)

The Big Dogs of the organization were all pleased and if we were handling trash, we were also having fund talking trash, except when it came to encouraging people to deal with trash.



The Optimists lived up to their name, and were happy to see the turn out.It was about our future; about protecting our Earth; about developing good habits.

Will the beach need cleaning again next week? Maybe, but someone will be there to do something.

The sea seemed blissfully fresh after handling all that dirt.

International Coastal Clean Up Day And Clean Up Barbados Day

What are you planning on doing this coming Saturday morning? I would normally be off to St. George for breakfast and liming. But, one of my environmentally conscious friends, who is a member of the Optimists Club, has told me to get my gear together and help move trash. How can I refuse? So, family in tow, I will be trying to do my part. I will head to Browne's Beach (Bay Street) at 5.30am for BEACH CLEAN-UP & BREAKFAST, in celebration of International Coastal Clean Up Day And Clean Up Barbados Day. I understand that Barbados has been doing this for the past 11 years.

Stop searching for an excuse to not go. If you do nothing else you can enjoy the stretch of beach that makes for a great sunrise walk. I had planned to go this morning with my French visitor as we could not play tennis, but the torrential rain made her sleep longer and we may have to do a walk at sundown. It will be good to check how dirty the beach is now and try to make it much cleaner in a few days time.

I plan to write a little story around the clean up activities.

How Green Is This Pleasant Land?

Has the irony been lost on Barbados? It has two famous landfill sites. One is called Mangrove (see Nation report) and the other is called Greenland. Hardly anything natural can grow in the Mangrove (see how the bulldozer works). The Greenland site is notable for not being a green sight in the midst of what could be some green and pleasant land. Eye catching, isn't it.

Much as I would want to applaud the sensible treatment of waste, I am not a lover of landfills. Like for many things, we have an answer that is a palliative for a problem and not dealing with the underlying problems. Barbados has grown quite quickly in the past 50 years and people have become very acquisitive. But, most new goods are not natural and do not decay; they linger longer than we do (plastic bags, metal items, rubber goods, etc.). We have therefore gone for the easy route of legalised dumping, not that which challenges core behaviour.

People complain that this country is too small to house its population adequately and at the same time oversee giving large swathes of land to garbage. Much noise (dare I say it) is made about waste and garbage and disrespect for the environment and littering. You only need to drive a short distance anywhere, from the gritty, downtrodden housing areas near the south coast, to the areas adjacent to the stooshy mansions on the west coast, to see dumping and trash piling up. A casual drive will see at least a few missiles flying from moving cars as people jettison what is left from their meals (polystyrene food boxes, or plastic drinks bottles).

I applaud Mr. Paul Bynoe (owner of B's Bottles) who has now developed a car compactor at his existing recycling plant. Sure, it's business but it is a least an attempt to make less from the more that is there. Sending the compacted metal off to be melted and reworked somewhere seems like good sense to me. Until we get bio-degradable fridges and cars, this has to be one of the better options, not filling holes with used Hondas and Frigidaires.

Digging holes and filling them with trash is not a good environmental solution. Last time I read there was plenty of evidence about how toxic material leaches into water systems and then take decades for their bad effects to show up.

Do we really give two hoots about the next generation? More whistling in the wind.

Can Bajans Become Bounty Hunters?

Without making light of the efforts of the local police, people are asking how is it that reward money can be put up so quickly, and it seems effectively, to help solve an attack on a Canadian tourist. Some have pointed a finger that shelling out money to those who provide 'useful information' leading to an arrest did not seem to be forthcoming in the case of former Chief Immigration Officer Kenrick Hutson, who was shot dead while sitting on his patio on the night of December 28, 2007 (see David "Joey" Harper's comments in the Advocate on March 28, 2009). Mr. Harper wrote "I am concerned that this man – whose only crime was to sit in the comfort of his patio – that his life was not worth a twenty thousand dollar reward for the apprehension of his killer." My recollection, however, is that a reward was in fact offered by the Hutson family and police (B$ 5000) soon after the crime, but it seems that this did not tempt anyone with knowledge of the crime to share that for a bounty (see report). Is part of the explanation that economic times are harder now or the larger inducement (B$ 20,000) sufficient to get someone to come forward?

Judging by early reactions to the recent introduction of Crime Stoppers to Barbados, local people are very concerned that their anonymity will be compromised if they come forward to give tips about crimes.

However, bounty hunting is not working universally. Barbadians are now on the trail of other villains, but at a real snail's pace. Giant African snails have a price on their heads, albeit a mere 50 cents a pound. Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture began a one-off bounty programme in an effort to collect and burn the varmints. But, so far, according to Minsiter Haynesley Been, the take up has been limited and the bounty will be extended. In fact at an exercise mounted at the weekend, only Ministry of Agriculture officials crawled out of their shells to participate in a 'community snail hunt and burning'. The Minister is calling for better coordination. While it may be that few are interested in overcoming their fears and squeamishness about the snails and getting down to some sliming, one has to wonder if the price is right. People may grumble about the destruction caused by the chomping snails, but until real food is seen to be eaten by the snails, I suspect most people will remain typically 'all talk and little action'. Where have I heard that before?

But perhaps the crucial incentive is just around the comment. Already, I see a comment that "It is not good for the tourism industry because some snails are already on some hotel compounds". Please don't let it be that the snails are only a threat when tourists are at risk. But shouldn't the hotels be figuring out how to get them from the lawns onto the visitors' plates. "Escargots, monsieur?"

Meanwhile, locals keep doing what they were encouraged to and go snail baiting. But, bait is not the best way, because when they die this way adult snails can each eject up to 1200 eggs (see Advocate report). The empty shells left behind by poisoning could also then pose another problem as they collected rain water and become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Will we ever win the fight against slime?

What Does It Mean To Be Green?

Kermit the frog said it best: "It's not easy being green." So much information bombards us about ways to be kind to the environment. Then, so much information whips us telling how our previous efforts actually hurt the environment. It's very confusing.

I make my own little efforts, not relying on some mega-initiatives such as the Kyoto Treaty. If everyone does their part we should get somewhere better, right.

I stopped growing my hair a few years ago. In part, this was because the process of washing it was just too much, as I played a lot of sports. I also saw the way that my wife's hair clogged the shower drain. Every few weeks I would be down on my knees pulling out the clumps of hair from her head washing. I did not demand pay for this, nor mention it, just wondering if she knew how many locks she lost as she lathered. She threatened to leave me if I shaved my head, so I went ahead and did it. I remember seeing several years ago a program about how we wash our hair too much and drain natural oils from our scalps, which we then replace with creams etc. Now, I get away with using less shampoo and I think that my body is better off. Shaving means using some resources, but my razor uses only my energy, not that produced by the electricity company. So, I think I am easing global warming a little.

I did not watch TV much, and now I do it less. I discovered through my work that most of what I wanted to watch was actually available via my computer; that's increasingly so at an amazing rate. So, I interconnect through e-mail and other ways of sending messages electronically. I listen to radio stations online. I watch TV channels online. Being a guy, it cannot all be dull like the Shopping Channel, but enriching like CNN and Bloomberg TV. But, most enriching was the discovery that I could watch all the sports I loved, online, and for FREE. Rise up! When I discovered www.sportytube.net a few weeks ago it was because our way of doing things in the Caribbean are sort of senseless. I could not get to watch live on TV the cricket match that I could hear from my house; I could have watched it on TV if I flew to Trinidad or St. Lucia. But, a friend in England sent me a message as she was watching it live that I could too, from my laptop. What a way to wile away my Sunday afternoon. So, I have watched Gayle and his boys try to shame us again, while my fellows in Bim press their ears to what used to be called a transistor. Isn't progress cool.

Then I found that English Premier League games are shown, often several at a time...United, no, Chelsea, no, Liverpool... Now, that is multitasking. I could even watch ATP tennis. As I heard my wife criticising the ESPN commentators and screaming "Yes! What a shot, Rafa!" as she lolled in front of the electricity gobbler, I could hear the same commentary from my little energy saver as I gazed at the frangipani and sucked in sweet fresh air.

A friend lent me her 'reading device' the other day (a Kindle). It can hold the text from 1500 books in electronic form, in something about the size of a paper back. My wife loves to read and is supposedly trying to be green (her e-mail messages have a coda "Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail"). But, she has a veritable forest growing on her side of the bedroom. I guess by saving some trees from not printing e-mails means that you can net that off against the trees cut down for the books. Hmmm. My wife says she's a minimalist, so when the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said "Less is more" and went on to create the Bauhaus movement in Germany, he had people like her in mind. But, like all real things, it cannot be by design-only; it has to be minimalism-in-totality. I may have to strike a blow for the Brazilian rain forests and the pine forests of Scandinavia and take a hatchet to the book pile.

The way I see it, E. F. Schumacher had it right, "Small is beautiful", though he was focusing on how to link people, land, and community by building local economies. My little Suzuki Swift takes nearly a month to use up all the gasoline I can put into its tank. Now, while I used to love driving around aimlessly in the English or French countryside when on holiday, I loathe driving around aimlessly doing errands. So, I have happily fallen in with some mothers and their kids' programs so that we can car pool. It's really good all round, as they stop trying to be in lecture halls, at the hair dresser, in the food store, at the doctor's, in the gym, all at one time. Now, it's alright to forget to pick up the children every day, because it may need to be done only twice a week. Some Canadians visited last week and I took them back to the airport yesterday. The little five year-old girl paid my car the ultimate compliment: "It's so littly big inside. I thought I would be scrunched up, but I have lots of room." Maybe Suzuki can use that in an ad.

As I toured around Bim with with this child and her father the other day, trying to find companies that manufacture plastics, which he also makes and sells, and for which he develops colours, I saw how all of the little efforts get overtaken. We planned our journey to make his calls so that we did a rough circle. We used fresh air rather than run the AC--the poor people found the island so hot. We had bottles filled with tap water, not bought bottled water. We had carrot sticks for snacks not bags of chips.

As we waited in the car, I looked around the industrial complex at Lower Estates, with its huge chimney pumping out goodness knows what. I saw nasty-looking coloured liquids standing on the ground. Were they toxic? I saw all the building debris piling up on the roadside as new buildings were being constructed. Where will all of that debris go?

We drove to Roebuck Street, near the city centre, and parked outside the offices of another plastics company. I sat with my little guest, with the windows open, to let in the air. She actually, was getting used to the heat and asked that we not use the AC. I watched as people ate their purchases and threw the plastic wrappings on the ground. I saw the many cars with a single passenger, passing each other, and vastly outnumbering the one bus that passed by, with its eight passengers inside. I saw other cars parked, with their engines running to keep the AC working.

It's a complex web of efforts and I guess people will go with the flow. Often, people seem to have given little thought to what energy they might be using and what it takes to produce: let me keep the fridge open and look around for that pot of yogurt...five minutes later, the fridge door is closed. A lot of energy to cool it again. Let me turn on many lights even though I am in just one room: makes the house seem lived in, might tell intruders that there are lots of people around?

Often, people have no idea about the toxic stuff that they introduce into their lives and the lives of others. A painter was at my house last week, and I smelt something sweet and a little intoxicating. I went downstairs and checked his tin; it's main component was xylene, a derivative of benzene, which is used as a solvent in printing, rubber and leather industries. Xylene is a clear, colorless, sweet-smelling liquid that is very flammable. Like other solvents, xylene is also used as an inhalant drug for its intoxicating properties. Benzene is in a group of known carcinogens (causes cancer). Ironically, it is an organic chemical compound. My plastics man and I both stood with our eyes wide open. The painter put a rag across his face. Some help. I told him angrily to stop using the stuff, while he protested that he had been told to use it. "Then, go use some cyanide, too!" I said. I made him put on a big fan that blew the fumes out of the house. He went off in a sulk.

As Kermit said, "It's not easy being green."

The World Keeps Spinning And So Does My Head.

It's always a hard argument to try to agree on what is relevant and what is not. At a certain profound level, comments such as "one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist" tell you a lot about how hard it is to agree on what we might call fundamental facts. I look up at the sky, and it has some clouds. I think for a few seconds then say, "It's blue." My companion stares at me in disbelief: "No, it's grey," she says. I look again. "No, it's definitely blue," I tell her. Even a third set of eyes coming along wont help reach agreement: "You're both wrong, it's black." So, we agree in a weird way that it's not a light colour or shade but more than that we are cannot resolve.

If you have a base fear of people or things almost nothing can change that. I fear snakes, yet, I have never met a dangerous one in real life. I was born in a country that had them eradicated by introducing mongeese/mongooses into the sugar fields centuries ago. I then lived in a European country that had mainly little non-poisonous ones. So, why the fear? Just the notion of them slithering, and being cold, and coiling in a menacing way, and some bizarre image of being squeezed by a boa constrictor. Forget the Freudian images of nestling into my mother's bosom. Yet, I deal well with almost every other kind of living creature, big or small; an elephant poked its head into the window of my hut in Malawi one evening, and I did not run for cover. I have never picked up a scorpion, but saw one under a rock and did not freak out, even though there was no known antidote to the poison nearby. Some fears are just not about being rational.

People's fear of each other does not necessarily stem from anything rational and so takes a lot of shifting, and of course reaches extreme lengths when they wage war against each other. We only have to look at the last few days to watch the horrific film of dead and maimed bodies as Israelis and Palestinians attack each other, and show little sign of letting up.

Then there are whiffs of sanity as people's fears seem to dissolve. The Dutch city of Rotterdam has just elected the son of an Islamic preacher of Moroccan descent, who is a former journalist, as its new mayor. Immediately, the comparisons with the victory of US president-elect Obama are spinning, not least because Ahmed Aboutaleb is 47 years old but also because he seems to have overcome a country's racial fears. It's a Dutch first on many levels, not least in recognition for immigrants, especially of Moroccan or Turkish descent, who number some one million out of 16 million people. Expect more blah about 'post-racial' politics.

Here we are in our little corner of the world, the English-speaking Caribbean, trying to stay relevant in the eyes of the wider world and dealing with our fears of each other. Many understand that tourism has become our bread and butter but not enough do all they can to ensure that tourists have no fear. Jamaica is our prime example, where the national kill with abandon and somehow hope that tourists will keep flocking to the island. Of course, news of an attack on a tourist and we are front page news; but our killing of each other has stopped being newsworthy. It may also have hardened attitudes to our other real plights. Hurricanes sweep away all of the year's crops in several islands, we don't get much of a mention, except if we are getting 'aid' to 'help recovery'. I guess that in reality, Britain and America are more concerned if one of their own gets a scratch and a bad memory than if a whole island of ours has no livelihood because of damage to bananas or sugar cane or to whole towns and villages. Our lack of concern for them maybe has its parallel.

But I feel we have been relegated too far and I cannot see that it has anything to do with a real fear. I cannot figure out how the US television channel, NBC, decided on which countries to include in the 'Superstars of Dance' show that is now the latest piece of hit 'reality TV' (see NBC website). But I don't see any representation from the Caribbean. Usain bolted to gold in Beijing last summer and showed the world the 'gully creeper' and the 'nuh linga'; and maybe that killed Jamaica's chances. Sure, it's family television so we don't expect to see dance hall fashions such as 'dutty wine' or other sexually-oriented moves. But all we get are the US (not even country square dancing but some popular pot-pourri and, oh yeah let me look closely at the shade of those dancers--grey, blue, black?); Russia (Cossack dancing again, but not on horseback?): China (Kung fu in tights; no one knows the country and we will have endless debates about the ages of the dancers and if they were denied the rights to bear children and whether they have been in training since childbirth); India (I love Bollywood, and traditional Hindu dancing, but...). Sure, these four countries take care of the world audience on most indicators, including all the potential nuclear superpowers. But the next tier leaves me baffled. Why Australia (not even a play on "Simply Ballroom"; will we have hunky men dancing with a tinny or a rugby ball?)? South Africa (alright if it's some Zulu dancing but men in gumboots and mining helmets? Where is the morphine?)? Too much 'political correctness' by having a representative from Africa. Pleeeesee!!! Ireland (good grief, "River Dance" and its hyper jigging popularized by Flatley is as puke-inducing as remakes of "Mamma Mia"). Then, Argentina (the Tango is exotic and I hope that the contestants don't spit if they lose--yes, I'm prejudiced--or try to kick and punch the other contestants, forgetting that it's not a World Cup soccer match). I'm utterly baffled that they call this 'contest' a 'global' array. Oh yeah, the same global that has two American teams playing for the 'world championship' in sports mainly played by Americans and when they meet real foreign competition they look ordinary or accuse them of cheating. No Brazilian samba? No Swiss or German lederhosen dancing? No Cuban salsa? No Sabar dancing from Senegal (see the video)? Please don't try this before extensive training.



No North African belly dancing?

Boo-hiss for the so-called 'arbiters of taste'. Enough US domination of judging 'world' affairs. Yet, is our frustration and ire against America and Americans going to mount sufficiently for us to want to invade the USA and demand that they give us appropriate recognition? We are small in number but big in talent, right. Maybe those waves of migrants who are already there will start to rail and get up bad and start to damage a few places other than the cash registers at malls and restaurants to show that we mean business.

I try to get a gauge of where we as humans go wrong by watching what animals, birds and plants do. They apparently do not have concerns such as geo-political strategy to burden them and direct their fears, though one friend explains to me that the 'alpha male' in the ape colony is very concerned with geography--agreed--and politics are at work when he tries to win over the hearts of the females and diss the other males. Putting that aside for the moment, though, the animal and plant kingdoms can be instructive. They have been observed and measured by humans, who have noted a certain genetic disposition and it seems that they perform much in line with that. Let's agree that we agree on the fundamental observations. Animals and plants are affected by what we do, so they are affected by climate change, and by our desire to put unnatural things in place of the natural, or to reconfigure in a drastic way the shape and nature of the world. They also adapt to nature's randomness. But do they live in fear of us and are they likely to attack us for what we do to them?

Yesterday, I returned home from vacation and was stunned by what I saw in my yard. A man was standing by my car; it's doors were all open and he was throwing water all over the car. That was alright as the surprise valet service was a great touch. But, beside the car on the ground was something that should have been in the air; the branches of a tree were around my car. What had happened? A lightning storm had felled some branches, which went onto an electricity wire. Nothing much happened of note during the late afternoon. But this morning was interesting. All the birds I could see were on the branches of the felled trees. Many were taking advantage of the access to tendrils and twigs to take away and make nesting; clearly, labour saving is not alien to bird and why fly high when the material you need is nearer to the ground? I guess the environment in the yard holds few if any predators and they have not yet adopted any attack postures--they notably ignore the obvious predator in my neutered tom cat, who is seen as a washed-up threat (so low male self-esteem stretches over the animal line too, so much for reputation). There the birds have stayed and worked all morning, bar an hour when some guys from BL&P came to clear away the dead branches. These guys were not to know that they were doing anything wrong. The birds are now back foraging in the living trees and on the ground for what little the neatniks have left behind;I'll watch to see how they readjust to the loss of the limbs above and the rapid removal of the windfall that was on the ground. The cat remains unnoticed under the shrubs. Should be await a wave of airborne attacks because of what has been done to their 'homeland'?

My phrase for the first week of 2009 seems to be 'food for thought'. I admit that I think too much.

Grating My Expectations: Finding Paradise Lost Again.

I received a message last night from a friend I had made in Guinea, whom I shall call "Chrysanthemum". Like many people these days, we have continued to stay in touch in writing and by exchanging pictures on Facebook. She left a very ambiguous wall posting a few weeks ago that she had left Guinea and was headed to Cote d'Ivoire, a neighbouring country.

It turns out that she had only begun a new adventure, after seven years in a country that draws all of your energy and sometimes places so much despair on your plate that you have to wonder how much more you can take. As a foreigner, you can leave. Imagine how a national feels.

She quipped that I am often passionate about food. True enough. But I had to explain that food is something that creates memories for me and I often savour the excitement of a meeting or an occasion through recalling the food that was involved. I gave her an example of being very excited about eating bread, feta cheese, cucumbers and fresh tomatoes. Why? The first time I ate that I was on a train (part of the Orient Express route) travelling from Greece (Athens), through Yugoslavia (Belgrade), into Austria (Innsbruck), then on to France (Paris) (see map). I had little money--penniless student at the time--and was working on eating when I got to Austria the next day. The train's guard struck up a conversation and I told him about the trips I had been making, travelling as a Eurorail/Studentrail passenger for a month. Lunchtime arrived. He unpacked a large printed cloth, and in it was...bread, feta cheese, tomatoes, and cucumber. He added some salt, and also opened a jar of olives, then extended the feast to me. I declined initially, but he frowned and said "Eat!" I ate. That memory is one of my first recollections of "The Give" and how people's inherent generosity can come forth. Never knew his name. Can barely recall his face. But the meal? Unforgettable.

Chrysanthemum travelled with a friend and two dogs to Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire, having to dodge rebels along the road. But she did not stay there long. She switched coasts quickly, however, and went to Madagascar (a large island in the Indian Ocean) off Africa's east coast. Madagascar is much more than an animated film title. It is the land of lemurs; the island of vanilla and cloves; a country with family names like Andrianampoinimerina (which means something); a country that has lost nearly 75% of its forests since 1950 as coffee cultivation developed [11 million hectares were there when the island was colonized; 7.5 hectares remained in 1950, and only about 4 hectares remained in 1985; more has been lost since 1985]. Deforestation has put the island that once held five percent of the world's species on the verge of an environmental catastrophe; a country with levels of poverty that reach incredible depths is struggling to survive, yet remains unbelievably beautiful, truly Eden. Truly, paradise lost. Ironically, the same could be said for Guinea, from which Chrysanthemum had fled.

But, Chrysanthemum also met again many old friend and she has hope and suggests that she could become a "paradise counsellor", a modern eco-tourism guide. In Guinea she was involved in tourism, running a hotel and car rental business.

I have to be inspired by the fact that almost everyone I know who has had the chance to live in an African country has many fond memories, and tends to find ways to stay on the continent.

Can't Touch This!

I so love it with children that life throws you many teaching moments. This morning was priceless. Nothing much going on, other than a morning after Mummy came back last night from a week of travel, and was just packing to head off on another plane this morning. The excitement of that whirlwind was not even nearing a peak because today is Halloween and all things related to the "Tinkerbell" costume consumed my five year old's brain.

Cue the teaching moment. A lovely little garden snail was hanging onto a flowering vine that trails onto our upstairs veranda. "Oooh, yuk! A giant African snail!" I picked up the stray and showed "Miss Bliss" that this was neither giant nor African. We looked at its eyes and I showed her how they recoil if touched, and encouraged her to try to touch them. "Ooh, no! All that slimy." I told her not be afraid. But she would have none of it. But at least I had shown that these things are just one of the many neighbours we have to live with. I then put him into a patch of lush weeds for a buffet breakfast.

Within minutes, I found a tiny whistling frog sitting on my bed. I scooped him up and took him to meet my now-dressed-for-school child. "What's that in your hand, Daddy?" I told her that this little mite had a mighty voice, as we heard his singing loudly every night. She peered into my cupped hand and looked at the frog's eyes. No fear. So, perhaps our brief moment with the snail had worked speedily.

We humans tend to think of the world as our playground and want to control natural things. At its worst, we try to wrest control from nature by force--weapons, new construction, destruction of things that we dislike. Co-existence is not something we are very good at. We have dealt with the dilemma of fight or flight by being well armed. I am trying to pass on what I believe: we all have our space and we all have a role to play. I don't step on ants or swat flies or put salt on slugs. I used to have a garden where I left it to natural predators or particular plants to deal with what I called "pests". Nature has its means of control and we don't need to mess with that.

Water, Water, Everywhere.

I laughed yesterday morning at "Market Vendor" on the radio, when heading back from school drop off, as he lamented how in Barbados "We does complain so much 'bout de rain. Barbados among de 10 most water distressed countries in the world. Why we can' be like otha islands and collect some o' dis here warter? Hey, hey hey!". Well, I laughed too, as I remembered the long, wet summers of Guinea when rain teemed down almost non-stop during the period July-August. That rain finds its way to the Caribbean, during our hurricane season.

Today, I just got a call that school was closing because the cloak room was getting flooded. I was shocked at first because I thought that my child had lessons in a class room, and wondered if this was some kind of cruel and unreasonable punishment being meted out for something that I as yet did not know. No. It was just where the children are herded before they can go home.

I knew it was raining heavily as a bedroom just had to be mopped; there is the lake forming in the front yard; there is the pounding thunder; there is the constant plop-plop of heavy rain.

So, I am looking through the Yellow Pages to find a number for a man with an ark. Not an architect, but someone who can take me away from this. I thought that my focusing on things other than financial turmoil I would find that my day was simpler. Now I have to go to be "Sponge Bob", even though I don't wear square pants.

After last week's flooding on the island, I guess we will hear more about blocked drains, and how they need to be cleared. We need to figure out how to put a finger in those rain-laden clouds.

Barbados Also Needs a Bailout.

The place in Bridgetown known as River Road, actually lived up to its name yesterday, as a tropical wave's mid-morning downpour hit this little rock yesterday. My friend, DP, took some pictures and let me share them here. So, while governments in the US and Europe were working on details of how to bail out banks and other financial institutions, people in Barbados were improvising in bailing out cars, shops, houses, and schools.

Several people who had calmly parked their cars to go to workcame back to find that they needed a dingy to get their cars. And then needed to drain the water from inside. Barbados does not have underground car parks; but now it had instant underwater car parks. What a progressive nation!

Cars stalled. Road-side vendors had to stand in waist high water if they wanted to keep selling. One poor woman, trying to stay calm as she retold her story on TV, said how "the water would not let my car pass". That's the power of nature.

Many so-called developed nations were trying to satisfy their citizens that they could get their hands on deposits in the banks. Now, many Barbadian citizens found that the banks had flooded them with deposits--and they were not happy. No satisfying people.

While panic was still swirling around the world's financial markets yesterday, the rains had subsided in Barbados, and life was back to what is called normal. That's paradise for you.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

This blog is not a bully pulpit except for those who want to be bullied by what I write. I have written before that Barbados has some serious social issues to do with locals' apparent lack of self-respect when it comes to how they wantonly trash their own country (see "Talking trash" post in May 2007) and the related issue of what to do with garbage (see "Talking rubbish again" post of September 2007). I have a personal vision about how life can be lived and improved and part of it revolves about individuals taking responsibility for making improvements--and from that will come greater improvements for a wider population. As Gandhi says "Be the change you wish to see in the world". With that high-falooting beginning let me get to the pith.

I was very pleased to read two stories from Barbados that suggest that there is some readiness to make a step or two along this path of self-improvement. First, Foreign Affairs Minister Chris Sinckler's remarks about what I have termed the sport of littering (see Nation report). As the newspaper reports it, the Minister was concerned with people "who littered indiscriminately and did not understand that such actions today would affect even them tomorrow". He had driven behind a vehicle recently and was amazed to see the occupants throw a number of plastic items through the windows. Only plastic? Try some cans, glass bottles and polystyrene food containers. This type of attitude and action made him state that it was "a difficulty managing a country like Barbados, particularly when you have a lot of very dirty people in this country".

The Minister's recognition does not mean that he and I share the same views of the world and our agendas may be very different, but we are seeing the same thing, and that holds out hope that we want a similar solution. He focused further on how rampant filthiness is causing problems with drainage. Other Bajan bloggers have written on this topic over the past couple of years, and a good set of commentaries can also be seen on the Barbados Free Press and Barbados Underground. blogs.

I could take the Minister to a few places where I have lived to show some of the dire health consequences of that kind of filthiness has had on drainage problems: a coastline clogged with plastic bottles and polysytrene waste; gullies clogged in the rainy season and producing constant breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitos and other water-borne diseases like cholera, which then continue to take lives unnecessarily each year; flooded neighbourhoods that then have house destabilized, etc. Barbados, basking in the sunlight as the most developed developing country would not like to be compared unfavourably with the poorest countries in Africa, would it? The Minister may want to take the opportunity of his travels to check on this comparison from time to time. That would put a stark meaning to "back to Africa" or "staying in touch with our African heritage". The image building that has been part of Barbados' development has not had enough honest "look in the mirror and tell me what you see" efforts (I wrote recently about the NISE program's inability to produce nice people). If it had, then Bajans would perhaps be appalled to see how dirty their country is, and it's not the fault of anyone other than people who live here on a regular basis, so don't even start looking for some foreign scapegoat.

The second story relates to a vision put forward by Clyde Griffith, who is "dreaming of the development of an island offshore dedicated to the provision of renewable energy as a resource ... an energy island" (see Nation report). For once, in recent months, someone has put forward what seems like an exciting proposition that will help focus attention on the amazing man-made problems of garbage creation and energy waste. I think the idea speaks for itself and I hope that unlike previous efforts to go down a similar route, this does not languish in the wastebasket or someone's pending list for a decade or two.

These concerns have a simple common thread and I hope that they can be nicely tied together.

Snakes in the grass and claims to fame.

News wires have been abuzz all week with reports of an amazing scientific "discovery" in Barbados--the world's smallest snake, to which I also drew attention a few days ago (see post).

But one of my readers wrote to me yesterday: "Dennis, that is great that this discovery is getting international attention, however I have known about the existence of this type of snake for more that twenty-five or so years now. My brother and I caught one as young boys living on the island in St. George. We put it a bottle to keep it but did not know what it fed on, so it eventually died. With that in mind I would say that Mr. Blair did not discover this species of snake but only brought it to the world’s attention." This type of comment has reportedly been made by a good number of Bajans since the news broke about the "discovery" attributed to Mr. Hedges.

I'm not going to pour scorn on the scientific work of Mr. Hedges; I leave that to others who have anger to vent. I wont seek to thrash him until he can twitch no more. He looks such an innocent fellow, who reportedly went through several rigorous processes, including DNA testing and comparison with snakes from other islands, before his work could be published. So one has to wonder how good are these processes which allow his claim of discovery to have gone so far if, as some reports indicate, there was even an entry in the Guinness World Records that Barbados was the home of the world's smallest snake (see Nation report). One wonders too about reported requests from a Bajan herpetologist, Mr. Damon Corrie, that he sent word to Associated Press (after the latest claims by Mr, Hedges) that he and others had been discovering this species "for decades". It was Mr. Corrie who showed Mr. Hedges the snake under a rock. Clearly, someone's record-keeping was a bit amiss to have not noted these prior discoveries, or even on this latest occurrence the claim to co-fame that could be given to Mr. Corrie. As a professional in the field one would expect that Mr. Corrie knew how to go about these things.

The Nation reports that we even have local historical luminaries involved: "A check of the 1990 edition of A-Z Of Barbadian Heritage by Henry Fraser, Sean Carrington, Addinton Forde and John Gilmore shows a picture on Page 167 of the snake partly encircling a Barbados cent." I would have loved to have posted that rather than the snake curled around an American quarter.

Now, some conspiracy theorists will see this whole episode as yet another attempt to make all that is good and new the result of what foreigners can bring; worse still some white European foreigners or their offspring and their "superior" knowledge and ability.

If this is a simple travesty and inappropriate claim to fame by Mr. Hedges, I would expect to see the process of dismantling begin and in good scientific fashion he will be pilloried. Or the matter just gets lost. We know that international papers are not necessarily going to keep following the story with the Olympics now taking centre stage and issues such as human rights violation and drug abuse to pursue. Presumably, Bajans (of any hue) will hunt down the truth and not leave any more stones unturned, and should be able to make counter claims to having discovered the wee snake.

Either way, though, Barbados seems to have won as the place where this rare species can be found. Now we have to see if the country has to hedge its bets about having one of its own be the discoverer or if he will have to remain hidden under the hedges.

What Hedges will no longer hide.

Not everyone reads the same news, and I'm very happy to play my part in bigging up the region for famous things other than our ability to run, dance, sing, kill and maim, play cricket, etc. So, I was excited to see a bunch of reports coming to my computer this morning that the world's smallest snake had been discovered here in Barbados (see report). The snake in adult form is just under four inches in length and could just about wrap around a finger (see image).

The story is simple but, as with so many things has a moral that we need to heed. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State, who discovered the snake said that "The Caribbean is particularly vulnerable because it contains an unusually high percentage of endangered species and, because these animals live on islands, they have nowhere to go when they lose their habitat." He believes the species is rare because most of its potential habitat has been replaced by buildings and farms. His concern is amplified by the fact that small species tend to reproduce at a lower rate than larger species, so instead of a clutch of 100 eggs being laid, this little snake may only be laying one egg at a time.

To give credit where it's due, Hedges has also discovered on the nearby island of St. Lucia, a new threadsnake that is nearly as small as the Barbados variety. But, as he notes correctly, it's hard to protect what you don't know exists.

We talk a lot about our concern for the environment, and that we have some unique features in the Caribbean that we wish to exploit for their potential as tourist attractions. To me there is more than a slight contradiction there. But, my concern is that "talk is cheap, but money buy land", and without being a merchant of gloom and doom, we need to do a lot more than talk.