Boycotting restaurants

I have written several times about the high cost of living in Barbados (see previous blog). Now, I have decided to do more than write about this. As they say, "Put your money where your mouth is." To me one of the scandals of living in Barbados is eating out at the major restaurants. Frankly, I cannot believe what I am expected to pay. I know from recent experience that I can eat more cheaply and with better quality and quantity (though that is not important) in New York, or Washington, or Jamaica, or St. Kitts. I will travel to London soon and I will see how prices are there (remembering that the pound has risen very strongly against the US dollar/Barbadian dollar). So, consistent with this disbelief I have decided to boycott most of the restaurants on the island. There are still many good places to eat and without taking out a new loan.

I mentioned this to a friend this week as we ate at a beach restaurant/bar to which he had invited me. He laughed heartily. "I've done the same too", he said. He mentioned a visit to a well known south coast restaurant and his bill for two of B$600, and for what, he asked? This is a ridiculous amount to pay, he continued. So, he is putting his efforts into eating at home alone or with friends.

Perhaps the British tourist finds Barbados cheap or affordable. I do not and it's not a question of income. Someone has to convince me that this is not another sector in Barbados that is just gouging its prices. Maybe too few Bajans are affected for this to be a major issue to local people. It certainly is affecting the reputation of the island regionally. The PM is probably not in a position to impose price controls on this sector, so let some economics take over. The price can only be supported if supply and demand are in agreement. My withdrawal of my demand may not make much difference but I hope it encourages others to think hard about doing likewise, and then let's see. The money I save from this boycott can certainly pay for a trip to the US and a good meal out in quick, quick time.

As I said several months ago in a previous blog post:

But looking at places like restaurants, I don't understand why meals including local sea food and other local ingredients are priced as if these were coming from Europe. It's hard to find a good restaurant that charges less that B$ 150 (about US$ 75) a person for a two course meal. Only if you eat roti or go to a place like Oistins for fish fry or outdoor BBQ joint like Just Grillin' does a meal come at a reasonable cost, say B$ 15-20 a person. Sure, tourists can deal with these prices over their vacations, especially coming from the UK with the pound very strong...

I am still convinced that there is something not very right going on!

I try to be a logical person and if it makes no sense then there probably is no sense. So, if any restaurant owners are out there and feel that they can put up some convincing arguments I would love to hear them.

Learning to love the roller coaster: Another week as a forex trader

It is Friday afternoon and markets are closing in a few hours for the weekend, and am I glad. Having started on this gig (see blog) I have decided to go along for the ride. This week was due to be huge in terms of recent developments. The US dollar had been hammered merciless for a long time, but the past few weeks were horrible for the greenback, with all time lows or multi decade lows. The Chairman of the US Federal Reserve was due to make a statement on Wednesday afternoon about the decision on rates. The market viewed this as THE news of the week. I thought the week would be calm running up to Wednesday. Forget it! Tie on the straps.

Monday saw new highs against the greenback then a huge buying spree of the US dollar! And it went up and down and at the end of the day, it was hard to know which way the market would turn. I made a few trades and they mostly went bad. Tuesday I decided to just cool out. This is what I had planned to do this week anyway, but when you see and interesting development, well, you trade.

Wednesday, I had little time for trading and in fact I would be away from my platform most of the day. I regretted that as I wanted to witness the action even though I did not have a position open. The statement came around 2.30 pm EST and I got home about 2.40. In the minutes after the statement the market was in love with the decision and statement and many currencies were heading for 100 point shifts. Had I been in with the right position it could have been a cool $1000 in the blinking of a few eyelids. I had to try for catch up. I managed that little by little later in the day.

There is a certain character to the activity of the market, which I find attractive: it is up and down all the time for reasons that are clear and for no apparent reason at all. As a trained economist, it is incredible to witness the power of market forces moving prices, keeping prices unchanged as buyers and sellers tussle to determine the direction of the currency pairs, or sometimes making huge movements (30+ points) in one minute, and then reversing those movements sometime later with equal variation. I have accepted that one I set a stop-loss I can deal with how much I may lose; what I have to then manage is to manage my emotions if the deal is turning positive and especially if the price is rising well. I have learned not to close deals out prematurely, except with Euro/US dollar (which seems to have great difficulty moving past every barrier either up or down, so deals take an age to mature).

It is also important to start understand the rhythm of the market. There are times when the push to new highs or lows is at its strongest; in between there can be a lot of turbulence, even to the extent that huge dips or spikes can occur before the true position emerges at a higher or much lower point. The herd of dealers is pushing hardest at certain times and if a position is to be breached it's as if there is no breathing space and boom the door opens to a new higher or lower position. Then the market takes a breather. Then it pushes again. Once certain key barriers are broken then the market's progress can seem relentless. Seeing the developments on a day's graph is nothing like seeing the price tussle take place especially as you see you position run further into gains. These major pushes are also important in that they trigger responses especially in the form of preset reverse orders, which can make the price shift back sharply before proceeding on its way.

It is also important to sense the inter-relationships between markets. The progress or decline of the stock markets have a major influence on currency pairs, especially in recent times with what is referred to as "carry trade". This refers to buying of cheap currencies to facilitate investment in markets of strong currencies. [check] Stock market rises trigger buying of certain currencies and vice versa. Where a day trader like myself is at a disadvantage is in not seeing the developments in other markets in real time, therefore professional dealers have a major edge.

In the mayhem of prices shooting up and down I initiated one trade totally by mistake (as the deal window was adjacent to the currency pair I wanted) and to my shock and horror bought two lots of Euro/Japanese yen. What should I do with this lemon, I thought as the price started to plummet: I had kept away from things yen as the carry trade was causing havoc. But just in a blink the price turned and within half and hour the trade had gained 20 points. Thank you very much, I will cash that.

But watching a major push is something else, especially when the trend across the board is the same. Then it becomes like a race: which currency can set a new record first. The process is quite exhausting and after a few days of this the weekend is a real pleasure. I have been trading across the whole market, but I am paring back and may decide to just trade London and New York, if only to cut the hours.

I have lost a lot this week but I have also made a lot. This is first week where I have made over US$100 on deals. You have to take risks to get the rewards. That means dealing bigger lots. It also means sitting along the sometimes bumpy ride for a while. I had some large Euro/$ positions and bided out the time. I similarly had large Euro/Yen positions and did similarly. I also realised that, because I am not dealing with technical analysis beforehand the pull back can be deeper than expected. I have found the lower support levels and set a limit below them, which means a bigger potential loss, but just to protect the deal from early closing in all the turbulence. I also learned the hard way about booking profits too early and finding that a pull back closed the deal and so I missed the bigger rise to come. It is not easy to see (as I have done while writing this) a potential profit of $400 fizzle to some $90. But if "panic" says better take it, it is often the case that just after there is the break out and $400 is soon exceeded. This up and down can occur several times, and the "window" of movement could be 30+ points. It's tough on the nerves.

I do not have to go into individual deals. But I know that for professionals judgement and analysis reduce their risks. Amateurs like me have to rely a bit on luck. I have been trading for too short a time to feel some situations quickly. That is why I sometimes hesitate when there are quick movements, though it's also difficult to do all that is needed to not lose the gain, such as setting a new limit for closing the deal and making a bigger profit. That hesitation can lose a tidy $100 in a flash, and in that sense I have left a lot of money on the table. But, whatever. (In passing, I read on the http://www.onlinefxtrading.net/ blog how the guy there realised that he cannot make money with capital of only $250. Well, hello! When you have to put up between $35-100 for a "lot" ($10,000 of money to trade) that means you can maybe buy 1 or 2 lots unless you like risk and if that deal does well, then 1 times whatever is never much. I have found that you need to have around $2000 in the pot to have enough wiggle room to deal larger lots and lose and still be in the game.

I am smiling about what this process is doing. It could become difficult to not do it, but I will stop soon. It's easier when I have plenty of time. I am due to travel to Guinea in west Africa to work for few weeks, and if I do not have a sure internet connection I will not deal. I will also have other things to fill my time such as helping to deal with the issue of world poverty.

What I have discovered is that modern technology means that trading can be done 24 hours/5 days a week. One can trade in blocks and even trade in the morning at home, trade later at an airport, trade again later at a wireless hotspot, and so on. It's helped me move from having long lie-ins to getting up in the very early hours and staying up till late, unless I just close my account and say "No more!"

I'll keep you posted on developments, so to speak.

Look who's blogging now

It is always interesting to see an institution move to a new phase. My employer, the IMF, for the longest time had a reputation for being closed and poor at communication. That has changed a lot over the past 15-20 years, but more so over the past 10 years. Transparency has become a watch word in what it does and what it expects of member countries. So it was with a wry smile, and a raised eyebrow that I noticed that on its main website (www.imf.org) it now has some blogs. One is by the relatively new appointment as Director of Research, Simon Johnson (see http://blog-research.imf.org/), writing in his professional capacity for people who don't get to go press conferences. Another that I have seen is from a group of fiscal technicians in the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD--not pronounced "fad", but F.A.D.) about public finance management (see http://blog-pfm.imf.org/), where the posters are clearly thrilled to be venturing into a new world, and pump their fiscal fists into the air: "As the first IMF external blog and, to the best of our knowledge, the first PFM blog ever, my FAD colleagues and myself are thrilled to be breaking new ground." Good to feel good about yourself, buddies, but this area may be one that does not stop most people in their tracks. No candidates for reality television either. The use of the internet is even at the highest level of senior officials, where the new Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has his own web site (see link). But he was previously a politicians and that group has been well ahead of the game of using the internet to stay in contact with the public.

Internally, IMF techies have been blogging for a good while about techie stuff, but that's no surprise. It's when the body of the main workforce starts to get on the bandwagon that we want to see. I don't know who will be stirred by these new internauts, but they help open the door on an institution that is poorly understood and often misrepresented. The world of professional economists and finance has already taken note (see link to Portfolio.com). This recent step into the blogosphere, and its subcategory the econoblogsphere will be interesting to watch. The World Bank and its sister organization, the International Finance Corporation have been blogging publicly for some time now so the IMF is doing a little catch up.

I wonder if plans are afoot to make some in-house videos for posting on YouTube. I have often said that the proceedings of the Executive Board would make for good television, but we will have see if like parliaments, this arena of international economic debate gets into the public eye on a regular basis. It needs something equivalent to CSPAN. The mystique of many institutions has declined greatly with television. Also, the behaviour of the "gladiators" in those arenas has often changed in an area of televisuality, though in some case not always for the best (at least that is my view about the British Parliament). It would also be good to show what people do at meetings. It is always revealing to watch CSPAN and see the chamber almost empty. Where is my congressman? It would be a logical extension of transparency and accountability developments. But one step at a time.

Customer service...with more than a smile

I have written before about the general poor level of customer service in Barbados (see http://livinginbarbados.blogspot.com/2007/04/dual-standards-why-do-black-people-seem.html). But I will gladly highlight what comes as excellent customer service.

Nearly 9 months ago I took a watch to Cave Shepherd in Worthing to be repaired (moisture under the screen). Over the intervening time there were exchanges asking whether it was OK for the watch to be sent abroad for repair. In the end the cost of the repair was going to be more than the price of the watch so said forget it. When I was about to get the watch back a month ago it had a new problem (luminous markers had fallen off under the screen). It was due to be sent off to a local repairer. Today I tried to get the watch back. I was told that the latest problem was due to moisture under the screen and the luminous markers need not be replaced if the moisture problem was not resolved. But, because I had been without the watch for so long the manager offered me another watch to wear.

I think that this is an extraordinary gesture, and one that really says "You, the customer, are very important to us. You have gone through a lot, even though little of it is our fault. But we know that you probably feel frustrated and maybe even upset." While the style of the offered "gift" was not one I would have chosen, it was right to be grateful.

I wont say more than thank you Cave Shepherd for restoring my belief that it takes little for businesses to go that extra inch, and for a customer to feel that it has gone a mile. I asked the store senior staff about training, and was told that it starts from the time new staff arrive in the store, and the treatment of customers in monitored constantly. So kudos to the company, and I hope that my experience is in keeping with way that they treat customers in all their branches--though I have heard that it is not.

Ancestral voices

I think I am very typical of a black Caribbean person in wanting to know who I am and from where I came. The history of the slave trade is such that most of those decended from slaves have very little idea of who truly is part of the family. Typically, we have focused on the names we now carry, none of which have any relationship to the names our African ancestors had. Yet, people proudly utter phrases such as "I'm a Cumberbatch..." or "You can tell they are Bethels..." rpoduly hanging on to names given by a European slave owner of overseer.

Maybe some families in the Caribbean had the fortune to be descended for a known African line that had some social cohesion before slavery.True, in the short history that exists since slaves were brought to the Caribbean families have been built in the islands and countries. But because we do not know our true origins, it is impossible to know who is really descended from whom, and who are the true cousins. I have a fear that there is a genetic time bomb ticking in the region because there have been clear instances of deliberate interbreeding. But there have been many inadvertent episodes of interbreeding because we do not know our lineage, with many so-called cousins who are really half-brothers and half-sisters.

As far as the modern history is concerned, for a long time I have wanted to build a family tree. I started that today, using software on http://www.tribalpages.com/. I admire those families who have for generations guarded and nurtured their ancestral history. I regret that many people never had the chance to have a family portrait painted or a family photograph taken. I have been a keen photographer for years and now I can start to make some of the family pictures I have make my family tree come to life.

In the Caribbean, we have some odd lineage anyway. We have some clean lines of ancestry, meaning families built around the social norm of marriage before children, and no children procreated by either partner outside the marriage. Let's loosen marriage to say "long-term relationship", because the slave history created many generations who were not allowed to marry, yet were encouraged to breed.

We also have to a very large extent, maybe greater in some cases, confused lines of ancestry. In Jamaica, where I was last week, all the talk is about two national pastimes. One is "bunning", where a man is being cheated on by his woman. The other is the lethal offshoot of bunning, "jacketing", that is getting a man to accept as his a child conceived with someone else. You get the meaning of this from statistics recently released in Jamaica showing that some 33 per cent of Jamaican men have been named "father" to children they have not sired. Put this into the context of a country that has 85% of children born out of wedlock and over 50% with no registered father (Jamaica's Statin 2000) and you will guess that there is an ancestral nightmare unfolding. Some argue that this is a kind of promiscuity that has its roots in slavery and the way that normal pair-bonded relations were not allowed to develop.I think Jamaica's situation is extreme in the Caribbean, but I do not believe it is unique in Caribbean.

But with that as background, today I embarked on trying to build my family tree. "Shame and scandal in the family" was a great hit because many people could relate to it: "...that girl is your sister, but your Mama don't know..." and "Your Daddy ain't your Daddy, but your Daddy don't know!" can be all too familiar (bad pun?). Every family has skeletons in the closet and I dont know how much of that I will uncover. My simple objective is to try to map what my family looks like.

When all of that is done, I would then like to know who were my true ancestors. If reparations really means something to Caribbean countries I would advocate that they push for every citizen to have a DNA test. That way we could dismiss some of the stories about from where in Africa we came.

So you want to do online foreign exchange trading?

A month ago I started dealing foreign exchange online. I am an economist but am not a professional foreign currency dealer, and it shows! I have taken the plunge and opened a live trading account after a period with a practice account. I can say frankly that I opened and used the live account too soon, and learning by doing can be very expensive in this venture.

I am not going to try to teach as if I know what I am doing, because I do not. But I have picked up on some basic rules, and have found that if you do not stick to them you will lose and lose badly. Here are a few:

1. Plan the trade and trade the plan; follow the trends: Decide what you are going to do (with analysis beforehand, if you can), set it up and then stick with it. Tinkering tends to mean that emotions are getting involved and nervousness usually means ending deals too early before full gains can materialize. Dealing the plan also means accepting fully the potential loss that you have set in the deal. I have found that with the practice accounts I am more relaxed about dealing, having less of a care, and I have let deals run with the result that gains and losses have evened out. Also, trying to go against the market is doomed to failure: you cannot judge the momentum but if you try to get in its way you will be run over. The art of deal making is to get the entry points right so that the gains can be maximized and losses minimized. There are techniques for working that out and they are very helpful and can be powerful in association with other indicators. But if the sentiment is "buy" or "sell" go with it, if you want to deal; going against the sentiment wont work, though the sentiment will often change. This week has seen enormous volatility, which means potential large gains or losses, or both.

2. Be careful how much of your capital you put at risk. If you are cautious you naturally start with a small amount to play with, but once you put a large portion of that at stake, then losses mean you have less to play with. As many have said you have to be at the party to dance. Remembering that this kind of dealing works on margins, meaning that your stake allows you to trade with an amount many times larger, and the gains and losses from that larger amount are yours to savour or lament. So, between US$35-100 approximately allows you to deal one lot 100 times that size, or of US$10,000. If you do not have margin to support your position your deals get closed out automatically.

3. Monitor your positions and trade only when you have time to do that. I have only once left my live account trading "desk" unattended when I had deals in place, and that was today, when I needed to make a hospital visit with my father. What I did was set my loss limit and then set my potential gain very high to try to capture as much of the gains that could occur during the day. I came back 10 hours later to find that despite all the ups and downs during the day that I was well in the hunt and ahead; I had missed out on a good sized gain during the day with one trade, but I was still in the hunt and looking at positive territory. Another deal was near its top and I decided to take a good sized profit. I had accepted how much I could lose from my loss limits so had put that out of my mind. I was happy with the outcome but it in not an advisable way to approach dealing. If you can lock in some profit ahead of leaving the position you can at least be assured of a gain, though the deal may close out too early, or you may miss a top lower than the upper limit set.

4. Only make deals with good ratios of risk-to-rewards. This is hard to assess without analysis. But at least set the limits of loss to potential gains at a ratio of 1-to-2.

5. Follow the rules you set. I have said to myself many times that I will not deal on Day x, and ending up placing a deal and not been happy with the red ink. Dealing at any time is alright and feeling the right entry levels will mean that more deals succeed at least to some degree. You should buy weakness and sell strength, so in watching the ups and downs, getting in to buy near a relatively low price or selling at a relatively high price is likely to generate more gains.

6. Make sure that your internet connection is working well. It sounds basic but I went through a period several days ago when my internet connection was unreliable: it would be up for long periods, down for long periods, be up and down repeatedly in an hour. I traded despite that (which should be against a rule) and of course lived on my nerves' edge. Last night after I got back to see the outcome of the positions I had left running all day, one reason for taking the profits as I saw them was to avoid a possible reversal. About half an hour later, we had a long power cut and were in the dark for an hour, and of course no internet. But I was calm as my deals had been safely set up.

7. Monitor positions and make sure that stop losses/gain limits are set properly: whatever deal you set up, you need to have a counter order set to close it. (Some told me of people who don't do this, fall asleep and wake up to a horror.) If you close the deal manually you need to cancel the counter deal manually. Some programs give a prompt to do this but sometimes it gets missed. I failed to do this once with the practice account and after seeing the deal move to 70 points against me and a loss of some US$2700 on the account, I had to say "Wow!". Also remember that if the stop loss limit is too tight the deal may cancel too early; similarly if the potential gain is set too tight early cancellation of the deal erases the potential profit that was out there.

8. Try to trade less rather than more. Given that every start position is at a loss (because of the difference between buy-sell prices), you always need movement to at least get even. Every deal therefore starts as a loss, and the more you deal the more the chance that these losses get worse. Small amount traders have to deal with wider buy-sell spreads than those who trade larger amounts; I face spreads of say 4.5 for Pounds:US dollar, but larger dealers can face spreads of only 1.0. So big money finds it easier to make money.

9. Try not to do follow-up repeat deals. Your position gets closed too early and you are immediately tempted to get back into the market to get the rest of the gains you foresee. Remember point 8, you may also be too late, the gains are no more and the losses will start mounting.

10. There is potential for gains and losses every trading day. If you miss out in the morning there will be opportunities later in the day. If you miss out today there is always tomorrow. You can gain from price rises (by buying low and selling higher) or from price falls (by selling at high points and buying back at lower prices). Of course the possibility for losses are also there every day.

Large movements are what makes trading potentially lucrative, and it takes a certain disposition to see prices move a long way in your favour then move a long way against you, before moving back again for you...and so on. But these waves are in the nature of the beast. Sometimes a large unrealised profit evaporates and becomes a real loss. Other times, a long period of no movement is followed by a huge shift in seconds: like that when it' s in your favour and dread it when it's against you.

Assessment of "fundamental" economic of financial situations wont explain much on a daily basis. That is a salutary lesson for an economist. Also, statements of support can often be followed by movements that go against the support. Over the past weekend, the G7 Ministers said nothing about the weak position of the dollar, which was followed by the rates for several major currencies going to new highs. But almost in a flash were followed by huge falls: reports today indicate that this reflected a lot of long term holders taking their profits, and the market's reversed today to get back to positions near to where rates were last Friday.

It is an wonderful feeling to see money being gained as the rate ticker changes. It is a sickening feeling to see unrealised losses mount and then become real. Dealing is not for everyone and is risky. There are many more lessons to learn and these are just a few that have struck me after my short "apprenticeship".

Fever spreading? Get rich quick and the foreign exchange trading craze

Things are never dull in Jamaica. Last time I was here I was struck by something and now I am here again the same thing has struck me. There is an apparent craze for "get rich quick" schemes, and the current crop are largely based around foreign exchange (forex) trading.

Several years ago, around Christmas time, a priest gave a very good sermon, which sticks in my mind for one phrase: "recticular activation syndrome", where the brain filters out certain things and we start to see everywhere what we find important (see link for a good example). With that in mind, given what struck me a few months ago I have been seeing a lot of reports about a raging fever spreading in Jamaica at least.

My interest was sparked by reports of superb returns to be made from joining an investment "club" called Overseas Locket International (OLINT) Corporation, run by a Jamaican named David Smith (see picture). Mr. Smith was a talented forex trader with Jamaica Money Market Brokers. OLINT is phenomenal for giving members returns of around 10% a month (sometimes more, sometimes less), but with no guarantee. Some "wealth creation clubs" report that they are "facilitated by" OLINT (see ICS Wealth Creation). The high returns are apparently being generated by forex trading. My own limited foray into online forex trading tells me that this is theoretically possible, at least for a short period of time. My own experience, however, does not tell me if it is sustainable over a long period. Now the "clubs" and their high returns have sparked a lot of questions and debate rages about OLINT and several other "clubs" that have come into existence, which also offer very high returns (such as Cash Plus (calling cards, property investment, maybe some forex trading), and Lewfam (forex trading--see link that indicates it invests through OLINT). Are these schemes for real or are they another case of "If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn't"?

Quite by chance, I met a Jamaican businessman on a plane just after visiting Jamaica in July and having my eyes opened to OLINT. The topic came up and he admitted that he had a good amount of money with OLINT and had been getting the high returns. The subject also came up with some other Jamaican acquaintances I have and they too admitted that they had invested with OLINT, and were getting their high returns. I know people who have invested in Cash Plus. In all cases, the investors had recouped the initial capital in the space of less than a year. Some who have invested have other concerns, mainly to do with possible tax liabilities which they would prefer to keep away from the relevant authorities.

OLINT is currently in a legal dispute with the Jamaican authorities about whether the activities it is undertaking are legal, after a raid by the Financial Investigations Division (FID) on the company and on Mr. Smith's home in March 2006 (see article). FID agents seized documents records and essential computer equipment. David Smith responded by suing the Financial Services Commission (FSC) for J$300 million (about US$ 4.5 million) for "wrongful intrusion". So OLINT was investigated by FSC for supposed breaches of the Securities Act: the essence of the charges being that OLINT is not licensed to trade securities and offer investment advice (see letter from FSC), which it is alleged to have undertaken. FSC subsequently issued "cease and desist" notices against four companies (Olint Corporation Limited, Overseas Locket International Corporation, Lewfam Investments and Trading Limited and Lewfam Investments Club). OLINT subsequently moved its principal location from Jamaica to the Turks and Caicos Islands (after a failed attempt to move to St. Kitts; it also has some presence in Panama). It still has an office in Jamaica to facilitate transactions for pre-existing members. The dispute between OLINT and FSC has gone through the Jamaican courts, including the Court of Appeal in March 2007.

Some reports indicate that OLINT has some US$300 million-US$400 million from members but this figure has not been confirmed (see report by Venture Research Institute). No new members are allowed but this has not meant that new customers have not become involved as people try to get on the band wagon: some existing members have begun to "share" their accounts, in some cases in return for a share of the proceeds or a "fee".

Views are genuinely mixed (see a recent blog about Jamaica today). Some see the "little man" getting a chance to make big money, but the authorities want to do all they can to make this impossible. Some have seen the OLINT-type developments as shaking up established financial institutions as people move their funds out of banks and other financial institutions, which offer modest returns, and plough cash into the "clubs". I walked into a recently opened Cash Plus office in Mandeville this week and there is plenty of evidence of this occurring as people seek to open new accounts.

Some fear that things are not what they seem and that these "clubs" may be pyramid operations. Their concerns focus on the possibility of the "clubs" being pyramid schemes, and look back at the catastrophe that occurred in Albania in the mid-1990s (see article in IMF Survey). That case was startling for the size of the schemes relative to the national economy, and the vast amount of the population that were involved, as the IMF reported: "At their peak, the nominal value of the pyramid schemes' liabilities amounted to almost half of the country's GDP. Many Albanians—about two-thirds of the population—invested in them."

Some fear that even if the activities are legitimate and in forex, changes in legislation (such as recently occurred with efforts to make online casinos illegal) could take the bottom out of the activities and send the stack of cards crashing. Forex trading is huge (a reported US$ 3 trillion traded daily!-see FXMarketSpace) and very risky and the companies who offer online trading facilities have prominent disclaimers to that effect.

Some individuals have decided to deal with the risks directly. The Silicon Caribe website recently posted an article about the various routes people are taking (see link), and identifies some of the other players in this area, including some individuals who have decided to try to make high returns themselves. Grace Cheng is one of these people and her website (see link) shows that this can become a full-fledged business.

Jamaica has had its share of financial sector crises and the country always appears to be sitting in a fragile financial position. Jamaicans have been used to getting high nominal returns on investments for a long time, and government debt for many years offered high interest rates. Bank of Jamaica 1-year certificate of deposits were offered at 14% annually in September 2007. Treasury bill (TB) annual rates are currently about 11 1/2% (see Bank of Jamaica data). As recently as 2003 TB rates were 29%, and for much of the period since the late 1990s the rates were around 20-25%, with rates over over 40% seen in 1996. In that context, getting high returns is not a new phenomenon.

I also suspect that the average Jamaican is quite sanguine when it comes to financial affairs, and is ready to take the risk and get the reward, but if the risk fails then "Ah so it go." People are less tolerant of things that appear to be low risk blowing up in their face. But in Jamaica the government's dealing with the financial sector crisis in the mid-1990s might also have left people feeling that depositors will be protected (see research article). Given that OLINT, Cash Plus and others of their type are not licensed then if people are rational they should be less than happy.

I guess I got the proof how Jamaicans see things a few minutes ago, when a church brother of my father's came to visit, and we got talking about the investment clubs. He is a man in his mid-50s, recently retired as an engineer, and now does consultancy work and sells real estate. We talked about how land and house prices had escalated over the past 15-30 years,but that only a fraction of the population had gained from that. He gladly stated that he had money in Cash Plus, and had got a lot of nice stuff at their launching in Mandeville: pen, book, bag, etc. He takes his interest out each month and has already recovered his capital after 10 months. When I asked him how he would feel if it folded, he replied "I didn't put the kitchen sink into it. And while the going is good, me happy." So, if investors have done what they should, in risking what they are prepared to lose, then whatever the outcome there may be less of a sense of disaster amongst ordinary people.

Making it happen: Looking back over nine months and more

This is a long post, so get your coffee and get comfortable.

It's taken me a while to really appreciate the phase of life through which I am going. Having done the regular work things for over thirty years, it's not a simple transition to doing "irregular" work; nor is making the transition from going out to work to staying home to work. Long years of education and training are supposed to prepare you for a "career" and being in the workplace, and that road often goes on with little deviation until you hit retirement, and then have the chance to take a look back. In my case, I have had a chance since coming to Barbados nine months ago to take a break and at least look around myself.

Both my parents were nurses in Jamaica when I was born and they foresaw that I would do well at school and get a "good job". In the early days, I remember a lawyer being mentioned. I stayed on track for a standard middle class life, and have become a well-educated professional. I went to law school for one day when I started university, but then switched to economics.

Even though as a young boy I enjoyed and was very good at sports (athletics and football), no one really saw those as what I would do all my life to make money. In the early years after moving to England, I ran well, gained medals, trophies, and titles, and representative honours that made me feel I had done well by the time I reached my late teens and was headed to university. I ran for a year at college but had decided that I was not going to "make it" at the highest level and needed to focus on studying. (I continued playing football at college,though, because I was doing much better at that sport.)

I started playing football at the age of 9 and quickly became good, and got much better in my adolescent years after a summer of a lot of practice. I played well and managed to have a playing career in Britain from my mid-teens on clubs and at university (where I played for 5 years), and as a club level semi-professional at a very high level well into my 30s! I then moved to the US in 1990. There, I continued playing in a international semi-professional league, but also branched out as a referee and coach. I refereed youths and adults, and it actually paid better than playing! I started coaching boys' teams, but then started a girls' team in the mid-1990s (for those born in 1987), which I had for 6 years (till they went to high school). I also formed a men's team, in Washington, made up of college graduates and seasoned players, and coming from at least 10 different countries (I named the team "Internationales"), which did very well over the 4 years I stayed as player-coach, until I was 42! My coaching was never for money, but was part of my "paying back" the sport. By the time I retired from playing I had had a good run for my money and injuries had been few (mainly minor sprains, and scratches, and a cartilage removed when I was 40). I decided to step away, and save for an ironic visit to Barbados in 2003 to play in the Wanderers International Football Masters tournament, my boots have stayed hung up. OK, I kick occasionally with my little daughter (now 4) and may have to "get into it" again for her.

I had also ventured into other sports, and started squash at university (playing reasonably well), and kept that up till my mid-40s. I then started tennis when I went on assignment to Guinea in 2003, and even starting in my late-40s, with the benefit of excellent and cheap daily coaching, I became proficient in a short time.

My wife, who was keen on fitness (running, yoga, reading--yes mental fitness) has discovered "sport", however. I taught her squash, and she also resumed tennis in Guinea (playing daily) and is now on an uptrack of early morning activity: playing tennis several times a week and walking the beach in other work days. She's seeing the benefits of intense sporting activity, which I had enjoyed for over 30 years. Now we both appreciate sport and exercise. We watch a lot of tennis and as one of our important pieces of family time she has placed that at the centre of a new phase in our lives: so we have visited Wimbledon and the US Open, and have plans to see the French and Australian Opens in coming years.

But, I found that handling all of the sporting activity I had once I moved to the US and having a professional career as an economist with an interernational institution was sometimes a challenge. My job involved a good amount of foreign travel (being abroad 2-3 weeks every 2 months on average), and coaching and managing from overseas was not sustainable. When I gave up those sporting responsibilities, I was mentally freed of some very heavy burdens, even though they were "enjoyable". Taking care of the teams really needed more time than I had. It was a tough choice because the truth is that work never had the passionate pull of sport, no matter how fulfilling the job has been, but it more than paid the bills.

My career has been reasonable, and I have worked in several prestige institutions (the Bank of England and the IMF). The working world needs a lot of maneuvering and talent alone does not guarantee success: it took me a long while to realise that. The networking that is needed ("brown nosing" some would say) is not always seen early enough, and diligence will get you to an average point, but it takes something else to rise to the top. That rise in an organization has to be a pull, meaning that someone up there has to be looking to see you rise. That rise can stop if your "mentors" leave or falter or if you get caught in some awkward situations, or somehow lose momentum. In my case, I decided that a certain change was good and when I went on overseas assignment, I realised what I had believed a long time ago, which is that I am NOT a bureaucrat in the sense that I was not content being a small cog in a wheel, no matter how big the wheel. I found my "true calling" being "my own boss" and in an "ambassadorial" capacity, where I had to deal with people one-on-one to resolve problems. I have always had good communication skills and been persuasive. Now, that was what I had to do every day, and I loved it, even when the messages that I had to deliver were unpleasant. But, if you build a good rapport with your counterpart that needed tough talking can be done without animosity, and if there is honesty on both sides then the good and bad even out. A job done with integrity is one that does not give sleepless nights.

Moving to Barbados involved "giving up my job". My wife has a very interesting assignment and she is now the sole breadwinner. So after years of being "a suit" (collar, tie, good shoes, briefcase), I now find myself in casuals every day--T-shirt, shorts, sandals. After decades of commuting to the office by train, bus or car, I now find the walk from the bedroom to the kitchen office is as far as I need to go. After years of sharing conversations in the office, the corridors, over coffee, over lunch and dinner, I now have my own thought, and the occasional "conversation" I hear on radio call-in programs. I also get to do school pick-up, have a lot of time with my youngest daughter, and passing conversations with parents and small children (oten more enjoyable than the office corridor chatter). After years of having important assignments and pressing deadlines ("It's urgent...the Governor needs"; "It's a crisis...the Managing Director will..."), I now do as I please. [As an aside, I have found very few real crises in my working life. There is often a panic that sets in because you are badly positioned and if you don't react fast you and the organization will look bad, but rarely are these situations that warrant the frenzy that can be seen in the office.] Doing as I please is a work-in-progress, and I am going to write more about that.

But just a few pointers to what I have done to please me over the past 9 months. I have started to teach myself to play the piano: I took lessons when I was young but something never clicked and I was always playing sport and focusing on school work; but I have been a frustrated musician for a long time and tried the violin and guitar and none of the instruments ever responded to me. Now, over 4 months, I have used the good fortune of a piano being in our rented home and diligently tried to practice regularly, doing about an hour a day: someone told me several months ago that it's the repetition and quality of the practice that will help make progress, not necessarily the quantity. I can play some tunes and by December I can maybe help with backing for Christmas carols. My little daughter is also inspired and goes to the piano and "plays". I know I want to help her do well with an instrument, if she has the inclination and I can use the experiences of my less-than-successful childhood piano lessons to guide her to being competent.

I started writing regularly (the blogs are the main output), and that has been an interesting adventure. Bureaucratic writing has been a great teaching ground, but I am not putting together well-crafted position papers, which need to be reviewed and revised and perhaps then dumped in the garbage. I have been encouraged to write a book, or several, and I feel that the momentum for that is building. (Much as I enjoy reading, I found that after years of reading documents every day my appetite for books was very low. Thanks to my wife's voracious appetite for books, I have started to nibble at reading books again. I was very moved by Rachel Manley's Drumblair, her historical account of growing up with her grandparents, Norman and Edna Manley. That certainly is inspiring for a writer.) I have used the blogs as a platform for other writing, and produced some articles for fun, which have been published over the past few months. I have also been encouraged to use my experience to write more social commentaries and offer some columns to newspapers, and I will venture into that.

I have also thought about how to earn money. Having left the office life, I also left behind regular pay! I have tried to market myself, which is not simple in a new location: I have no base of contacts, and as I build them I have to exploit them to see if they can help me into earning opportunities. My career skills have markets but I also have to deal with the fact that I am still under contract to my employer, and am merely on leave without pay. But I have gained some teaching assignments at the University of the West Indies (UWI), where I have "facilitated" an Executive Masters in Business Administration course. So, I led a group of Caribbean public servants at the Cave Hill Campus, and then led a group of private and public sector officials in Tortola. The work is intellectually challenging, and I had to read text books on strategic planning, and public policy analysis, so that I could prepare and give good presentations. I now have to look forward to marking individual project reports, which should land on my desk in the next few weeks.

I have some consultancy work ahead, which will involve travel to Guinea--both a surprise, but a pleasure, I hope. I'm excited to have the chance to see what has happened there over the past 18 months of civil upheaval. Being the IMF's resident representative there placed me in a very delicate but important position. And I had my share of consultants visit me to hear the IMF's views about economic prospects. Now, I will be on the other side. It should be very interesting.

My latest venture (and it is really a toe in the water thing) is day trading! Frankly, I do not know if I can make money from this, but money can be made. I will however try to use the experience. After years of working in fields related to financial markets, and being an investor, I was bemused by some stories of Japanese housewives learning to become foreign exchange (forex) traders and doing this online to earn a little pocket money. I was also struck by some articles that I read about some investment clubs in Jamaica based around forex trading, which are paying out amazing interest (over 10% a month; see article on OLINT), and appear to be giving the little and big people a chance to make substantial financial gains. So, I registered with one of these trading companies and downloaded the relevant software, and have been trading for a month. I have not made real money, so far. I have a live account and a practice account, and I am learning. It is initially very painful. It also requires a good amount of time, which I have. Trading also requires a certain steel and nerve so that you can ride out situations that look like disastrous losses to get through to that point of bliss where there is a profit, or the reverse of seeing a profit disappear. Sometimes you can see a gain quickly, but losses can mount up rapidly and be large. No one likes to see the red ink and the declining balances.Yes, my hands get clammy.

I have had to develop a new routine: no more long morning lie-in. Trading is 24/5 (all day from Sunday evening through Friday evening). I presume that no one trades continuously 24/5, but you can trade a long time every day. The Far East markets open in the evenings in our time zone (say 5pm Eastern Standard Time). Then London opens at around 3am EST, followed by New York at 8am EST. You can pick and choose which markets to trade in and for how long. I have preferred to trade on London and New York, which means waking around 3am when London opens and trading through 5pm when New York closes. That is a long day. In reality, I have moved to trading in sections of the day. It is not good to leave positions open if you cannot monitor them. So, I trade when I know I have a good chunk of time, and have traded on all three markets on some days. I am slowly learning the characteristics of the markets and how to trade.

The theory and practice are different in that practice involves emotions, and emotions lead to bad decisions. You also deal differently with real money and practice money. So far, I have found that nervousness with real money tends to lead to trying to take profits early, while letting positions run longer in the practice money world. What that has meant is that the live account has done less well than the practice account. Having the guts to let the position run means that the bigger profits can come. It is not uncommon for a price to move by 100 points during a day. That means that a position can turn a 100% in a day, if you stay the course. But you have to ride the roller coaster sometimes (see image, which you can click to enlarge).

The trading situation in this image also gave me a hard real life lesson, where over the space of an hour I made a huge gain, made a bigger loss immediately after, more or less recovered the loss in minutes, at which point I stopped trading. I went to dinner only to find when I returned that this last gain was due to a glitch in the price information and that my position was still running and eventually turned into a large loss! I had a long conversation with the trading company the next day, which was settled by a credit which meant that I ended up even. One Jamaican blogger is putting his trading experience on line (see link). He shows positions and is trying to give his readers some sense of moving along the sometime bumpy rides.

So, what I have learned over my month of trading is that in theory there are huge gains to be made, but the risk of loss is also great, perhaps more so. This makes the constant high payouts from companies like OLINT are intriguing. The essence of each trade means that whether you buy or sell you start at a loss, so you need a favourable movement to get even at the start. If you trade at price levels that are not the best, the potential for profit is less, and when you get to your objective there may be a gain but not as much as was possible. So, learning the right entry points is key. There are other strategy issues but that's for later. I am intrigued by the investment club schemes that manage to pay out large profits all the time, because this presumes a performance relative to the market that is extraordinary. Clearly, experienced traders can do very well, but well enough to pay out over 10$% a month? But I am going to think about this more.

I have set some objectives for the next month of trading, which include not losing all my money. The trading accounts work on a margin basis, meaning that only a certain small percentage is needed to trade large amounts: between US$40-100 can allow you to trade single lots of US$10,000, and the money made or lost on the larger volume is your actual profit or loss. But if your margin falls below the level needed to support the trade because losses are mounting your positions are closed--no negative balances. So I wont lose all my money but my stake can get very low.

My new trading life has me waking early so, being up at 4am on a Saturday, I have blogged instead of trading, and as I have at this blog regulary for some time, I seem to have a lot to write. It's a lot of reading but it's the weekend and I hope that you reached this far.

Doing as I please has also meant a huge mental adjustment and rebuilding of values, which are also works-in-progress. In a nutshell, you need to plan to make the kind of transition I am in, like planning for retirement. Many of us who have full working lives in an office or factory have little notion of how different it is to spend days at home, working or otherwise. We are not used to that except when we are sick. Fortunately, my home is a wonderful place and I have been fortunate to have great space, peace and quiet, and a natural setting that is very calm. But home-working can seem confining and making it seem less so is sometimes not easy. But the good news is that most people who have gone through similar process have the same experience. Working at home needs structure, just as much as does a day in the office. Without structure, there is a strong sense of aimlessness, which is largely an illusion but still is bothersome. I have eventually come to really enjoy this new situation, but it has taken time to see the positives as larger than things that seem negative. There is little I miss about going to work in an office. There is much I am now learning to appreciate about being able to work at home.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Ways to save and earn money...with Pingo

I have been exploring over the past few weeks various opportunities to earn money. One very interesting idea is being paid for blogs. This post is an example. By writing about products, in this case, Pingo pre-paid calling cards (see image below, and instant'>link) I am supposed to be paid, by Payperpost (link), who track the blogs (see track link)



The Pingo calling card is self explanatory and should save a good few dollars on those by making international calls to all the Caribbean friends in the US, UK, and Canada, not to forget those elsewhere in the Caribbean. Call the world for a few cents a minute and also get a US$ 5 card free to use to make calls. In a world where there are many different ways to make calls and save money, this has to be worth a try. There is already good competition for using voice over internet, with products like Skype and the possibilities with Yahoo and MSN Messenger, but a calling card is more convenient if you are without access to a computer. Check out Pingo and see if it works for you.

When you sign up you receive US$ 8 in FREE Calls! There are also features such as Pingo Business & Family Plan, where you can go global, with no equipment to purchase just easy billing and management with amazing bundled savings. Sounds good to me.

Coconut Court--correction

A call to the hotel led to someone in reservations saying that there were some chemicals incorrectly mixed in a room and that led to some "popping". If that was indeed the incident then let's be grateful.

Bomb at Coconut Court

I have it on good authority that a chemical bomb exploded this afternoon at Coconut Court Hotel, Hastings, and that several were injured. I hope to have further details later.

Service interruption

In the age of the Internet, if you cannot get Internet access then there is no easy way to enter the information superhighway. That's been my problem for over a week, and the dear friends at Cable and Wireless, after saying that a technician would deal with the problem within 5 business days, have still to get someone to test the line, visit the premises or offer any hint that they will begin to assess the problem. When I read the stories this week about price capping and the very generous returns that C&W have been making I wondered who amongst the customers is getting real benefits. And when I read the recent press release about how C&W had improved broadband speed and value across the Caribbean (see link), I wondered when I would get that.

So, I'm borrowing a friend's computer and Internet access to just say that regular blogging service will hopefully be resumed soon.

So, with no phone working at home, no Internet working at home, it's time for more mobile phone use and scrounging from friends and neighbours.

Have a pleasant afternoon.

Beware iPhones!

When Apple's iPhone was launched I lamented that it was not available in Barbados (see earlier blog). However, such is globalisation that the new super phone gadget has found its way here. Good news? Maybe not. For the iPhone to work it is supposed to be in conjuction with AT&T's network according to a 5 year agreement between Apple and the cellular network provider. That really limited the use of the phone. So, in a jiffy, a solution arrived. Smart kids and potential entrepreneurs saw the chance to get the phone to a wider public and perhaps make some bucks in the process, and cracked the code so that the phones can be used on other networks, such as Verizon or Cingular in the US, but also of course on most other network worldwide, such as Cable and Wireless, Digicel and others in the Caribbean. This so-called unlocking of phones (or "hacking" as called by the phone companies and network providers) is not new and it's how a lot of swanky new models get to countries in Africa and work fine there. Apple just announced, however, that it has introduced new software, which will disable the iPhone if it has been unlocked. When I saw some of the iPhones on sale in Mall Internationale at the weekend and staff there had no idea about this development. So, if you buy an iPhone in Barbados be prepared to find that the phone wont work.

But, just like that, Verizon has brought out a competitor to the iPhone, and it may be comparably priced (see article on Silicon Caribe website). It will be made by LG and is called "Voyager". It has a QWERTY keyboard, which the iPhone does not. It looks a little like a Blackberry Pearl and has whizzo stuff (like a camera) that we all don't need but love to have.

The courts are still undecided whether unlocking cell phones is illegal (see article on The Blade website). Since the first reports of a 17 year old who had "hacked" the iPhone the questions have been flying whether this is illegal and if it could damage the iPhones. Apple and AT&T clearly think that both things apply. Those who wanted the new gadget but found that it was restricted to one carrier were clear less than happy. Apple has a habit of doing restrictive things with its products, since its early PCs and such moves have generally hurt the sales of the products. The company seemed to changed philosophy in this regard, but clearly there is a residual tendency to "lock up" the possibility of generaluse for a lot of Apple products. This may turn out to be another mis-step for the much heralded iPhone, which came out at very high prices (about US$600 for the 8 gigabyte version, or a cool few thousand US dollars if you were fool enough to try to get one on eBay within a few days) only for Apple to knock US$200 off that price. Again, some very unhappy customers. Still, around a million have already been sold, so cha-ching for Apple ahead of Christmas, I guess.

Languishing here in Bajan paradise we can go and look at an iPhone, and maybe have it as a cool (non-working) accessory next to the iPod and iMac. Anyway, do some checking before adding an iPhone to the Christmas list or heading off to the US to buy a bunch of them for friends and family.

Rihanna needs help

I heard at St. Matthias Church this morning that a 2 year old, Rihanna Alleyne, who attends Sunday school there, has had to be taken to England to receive treatment for a bad liver. A transplant is needed but donors are scarce, so another procedure will be used, hoping that this works well. The family needs 100,000 pounds sterling (the equivalent of B$400,000) to cover the costs. Parishioners have given generously at several collections. However, if everyone in Barbados gave a mere B$2, the cost would be easily covered. If Barbados' more famous Rihanna (Robin Fenty--see official website) offered a small portion of her earnings, I'm sure that would easily make a huge contribution to the needs of the Alleyne family.

I am not a spokesman for either the Alleyne family or for St. Matthias Church, but felt a strong irony when I heard of the needs of little Rihanna Alleyne and thought of the help, which every Barbadian could offer.

Have a healthy heart

Today (September 30) is World Heart Day. Heart disease and stroke is the world's largest killer, claiming 17.5 million lives each year. The World Heart Foundation (see link) will be sponsoring a host of events worldwide. Their theme this year is “Team Up for Healthy Hearts!”. World Heart Day activities include free screenings, walks, runs, jump rope sessions, fitness events, public talks, scientific forums, exhibitions, concerts, sports tournaments and much more.

In Barbados, The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados is also helping to celebrate World Heart Day and started this morning with a thanksgiving service at St. Matthias Church, in Hastings. The Foundation also has Heart & Stroke Week, and the activities can be found of their website (see link). There will be an open day on October 2. The Foundation is always in need of general support so this would be a good week to get to know a little more about what it does, help out in whatever way you can, and start to make changes in life style that can help reduce the risk of heart-related illnesses.

Talking rubbish again

I have written previously on this blog about what seems to be a total confusion about what to do about waste in Barbados (see link). Now I see in today's Advocate that the Sanitation Service Authority's (SSA) Engineer says that "greater measures must be employed by Barbadians to reduce the quantity of waste entering land-fills". Similar sentiments were apparently uttered by the so-called Solid Waste Project Unit. Useful figures: 1000 tonnes go to the Mangrove Pond Land-fill in St. Thomas every day. Of that, 7% is metal, 16% plastic, 24% paper/paperboard, 6% construction and demolition waste, textiles account for 6%, and organic matter accounts for 30%. Thus, almost all of the garbage is recyclable, and the authorities know this. But, clearly, the public do not know, or do not know where to put recyclables other than in the regular trash.

Other than telling people to "set it aside" and do composting, I have not heard or read of anything that helps people move ahead after setting things aside. I have mentioned a private company (B's Bottles) who take most glass and plastic beverage bottles, aluminium cans, and other plastic containers. B's want to take other material but that must await an expansion of their plant. The one company that used to take newspaper told me some months ago that they get adequate supplies from the newspaper publisher and have stopped taking from the public because they do not have demand for the recycled material (which was used to make chicken litter), so what can one do? If I fill my yard with recyclables that I have "set aside" I will have a house looking like a land-fill in no time! I know that having the regular garbage collector take the waste has proved to be the most workable solution in most countries, where household recylables are separated and collected by different trucks. Composting is fine if you have a garden, and are an active gardener. One other alternative is to have municipal sites to take organic waste. In some US urban counties, one can take leaves, tree debris, grass cutting, etc to such sites, which do the composting. In return, one can take away for free ready composted material. As I wrote before, solutions are there so I want to hear more that platitudes about setting recyclables aside.

Another downside to not organizing recycling is that people make sport of littering the place. Drive along any road in Barbados, on any day and count the number of bottles and cans on the roadside and in bushes. It's a large number. Remember, that all of these can be recycled in return for cash. Occasionally, I see people walking along collecting the debris, and making a little business for themselves. That's fine as far as it goes, but that does not cover everywhere. Add to that the polystyrene food containers, which now seem to adorn roadsides instead of flowers, and you see quickly that a significant amount of people dont know or care are what to do with garbage.

I have spoken to people running a few hotels and some of them are also at a loss to know what to do with recyclable waste. The very few that have some sort of eco-friendly program are light years ahead.

So, whatever the government agencies are doing they ain't doing much, at least the figures suggest that. Now, what would happen if you tied SSA's and Solid Waste Project Unit remuneration to success in getting the recyclable percentages down to say half? Interesting thoughts over the weekend!

Chaos for lack of information

One thing that is a great irritant in Barbados is figuring out what to do in any given circumstances. This could be in part of a problem of being relatively new in a place, but there is more to it here. I have travelled extensively and have figured out many things quickly in countries where I do not know the language, because there are clear signs, or public information is "user friendly" and easy to find. Or there is enforcement of rules, which means that one learns them at least by experience. You must have a ticket for public transport and there inspectors to check. Or, it is an offence to disobey traffic signals and there are often officials present to apply sanctions.

In Barbados, a perverse pleasure seems to come from things being without explanation, or one is left feeling vague; or it is taken for granted that one has a lot of local knowledge. I will give one recent example of this. I received a notice from the postman that a package had arrived for me from overseas, and that I needed to collect it in person, from "Parcel Post GPO", as stamped on the form. The form gives no address or means of contact such as an official's title, or institution's telephone number or e-mail address. So, I have to search in the phone directory to find out where this place is located. The directions that I was given presumed over the phone presumed that I knew Bridgetown well and could find the GPO from a certain place. I found it, with the help of my wife's driver. I should have had concerns when I looked at the form, which indicated that duty may be payable in dollars and cents, or pounds and pence. From what I recall, Barbados moved away from pounds, shillings and pence in the late 1960s! My advice to the Barbados Postal Service, which is I guess what used to be the General Post Office or GPO: you need to move into the 21st century in terms of public communications.

This lack of knowing what to do is what spurs a lot of the frustration on hears on the radio. I hear a lot of complaints about how unehelpful public instutions are: people often cite horror stories of how they had to walk a mine field of rudeness, inaccuracy, and other poor service when they deal with government departments. I heard on a radio call-in program yesterday a plea for the town planning department to have a public relations office, which would give one consistent set of answers to people's question about land use and proper procedure. The caller indicated that depending on which official was contacted, the information given was different. That could reflect great inefficiency, or it could be a state of utter confusion, or it's a don't care attitude. Maybe there is a sense of superiority in the public service, which has within it a sense that it is NOT about public service. Message to those in government offices, performing PUBLIC SERVICE: remember that your task is to SERVE THE PUBLIC.

My third example deals with road traffic. I have seen recently several major junctions where the lights have been set to either flashing red for both directions, or flashing yellow for one direction and flashing red for another; this I have seen outside rush hours but I don't know if they are also set that way for rush-hours. Clearly, drivers here do not know what to do in such circumstances. In the UK and US, the red light means stop, even when flashing. So, flashing reds at a cross roads mean everyone stops before proceededing. In the US, for flashing red in both directions, the rule is first-come-first served, so there is a clear sequence of which vehicles should proceed and when. Of course, when the lights are set up like that drivers are normally reminded on the radio or local TV, and sometime, police are at the major junctions just in case. Flashing yellow means proceed with caution, you have priority, but look out; those with flashing red need to give way to those who face flashing yellow. What I have seen here is whoever is coming fastest continues, and no particular rule seems to apply. I have heard nothing on the radio giving advice or reminders, and I see no one monitoring the junctions. I have seen many near crashes, and lots of irate drivers cursing each other. So, message to those responsible for traffic control: explain to the people what they are supposed to do, before there is no terrible accidents at one of these junctions.

Tourism anyone?

Today (September 27) is World Tourism Day, and tourist havens such as Barbados will no doubt be feeling proud to celebrate the things that tourism has allowed small countries to do. Not surpisingly, Barbados' local papers have flagged that the country has won several prizes recently for its tourism products. However, I am personally always in two minds about tourism. I welcome the opportunities for new and varied local jobs, higher pay, associated infrastructure developments such as roads, airports and sanitation, etc. I also welcome the opportunities for countries to exploit and showcase to visitors their culture, their environment, and other positive attributes. But there is always a delicate balance to hold and I also get concerned about the "negative" things that tourism can bring, with a faster pace of exposure to certain outside influences, which while common elsewhere are not necessarily in line with the Caribbean outlook. In that regard, I think of a certain willingness to exploit what seems to come once "foreigners with money" start to arrive.

In many senses, I have not found enough effort by those who run tourism authorities, and establishments that are key to tourism to fight some of these negatives. There are usually good measures in place to deal with many things that tourists fear, especially crime. In that regard, things have moved to a certain extreme by having tourists in "sealed environments". These can come in the form of "all inclusive" resorts, but they can also come in the form of highly secure tourist locations, where few locals can venture without serious checks. Other, lesser forms of harassment of tourists is commonplace but also more difficult to deal with. Whether it is the unwanted hair braider, or the drug peddler, or the taxi driver who takes a route that will ring up the costs, it does not matter. Here, I feel there have been fewer efforts to deal with the problems, often in defence of "letting the small people get a chance".

In Barbados, I think there is another issue. I think tourism has brought pressure on local prices (especially food) and I have a feeling (though hard to prove) that some have used the higher purchasing power of tourists to base prices higher than they should be. It may be useful for some of the local economists to try to analyse this impact of tourism. There appears to be much less insulation of tourism from some sensitive aspects of local life. And there may be a vicious circle. Because tourists have been tempted to live in villas and boutique hotels, rather than in large hotel complexes, they have moved more into buying local produce to deal with self-catering, or eaten out in local restaurants more than would have been the case. So, local merchants can charge more than they should for a reasonable profit, and because tourists are a significant part of the market and may be in some sense captive to these prices, the merchants will find that customers are not driven away. This phenomenon might have been going on for some time. Many people living here openly admit that they avoid shopping locally, and rarely frequent many of the restaurants for fear of the high prices. Instead, some people will fly abroad (to Miami, New York, Trinidad, Puerto Rico/US Virgin Islands) to stock up on non-perishables, and even certain kinds of perishables that are very expensive here, such as meat. A lot of talk has been heard over the past months about the high local prices, and the need to take care where one shops and what one buys. But that advice is really a bandage, and cannot make much real sense on a daily basis. Those who can travel to shop have taken this to heart. In fact, they have mounted a sort of boycott of local produce. If more people take the message to heart, it will be interesting to see how merchants and prices respond. For my part, I have kept eating out in restaurants to an absolute minimum over the past few months, and trying to find local places that offer great value. I too will be looking to stock up in a major way the next time I have chance to visit the US.

Need some TLC from C & W

When I read reports this week about Cable and Wireless (C&W) opening its regional network operations center in Barbados, I got really excited. You see, my regional operations have been roaming around for the past few weeks and I have had some difficulties with some basic C&W activities. I go to Jamaica, I find I cannot access my voice mail as simply as when I am in Barbados (where I dial *89); in Jamdown, I was roaming on a C&W network but had to dial a number in Barbados and follow instructions, which DID NOT GIVE ME MESSAGES. Frustrated, I got on with my business and continued to travel. I went to the US. On arrival, I get a text message telling me to call a Barbados number to access my voicemail. After a few days, I try it, it works. I'm happy. I travel again, this time to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands (BVI)--very solid C&W territory with no real local competition yet. I start to get a string of notices that I have voice mail messages, but no matter what I try I cannot access my voice mail. The local BVI access number does not give me access. Calling back to the Barbados number I was prompted to use when in the US gives me a series of options but they do not work! I cannot access my messages. In vain, I ask a C&W technician for a WHY and HOW and he could not get me an answer in 2 days, by which time I am back in Barbados. There, I can access my messages, easy peasy, but 3 days late.

Why is it that with a solid Caribbean regional network C&W cannot provide a simple, seamless, means of accessing services like voce mail within the region? I don't want to jump through hoops as I hop around islands and try to stay in touch with contacts. I also do not want to jump and put C&W into a bad light, but we're not dealing with rocket science here. Anyone from C&W listening?

Nature's little secrets

That's the motto shown on the vehicle license plates in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). This archipelago of islands is certainly not well known to many of us. But I have the pleasure of being based on one of them, Tortola, for several days, while I teach.
If you like hills, which I do, then this place is heaven, as there are large mounds everywhere. It means driving on roads with lots of steep inclines, and windy bends. But, with a population of only 24,000, the BVI is not too busy and it's easy to enjoy solitude and the breezes. The islands, however, are on an earthquake fault line, and I had my first experience of a tremor last night as a quake measuring 4.6 hit the islands. Reports so far indicate no damage or injuries.

Life here has its immediate oddities. Very strong British links, and vehicles drive on the left, but most are left hand drive and large US SUV-types (needed for the hills). The US dollar is the currency. The islands have become very wealthy in a short space of time. Tourism and financial services are now the economic backbone of the BVI (see link), but new attractions are being sought. There is no major conference centre here yet, so events struggle for the right space (see for instance the forthcoming Business BVI "2007 Women of Power Summit", which will be held at the Community College Resource Centre).

What I found is that the the islands are in a new wave of democracy, having just had general elections on August 20, where the ruling New Democratic Party was ousted by the Virgin Island Party. Incumbents losing is the trend at the moment in the Caribbean region. The BVI will now have its first Premier (instead of a Chief Minister).
In familiarizing myself with Tortola, I found myself attending the first sitting of the new House of Assembly, which was taking place in the island's multi-complex gym as this has more seating space for the general public. The election was not close in terms of seats but the difference in popular vote was close. The new PM, Ralph T. O'Neal, won his seat by a mere 9 votes (see link)! The new government gave a flavour of some of the issues that gnaw away here. Talking of the need for unity, the PM stressed that he will treat supporters of the NDP with compassion, kindness and respect and that will be the practise of all ministers and backbenchers. The Minister of Natural Resources and Labour noted his election as meaning “deliverance for everybody” regardless of race or colour. From what I hear, that song of inclusiveness for foreigners from a Minister who is married to someone from the Dominican Republic, will not be sweet music to the ears of BVIslanders.

While physically very different from Barbados, what I have heard in a few days tells me that many similar issues affect the two places. BVIslanders have their ways, as does every community. Outsiders from elsewhere in the Caribbean say that they have a hard time breaking the barriers of not being "Belongers" or "Born Here". So, Jamaicans, Trinis, Dominicans, Vincentians etc. are trying to make their way economically and socially but find many barriers or points of resistance. However, many of these so-called "Downislanders" are keeping the BVI running, as they provide goods and services across a wide range of areas. Violent crime is becoming more common place, with armed robberies and other crimes appearing more, with the culprits being young men. The cost of living is apparently very high, and people take opportunities to dodge that by visiting St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, or Puerto Rico. Online journalism and discussions are thriving (see BVI News and BVI Platinum News, for example).

You can only get the merest impression of a place and its people in a few days, but I will take the weekend to see some more of Tortola and I hope some of the other islands.

Public safety: An ounce of prevention

They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So does anyone know why the workmen on the construction site in the picture (part of the UWI Cave Hill complex) are working without hard hats and harnesses? My understanding is that there is an obligation on the contractor to ensure that these aspect of worksite safety are respected. Should there not be an occupational safety officer supervising the site to ensure that this is done? One hopes that it will not take an accident for such basic aspects of worksite safety to be applied.

Jamaica's election results

See my blog, Caribbean Comment, for brief initial comments on the results of yesterday's inconclusive elections.

Fire at McBride Caribbean

A major chemical fire started early this morning at the McBride Caribbean factory in Lowlands, Christ Church. As background, McBride's is the Caribbean's largest manufacturer of aerosol products and is part of the Goddard Enterprise Limited (see picture of fire, courtesy of The Nation, with inset picture of Martin Pritchard, Managing Director of Goddard Enterprises Ltd). Early news reports indicated that the fire was being bought under control, but that residents in a 3 mile radius had been asked to evacuate. A respiratory alert has been issued in this area advising persons to be on guard against any skin or respiratory ailments. Rather than repeat what others are reporting about the chemical fire, I will point to some good initial coverage on Bajan Reporter (see link), Barbados Underground, and Caribbean Broadcasting Company (see link).

Helping other people: A lady named Kat

I know very little about this lady, except that we met every day at the US Open Tennis. That may not seem so surprising, given that she is meant to usher people to the right areas, but I never met her twice in the same place or at same time. Kismet? I have a list of coincidental meetings and those who have read the Celestine Prophesy will understand what I mean by saying there is a reason why I met this lady.

During our last exchange on Thursday, I told her that I wrote a blog and asked if she would be happy to be featured. She was and quickly took up a great pose! Her name is Kat, and when I asked her if it was spelt C.A.T., she replied sweetly, "Do I have four legs?"

Most of the week in New York City was pleasant, as previous trips have been in recent years. Manhattan has become cleaner over the years. Travelling by subway is relatively straight forward, and not too expensive. Food is always a great adventure, as is exploring the various neighbourhoods. Though I am no lover of shopping, it's hard to find a better place for bargains. I don't really know many New Yorkers well but the people we've met often have those well-known characteristics of the city: fast talk, quick wit, acid tongue (sometimes with a few foul mouth expressions). But we have also found New York people to be helpful, even kind. Some say that this has become more noticeable since the tragic events on September 11, 2001. A few examples for me on this trip. My wallet fell out of my trousers pocket on leaving a subway and a lady quickly signalled that before I got off the train. We stayed in the apartment of people whom we had met in Barbados, and with whom we had 3 days' contact: we had arranged a house swap but they could not make it south, but still left us the full run of their place.

I don't know if this lady is a native New Yorker but she is a great advert for the place. We had met because of her hat, which she promised me at the end of the tournament, but I told her I would not be in New York then. After that, we had met at various points in the huge tennis complex at Flushing Meadows.
Whatever the reason for the meeting, all will eventually become clearer, I hope. New York City is also a place for younger people, and even though children can have a good time there, taking very young ones around the city is really tiring. This time our little one did not travel, but we're still tired! But no complaints. We had great fun.

The terrors of air travel

Since September 11, 2001, many international air travellers have had to deal with a whole new world of increased security procedures before they can board a plane, especially for travel to, from, and within the United States of America. Those who travel extensively within Europe or from Europe to places other than the USA, will know that although stringent measures are applied there, they seem to be far less intrusive and often faster than when dealing with the USA. We have also had to deal with much "closing of stable doors after the horse has bolted" as with the bans on various forms of liquids. I read recently that one of the apparently sensible bans, on lighters will soon be removed! If this is true, then I have to wonder what kind of security measures are really in place.

However, I have had a concern for a while about the possibilities for thefts with this increased security. As someone who travels by air quite often, I am aware of many of the scams that take place in and around airports, with pickpocketing, calling card numbers being spied, etc. However, this new aspect concerning the security checks was highlighted again to me by a Barbadian family I met while travelling yesterday from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Barbados. They had just suffered the "loss" of valuable electronic equipment while they were passing through security at San Juan. What they retold was that while there was a check of the pocket book of one of the ladies in the party, other items which had passed through the scanner disappeared. Now, we can speculate about what is going on. There are a few obvious possibilities. One, is that an opportune thief saw the lady being delayed and took the opportunity to just nab the item and leave. Another possibility is that the security crew (or some of them) may be running a little organized theft scheme, whereby they target someone passing with a small desirable item like a portable DVD player, and arrange for the passenger to be distracted and have someone take the item. The family concerned are at a slight disadvantage in this case, as they did not immediately realize that the item was missing, so were perhaps compromised when they returned to the security area to report the problem. They said that they asked if there was a closed circuit video of what occurs at the security checks and asked for that to be reviewed. A supervisor indicated that this would be done and they would be contacted. I am not optimistic.

Now when I travel by air I limit what I carry by hand, and minimize problems with what I wear; I even do not bother with a belt for flights. I often travel with a laptop computer and have always tried to make sure that this is never out of my sight during the security screening, often putting it as the last item. Similarly, I am very cautious with a wallet at the security check. There may be some natural confusion over similar looking items, but I am also aware that opportunities can create motives. I try not to tempt a thief. I hope that my suspicions are not founded and that this family get back their possessions. But I would be interested in other instances that suggest that the security checkers are not so secure, especially in the region.