EDITOR, The Tribune.
“Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity, not a threat” – Steve Jobs.
Change is inevitable for us to progress as a nation. We must first begin to steer away from the outdated mentalities that have left us stagnant and shift to a mentality that requires us to take immediate action. We must be doers and not talkers, often people talk about what situation they should’ve been in or what the government is doing wrong but the best way to see a change is to be the change. We must find it within us to strive to better ourselves and our country. We must also appreciate what we already possess in order to truly identify what we don’t have.
This is how we can enable ourselves to find the best solutions.
They say that the future is bright but you can’t see it with your back turned. We often hear people saying they miss “the old days” and how things used to be, but the past is nothing to dwell on, yet we should use it as a lesson and see how we can learn from it to create a better future.
Staying stuck in the past while in a world that is constantly evolving will only cause us to stay behind as a nation. The islands of The Bahamas hold so much untapped potential that is waiting for us to not only see it...but to take action.
Another step towards an innovative Bahamas is to diversify our economy; To diversify our country we must reform the educational system. We cannot have an agricultural industry without farmers, we cannot be a tech hub without technicians and we cannot have those professionals without the proper education. Albert Einstein once said: “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” We can’t expect the youth to want to take interest in other fields if there aren’t any proper educational platforms that allow them to explore different industries. Also, they may not want to explore different fields if they grow up thinking that being a doctor or lawyer is the only way to success. To bring diversity to the economy we must first introduce it into our curriculum.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” - Albert Einstein.
Change is a key component of innovation. Moving our country forward has to be a joint effort between the government and the people. It is the government’s job to teach the people how to fish, but they cannot make the people go fishing. We have to take it upon ourselves to help the country move forward together and it is up to us to “Believe in The Bahamas”.
BRYANT LOWE
Nassau,
April 28, 2020
Comments
ThisIsOurs 3 years, 11 months ago
Mr Lowe I suspect that the message will be that we'll innovate and we'll do it with foreign labour!
As we've done for decades. Repeating the same mistakes of the past. In fact we'll move forward with even greater determination to ensure that all high paying jobs for the next 50 years are given to foreign labour. How else can the wealthy control the economic dependence of the populace? Bahamians will be told you had your time to prepare for competition.
Foreign labour will come in, drive up the price of rentals and real estate, take all the contract money out the country, leave when times get tough and we'll be stuck with businesses crying again that they can't find skilled Bahamians.
Civic groups will be vying for govt contracts to train Bahamians. Vying fir positions on boards to lead initiatives that they have no business leading. In the end we'll teach another group of job hungry Bahamians how to answer phones in an "innovative" call centre. Phones are innovative technologies after all, so answering them is technically innovating.
Just look at Kwasi Thompson's statement on the tech hub, he was ~dismayed when they showed him a room with all white programmers but he was "relieved" when they introduced him to the Bahamians who would install the software. Clearly he has no intention of driving Bahamian innovation.
Interestingly enough, we've asked the sbdc to give funding to tailors and seamstresses, which is great, but haven't introduced any subsidies for innovators. If they have their way, we're not going to be innovating. That space will be held for the rich few to get a foothold and block everyone else. Cant be done? The cental bank placed a moratorium on payment providers, never heard anything like that before. Ever. The 1st world countries the market determines which technology consumers decide to use.
And finally, if they decide that they have to reluctantly give a nod to innovators, watch out for the qualifiers.. only open to persons under 12 wuth one green eye and one black eye. Once you hear that you'll know we een serious about innovation.
Moral: don't wait on dem. Get to it and if they tag along great.
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