The Broad Street Journal • Monday, February 25, 2013 1

Max Benz opened Chez Max at the lo-cation of the former David’s Place restau-rant at beginning of last December.

Mr. Benz, a Swiss by birth, spent most of his life in Canada, between Montreal and Toronto. He came to Barbados a doz-en years ago to work as executive chef for the government-owned Hotels & Resorts Ltd., which operated five properties un-der the Gems of Barbados brand.

After the Savannah Beach Hotel was leased to a private group, he stayed on in the same capacity for a while.

“We then decided to do our own thing because at one time or another you need to look after yourself,” says Mr. Benz, sitting in the verandah of the property which was previously home to David’s Place, over looking the beautiful Little Bay at St. Lawrence Gap.

The restaurant’s decor features white walls with black and red tablecloths. Out-side the building has been repainted in a stark orange. Colourful paintings add to

See BENZ, page 3

Monday, February 25, 2013 • www.broadstreetjournalbarbados.com Established 1993

McKinney’s war DAMIEN McKinney felt he had nothing to offer the world of commerce that he want-ed to enter.He soon had an epiphany: there were lots of lessons from his experience in the mili-tary that he believed could help businesses to compete better.- Books, Page 6

Barbados’ National Insur-ance Scheme cannot con-tinue to purchase govrn-

ment debt at the rate it has been doing over the past five years, says president of the Barba-dos Economic’ Society Ryan Straughn.

In two articles appearing on-line on the society’s blog, Mr. Straughn noted that from 2007

until September 20I2, the gov-ernment had raised new debt of Bds$2.4 Billion through savings bonds, Treasury notes and de-bentures. Half of that amount, $1.2 Billion was taken up by the NIS.

Notes Mr. Straughn: “The read-er should bear in mind that this doesn’t include the additional estimated $200 million that was

loaned directly to the UWI, Trans-port Board and BTA from the NIS in the last two fiscal years.”

He added: “We cannot allow the National Insurance Scheme to become insolvent because government is unable to control its spending.

• See an edited version of Mr. Straughn’s online articles on page 6.

By Patrick Hoyos 

It is impossible to hear  Gina Corbin speak about her life and work without the

word ‘passion’ or ‘passionate’ coming up frequently. She even speaks at a rapid, well-articulated clip.

  Gina says she gets her work ethic from her mom. “I’m pas-sionate and hard-working and when I see a goal I go after it,” she told The Broad Street Journal in an exclusive interview.

  We are talking about her new magazine, Peanuts, which came out just recently, and in which she writes, “My passion for writ-ing, my love for my son, and my eagerness to

Motherhood, writing and photography all helped Gina Corbin realise another passion - publishing her own magazine

A PASSION FOR ‘PEANUTS’

Family circle: Gina Corbin with husband Luke and son Troy. Photo by the BSJ.

Finally, Max can invite you to dine ‘at home’See GINA, page 2

CARIBBEAN tourism ar-rivals as a whole are growing faster than the world average, but Barbados remains one of the few destinations where the sun seems to be perpetually going down. According to the Caribbean Tourism Organisa-tion, “The region as a whole has regained ground lost in the heat of the global economic depression in 2008-09.”

According to CTO Chair-man Beverly Nicholson-Doty, in a statement released at a press conference on Feb. 14, “Last year, the Caribbean wel-comed nearly 25 million tour-ists. That’s 5.4 per cent more than in 2011 and the largest number of stayover visitors in five years.”

She added: “This rate of growth outpaced the rest of the world, which saw arrivals increase by four per cent.”

However, according to the Central Bank of Barbados in its review of the economy for 2012, “Output and foreign exchange from tourism contracted, with a 6.2 percent decline in long-stay arrivals and an increase of only 4.3 percent in the average length of stay.”

Barbados, along with Anguilla, Bermuda, Grenada, St. Lucia, Martinique and Montserrat, were the countries recording decreases in longstay visitors for the year. The other 18 destinations in the CTO’s coverage all showed in-creases.

Provisional figures for Bar-bados put the fall-off at 35,000, from 567,000 in 2011 to 532,000 last year.

Within the region, the best performers were the Spanish-speaking countries, which re-corded a 6 per cent increase last year, followed by the Dutch with 5.6%.

- CTO Report, Page 4

THE BROAD STREET JOURNAL

Max Benz. Photo by the BSJ.

A publication of lists ranking leading companies by employees, revenue, and other criteriaTo advertise, order your copy or be listed, please see page 8RANKINGS

B A R B A D O SBUSINESSTOPComing

in July

BES President Ryan Straughn

Straughn: NIS must not become insolvent through debt purchase

Don’t let the sun go down on us

2 The Broad Street Journal • Monday, February 25, 2013

help other parents has inspired me to bring you Peanuts Magazine: Parenting in a Nut-shell.” 

  Now 25, Gina Corbin has already launched a successful photography busi-ness, Gina Francesca Photography & De-sign. Prior to that, she earned an associate degree in mass communications from the Barbados Community College, majoring in journalism. 

 So, a reporter asks, why a magazine, and why one about parenting? She responds: “I always wanted to publish my own maga-zine. It was a dream of mine when I was growing up. Not necessarily on parenting, but just to run and be the editor of a pub-lication.

  “When I became a mother in 2008 I became equally passionate about parenting. As time went on the two just came together, and - cue Peanuts Magazine!”

Her nickname growing up was Peanuts, offering one of several reasons for the title. “It is also a generic name that everybody will call their ‘bump’ - so I thought it was relevant as well. The playful and friendly name goes well with our slogan ‘Parenting in a Nutshell.’ 

  Gina is the third of three children, all girls, in her family. Her parents are  Wayne and Frances Parravicino, whom she de-scribes as “the best parents ever.”

  A descendant of the famous Sheppard family of Barbados, she numbers musicians, choreographers, singers and photographers among her aunts and uncles and grew up as part of a creative clan.

 “I have a lot of role models in my fam-ily,” she laughs. 

 

Gina started her career in photography as her mater-nity leave was ending. Up to then she had worked as

an event planner, but decided that she “wanted a career, not just a job,” so as she was always known as “the person with the camera”  among family and friends, she decided to put her passion for photography to use and opened her own business. She researched cameras and also learned the basics of her cho-sen craft on the Internet.

Willing to work all hours for her clients, Gina’s love for photography and the free-dom and responsibility of running one’s own business paid off. 

Focussing on, but not exclusively limited to, weddings, Gina now finds her appoint-ment calendar booked up well into 2014.  “I am my own boss, I’m able to make my own hours,” she says, but in putting her clients first, her personal life can suffer. “Especially with weddings the main area that I do, it’s difficult to schedule your own holiday years in advance, or (for example) to make sure you are there for the children’s Christmas play, or that you’re not scheduling anything on a family member’s birthday. But if I need

to take a day, I take it.” She also added that it helps to have the always supportive hus-band by her side when the work force calls for more attention.

  How does she set herself apart from the competition? Gina says she puts a lot of effort into the editing of the photos she takes for her clients. She notes that “It’s not just what you put in the four corners (of the photograph). It’s about the light, the composition, the end result and the whole experience of it. It’s not just about having a nice camera. There’s a lot that goes into it.”

 Most of her clients are from abroad and prefer a CD with high-resolution images, but she also does an album with prints if requested.

 Gina was named in the Nov.-Dec. 2012 is-sue of Brides UK, the largest bridal magazine in the UK by the well known Conde Nast, among its selection of the Top 20 Destination Wedding Photographers Worldwide, one of only three in the entire Caribbean who made the cut, and the only one from Barbados.

 Now, still just 25, Gina has become a pub-lisher in her own right. She came up with the concept for Peanuts about three years ago and discussed it with close friends and family. It was agreed by all that it was a great idea, and, of course, Gina became passionate about it. She wrote down her ideas for the magazine as they came to her. “The first issue has about two-and-a-half years of ideas,” she says, “so the pressure is now on for the future issues.” 

  Christine Wilkie, a well-known publishing executive who, says Gina, is like a “second moth-er” to her, helped her immensely as she got her toes wet for the first time in publishing. 

 “She always had time for me no matter how late it was or whatever she was doing. She would drop everything just to answer my questions. She was always willing to help, and I appreciate that,” says the young publisher.

She also gives great credit to Janine Banfield, who worked with her on the magazine and was its advertising manager. “We would get together and brainstorm”  on the days of the week they selected as ‘Peanuts’ days, she says, adding that “Two heads are always better than one.” 

What has been the response from advertisers?“It was never a question that Peanuts maga-

zine is a good idea and would do well, but, yes, people were very hesitant with a new publica-

tion. They had nothing to see, no matter how great it sounded,” despite showing them mock-ups or visuals, she notes.

 Nevertheless, the response to the first issue has been “incredible,” says Gina, “to the point where we launched our social media a month before we launched the actual print maga-zine,” and the buzz it created produced inquiries from advertisers who wanted their product to be associated with Peanuts, because they share the same target market as we do.” And after the print edition came out the response has been even better. “Not to toot my own horn, but it does look great,” she giggles. 

  “From the content to the layout to the de-sign, the feedback we have gotten has been great. Many people didn’t even think it was from Bar-bados when they first saw it,” she adds. It looks very international and that’s exactly what we wanted to go for. We didn’t want an everyday

magazine with everyday content.”  With so much information on parenting

competing for attention on the Internet, what does she think is the main selling point for the magazine?

She replies that one of the things that makes Peanuts useful is that the products adver-tised are available locally. “All of our advertisers are from Barbados, all the prices for the products and services shown are in Barbados currency, so people can relate to it more, as it is more acces-sible to them.”

  In addition, as far as content is concerned, she says, “although we are a parenting maga-zine, we’re also taking a different approach in that the writing is by real parents, not doctors, psychologists or other health professionals. They have learnt what they have through experience, and it’s very conversational, down-to-earth, easy, simple reading. That sort of approach is received better by modern parents. Our approach is, ‘Well, this works for me, see if it will work for you.’”

  This approach will also be used in  Pea-nuts’ outreach through social media.

 How does Gina plan to keep her professional photography career going? “I am equally pas-sionate about publishing as I am about photog-raphy,” she says. 

  “My photography business is doing fantas-tically well in such a short period of time, and I’m really grateful for that. I’ve made a name for myself and I’m not going to let anything happen to the reputation I’ve worked so hard to create with my photography business just because I have another great idea going. I’m going to push equally as hard, probably moreso, to not let my photography business suffer now that I’m doing the publishing.”

•  Peanuts magazine  social media currently in-cludes Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The maga-zine is available online at www.peanutsmagazine.com, where Gina Corbin can also be reached for more information. And her photography website is www.ginafrancescaonline.com

 

News

Gina Corbin, shown here in a publicity photo for her first business Gina Francesca Photography & Design. Inset, the cover of the premiere edition of Peanuts maga-zine. Photo courtesy Mrs. Corbin.

GINA, from page 1

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The Broad Street Journal • Monday, February 25, 2013 3

News

the liveliness of the interior decor. Mr. Benz served as team leader for

the senior Barbados team of chefs in various culinary competitions, win-ning awards in both Miami and Puerto Rico. More recently he has worked with well-known local TV Chef Peter Edey, focussing on teaching culinary skills to young people. He is also locally famous as chief judge for NIFCA’s culinary competition. He makes these contribu-tions, he told The Broad Street Journal, because “The youngsters are our future. We cannot change a lot with older people like us, because we are set in our ways.”

With jobs hard to find at present, Mr. Benz feels a further need to train young people to help them go further in life.

This philosophy extends to his new rest, for except for Mr. Benz himself, a senior bartender and a senior waiter, the staff is made up of young trainees.

Looking at the hospitality sector, Mr. Benz says he would like to see the formal

introduction of an apprenticeship system for chefs and other workers along the lines of what pertains in Europe.

For even though the apprentices would earn minimum wage for three years, they would learn their trade in a real working environment. “Here we still have a system where you go and do a course for three or six months and you call yourself a chef.”

He said he would like to see young peo-ple coming into the hospitality industry in Barbados spending four days a week in a hotel and one in the classroom.

As for the restaurant, Chez Max offers, he says, a “little bit of everything, but with a Caribbean twist to it.” For example, there’s flying fish with plantain stuffing, long with curried shrimp and sweet potato mash. For lunch, traditional rice and peas with beef stew.

“You have to give the people what I call comfort food,” he says, “so that they can al-ways find items on the menu with which they can associate themselves. Once they have tried the basics, they are more likely to come back try some of the other things on your menu”.

Chez Max is not aiming for the high-er end of the market. But the menu will

change as time goes by. Mr. Benz says since coming to live and

work in Barbados he has been incorporat-ing more spices into his recipes and even in his own daily consumption.

Generally, he says, visitors feel Barbados has a “good kitchen.” Even if you order food from “off the back of a truck,” you know you are going to get decent-tasting food. They know that the population knows what to eat,” he says.

“It’s funny,” he says, acknowledging that his new venture makes him a lot more hands-on than his previous executive chef jobs on island. “People say they are going to support me because they want to see if I

can really cook, or if I can only do judging. “Now I’m back, peeling potatoes and do-

ing whatever has to be done, and I am en-joying myself. I’ve always enjoyed cooking, so hands-on was always something for me.”

In fact, before he relocated to Barbados, Mr. Benz had his own restaurant, called Zu-rich, which he ran for a decade in Canada.

But his one proviso about opening his own restaurant here was that it would have to be waterfront, and as things worked out, a friend told him that David’s Place had been closed and the property might be available.

It was, and has become Chez Max.Chez Max, T 427-2433. Worthing Main

Road, Ch. Ch. is open for dinner nightly. •

Your table awaits: Max Benz in Chez Max’s dining room. Top right: Exterior view of the restaurant. Photos by the BSJ.

BENZ, from page 1

4 The Broad Street Journal • Monday, February 25, 2013

Opinion

By Beverly Nicholson-Doty Chairman, Caribbean Tourism Organization

The state of Caribbean tourism gives us reason to be optimistic. This op-timism is based on the positive signs of growth following earlier down

years. We are optimistic because we see ar-rival numbers rising, particularly out of North America; we see hotel revenues moving in the right direction, albeit with moderate accelera-tion and we see tourist spend on the increase.

All the signs suggest Caribbean tourism is ral-lying. The region as a whole has regained ground lost in the heat of the global economic depression in 2008/2009. Last year, the Caribbean welcomed nearly 25 million tourists, that’s 5.4 per cent more than in 2011 and the largest number of stayover visitors in five years. This rate of growth outpaced the rest of the world which saw arrivals increase by four per cent.

However, amidst these positive signs is the stark reality that some of our member countries are still hard pressed to recover, particularly those that rely heavily on the British market. This is because the UK’s travelling population continues to be daunted by an ailing economy and further applications of the onerous Air Passenger Duty.

At the same time, cruise tourism has been flat region-wide for each of the last three years. Intra-regional shifting of cruise schedules resulted in fair-ly significant increases in the northern Caribbean activity offset by reductions in that of the south.

The region’s performance in 2012 must be seen in context of the wider global situation....However, international tourism proved resilient in 2012. The World Tourism Organization, the UNWTO, re-ported that over one billion international tourists travelled the world by the end of the year - 36 mil-lion more than in 2011.

CARICOM Peformance: Our statistics show that tourism within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries is bouncing back, but has not kept pace with the wider region. Overall the CARICOM countries recorded a modest 1.9 per cent rise for the year. This was influenced by a 0.4 per cent decline in the OECS countries struggling with falling British and intra-regional travel.

Dutch Caribbean: On the other hand, the group of Dutch Caribbean countries recovered moderate-ly well in 2012, performing slightly above the wider Caribbean. The grouping recorded a 5.6 per cent increase over 2011 due to rising activity in all the reporting countries. This was largely determined by the return of much of the business from the South American market, a strong one for Curacao and Aruba, two major players in this group.

Spanish-speaking Caribbean: The perfor-mance of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean can be described as buoyant. This group sustained the positive growth in arrivals experience over the last five years, recording a 6 per cent increase last year. Mexico’s Caribbean region was the chief contribu-

tor to this multi-year performance, having climbed by double digits in 2010, thereby regaining much of the ground lost in the wake of swine flu a year earlier.

Hotels in Recovery: As I stated earlier, hotel performance continues to show good progress as it moves in a positive direction and has quickened a bit on previous years. For the second time in four years all four key hotel performance indicators were positive. The overall occupancy for the Caribbean increased by 7.1 per cent; average daily rate went up 4.8 per cent and total room revenues by 8.9 per cent. Revenue per available room also rose by 12.4 per cent. Should these trends continue, it certainly augurs well for 2013.

US Market bounced back: All indications are that Americans are coming back to the Caribbean in their customary numbers. US arrivals went up 4.1 per cent in 2012 when compared to 2011, holding steady with the pre-recession levels of five years ear-lier. US numbers increased in all of the reporting countries.

Canadians Continue to travel: Of all our ma-jor markets, Canadian arrivals showed the greatest buoyancy throughout the challenges of the reces-sionary period. In fact, arrivals from Canada have continued to move upward over the past five years. Arrivals went up by 5.9 per cent in this market in 2012. There was also no evidence of falling average visitor spending on the part of the Canadians.

UK Performance: The numbers from the UK suggest that business from this very important mar-ket for several CTO member countries remain de-pressed. A total of one million land-based visitors came from the UK to the Caribbean last year, down from 1.1 million in 2011. That’s a steep drop of 10 per cent. The number has declined significantly in the past three years in the backdrop of weak Euro-pean economies and currently high airfares precipi-tated by substantial increases in Air Passenger Duty in the last two years.

Intra-Caribbean Visitation sluggish: Travel by Caribbean residents within the region as a whole increased by three per cent last year, a sign that in-tra-Caribbean visitation is sluggish. However, this modest improvement in travel was not shared by our Eastern Caribbean members and ‘other Com-monwealth Caribbean’ destinations, many of which saw declining traffic from their respective neigh-bours....

Caribbean Tourism Outlook 2013: It is clear that the US and Canadian markets are carrying the sway and are expected to continue to perform well in terms of arrivals in 2013 as airlines continue to manage airlift and airfares in consonance with variable consumer demand. Travellers are still ex-pected to hold a tight purse in light of continued uncertainty in their home economies and globally. UK travel to the region as a whole is expected to improve marginally at best, although as customary some countries, especially in the Eastern Caribbean, will benefit more than others from this market.•

• Adapted from a press release. For the full text, please visit the CTO’s website, www.onecaribbean.org

Rehabilitating privatisation

The patient Privatisation lies - metaphorically speaking - in his hammock on a tropical beach somewhere in Barbados, con-valescing after the brutal assault he suffered at the hands of one political party over the past few weeks, and the lack of defense offered by the other, when the licks began to be shared.

Cast during the elections by the Dems as the evil twin of the Bar-bados Labour Party, the feared job killer who would run amok if the Opposition came to power, the recuperating Privatisation never got the chance to be redefined in any positive way by the Bees. They simply decided to run as far from it as they could when it was they who made it an early part of their campaign platform.

We are not now going to re-litigate the pros and cons of keeping Privatisation in our midst. He is here to stay. We merely suggest that those who tried to bury him over the past few weeks will soon be start-ing to praise him.

Having made a highly successful emotional appeal to the elector-ate that Privatisation would cause jobs to be flushed down the toilet, result in higher prices for services and the loss of free bus rides for seniors, the DLP has all along planned -wisely in our view - for the introduction of private-public sector projects on a scale and breadth not seen before on this island, except as its programme began to roll out with projects like Coverley Estates.

Soon enough, the DLP administration will undertake the rehabili-tation of Privatisation - crafting the kinder, gentler image that must be constructed for it - if it is to have any chance of reducing persistent fiscal deficits as well as growing the economy.

We don’t know why the Dems were so successful at beating the Bees over the head with the spectre of privatisation, or why the Bees were unwilling or unable to respond. It was akin to the “swift-boating” of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry back in 2004, when his outstanding record of military service was turned into an ugly rewrite, suggesting cowardice, by his Republican opponents.

On page 24 of its manifesto, the DLP says it will “reduce the levels of Transfers and Subsidies,” but it does not say there how it will do that.

However, if you just glance through the document you will find hints or outright declarations that might help us understand just how far advanced the Dems’ own plans for privatisation projects had been even as they were bashing the Bees.

We cannot say we can find fault with any such plans, except that they will not reduce the amount of money spent on transfers and subsidies. We are eagerly awaiting the government’s plans for transport, higher education, water rates and other crucial services which are costing it millions to provide and helping to mire our economy in debt. But while avoiding playing its hand yet in those areas, the DLP adminis-tration has lots of plans for Privatisation in others.

For example, we are told, the BWA is going to invest in a project to be launched by - gasp - the private sector. Can we imagine the loss of jobs and increased cost of living? No, we can’t, because the project is apparently going to be one of the one-megawatt solar farms (using photovoltaic technology) which the Barbados Light & Power Co. Ltd. “intends to propose to the FTC by the end of the first quarter 2013.”

And, still on the topic of renewable energy, the DLP administration will provide government-owned land as its investment in a “waste-to-energy plant to generate electricity for sale” to the said BL&P.

Privatisation gone mad.There’s more. In tourism, says the manifesto (page 38), the DLP ad-

ministration will “complete the construction of the Pierhead marina to accommodate luxury yachts,” not reminding us that this is a BOLT; and “construct a new cruise pier to separate cruise ships from cargo vessel operations,” another BOLT. A BOLT is where the private sec-tor Builds, Operates, Leases and (25 years later) Transfers a project to the government. It is Privatisation with high interest rates attached.

In housing, says the manifesto (page 45), the new administration will “partner with the private sector to construct houses for middle income families and individuals, replicating Emerald Park East and West at Six Roads, St. Philp; Paradise Heights and Oxnards housing developments located in St. James.”

So we wish patient Privatisation a speedy recovery. There’s plenty of work for you here in Barbados. No doubt the “Get Well Soon” cards from George Street have already started to arrive.•

The Broad Street Journal

Editor: Patrick R. HoyosPublished twice per month by Hoyos Publishing Inc.Address: Boarded Hall, St. George, Barbados Tel: 230-5687 Email: bsjbarbados@gmail.com

© 2012 Hoyos Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.Established 1993

Editorial

TOURISM

Tourism on rebound in region

The sun goes down over Barbados: Accra Beach, view from Tikki Bar. Photo by BSJ.

The Broad Street Journal • Monday, February 25, 2013 5

I wish to state at the outset, as em-phatically as I possibly can, that in a very, very, very small open economy (like Barbados) and in

a very, very, very small open society (like Barbados) it is imperative that govern-ment’s current revenue always exceed its current expenditure in order to pro-

tect the social de-mocracy to which we’ve become ac-customed.

All governments have a singular re-sponsibility which is to manage the af-fairs related to the public finances. It is the one area over which it has con-siderable control

and more precisely it has absolute control over the amounts expended and therefore is

the only true measure on which to base rel-ative performance. For the more discerning reader, note the allocation for responsibility of a fiscal year has been determined based on when a new administration assumes of-fice. For instance, once office is assumed in the first 5 months of a fiscal year (April to August) then the administration is deemed to have sufficient time to significantly affect the outcome for that fiscal year.

Since FY1955-56, government current spending has exceeded its current revenue on 10 occasions.

From FY2008-09 onwards the signifi-cant deterioration of the public finances has added an estimated $1.744 billion to gross government debt purely from exces-sive spending. 

Prior to FY2008-09 successive BLP and DLP administrations have managed to keep the current account genie in the bottle where it absolutely belongs, which has al-lowed for the adequate provision of social services whilst also accommodating capi-tal expenditures to build out infrastructure across the country.

On the campaign trail we heard a lot about how much was squandered under the Arthur administration, and that too is an undeniable fact. However, based on his track record, it is hard to deny his pedigree when it comes to management of the public finances. 

We also heard a lot about how the in-ternational economy has been unkind to Barbados in recent years and that resources were scarce. This is one of the biggest myths that many in the public repeat ad nauseum without any reference to the facts. Govern-ment’s revenues between FY2008-09 and FY2011-12 have averaged $2.442 billion, which is considerably more resources than the previous administration ever received. Another undeniable fact but yet public per-ception is completely opposite. 

Since the end of 2007 gross general government and gross public sector debt has increased by $2.277 billion (48%) and $2.469 billion (43.3%) to reach $7.021 bil-

lion and $8.168 billion respectively by end of September 2012. As a percentage of GDP the debt ratios for gross general gov-ernment and gross public sector debt rose by 26.4% and 28.7% to reach 79.3% and 92.3% respectively.

As noted above, the cumulative current account deficit over the last 5 fiscal years was approximately $1.744 billion and is the single largest contributor to the sharp rise in debt levels. Government debt held by the NIS increased by $1.154 billion (82.2%) from the end of 2007 to reach $2.554 bil-lion at September 2012. Of this amount, $981 million (85%) were additional deben-ture acquisitions.

Based on prospectus information avail-able on the Central Bank’s website (Gen-eral Press Releases), since 2007 up until end September 2012 the Bank had issued on behalf of the Government of Barbados $2.455 billion in securities inclusive of sav-ings bonds, treasury notes and debentures. Total debenture issuance during this pe-

riod up to the end of September 2012 was $1.3 billion. This means the NIS purchased three-quarters of the debenture issuance over the period. The reader should bear in mind this doesn’t include the additional es-timated $200 million that was loaned di-rectly to the UWI, Transport Board & BTA from the NIS in the last two fiscal years.

In the 2012 Budget presentation, the Minister of Finance outlined in great detail the administration’s plans to further utilise the NIS to finance government’s operations without making any reference as to how any of the finance (new or old) will be repaid. I have gone on record before to state that NIS funds should be used to provide the benefits to those that have contributed to the funds and government must not view NIS funds as part of the Consolidated Fund. We are already in dangerous territory with the pub-lic finances and we absolutely cannot allow the National Insurance Scheme to become insolvent because government is unable to control its spending.

Interest PaymentsOn account of the rapid rise in debt,

interest payments have risen by $184 mil-lion to $527.8 million in FY2011-12 since FY2007-08. Between FY2002-03 and 2007-08 these payments increased by $75 million.

In five of the last ten years the primary surplus was not sufficient to pay the inter-est on debt. This is significant because as all other expenditures are subordinate to debt then the amount of revenue available to provide social services has diminished. Therefore it is imperative that we begin to address the fiscal imbalances before we run out of creditors.  There needs to be a clear plan not only to correct the fiscal imbal-ances but also to repay the debt incurred from accumulated current account deficits. To do otherwise would find us in a situation where even if were to catch the genie, the bottle would already be broken and we find ourselves in a debt trap.

Additional Debt Post Sept. 2012Gross public sector debt outstanding at

the end of September 2012 stood at $8.168 billion.   The reader may be interested to note that between the end of September 2012 and January 29, 2013 the Central Bank has issued on behalf of the Govern-ment of Barbados an additional $460 mil-lion in securities of which $395 million are debentures and $65 million Treasury Notes. It probably wouldn’t be a million miles from the target to guess that the NIS  may have

subscribed to the additional debt given what has transpired before. 

As a country we must collectively decide to take the medicine required to first catch the loosed genie (correct the fiscal imbal-ance) and psychologically prepare for the even harder task of putting the genie back in the bottle (repayment of current account induced debt). • Mr. Straughn is president of the Barbados

Economics Society. Adapted from two articles by the author appearing at barbadoseconomic-society.blogspot.com.

AnalysisTHE ECONOMY

Dispelling political myths with economic facts

By Ryan Straughn

“NIS funds should be used to provide the benefits to those that have contributed to the funds....We absolutely cannot allow the National Insurance Scheme to become insolvent because government is unable to control its spending.”

6 The Broad Street Journal • Monday, February 25, 2013

By Patrick Hoyos

The perception of the military is ‘command and control’ and when he left the mili-tary, Damien McKinney felt

he had nothing to offer the world of commerce that he wanted to enter.

He soon had an epiphany: there were lots of lessons from his experience in the military that he believed could help businesses to compete better.

Mr. Kinney, whose name is one of the best-known in Barbados through his visionary work with the Barbados En-trepreneurship Foundation (BEF), and relocated his company McKinney Rog-ers to Barbados a few years back, tells us about his road to success and shares some of the stories of the companies he helped, in a book, his first, titled The Commando Way: Extraordinary Busi-ness Execution.

The book, written by Mr. McKin-ney himself, with help from a research assistant, wins you over not because it promises to make you millions just by absorbing its advice, of which there is plenty, but by balancing the need for vi-sion with the practical reality of life.

In connection with the vision, he writes (page 59): “In business, of course, the achievement of the vision will near-ly always have a financial consequence. But you should not expect a vision to set a target. The clarity comes from the vision’s ability to rally people behind the achievement of an ambitious goal.”

To pick up the McKinney story: Af-ter working with a consulting firm for a year, Mr. McKinney says he found him-self bemused by what was going on and he asked, simply, “How do you measure success?”

The somewhat sarcastic answer that came back was. “It’s called the revenue stream.”

A few months later as he was “kick-ing my heels and thinking how bizarre business is,” he met a corporate director with a global bank, who remarked that he seemed frustrated, to which he re-plied that his whole life up to that point had been about trying to a make a dif-ference and achieving missions,” but the business environment seemed to accept mediocrity.

The bank took him on as a consultant and profits increased in a short time, he said. The director one day asked, “Have you ever thought of setting up your own company?” Mr. McKinney recalls that “that was not in my plan at the time,” but he took the advice.

Shortly after the company’s doors had opened, a top executive from a major

global distributor of wines and spirits phoned him up and said, “We’ve heard about you and the work that you’ve been doing,” and invited Mr. McKinney to assist them in re-launching some of their brands.

“Those two events, frankly, really helped me because they provided the credibility (we needed). A lot of what we have done over the years has been by

referral, and our biggest client in the world today is Wal-Mart.”

Mr. McKinney grew up in Ke-nya and gained his higher edu-cation via scholarships, “because my parents couldn’t afford it.” He joined the Royal Marines, he says, because “I wanted a life of adventure,”  and then won

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Damien McKinney

Commando McKinney recounts transition to world of business

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See COMMANDO, page 7

The Broad Street Journal • Monday, February 25, 2013 7

another scholarship to go to university. “I’m afraid I come from the school of hard knocks,” he says.

Joining the Marines in I979, Mr. McKinney worked in the Eight-ies in Central America and the Caribbean and was for two years

based in Barbados, mostly in anti-nar-cotics. He went on to serve in Northern Ireland, the first Gulf War, and Bosnia. By the time he left he had achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel and hd spent most of his time in what he calls “op-erations”, so “I was doing the real stuff, which is frankly why I love business to-day, because I feel like if I am still in operations.”

In his book, Mr. McKinney cites ex-amples to show how people can be in-spired to achieve success without being appealed to solely on the basis of self-interest. In the Royal Marines, he says, “I couldn’t give my guys bonuses. When I went to the first Gulf War I had peo-ple on income support because their families (needed) money and there was no extra danger money (to be earned). So you learn from early that you have to actually lead your people - you have to inspire them, stroke them, and do all the appropriate things to manage per-formance. But if you do, you can be suc-cessful.”

In the book, Mr McKinney says many businesses around the world are sitting on a time bomb due to mistreat-ing their employees over the years, es-pecially during recessions.

Along the way, Mr. McKinney says that he has found, ironically, that busi-ness can be more “command and con-trol” than the military. “The more pres-sure you put me under when I was in my previous life, the more I sought to relieve the pressure on my guys. But what I find in business is that the more more pressure people come under, the more they put on their employees, so it acts like an amplifier, and you get worse and worse performance, more controlling behaviour, you get more risk averseness, the whole thing becomes self-fulfilling prophecy. I have hd to say to people a number of times, ‘Look, just take the pressure off.’”

He says that the day you feel your people should be working harder is the day to take the pressure off. In the book, Mr. McKinney says he points to the time he went from fighting the

Russians in northern Norway in the Arctic to northern Iraq in 36 hours. “I remember all I desperately wanted to do was take charge and do something - because by doing something you feel you’re adding value - but in fact, I went round and made 200 cups of coffee.” The moral: There are other ways to be useful. Don’t fiddle while your people

are working.Do you need the equivalent of a rock’s

star’s charisma to make it in business? He says the individual must be leader, whom he describes as “somebody who feels comfortable to take some risks - make some decisions and provide some direction - and who can communicate that in a way that people get it and can

be enthusiastic and can then drive or lead his or her business from the front or the back.”

Over his 13 years in business, Mr. McKinney says he has worked with just two CEOs who should not have been at the head of their companies at all, as they were very introverted and techni-cal, having risen in the ranks that way. They were good people, but had been the companies’ second and third choic-es, and it didn’t work. But while you do have to be a leader, you don’t have to be charismatic, he says.

With all profits from the book going to the Royal Marines and U.S. Marines who have been badly injured, he says. “They’re people who don’t want charity, but an opportunity, and I can see them going into business and doing a good job,” says Mr. McKinney.

• The Commando Way: Extraordinary Business Execution (London: LID Publishing Inc. 20I2) is available at www.amazon.com.

COMMANDO, from page 6

As president of the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation, Mr. McKinney (far right), along with the rest of the organising team, receives the acknowledgement of the participants at the close of the BEF Leadership Summit in late 2011. Photo by the BSJ.

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