(This column was first published in the Amandala issue of Friday, July 21, 1995)

SEARCH…

Throughout our lifetime we are constantly in search of one thing or another. We go in search of an education, of love, of power, of advice, and of truth. The constant search underlying all these others, is the search for a job.

For a man with a job is a man with dignity and self-respect, an individual obeying the edict of God, that by the sweat of his brow he shall earn his bread. His success in carrying out this edict to work enables him to move from being an image of God to the substance of divinehood. Knowing that he can provide a decent home for his family, a good education for his children, in short obtaining the physical comforts of life, evokes a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction and manhood; it leaves him free to pursue the aesthetics, things intellectual and spiritual. “… ye shall seek Me and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart…”

At this moment of time let us as a people put aside our pettiness and trivialities, our “bourgeois-nes,” our “yen-so-ness,” our”gossip-ness”, our “rumormongering,” “quarrelsome-ness,” “lie and storiness,” and our slavish negativism, and go in search of creating jobs so that we can work.

As in all things human this search begins with our will and creativity to utilize our physical environs, the land/sea we occupy, for our material wellbeing. In a land space of 8,866 square miles with a fan of sea of 12 to 200 miles, populated by 200.000 people we should be able to establish an agricultural program to feed ourselves. We who boast of our high literacy rate and a number of university trained economists, should be able to establish an agricultural insurance system for our veteran farmers in times of famine and distress; and to give favorable credit to our new farmers to survive to profitability. The monies we now squander building community centers which we seldom use, and buying votes with gifts of football and cricket gears and fields, perpetuating the slave mentality, would be better spent creating this entity. The wealth generated would be more carefully husbanded by the beneficiaries who would decide when to build these things for themselves, and because they have done it they’ll make sure the centers don’t become drug dens and the playing fields will be well kept.

We can begin with any village community in this country, to initiate this agricultural insurance system. The one that comes to mind is that of MORE TOMORROW. Even as we speak of community this and that, the bureaucratic nightmare that plagues this village in trying to get off the ground, is numbing. Only the Allah-given energy of an Abdullah could have prevailed this long in the pursuit of the vision.

We will never be able to produce the vast amount needed to compete in the global market. But we can copy the example of Jamaica in the marketing of her Blue Mountain Coffee, which she exports as an essence (flavouring) for the coffee from other producers. We can do this with our citrus (orange, lemon or lime), the quality of which, (from those who know) is equaled only by that of Cyprus.

Perhaps it is also time to sell the oil separately; in this time of environmental concerns and ozone layer distress, the use of citrus oils for perfumes, cosmetics, and toilet purposes, and other things esoteric, is a most lucrative source of revenues indeed, and is expected to become even more so.

The satellite industries surrounding this agricultural base such as storage, preserving, packaging, transportation, distribution and marketing will create the jobs. The monies now spent on seminars and the foreign trips we now make ad absurdum, can better be utilized in facilitating our truckers, establishing our storage, preserving and packaging plants, and training marketing agents to search for markets for our essences. There are myriad ways to create jobs from the land.

From the sea as well we can create jobs. A simple, easily understandable example, applicable to our tourist industry, is to copy the idea of an international yacht race from the Gulf Coast of the United States to San Pedro Ambergris Caye. It is money making, safe for the environment, and leaves in its wake a sea of international publicity; an international music festival would be of similar benefit. And when the young entrepreneur contacts a Ted Turner and sells the idea, one would hope that the leaders of the society, particularly the political ones, would transcend their “quarrelsomeness,” keep their hands in their pockets, and facilitate in every way the success of the venture. (Seaweed was selling in the Orient a few years ago for $12 U.S. per pint – aphrodisiac they say – who has ever investigated the possibility of selling tons of seaweed to, say, Japan?)

If we care to keep our land and sea in their pristine state, as appears to be the agenda of our environmentalist benefactors, as part of their New World Order, for their use and enjoyment, then their organizations should compensate us with the equivalent amount of money our land and sea would have earned when fully developed. With this state of affairs, we can then accept the option of those who believe that we should become a money market, a la San Andres and Cayman. Ventures such as INTERNET WAGER now on the table should be accepted, with the proviso that our treasury gets 1 1/2 % of every global wager made. The fees of $20,000 and $100,000 for the respective licenses are a joke; and reflect ignorance of the billions wagered daily. (And how about selling some of the bonds of the Mollejon Project for 30 years to get some money now?) In fact we have already opened the door to Internet by our ICB’s and proposed OFFSHORE BANKING services. We have already been introduced to the 21st century of microchip movement of money. We now have to establish the fact that we want fair and just commissions for our geographic location, our bilingual society, our tradition of peace, rule of law, and our “literacy”. The monies earned from these very, very lucrative industries will allow us to train more economists and financiers to protect ourselves in the era of the NAFTA’s, GATT’s and EEC.

And so we go in search of leaders who have the vision to create jobs … “and thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father and serve Him with a perfect heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts; if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off forever. Take heed now, for the Lord hath chosen thee to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and DO IT.” So, as we search for jobs “… let us search and try OUR WAYS, and turn again to our Lord.” Joe Citizen.