The truth is that we in Grenada have had a sense of the impending crisis and had begun to put measures in place to mitigate its negative impact on the economy.  It was for this reason that during the NNP administration measures were taken to invite foreign direct investment in our economy.  Three large investors were about to invest in three major hotels in different parts of the country.  Two of these hotels were to be located in St. George’s while the other was for the northern part of the island; thereby spreading the opportunities and preventing a rural-urban drift in search of an improved living standard.  Moreover, the NNP government had already started the task of preparing our people for these new opportunities through the conduct of a number of training programmes throughout the island.

These investments would have led to some 900 permanent jobs for Grenadians and close to three thousand temporary jobs in their construction stages.  With the jobs created as a result of these investments, economic activities in Grenada would have been booming and the people would have been better able to weather the storm resulting from the world economic crisis.   

The story today is however quite different and the blame must therefore be placed squarely on the NDC administration who with their anti-investor campaign, and their thirst for scoring cheap political points discouraged foreigners to invest in our country at the expense of an improvement in our people lives.  They even went further to run those who have money and were prepared to remain (having already incurred sunk cost) in spite of the change in administration.

The Lewis Hamilton case was indeed the most revealing example of political blunder and poor governance for which the people of Grenada now suffers dearly.  Here is the case of an internationally known and respected athlete, with wealth earned by honest means, prepared to invest millions of dollars in the Homeland of his ancestors, a Homeland he regards as his own; had to abort of his plans because of unpleasant statements made by the present administration on his investment plans.   It is safe to say that the people of Grenada will never forgive the present NDC administration for this major blunder, for no political party in power should ever put its party’s interest above that of the people.  Put simply, Grenadians have been robbed of the opportunity to live a decent life at a time when the world is experiencing its worst economic crisis.   

But the behaviour of the NDC administration goes beyond a mere political blunder.  On the one hand, it speaks to the inability of the present administration to correctly analyse the present economic environment, but on the other, it is in keeping with the philosophy that characterize the thinking of the administration. That thinking is that poor people in this country must always remain poor.

NNP Perspective week ending September 12th, 2009