More questions than answers...

As the Kittitian and Nevisian people prepare to celebrate Independence Day, I hear corners of conversations on the street, in the bus, and muted in hallways outside of closed office doors; a measured question:  Are we better off today than we were before?

The state of the union then and now; not unlike an issue political pundits are currently debating in the United States as President Obama and Governor Romney continue their campaigns and the 2012 presidential election nears.

I think  people here in the Federation are proud of their heritage, and proud of their country, but  often troubled by the challenges the country faces as it struggles to find its twenty-first century balance.

First and foremost, as in many parts of the world today, is the troublesome economy.  St. Kitts and Nevis is suffering from huge debt.  While policymakers around the world are renewing the debate over government borrowing and spending, St. Kitts and Nevis ranks second in the world with the largest debt to GDP ratio; a primary indicator of a country’s economic health. 

And that unwelcome designation brings with it the potential for huge default.  The question is what can be done?  And that’s when things get sticky and answers become rank with politics.

As an outsider, I think the future for economic stability may lay in the cane fields; rich, fertile land abandoned when a shrinking sugar market forced the closure of the industry and the country re-shifted its economic priority to tourism. 

But it seems there is an aversion to agriculture as a livelihood, in a historical context an aversion I do understand, but from a vantage point of necessity, non-sugar agriculture holds great potential for economic growth.  According to the Ministry of Agriculture, “tremendous opportunities are available for commercial farming as local demands continue to outpace local supply.” 

Too often governments base their budgets on the projected number of cruise ship visits or pending hotel projects that in reality have little direct impact on those citizens struggling to make a living.  But there is a pressing need for the country to feed itself, and if the opportunity for commercial farming is there, it seems like a more independent course from which to build an economic foundation that will lead to a solid and sustainable future.  It takes a lot of hard work and enterprise to be a farmer, but the land is here, the need is here, and fundamentally, farming offers an alternative and the potential for independence.

So the questions I see hovering in a bubble over Mt. Liamigua as the citizens of this proud nation prepare to celebrate the 29^th Anniversary of their Independence are these:  How are we going to answer the awesome development challenge of 2012?  What path will we take to put human needs at the top of the political agenda and build a more prosperous and sustainable future for us all?  And will we, as citizens, avail ourselves to those opportunities already here?

And so it goes on September 18, 2012.