The Extraterrestrial Visitor
Squandering Natural Competitive Advantages…
Perry C. Douglas
There is no quantum equation that can model the universe and provide us with all the answers or an operating manual on how to succeed in the universe. The awesomeness of the universe from a quantitative perspective is that the universe can’t ever be captured, contained, or even fully explained. The universe is always expanding and so too is its related matter; variables and dynamics. We don’t know where and how it started nor how or if it ever will end, the universe is continuous, unpredictable, and most of all the universe is math, and its calculations are under the laws of nature. So, leave your intuition and feelings at the door, the universe doesn’t know who you are, nor does it care about you. Reality, nature, reigns supreme in this world. Therefore, the sophistication of self-preservation is required to navigate it, along with an applied intelligence framework, if you want to win in the universe.
The metaphysical world functions by the laws of nature, and the relationships between the forces acting upon us cannot ever be changed, so the universe can’t ever be anything other than what it is. Forget about what you wish the world to be and focus instead on what it is, and how you can expand along with it. Be aware of distractions, because they distract you away from grasping the nature of the universe, it holds you back, and engaging in wishful thinking leads to life long-suffering. Stay focused, and be aware of your relevant time and place here because focusing on what is not real leaves you delusional.
Regardless of the changing times, self-interest remains steadfastly embedded in our humanity. Self-interest, individual gain, is the bedrock force of our human progression, it plays a core functional role in harnessing our efficiency and productivity — it’s how we create our value. The critical understanding of the laws of nature, both the physical and the cognitive, is the core imperative that has driven successful civilizations over time. So, an understanding of the nature of the universe is central to any individual or group looking to navigate their way successfully through the rough seas of life. If, however, we fail to understand the workings of the universe and its intrinsic functionality, then how can we find our footing in it? We will always be behind the prosperity curve, never a part of it.
So, in our metaphysical existence as Caribbean people of African descent, the shaping of our success, in reality, comes down to pursuing what we want most out of life. We must make things happen for ourselves. But exactly what is required to make things happen? A Renaissance in thinking is what. How you think is the first step to a future by design.
The thing to do next is to find ambition, and vision, pick a disciplined STRATEGY and get on with it! As Black folk, at some point, enough must be enough, and if not now, then when? We just can’t continue this miserable existence at the bottom rungs of the universe. And we can’t keep blaming colonialism indefinitely, engaging in useless and distractive emotion-led wokeness, to make our hearts feel good while our heads are underutilized. We must begin to look inwards before setting a strategy that can be executed outwardly. Look to ourselves to lead ourselves, build resilience, and be anti-fragile for a change.
Civilizations have always faced situations and challenges, that’s a given, and life and happiness are not about trying to get rid of problems, but understanding that problems are a part of life, and we must create realistic and functional systems to manage them. Looking for or getting acknowledgement of social injustice, or well-wishes don’t amount to a damn thing. You can rationalize and make any excuse you like, but at the end of the day, you must face reality…nature — no matter what! Economics is not a morality play, it’s a power play!
And believing in bible stories has not been helpful to Black populations. We must stand up to the reality of our existence, have the intestinal fortitude to change behaviour, and deliver for ourselves.
In the book “Guns, Germs, and Steel” author Jared Diamond gives a “cold-blooded fact of life” in his comparison between two countries; the Netherlands, and the African country of Zambia. Diamond illustrates in his book that if an extraterrestrial visitor comes to earth and looked at the Netherlands, in comparison to Zambia, they would surely conclude that Zambia, not the Netherlands is a rich country. The extraterrestrial would say that the Netherlands has long winters, and short summers, and can only grow limited crops once per year, and for a very short period. They would also observe that the Netherlands lack valuable mineral resources; it is low and flat, and it must import oil, and natural gas to generate most of its energy. One-third of the Netherlands lies below sea level with the constant risk of flooding. So, the extraterrestrial would surely see those disadvantages attributable to the Netherlands.
Then the extraterrestrial turns to Zambia, which lies in southern Africa, it is very impressed by Zambia’s enormous advantages. Firstly, Zambia doesn’t have to buy oil to generate energy, all its energy comes from hydroelectric power generated through huge dams across the Zambezi River. Those dams generate so much power that Zambia has a significant surplus of electricity to sell to its neighbouring countries. Unlike the Netherlands, Zambia is very rich in minerals like copper. Zambia has a warm and hospitable climate, and its farmers can grow multiple crops anytime, unlike the Netherlands. Zambia’s tribes don’t fight with each other, it is relatively stable and peaceful. Zambians are hardworking and value education — so it would be easy to see how the extraterrestrial would conclude that Zambia is the rich country, and the Netherlands without all those natural advantages is the poor one.
However, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed by now, the extraterrestrial would be very wrong about things. The average income of the Netherlands (at the time Diamond was writing) was 33 times higher than the average income in Zambia. The average income then was then about $48 940.00 per year in the Netherlands to only about $1500 per year in Zambia. Today it’s $3776.00 compared to the poor country of the Netherlands, which is around $90 000.00.
So, with all those advantages listed for Zambia, which allowed the Extraterrestrial to rate it as rich, how possibly has Zambia found itself in such a negative position? Diamond points out that the attributes associated with national wealth come down to democratic institutions and good leadership! “I.e., the laws, codes of behaviour, and operating principles of societies, governments, and economists.” This is fundamentally correct and is further well-supported by significant evidence in the seminal book: Why Nations Fail, by authors Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. In a nutshell, Why Nations Fail dives into the reasons why economic inequality is so common in the world today and identifies that poor decisions of those in political power and the elite are the main reason for unfairness rather than culture, geography, climate, or any other factor.
In other words, people make decisions and decisions matter! It comes down to what you do. It always does. Mindset, execution, and management. If leaders, officials, and the people, are not doing what must be done to win within the prevailing realities and context of the universe; then you lose. If incompetence and corruption reign, then you will only get out what you put in — garbage in garbage out. What else would you expect? Once again, stop blaming the colonizer, the white man, etc., we are all of a free mind, and nothing is ever predetermined, also, this is 2022.
Only you have the power to work towards the existence you want. Not USAID, the UN and World Bank, charitably tinted developmental agencies, or government programs. Not reliance on philanthropy. It’s just us in the end, no one is coming to save us.
Another telling reality — leaving the resources of a country for others like China to exploit in this day and age, is ultimately a decision that leaders and their people make. Colonialism 2.0 can’t happen if you don’t participate willingly in it. People just sit on the veranda complaining while letting white supremacy culture run their lives. And now China is taking over. History is repeating — colonialism 2.0 is alive and well in Zambia/Africa, and in the Caribbean too.
Chinese colonialism 2.0 is strategically engaged in a well-designed and orchestrated debt trap strategy. Zambia again is in so much debt to China and can’t service it, so, China has boldly seized critical Zambian public assets for payment, breaking all the rules of sovereignty. The same thing has happened in Jamaica and creeping into the rest of the Caribbean. The debt trap strategy is designed to give huge loans to vulnerable countries that China knows they can’t ever repay. The objective for China is to use mounting debt to capture valuable public assets and natural resources to fuel its economic and geopolitical expansion plans.
The Guardian wrote on 11 December 2019:
“China steps in as Zambia runs out of loan options… Southern Africa’s third-largest economy is a textbook example of the increasing debt facing a fast-growing continent.”
Zambian rapper, known as “Pil A” posted a track with lyrics describing the feelings of many Zambians towards what the Chinese are doing in Zambia, and all over Africa for that matter.
“They put on smart suits and fly to China to sell our country. The roads belong to China. The hotels are for the Chinese. The chicken farms are Chinese. Even the brickworks are Chinese.”
This is exactly what is happening now in the Caribbean, but there seems to be no warning calypso or reggae songs being sung. Everyone’s on Caribbean time.
So, like Africa, Caribbean politicians and the connected elites have no shame, the level of corruption and greed, buffoonery, and total lack of consideration towards their own people is a disgrace. So please, don’t blame China or the white man. Blame yourselves. Unless people change their mindset, wake up and stand up for themselves, and discontinue settling for a powerless and irrelevant existence. At the very bottom rungs of the global economy, we will remain, bewildered in irrelevancy. Where suffering will only intensify as technology creates a greater divide between the North and South — the haves and the have not.
Once again, the reality of the universe is about utilizing the sophistication of self-preservation — entrepreneurship to create value and security for self, society, and country. Caribbean leadership must create policies that promote innovation, resilience, science and technology — education, national nutrition security and healthcare. But we must first disrupt our thinking and align ourselves to the realities of the universe. Stop complaining and playing the victim all the damn time! The universe is not listening nor does it care. Get off the veranda and change your own lives first! Before you seek to mess with the socioeconomic situation.
In 2020, for example, the global spice market was valued at about 12 billion U.S. dollars with expectations to rise meaningfully into 2025. Expanding its valuation to about 15 billion U.S. dollars by then. Of note: exceptional growth in “Garlic, Ginger, Turmeric, Cumin, Cinnamon, Pepper, and other similar spices” is expected, according to the report. But Grenada, the isle of spice has no existing plans to capitalize on this opportunity. Just a small market share ambition of this global spice market would be worth billions to Grenada, bigger than its GDP! So the resources and opportunities are there, but the mindset isn’t. Grenada doesn’t even have the technology and an enterprise-led high-growth strategy on its mind. So how could they even think about national wealth creation? In 2022, the idea that an island known for its spice resources has no idea how to maximize and monetize it, is disheartening but indicative of the inherent mindset, growth and prosperity problem the region has.
In a 2021 research report titled “Warning Signs Flashing…the Future of the Caribbean Agriculture Industry,” by Douglas Blackwell Inc. The report highlights that “the demand for food, particularly personalized clean healthy food is growing exponentially.” The report also tells us that technology is allowing many more players into the agricultural space, regardless of climate, through the leveraging of technology — greenhouse growing systems of note. This is the booming AgTech sector which is pumping out hundreds of billions of value annually around the world. For example, the Netherlands, and Israel do not have the advantaged environments, Israel is a tiny desert for one thing. But they’ve still managed to excel at agriculture-based food production, regardless of not having those natural advantages of climate and land like the Caribbean islands do.
The Netherlands has been able to build a world-class agrifood sector, and despite being 185th the size of Australia, produces 810 times more export earnings per hectare, and nearly three times more agrifood export earnings. For both countries, all of this has been made possible through the intense application and utilization of technology, particularly inside greenhouse-growing applications. So, make all the damn excuses you want about the legacy of colonialism, but you can’t say anything about Israel, it’s only been around since 1948. Israel keeps winning because they plan and rigorously commits to the type of existence they want. They are realists, with a real-world strategy as to how to get things done! They stick to it with resolve and cleverness in navigating their way through the realities of the universe. The Caribbean on the other hand has nothing planned or anything to commit to, it continues to waste time talking and squandering its natural resources and competitive advantages. Change can’t happen unless you change your mindset first! And all things are possible from anyone, country, and any region in the world. Regardless of environment.
Honesty and adherence to the laws of nature is the only path to success in an economic conflict-driven world. Build toward a culture of sophistication, intelligence and high performance, with self-interest and value creation driving the pursuit of wealth, power, and influence, in the real world.
The central problem we are looking at here is how Black populations of the Caribbean and its diaspora, can break out of the bottom rungs of the global economy. And how not to continue to fall for incoherent and ineffective ideas, with no bases in reality. How to stop falling for reactionary, emotionally driven solutions, often romanticized and not based on the reality of how the real world works. The feel-good stuff is easy, but the reality is hard, nevertheless, we only exist in reality, and that can never be gotten around.
We never go to the root of the problem, which is our thinking, we just talk around it ad nauseam. Creating an easily distractive cultural identity of always aiming low and being led by fear. Always doing “black” events to be seen and heard but in reality, it’s just lamenting about the misery of our existence, it breathes mediocrity, time-wasting, and avoidance of what actually must be done.
After George Floyd, we saw the rise of the phenomenon of Black non-profit organizations, instead of investing in entrepreneurship. Another avoidance and distraction. Black folk never do what needs to be done. Investing is how wealth is created and from wealth political power flows. That’s how it works. Instead, they chicken out and bask in fragility instead, creating charity ecosystems instead of entrepreneurial ones. In what universe has non-profit ever created profit?
Further, these things hamper Black entrepreneurs in the real world from getting capital from the mainstream, because mainstream investors see all this whining, and they begin to believe that Black entrepreneurs can’t cut it in the real world. No one wants to invest in fragility.
In the end, we must be willing, to tell the truth about ourselves, this is the first step to progress. We must understand that without risk there can never be a reward, and you must have your skin in the game otherwise you are just another distractive talker. Every successful race of people, group, society, or country, in history, had to invest in themselves to establish themselves; to create wealth and power to thrive in the universe. If you’re not prepared to do that, then step off, and stop talking. Please, enough is enough!
What would the Extraterrestrial think of us?
