Passing on the baton

I will like to promote the concept of “Picking up and passing on the Baton” - In Track & Field a baton is a short stick or tube passed from runner to runner in a relay race. I would like you to go back with me to three decades ago (some of you won’t know what I am talking about because you were barely a thought to your parents, but nevertheless, let’s go to the stories we’ve heard and see what we have missed) to Maurice Bishop times; while most Caribbean nations suffered terribly from worldwide recession, Grenada achieved a 9 percent cumulative growth rate. Unemployment dropped from 49 percent to 14 percent. The government diversified agriculture, developed cooperatives and created an agri-industrial base that led to a reduction of the percentage of food and total imports from more than 40 percent to 28 percent at a time when market prices for agricultural products were collapsing worldwide.

 

The literacy rate, already at a respectable 85 percent, grew to about 98 percent, comparable to or higher than most industrialized countries.

The Baton represents prosperity, self sufficiency, self reliance and increasing growth. It is sad that Maurice Bishop and his team’s race was cut short and they died prematurely and the leaders who followed after just passed over the fallen Baton. I can in no way blame them for waning to put this part our history behind them, however,  I take away all the positives from this era and as a Representative of That 60%, I grab hold of that Baton, and affirm that our generation will change the history of this country called Grenada through the creation of an Entrepreneurship mindset and culture. I charge you with the responsibility of assisting me and passing it on. While passing it on if there is a prayer or some blessing that you want to pass on with it please do so.