Rick Lowe
There have been several comments made about the lingering effects of Colonialism on our mind set as a people especially in relation to the Government selling 51% of BTC to Cable & Wireless.
Believe it or not it seems the Norman Conquest was blamed for the tension between management and staff that caused the failure of the British auto industry, yet when the industry was bought out by the Japanese those same workers have become the "most productive in Europe".
Here's the direct quote sent by a friend:
"It has been said that it was the British work force that was to blame for the failure of this industry, however it is worth noting that the same work force, under foreign management, is the most productive in Europe. It seems likely that it was the tension between managers and workforce, the so called 'us and them' culture left over from the British class system (dating back to the Norman Conquest of 1066) that prevented cohesion and was mainly to blame."
Read more about the old automotive industry in Britain here…
Could we have the same result here with the benefits accruing to the Bahamian consumer?
I tend to think so. What's your take?
Rick, I am totally against the government selling a majority share in any of our infrastructure, yet on the other hand I feel something has to be done in the 3 utilities. My question is can we copy whats happening at the airport, give their management to a private company, say on a profit sharing basis?
Thanks for stopping by and commenting again Mr. Pinder.
I’m sure we could have done that, but isn’t the sale a done deal? Why didn’t all these other ideas surface over the past decade?
Did you see this post? http://www.weblogbahamas.com/blog_bahamas/2010/12/what-is-seen-and-what-is-not-seen-in-the-case-of-the-bahamas-telecommunications-company-btc.html
I see more benefits to handling it this way (selling 51%) than hanging on to it.
Rick, without first hand knowledge of the sale it’s hard to really argue the merits of it, a month and a half after the article you referenced was written we still have seen no official MOU, there are still many unanswered questions, the main one for me is how will we have competition if C&W owns the infrastructure, who will set the price for competitors to access the infrastructure?
I’m with you on the competition and lines/towers for sure.
I heard or read that Parliament will debate the MOU this week. Not sure if that’s correct though?
With regard to The Bahamas continuing to own the majority stake, that does not remove the political influence unfortunately, and that’s what got BTC in the position it’s in now as I understand it.
Rick I agree one hundred percent that Political influence is the reason BTC is in the shape it’s in today, but I do feel having multiple companies operating the system will slow down (not eliminate I think elimination is impossible because I see and hear about it in the private sector also) the jobs for votes program.