BELIZE GOVERNMENT MAKES POLICY PLAN
FOR SCIENCE AND ENERGY – OUT TO 2033.
Belize is way low on ranking for internet
users, in the world. In the Caribbean we
are slightly better than Haiti, the lowest.
We only have five countries worse than us, for technology transfer and
direct investment, in the whole world.
This article in the GUARDIAN, the UDP
government weekly paper, was full of dreams, hype and castles in the sky, talk
and promises. Been there and done that
before. Still, it may be a start, but do
not uncross your fingers yet, or plan on implementing your plan to produce
electricity in the private sector yet.
Lots of water to go under the bridge before that can happen. Don’t forget, the worst individuals run for
political office, not the best, to manage our country. Our bureaucratic culture is very much, 8 to 5
p.m., 2 hour lunches and coffee breaks.
Allegedly they work in between. Some departments actually do, but most
do not. An energy policy is just a paper
that will normally be filed after extracting political mileage out of it for propaganda
purposes. For such a policy to work, you
would need innovative politicians. If
they were innovative they wouldn’t be politicians. Same with the bureaucracy. Why would an individual supposedly smart with
academic degrees, be working for a government salary, when the private
innovative risk taking sector could and can be so much more financially
rewarding?
It’s a bit like filling a round hole with a
square peg. They had a professor from
MIT in California as speaker. Dr.
Cardinal Warde. One wonders how many companies
he owns on the side, in the private sector?
There is going to be the usual division of labor, through various
officious sounding titles, and more paid bureaucrats on salaries, which we tax
payers will have to pay for. His Foundation, will assist in educational reform,
to inspire more technological and engineering subjects. One interesting thing announced was a 4 week
summer camp for interested HIGH SCHOOL students in science, technology,
engineering and such. Hope they teach
them to build small ultra light aircraft, or use a lathe to make small items
with a micro meter. Interesting comment
about investing in innovative thinkers.
Haaaah! This innovative thinker,
talker and doer, has been around doing stuff since, for ever. Only thing out of these governments of ours
has been obstructive, not constructive.
Or worse, total apathy.
You would need to change the political
culture to innovative, or the bureaucratic culture to innovative to get
anywhere. You would need subsidies, tax
free benefits, government share investment capital in newly formed energy
companies for example. How you develop
an innovative thinker, by an academic system, is beyond me? Perseverance, out of the box thinking, and other
entrepreneurial skills are not easily classified, or pigeon holed. It’s not the academic system, but the
individual with the drive, an unmeasurable quantity. Cannot be taught. You either have it, or not. Not everybody can be an OLYMPIC athlete and
not everybody is a natural entrepreneur. This sort of thing is learned young as
a family environmental effect. Some are just born to it. One goal espoused was replacing the
importation of fossil fuel by 50%. I can
think how to do that. Make it profitable
to do so by the private sector.
Innovative legislation. There is neither incentive, or profit at the
moment in Belize.
It comes down to encouraging your human
capital. Something Belize politicians on
the self enrichment fast track, would be in conflict with, as anything that
would enrich an entrepreneur, they would scent as some way for them personally
to enrich themselves off it. Happens all
the time in Belize. Check out the
newspapers on Gaspar Vega, a top politician.
Tax breaks, subsidies, government investment capital in start ups. Unheard of, but without which; this proposed
policy is nothing more than a pipe dream for political mileage use only. Good upbeat article in the Guardian
otherwise.
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