Congratulations to the Hon Roy Collister, OJ, on his recent award. The timing of conferment of well-deserved national honours is of concern to me, as it speaks to an inconsistency in the process of bestowing these awards. The system is seriously flawed (maybe not for politically connected persons) and is need of an overhaul. One can be a patriot without being a political sycophant.

The words of a song written by Bob Dylan — “How many roads must a man walk down…” — kept ringing in my ears, as the country searches for a way out of its very serious problems. As I listened to and read current news items, two stood out as examples of our intense ability to continue tilting at (attacking) windmills, as it was reported of Don Quixote. The mistake of imagining them to be dragons was a source of romanticising an act of foolishness, which should have been diagnosed as poor eyesight. There is no doubt that the Lions’ Club clinic would have been of great benefit. But back to the news.

The first was a statement by someone from the Small Businesses Association, who acknowledged that borrowing rates had in fact fallen substantially, but what they really needed was venture capital. I was amazed by this supposedly “new idea”. I asked myself the following questions:

* Has the concept of venture capital just been invented?

* Are we aware that the purpose of venture capital is to make profits, albeit in a higher risk area?

* Are we aware that to get a venture capitalist interested, there has to be a high level of shared information, including access to current audited accounts, and other items to ensure due diligence?

* Do we understand that the process will require shared ownership?

This is nothing new, and our own reluctance to trust others has contributed to little or no interest and therefore inaccessibility.

To try to attract venture capital is not an act of brute force or an inalienable right, and to try to treat it otherwise could best be described as attempted armed robbery.

The second report was about a Chairman’s Club breakfast hosted by the PSOJ. The discussion centred on cutting government expenditures, the macroeconomic outlook, and projections to estimate how much more we can borrow now that “confidence” in the Government’s sincerity to stay true to its fiscal commitments is discouraging. An improved credit rating given by agencies who are spectators, and who do not have to deal with our day-to-day living and working conditions, has gone on longer than necessary. Perhaps the only thing to learn from the much-vaunted S&P rating is that it is descriptively true, as it means substandard and poor.

Do the captains of industry intend to lead us out of our current crisis by continuing to overly concern themselves again with paper profits which they sell among themselves, without producing real goods and services that will provide microeconomic or industry growth? Multilateral agencies do not face hundreds of employees waiting for their weekly wages from some construction site, who are wondering if and when they will be paid, and how they will feed their families. Let’s have a reality check here, captains. If you do not change the subject of your dialogue to real issues, then I can assure you that you will only fulfil that “stiff British upper lip dream”, which is going down with your ship.

I decided to read the two Wednesday business papers to see if opportunities are passing us by undetected, like a stealth jet. Let me share a few of my findings and some possible areas for progressive enterprises:

* Oil prices rise to US$81.91: Where are all the electrical engineers who should be earning from energy reduction strategies, or alternative energy solutions?

* Investing in water — the blue gold: Where are the entrepreneurs who should be insisting that they are integral in the solution to the world’s largest resource problem? What are the solutions here in Jamaica, and can they attract the interest of the present paper chasers? No matter what the NWC may say, when you turn on the shower and get no water from the tap it is a problem.

* Glaxo, Pfizer agree to supply pneumonia vaccines: Where is our research on solving large-scale illnesses including malaria, gastrointestinal causes and symptoms, and many others? Are we actively wooing the major corporations involved with worldwide health care?

* PepsiCo looks for new no-cal, natural sweeteners: Same comment as above.

* Blue Power offers 22.6m shares in junior IPO: Who will be the next bold company seeking to finance expansion through equity capital? What does the SBAJ have to say about this and will they endorse the strategy?

* Tough market drives changes at Altamont hotel: Hello friends, why not follow the example of Blue Power if you are really confident in the market strength of your product?

* Four pre-qualified for Pegasus: How many of these are Jamaican ventures who have decided to forsake the paper chase?

* Cayman Islands ordered to reduce deficit by 2013: What can we sell them efficiently in order to reduce their US/UK product dependency?

* Billions for Haiti — a criticism for every dollar: How can we rise above our base nature and position ourselves as the honest and accountable brokers for the reconstruction efforts? Our plans should have been prepared already as this was no surprise. Large, rich nations and agencies lack the practical experience required for recovery efforts. Yes, they may have the money, but they do not have the university degrees gained from our life experience of surviving “WA WA WA Wild Gilbert”.

Yes, my friends, so many opportunities, so many meaningless dialogues, and so little action all lead us to more and more spinning of wheels. When will we address all the questions that are posed to us? We need new and radical answers to break the cycle which pushes us towards poverty and more confinement. We are indeed like that mythical Wogga bird, which flies in ever-decreasing circles, until it vanishes up its own rectum, spreading feathers and faeces on all its enemies.

Bob Dylan sang, “The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind…” Let’s hope it is a fresh answer, and not the “Wogga bird”.