chancellor
09-17-05, - 01:53 AM
A developed country is a nation that enjoys a relatively high standard of living through a strong high-technology diversified economy. Most countries with a high per capita gross domestic product (GDP) are considered developed countries. Some countries, however, have achieved a (usually temporarily) high GDP through natural resource exploitation (e.g., Nauru through phosphorus extraction) without developing the diverse industrial and service-based economy necessary for "developed" status.
A developing country is a country with a low income average, a relatively backwards infrastructure and a poor human development index when compared to the global norm. The term has tended to edge out earlier ones, including the Cold War-defined "Third World".
Development entails developing a modern infrastructure (both physical and institutional), and a move away from low value added sectors such as agriculture and natural resource extraction.
Developed countries usually have economic systems based on continuous, self-sustaining economic growth.
The application of the term 'developing country' to all of the world's least developed countries could be considered inappropriate in the cases of a number of poor countries, due to the fact that they are not improving their economic situation as the term implies, but have experienced prolonged periods of economic decline.
( courtesy of wikipedia )
First of all the Millennium goals collectively address the worldwide problems mostly Africa where the it most obvious and dire. It points out the relative efficiencies and deficiencies of our nations whether they are the poor or the highly developed, compiling the information from the respective regions of the world, these regions are: Theses plans layed out if adopted by nations are designed to bring nations on the path of development, into a more comfortable status of development or eventually a developed or more developed nation.
For the Bahamas some of these goals are not much of an issue for us because some have been achieved and further developed even before these goals were formulated, goals that mind you were created through many tireless debates between the representatives, and heads of state and government of the world. Nothing was outright determined for another and they represent common issues through the world that must be corrected and will need assistance to meet( especially the lower end of the third world). I did not say that this defines a developed nation, but can by using this as a guideline we can build a tangible plan of development upon this.
I believe a developed country is more than a county with a strong GDP, as ours is what i term "comfortable" even as the third highest in our hemisphere, yet the factors contributing to a nations overall demographic are wide ranging- more than just economic factors, in fact they usually effect the economic factors. We all know education is one. One of the goals of the goals is to achieve a universal primary education. We are close to that. Still not everybody in our nation goes to school. and only 97% of us can read. So you want to apply our own views to this? OK lets think! After all, nobody knows this country better than us. First we need to ensure than all of these children goes to school and we know full well that it should go further than a full course of primary education. You want to know why Bahamians can't get (or don't want) the high paying jobs that require importing people? It's because that Bahamians don't have the sufficient education! IN fact I continue to talk about this goal because I see it as the root to our development. From the Traditional to sex ed., to life long it all ties in and effects everything for a generation. It effects our AIDS numbers (another goal), how we take care of the environment, and how we as a people manage our resources. Because if we are dummies we are hopeless. This would also include providing top optimum school facilities and better care of teachers to improve the moral of both student and teacher. In our case we have to go deeper, taking care of our learning youth, in both phycological, mental and physical aspects to make sure there is no excuse and to prepare our education system to be competitive.
Let us also look at eradicating poverty. We have a general sense of that picture without looking at statistics. In addition to bahamians living in sub standard condition there are a number of illegal immigrants that are allowed to erect such slums on our soil, or we are unaware of the activity until it is most visible. We can redevelop these slum areas with proper infrastructure and sensible land distribution. One way we can approach this problem with a rigid immigration program that either limits the amount of such people the are allowed free of travel documents or tighten up our maritime boarders, which is to inspect boats at harbors and even at sea if found suspicious. Another way that we can say that the bahamas is approaching this goal is the urban renewal project that has been carried all over the Commonwealth of the bahamas by our government this project ( if it is carried out properly in truth and for the welfare of the state) should address the local issues of bahamian citizens and residents including crime, infrastructure, education(again!!). Restoring order in addition to the destruction of structures that harbor and encourage crime. The government should use this program to collect crucial information regarding the way of life and standard of living, implementing national policies promoting and encouraging entrepreneurial initiatives, and self empowerment, and managing long term wealth.
We already know that if we want to create a sustainable economy (characteristic of a developed nation) we must develop a diverse economy and range of industry. Developing our smaller industries are important. Tourism believe it or not can help us in this, creating our foreign hotel chains in to international consumers, manufacturing and agriculture can grow in this. We can work with our financial sector to provide risk capital to promising local companies with potential, providing government incentives and tariff reduction. If international consumers trust our products, we may be able to raise local confidence in bahamian products and commodities. This would also give an opportunity for bahamians to become the foreign investors, setting up in markets and importing capital and wealth into our waters.
To insure our development, we must also protect the health of our citizens, especially the youth, which do not need to be eliminated by avoidable sicknesses and fatal epidemics. Although we have taken great strides along with our allies to successfully combat measles, rubella and other infections, one thing that we must continue the fight against is AIDS along with other STDs. We have been able to so far reduce the new cases of AIDS and with unwavering campaigns against safe sex and conscious abstinence, we further reduce new cases and also provide the medication to insure a long lifespan for infected people. The development of national insurance ( by the way what happened to that?) should provide access for Bahamians to top medicine and above average medical care. Giving every single Bahamian the opportunity to get the attention they deserve. If backed up by a campaign to encourage private coverage even in addition to public health insurance, a greater number of people will have secured access to health care, which should include dental care and a greater awareness healthy living. Improved medical facilities, that is more than clinics and full fledged hospital and highly trained professionals can greatly improve maternal health(another goal) , which has already been undertaken by our governments, and at the same time reduce child mortality( yet another goal) in our family island and even in our developed urban areas.
In respect to gender equality,something like this was addressed somewhat in our referendum which I believed became too much of a political climate gauge place too close to an election, but i digress. However, we have seen more women reach post formally and in occasions, traditionally held by men e.g. Rev. Palatious (spelling?) Our DPM Hon. Cynthia Pratt, Willie Moss president of the Grand Bahama Port Authority most noticeably. Looking at the situation now, it is not a drastic issue with us. Women has taken upon themselves( in my view) to become empowered, becoming somewhat independent. This has influenced a relatively great portion of our female population as they have filled our nation's premier institutions outnumbering men for several years in a row now. In this aspect, the future looks strong and I see that this is a goal that has been mostly met.
Simple measures such as fishing within seasons, strict enforcement of fishery laws are a part of sustaining our environment. As arms of urban renewal has touched this, we have to instill responsibility yet again for how we treat our collective surroundings. More attention over a period of time must be directed towards waste disposal. Simple measures such as using garbage
Developing global partnerships? Think about WTO and the FTAA and even CARICOM. Even though there are some organizations and treaties that we should carefully scrutinize and even avoid, there are some that would create healthy relationships, with all side gaining something of value. We should even present our own agreements on our terms to our allies, especially the caribbean. It would show that our development and viability is important to us, as we don't always have to run into large blocks of regional agreements. The adoption of these goals are also an example of global partnerships as they provide an opportunity to give and get help concerning our respective process of development.
Of course adding power to local governments can in ways accelerate the process, because each respective district and township would better understand the needs and path of development of their communities in ways that even the National Urban Renewal Project can't. We know this, and I have no real doubt that our powers that be doesn't realize the difference local government would make if it was real. Local governance provides the permanent presence no MP can ever bring, giving government more room to maneuver on more important matters of state and national importance.
The Bottom line is that I do agree that we know what it takes to make our nation more than just a "developed nation'. What we can do is take what we know and apply it. We have adopted these goals and made them our "meter gauge" for development. Even if we did not commit to this plan I would recommend the adoption of such an initiative. Even though we may want to only go it alone, we cannot simply ignore the outside. How do you think the caribbean are advancing? Do you think they were struck by the gods with sudden wisdom? It is something called research. They studied our economy, our tourism marketing and improved upon it, with their ideas. But notice they didn't do it with their idea alone, they needed a catalyst. I believe the Millennium goals are ours.
A developing country is a country with a low income average, a relatively backwards infrastructure and a poor human development index when compared to the global norm. The term has tended to edge out earlier ones, including the Cold War-defined "Third World".
Development entails developing a modern infrastructure (both physical and institutional), and a move away from low value added sectors such as agriculture and natural resource extraction.
Developed countries usually have economic systems based on continuous, self-sustaining economic growth.
The application of the term 'developing country' to all of the world's least developed countries could be considered inappropriate in the cases of a number of poor countries, due to the fact that they are not improving their economic situation as the term implies, but have experienced prolonged periods of economic decline.
( courtesy of wikipedia )
First of all the Millennium goals collectively address the worldwide problems mostly Africa where the it most obvious and dire. It points out the relative efficiencies and deficiencies of our nations whether they are the poor or the highly developed, compiling the information from the respective regions of the world, these regions are: Theses plans layed out if adopted by nations are designed to bring nations on the path of development, into a more comfortable status of development or eventually a developed or more developed nation.
For the Bahamas some of these goals are not much of an issue for us because some have been achieved and further developed even before these goals were formulated, goals that mind you were created through many tireless debates between the representatives, and heads of state and government of the world. Nothing was outright determined for another and they represent common issues through the world that must be corrected and will need assistance to meet( especially the lower end of the third world). I did not say that this defines a developed nation, but can by using this as a guideline we can build a tangible plan of development upon this.
I believe a developed country is more than a county with a strong GDP, as ours is what i term "comfortable" even as the third highest in our hemisphere, yet the factors contributing to a nations overall demographic are wide ranging- more than just economic factors, in fact they usually effect the economic factors. We all know education is one. One of the goals of the goals is to achieve a universal primary education. We are close to that. Still not everybody in our nation goes to school. and only 97% of us can read. So you want to apply our own views to this? OK lets think! After all, nobody knows this country better than us. First we need to ensure than all of these children goes to school and we know full well that it should go further than a full course of primary education. You want to know why Bahamians can't get (or don't want) the high paying jobs that require importing people? It's because that Bahamians don't have the sufficient education! IN fact I continue to talk about this goal because I see it as the root to our development. From the Traditional to sex ed., to life long it all ties in and effects everything for a generation. It effects our AIDS numbers (another goal), how we take care of the environment, and how we as a people manage our resources. Because if we are dummies we are hopeless. This would also include providing top optimum school facilities and better care of teachers to improve the moral of both student and teacher. In our case we have to go deeper, taking care of our learning youth, in both phycological, mental and physical aspects to make sure there is no excuse and to prepare our education system to be competitive.
Let us also look at eradicating poverty. We have a general sense of that picture without looking at statistics. In addition to bahamians living in sub standard condition there are a number of illegal immigrants that are allowed to erect such slums on our soil, or we are unaware of the activity until it is most visible. We can redevelop these slum areas with proper infrastructure and sensible land distribution. One way we can approach this problem with a rigid immigration program that either limits the amount of such people the are allowed free of travel documents or tighten up our maritime boarders, which is to inspect boats at harbors and even at sea if found suspicious. Another way that we can say that the bahamas is approaching this goal is the urban renewal project that has been carried all over the Commonwealth of the bahamas by our government this project ( if it is carried out properly in truth and for the welfare of the state) should address the local issues of bahamian citizens and residents including crime, infrastructure, education(again!!). Restoring order in addition to the destruction of structures that harbor and encourage crime. The government should use this program to collect crucial information regarding the way of life and standard of living, implementing national policies promoting and encouraging entrepreneurial initiatives, and self empowerment, and managing long term wealth.
We already know that if we want to create a sustainable economy (characteristic of a developed nation) we must develop a diverse economy and range of industry. Developing our smaller industries are important. Tourism believe it or not can help us in this, creating our foreign hotel chains in to international consumers, manufacturing and agriculture can grow in this. We can work with our financial sector to provide risk capital to promising local companies with potential, providing government incentives and tariff reduction. If international consumers trust our products, we may be able to raise local confidence in bahamian products and commodities. This would also give an opportunity for bahamians to become the foreign investors, setting up in markets and importing capital and wealth into our waters.
To insure our development, we must also protect the health of our citizens, especially the youth, which do not need to be eliminated by avoidable sicknesses and fatal epidemics. Although we have taken great strides along with our allies to successfully combat measles, rubella and other infections, one thing that we must continue the fight against is AIDS along with other STDs. We have been able to so far reduce the new cases of AIDS and with unwavering campaigns against safe sex and conscious abstinence, we further reduce new cases and also provide the medication to insure a long lifespan for infected people. The development of national insurance ( by the way what happened to that?) should provide access for Bahamians to top medicine and above average medical care. Giving every single Bahamian the opportunity to get the attention they deserve. If backed up by a campaign to encourage private coverage even in addition to public health insurance, a greater number of people will have secured access to health care, which should include dental care and a greater awareness healthy living. Improved medical facilities, that is more than clinics and full fledged hospital and highly trained professionals can greatly improve maternal health(another goal) , which has already been undertaken by our governments, and at the same time reduce child mortality( yet another goal) in our family island and even in our developed urban areas.
In respect to gender equality,something like this was addressed somewhat in our referendum which I believed became too much of a political climate gauge place too close to an election, but i digress. However, we have seen more women reach post formally and in occasions, traditionally held by men e.g. Rev. Palatious (spelling?) Our DPM Hon. Cynthia Pratt, Willie Moss president of the Grand Bahama Port Authority most noticeably. Looking at the situation now, it is not a drastic issue with us. Women has taken upon themselves( in my view) to become empowered, becoming somewhat independent. This has influenced a relatively great portion of our female population as they have filled our nation's premier institutions outnumbering men for several years in a row now. In this aspect, the future looks strong and I see that this is a goal that has been mostly met.
Simple measures such as fishing within seasons, strict enforcement of fishery laws are a part of sustaining our environment. As arms of urban renewal has touched this, we have to instill responsibility yet again for how we treat our collective surroundings. More attention over a period of time must be directed towards waste disposal. Simple measures such as using garbage
Developing global partnerships? Think about WTO and the FTAA and even CARICOM. Even though there are some organizations and treaties that we should carefully scrutinize and even avoid, there are some that would create healthy relationships, with all side gaining something of value. We should even present our own agreements on our terms to our allies, especially the caribbean. It would show that our development and viability is important to us, as we don't always have to run into large blocks of regional agreements. The adoption of these goals are also an example of global partnerships as they provide an opportunity to give and get help concerning our respective process of development.
Of course adding power to local governments can in ways accelerate the process, because each respective district and township would better understand the needs and path of development of their communities in ways that even the National Urban Renewal Project can't. We know this, and I have no real doubt that our powers that be doesn't realize the difference local government would make if it was real. Local governance provides the permanent presence no MP can ever bring, giving government more room to maneuver on more important matters of state and national importance.
The Bottom line is that I do agree that we know what it takes to make our nation more than just a "developed nation'. What we can do is take what we know and apply it. We have adopted these goals and made them our "meter gauge" for development. Even if we did not commit to this plan I would recommend the adoption of such an initiative. Even though we may want to only go it alone, we cannot simply ignore the outside. How do you think the caribbean are advancing? Do you think they were struck by the gods with sudden wisdom? It is something called research. They studied our economy, our tourism marketing and improved upon it, with their ideas. But notice they didn't do it with their idea alone, they needed a catalyst. I believe the Millennium goals are ours.