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Small Islands Voice: Small Island Business | ||||
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Posted by: | Apr 3rd 2007, 12:14:06 pm | |||
Fig Tree News Team | SMALL ISLANDS VOICE
Do you live in a small island? Tell us what you think. In view of the reactions to the 'colonialism in the 21st century' notion in the previous article, it will be discussed as a separate topic after the present one. Below are summarised further views on the racial and income divide in tourism and other business in island countries. I'm tragically not surprised, writes Jaye Green. There seems to be a certain 'pattern' that expatriate nationals follow: Create a 'first-world' standard; hire expatriates for main or technical jobs and locals for subsidiary; move some locals to main or technical jobs with less pay than the expatriate but more than standard; train local people for all posts; sell company to another expatriate; another expatriate begins milking the cash cow; cut out frills and hold salaries at level while it rises in competition; fire locals who are getting paid 'too much', hire others who will work for less; blame locals for drop in profitability; finally, bring venue to the ground, close it and leave. The present situation in the Caribbean is a reflection of the past for Arlette St. Ville from St. Lucia (Caribbean) who quotes from Perez: "In converting former agricultural monoculture economies to travel monoculture, tourism renews and reinforces the historical process of underdevelopment". Tourists prefer to consume products they are familiar with and high status is often attached to foreign products, including by the locals. The food system remains a vestige of the past when the role of the island was not to sustain itself but to sustain another, Europe. International tourism as it is now formed has all the hallmarks of another colonial construct in St. Lucia: the banana industry. Think about it! - local producers, external consumers, environmental degradation, adaptation to foreign tastes and values, relatively large ecological footprint, control by multinationals, susceptibility to natural disasters and unresponsive to local political climate. Turning to the Pacific, the following are some actions and ideas addressing the issues. Maere Tekanene from Kiribati writes: I agree that there are cases of local employers that do not give what local employees deserve. In some cases this happens partly because many of our people began business by employing themselves and when their businesses got larger they hire people. These hired people were treated likewise by owners because there is limited understanding of many legal and upgrading ways by locals. The Kiribati Chamber of Commerce is trying to raise awareness on the laws where employers need to comply with providing benefits to their employees. It is hoped that with more education to local employers, including legal and other aspects, unintended exploitation may be avoided. I recommend several things that have proven to be successful with us in the South Pacific, writes Rosario De Medici. One, if you can't beat your competition, join them. What I mean by this is to solicit joint partnership with foreign investors. If a native already owns a small hotel operation, it would do well to invite the joint partnership of foreign investors who have expressed an interest in the hospitality industry. Granted, you won't own the business entirely, but it offers the opportunity to revamp the business, make it upscale and more inviting for tourists. If they have the financial capability along with the marketing and advertising, and technological resources, then it only makes sense. The fact is that the ones with the bigger dollars are going to win in the long run so it only makes sense to partner with a good ethical investor. Secondly, local businesses should get the government intimately involved in their business operation. By partnering with select ministers of the government who serve as members of the company's board of directors, it provides accountability and good stewardship in both directions. Thirdly, our company, an aquaculture business, has established a cooperative corporation in the Marshall Islands. This way it empowers the native residents by making the company employee-owned and democratically controlled. Thus the company doesn't operate independently of the employees - it is the employees’. This is contrastingly different from the traditional capitalistic model which is an old paradigm that must be phased out because it doesn't operate upon the principle of sustainable development. http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr allows for translation into other languages. For those who prefer, you may react in Español, Français or Português. Title: Small-island business Author: R. De Medici, J. Green, A. St.Ville, M. Tekanene Date: Tuesday, 3 April 2007 |
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