TT’s Economic Underachievement

Economist Dr Terrence Farrell expressed this sentiment on Friday as he launched his latest book, We Like It So? The Cultural Roots of Economic Underachievement.

at the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Westmoorings.

Addressing a small gathering.

Farrell said: “As a Trinbagonian.

who returned from a university abroad to help develop the country in the 1970s, I have been sorely disappointed with our underachievement.

“As a country, we have been given much - oil, natural gas, great location.

land for agriculture, beautiful beaches, exceptional flora and fauna - but we have not done as well with our endowments as we could and should have.” Farrell quoted remarks from businessman Emile Elias, as well as a newspaper editorial, which.

he said, shared similar sentiments.

“My life has been one of high expectation. I expected that by now our country would have been further ahead …Change is vital as is growth. We are great talkers.

but there is something that makes us get stuck between the thought and the actual doing,” Elias had said.

We Like It So? The Cultural Roots of Economic Underachievement is a follow-up to Farrell’s last publication, the Underachieving Society: Development Strategy and Policy in Trinidad and Tobago, 1958-2008.

But unlike that publication.

which delved into TTs economic history, Farrell, in his latest book.

addresses the country’s apparent penchant for mediocrity and showing disdain for things that are presumably fixable.

He cited the steelpan as an example.

“We claim as our own the steelband celebrating it as the only musical instrument invented in the 20th century, yet steelbands are still evicted from pan yards,” Farrell said.