At Monday’s Ideas Forum held in the Glebe, a resident of St George, Charles Brathwaite, laid out a far-reaching, interconnected long-term development strategy for Barbados that has earned high acclaim from Attorney General Wilfred Abrahams. Speaking before a high-profile panel that included the nation’s prime minister and full cabinet, Brathwaite pushed back against the incremental, quick-fix policy approaches that have dominated public debate to date, arguing that the island’s most pressing systemic challenges – from climbing crime rates and crippling traffic congestion to crumbling, decades-old infrastructure – are deeply interconnected. For these overlapping issues, he argued, siloed, short-term solutions will never deliver lasting progress; only coordinated, forward-looking national planning can put Barbados on a sustainable path.