Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

272 I trust, too, that the Bank’s senior staff will come to better understand their essentially symbiotic relationship with the institution. The Bank needs their human capital and they need the Bank’s institutional resources. The headquarters building The last element of the “Vision” was to construct a permanent headquarters building to house the staff, which was scattered in three or more locations around Bridgetown. Great attention was accorded to security and the need for the structure to reflect the pre-eminence of the Central Bank in the financial sector. Bank Secretary Adrian Clarke, did much to keep the project on track during the three and a half demanding years of construction. We planned a building which would meet the Bank’s needs for fifty years and beyond; the persistent political sniping and critical newspaper articles were short-sighted. Prime Minister “Tom” Adams was very supportive, observing that, “Each generation should leave behind an edifice of distinction.” He broke the ground, laid the corner stone, “topped out” the building but, alas, was not with us at the completion. We demanded of the architect a building of distinction as a gift to future generations; it is friendly and inviting to the public. Public relations Early in my tenure I became convinced that public ignorance and indifference were a hindrance to macroeconomic management in democratic societies. Dealing with the Press was often a frustrating exercise since journalists seemed more eager to elicit a contentious statement than to interpret the Bank's message. Frequently, my remarks were distorted or misquoted; sometimes rumour was presented with the same fervour as fact. The problem is that, by and large, the local and regional media, in contrast to the situation in developed societies, simply lack the specialised