‘We dont have to borrow money’

CAMILLE BETHEL

ZUBIN DEYAL is just 20, but when he speaks it is with wisdom beyond his years: he is intelligent yet easygoing, which is evident when you meet him.

He recently won the Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholarship, and looks forward to studying for two MScs, in finance and economics, at Oxford University next year.

But academics is not his only strength. He is a balanced, outward-focused individual with a love for people and improving their lives, and describes himself as “personable, loving, charismatic, friendly, kind, a sportsman, free-spirited, sometimes goofy and motivated”, most of which, he said, he inherited from both his parents: well-known Trinidadian columnist and consultant Anthony Deyal and Stabroek News columnist Indranie Deyal.

“In a lot of ways who I am is a reflection of both my parents – although they are both very different; my mom is very loving and kind and just a wonderful person, and my dad, who is just a little bit more stern, is also loving but shows it in a different way and I love that part. So I have both sides of their personalities.

"But I also have traits from my brother George, my sisters Marsha and Jasmine, and that’s something I’m really blessed with and I’m really grateful for, because my family have probably been the biggest influencers in my life.”

He said being born in Barbados to a Trinidadian father and a Guyanese mother and having to move to different countries as a child was initially difficult.Because his dad took a stance against corruption he moved a lot for work.

“So he kept having to change jobs because it was not a popular opinion. I had to leave friends behind and adapt and change to new environments every time we moved and I was also made fun of because I didn’t really have a country that I could say I was from. But as I grew older I realised the blessing that it was to have the opportunity to live in so many different islands within the region.

“After a while travelling so much I got to see that it was a blessing because I got to experience the different cultures and I started to see the good sides of it and I loved it, I loved it so much. I remember being in Belize and being near to the sea; I was in the water and I saw the rivers and the pyramids and then I was in Trinidad with our unique culture of doubles and going around the Savannah, which is one of my favourite places, and then being in Guyana. Having experienced all of these wonderful places that are so unique within themselves is something that I now appreciate.”

He said before graduating with first class honours from UWI, Cave Hill, this year, he was between Trinidad and Tobago but he is now permanently back in Trinidad, where he will stay until he goes to Oxford next year.

“I went to university in Barbados and every summer and every Christmas I would come back to Trinidad. I enjoy my parang and ham.” he said with a chuckle, “but my family resides here, and now I’m permanently here. I’m happy about that because there’s nothing like a Trini Christmas.”

Sharing his thoughts on winning the scholarship and what he hopes will be achieved from his studies at Oxford, Deyal said, he is excited about it all.

“I was overjoyed about winning the scholarship, but actually only found out about it in summer, and although I had a short time, I decided to apply and give my best effort, because it’s an amazing opportunity. Yes, the possibility existed that I might not have won, but I gave it my best shot, because I have always wanted to go to Oxford.

"And though, I am very happy that I won, at the same time I acknowledge how amazing the other candidates were. It was the perfect representation of Caribbean excellence. It gave me hope for the next generation of the Caribbean; seeing youth that are so passionate and so driven and have achieved so much.

"I felt it was a great honour to be chosen and I really look forward to being there for two years.”

Deyal wants to do a masters in economic development and another in financial economics while at Oxford so he is hopeful that he will be accepted into the programmes which he believes will be useful in his ultimate goal to improve as many lives within the Caribbean region.

He said, his decision to study economics and finance comes from his passion to see the region truly develop economically but his love for reading brought him to a quote from Sir Arthur Lewis that intensified his passion to impact economic development.

“He basically said that the idea that the West Indies could raise all the capital it needs from its own resources is bound to shock a lot of people and that’s because West Indians have this idea that the region is a poor community, but this is not true. We are at least richer than half of the other countries of the world.”

“And because of that my idea to improve lives through economics and finance stems from that quote– we can raise our own money and we can raise our resources and we can raise and use those resources to fuel our development. That’s where I want to see the West Indies. We don’t have to borrow money.”

“We have a situation now where we have extremely high public debt and I don’t want to see that in the future. My idea is that if we develop the capital market and we develop our economies then we can sustain our own development. That will be my ultimate life’s goal but it’s more of a means than a goal. My goal is really to help or impact the lives of as many people and the best way I can do that is to improve the economy. That is when I will be happy.”

But Deyal doesn’t have to wait until he goes to Oxford to start giving his input into improving the lives within the region; he is currently based at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in Port of Spain, where he is working on a paper on fiscal rules – which are basically constraints to expenditures and looking at what factors influence the adoption of fiscal rules over the past 30 years.

“It was chosen because it is believed to be something that could help Trinidad and other countries in the region to limit government expenditure. Fiscal rules help to give the government a ceiling on its spending. And I think that could be very useful to our country because the oil price fluctuation adds a lot of volatility to our expenditure,” he explained.

He said over the next few months he will also be working on a document for the IDB that will assess TT’s development, as well as an assessment of macro-economic conditions and development challenges in Trinidad, something he truly looks forward to doing.