Submitted by Yardbroom
We are allowing standards to drop in Barbados, appealing to short term popularity rather than moral standards, honesty, decency and being …Law abiding. “Some” of our Administrators are falling into an unholy alliance and trying to lead from behind. They are confident of a cohort who will come to their aid accusing opponents of a “Colonial Mentality”. To refute the charge standards have dropped some have given examples of degrading behaviour and licentiousness on a wide scale in villages that they lived in as boys/girls in Barbados. From the accounts they have given, I obviously lived in a different village…I do not say this with any regret.
We have taken this new mantra – colonial mentality – to such a level that commenters are being accused of hypocrisy by people who do not know them. To substantiate such a charge they would have to bring evidence of hypocritical behaviour but there is no need for such “truth” to get in the way in this new anything goes society. The advocates of this short term expediency inveigle us of the need for a whorehouse in every street…why not they argue, let us not be uptight about it, get it out in the open. Men have always paid for sex. Marijuana should be legal they say it is better than tobacco and less dangerous, even “more natural”. They cannot see the contradiction “natural” a human being inhaling smoke, that is natural.
In this new limitless utopia of mayhem one Lothario supported later by others said a particular hairstyle – nothing against the hairstyle – “was good because he could get a lot of women”. A five minute “tryst” quickly forgotten even before the beach towel was shaken, under a palm tree on a “secluded beach” defined who he wanted to be. To disagree with such “noble aspirations” ensures you are labelled as having a colonial mentality.
People of many races and colours have suffered at the hands of colonialism, yet they have forged forward to position themselves in the forefront of economic growth and development. It is not by accident that the emerging new world order will encompass Nations that were once disadvantaged as a result of colonialism.
If the comments often made by “some” here are reflective of general society – thank God they are not – we are constantly blaming colonialism for everything which confronts us, for which decisive clear thinking is required.
A few of us carry around this “imaginary carapace” of colonialism in our heads to be used for our failings. We seem not to notice that the actions we take and the decisions we make often account for our success or failure; short term sacrifice for long term gain determines our position in the scheme of things, it has nothing to do with colonialism.
Honesty, discipline, respect for the Law – not the bits we select – good order – with the hand of fairness for all – should be supported and encouraged… our schools need that direction. If we fail to grasp this simple logic and rely on feeble excuses thus concentrating our minds only on the colonial “past” we will not achieve the objectives we are capable and thus render the aspirations of our young people unobtainable. Not pleasant reading but it is true.
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