BU and others have been preaching for some time about the weeds which have sprouted in our garden. We seem to focus on all the wrong things these days. We have ignored many societal ills over time and now the weeds have overrun the garden.
All of Barbados is up in arms in response to the advisory issued yesterday by the Barbados Police Force. The Advisory warned individuals not to wear jewellery in public. Many have argued that the police was injudicious to have made the announcement. BU prefers to focus on why the police was driven to warn the public that the cash for gold business has reached a crisis level. Could it be Commissioner Darwin Dottin is not satisfied with the resources he has at his disposal to fight crime? Why are we always so quick to react to the symptom? Despite the massaging of crime statistics all Barbadians are aware that crime has been trending upwards in the last five to ten years. BU is not aware that the Barbados Police Force and government have implemented new initiatives which attempt to frontally deal with rising crime.
Where do we go from here?
Yesterday’s advisory caused BU to reflect on the inability of Barbadians over the last three decades to solve serious problems. Some will argue that BU is being negative, we prefer to call it as we see it.
A generation of Barbadians have been influenced by the minibus culture. Where has the time gone? The problem of the PSVs go back to the Tom Adams era who served as prime minister of Barbados in the period 1976 to 1985. Can we honestly say successive governments – both BLP and DLP – have been able to address the problem plagued sector in the intervening years?
Another issue which for decades has challenged Barbadians to solve is that of praedial larceny. Today in the news James Paul, a pretender to the position of minister of agriculture, suggested the problem of praedial larceny is solvable. Whoopee! Tell us something we don’t know James Paul. As a member on the government side and president of the Barbados Agriculture Association (BAS) can we do it? How many farmers have given up because of praedial larceny? Patrick Bethel comes to mind.
We now turn to the problem of the Judiciary. For decades Barbadians have had to be satisfied with a court system which is in a constant state of struggle to deliver justice. Again this is a problem which has straddled both political parties. Despite the Sirs who have ‘laudably’ performed in the role of Chief Justice the problem remains outstanding. Just yesterday in the news Sir Frederick Smith – who should be familiar with the judiciary – called for the appointment of judges to be removed from the Executive arm of government. He also called for radical reform to the judicial system.
Should we list some more examples to hammer home the point?
To repeat, we continue to focus on the wrong things. Many have placed blind faith in politicians and political parties who have been unsuccessful in solving little problems which have grown to become deep rooted. Non-governmental organizations have not been strident enough to fill the void left by the ordinary public which has disengaged. What kind of society are we when we continue to accept a mediocre standard of performance from our leaders?
Where do we go from here?
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