Submitted by Douglas
Tomorrow our wonderful island celebrates forty seven years as an Independent Nation. This is indeed a cause for great celebration. It is also a time for us to reflect on the circumstances of pre-independent Barbados and especially the thoughts, words and deeds of our forefathers who fought against many odds for our Independence.
Despite what others may wish to say, one can never deny the fact that it was the Democratic Labour Party that took Barbados into independence. One can also not deny the fact that it was the BLP and their supporters who fought against Barbados becoming independent.
A brief review of the many debates and other engagements of that early 1960’s era paints a very graphic picture of the environment within which our founding fathers fought. An environment which some may well argue still exists today. According to Premier Barrow, they were young and not so young ‘humbugs’ who were ‘befouling this night air’; ambitious people of flexible views; people of no political party, men who had never spoken in parliament who had been paid ten thousand pounds to campaign against independence; and, because they were participating in an exercise of ‘trying to pull down what we have built up for Barbados’, posterity should desecrate their names ‘in every sense of the term’!
There is clear evidence that Barrow’s comments fifty years ago is evidenced today as the same BLP members continue to pull down all that we have built up in Barbados.
Premier Barrow, in his eloquent fashion, did observe that impending independence was the time for ‘the soul of the country to be laid bare’, so that ‘we know what we are and where we are going.’
The DLP continues to lay bare the soul of this country so that we know what we are and where we are going. As we continue to battle the remnants of a long and deep global recession and errors of past administrations, the DLP ensures that not only do we keep this island informed of our challenges and opportunities, but also that we are doing to move this economy and society forward in a sustainable way.
Once again we are forced to take a very serious look at ourselves at the individual level and the national level. These are times when we all are being called upon to make sacrifices for the greater good. There is nothing inherently wrong in this call. It was what Errol Barrow and our founding Fathers called for and what we have been able to do time and time again. We are a very resilient people.
We have been and continues to be a very well educated and healthy populace. We have used such attributes in the past to weather all economic storms – the same is being done now.
Our manufacturing sector is already seeing growth. Our agricultural sector is once again beginning to bloom. Law and order remains in place today. Our cultural industry is being revitalized. Our health and education services function effectively. Our tourism sector is being repositioned to weather further storms. We are becoming a greener economy and a healthier environment. We remain very well respected in the global arena.
These and much more are being done by a Government and Cabinet principally led by men and women who may have been babes in 1966 but who fully understand and associate with the philosophy and principles of our founding Fathers. These are men and women who have the fortitude to do what is necessary to restructure this economy and to build a better Barbados.
Our work must also be mindful of the point that this island has another step to go towards full independence – towards full control. A march towards republicanism must be next on our agenda.
As Errol Walton Barrow stated, Independence does not mean that you become disrespectful to anyone provided he respects you; and I know that Barbadians have enough good sense; they have a reputation for being polite and courteous to people, and the fact that we have independence would not mean that we are animals cut loose and running around in circles ……….
Happy 47th. Anniversary Barbados.
The Dems are with you.
he really was a cut above the rest. first person I saw play a guitar behind his back. heard he had emigrated to Canada. wonder how far his musical genius took him, for he could play any instrument he put his hands on.
Caribbean Lover | November 30, 2013 at 11:08 AM |
Independence that requires one to stay within the British Commonwealth is not real independence; it is more of a Quasi-Colonial Arrangement. Trinidad, as a Republic and not part of the British Commonwealth, is more independent than the rest of the English Speaking Caribbean. Even Jamaica is now talking about leaving the Commonwealth to become a republic like Trinidad & Tobago.
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The former Soviet Union, admired the (British) Commonwealth. Here . they,said you have a whole host of countries,. given their independence, yet opt to remain as a grouping embracing its former colonial master. And here in the Soviet Union, we have to regularly send tanks, artillery,rocket launchers ,puppet governments and storm troopers into our satellite countries to keep them in ‘Chech’.
“… here in the Soviet Union, we have to regularly send tanks, artillery,rocket launchers ,puppet governments and storm troopers into our satellite countries to keep them in ‘Chech’.”
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If they were granted true independence, there would be no need for the Soviet Union to keep them in ‘Chech’.
“… a whole host of countries,. given their independence, yet opt to remain as a grouping embracing its former colonial master.”
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Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe chose not to be part of the British Commonwealth; and the British and the Americans have made his life a living hell. Again, our independence is not a real independence.
Forty seven years later, our problem is that we are still looking to be “GRANTED” independence. Rotfl
Who the hell GRANTS anyone independence in this world? Independence has to be TAKEN…..to be WON…..to be DESERVED..
We in the Caribbean have NEVER qualified for independence… All we have done in to allow the white man to inflict a higher level of slavery on our asses….
….we should have taken a hint when they “abolished” slavery and then put laws in place that made slavery look like the better option for the black man….
We should have taken the hint when they were so keen to “offer independence”…..just so…
…and we should have DEFINITELY taken the hint when they offered all those soft loans, grants, technical assistance and preferential treatment….
It must now be obvious that these were just CHAINS of a more sophisticated sort…
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Here is a £50M for infrastructural development….. LOL…. YOU (government officials) may administer the project BUT
1 – all equipment MUST be sourced from us
2 – all technical expertise must be from us
3. – we will supply the management
4. – …..the extra £2M you can assign to local inputs..(and we all know where £1.5M of that went…)
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Here is some FREE technical assistance.
We will help you to develop your agriculture. We will assist with the building of a Flour Mill……. NOT for cassava or guinea corn or sweet potato flour – HELL NO!!
…..for Wheat flour – which you will of course import from us for the next 40 years at ridiculous prices, and which you will come to realize will cripple your people with a range of chronic sicknesses….
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Here is some preferential treatment – we will buy your sugar at prices ABOVE world market….
That way you will learn to be LAZY, Inefficient, unproductive and spoilt……. By the time these “benefits” end your industry will be dead as a door nail and we will be licking cork with our beet sugar….. But not to worry your free little heads…, we will sell you all the refined products that you will need in future
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Wunna beginning to understand the genesis of a brass bowl yet…?
The reason why the Russians have to send tanks to keep their former colonies in ‘chech’, is simply that THOSE people are NOT BRASS BOWLS. They recognize when shit is being thrown at them and they DON’T LIKE IT!
@ Bush Tea | December 2, 2013 at 8:15 AM |
Very good one, Bushie!
You are one of very few blacks that can read the white man and identify his machinations to control whom he considers to be his underlings, especially blacks.
The point about the destructive effects of refined wheat flour is most pertinent and can help explain the sudden rise in NCD’s among Afro-Caribbean people.
Refined wheat flour has similar deleterious effects as that of refined sugars, if used constantly and in excess.
A congenitally sick people is a sure source of revenue for the pharmaceutical companies mainly owned and controlled by the white man aided and abetted by the black money-grabbing doctors who get their commissions and constant fees revenue stream from the same fabricated sick business.
Now how do we extricate ourselves from this dependency syndrome other than through your BBE route?
Now how do we extricate ourselves from this dependency syndrome other than through your BBE route?
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Miller
You have this habit of asking questions to which you DO NOT really want answers.
Bushie has long ago and openly identified an approach to extricate ourselves from the trap in which we find ourselves.
…A COOPERATIVE GOVERNMENT that is truly representative of the people.
Shiite man…. Bushie even gave the names of IDEAL candidates for critical positions…..the most CHALLENGING of which is Chairman of the national supervisory committee – the keeper of the gate – so to speak.
…wunna like a lot of sport….but Bushie don’t mek dat kinda sport…
@Bushie
Correct, we have now reached the debt rescheduling stage.
http://mobilesyrup.com/2013/12/02/crtcs-wireless-code-of-conduct-comes-into-effect-today/
Balance; I think that Manny Leslie of the BRC was a talented guitarist but that there were other guitarists out there who were even more talented than him. The general public might have been impressed by his antics and showmanship but there were a number of Guitarists of that time who were technically better.
Clifton Glasgow was by far the best Bajan Guitarist of those times and could rank with Fitzroy Coleman who backed Lord Kitchener and played in the Young Brigade tent in Trinidad and even with Ernest Ranglin of Jamaica. He was an extremely talented, self taught guitarist. I also have been to his house in those days and he taught me a few chords and a few of his riffs.
The next most talented was Mike Sealy who came slightly afterwards with his raw country band Teenage College Thrillers. His speed as a first guitarist was phenomenal. Eventually he surpassed even Clifton Glasgow in technical guitar skills.
Genie was very good but not in the class of those two described earlier. He tended to concentrate on Latin American rhythms and eventually emigrated to England.
For raw talent and blinding picking speed, particularly in Latin American songs, Tony Green was hard to beat.
I didn’t think too much of the White guitarists of the time but some of them blossomed into excellent guitarists later. There was an awesome guitarist who played with the Merrymen. I heard him playing a few years ago and he was still awesome. Pete Jones? was another guitarist who was above average.
There was also a guy with a funny eye who played first Guitar with Jeff Garvey’s (? Niles) Latin American band before Jeff went to UWI and came back and formed the Crescendos (I forget his name now, he was a St Lucian) he was pretty good and was the first person I saw playing a “Thousand voices” guitar. Some of the other guitarists like Genie and I think Clifton and Mike Sealy eventually migrated to “Thousand Voices” guitars.
Barbados is covered in bush from north to south and from breakfast to arse hole,yet we are able to find good money to support Canadian farmers in Canada to grow bush and export it to Barbados ,in the name of a Christmas tree. K-Rice.