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Rihanna, We do NOT Want Our Daughter to be Like YOU

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Rihanna receiving her AMA Icon Award from her mother.
Rihanna receiving her AMA Icon Award from her mother.

We have had a couple of interesting news items in recent days which served to piqued the curiosity of members of the BU household. Sir Hilary Beckles is of the view Barbados must capitalize on the success of Rihanna and her one billion dollar enterprise. To support his view he referred to Jamaica having built an industry around Bob Marley and reggae.  BU is unsure how Beckles is able to make the comparison to Marley riding the crest of an indigenous genre of music anchored in the DNA of a nation. Rihanna maybe Barbadian – with Guyanese lineage -but her success has been manufactured on the back of a US-international genre of music. How Barbados can bottle and leverage for success the way Jamaica did for Marley remains highly sceptical but BU is optimistic.

Then we heard from Canon Frank Marshall on the need for Barbadians to embrace values which represented the core of what drove our success of yesteryear. Many will query though whether these values have to be embodied in a religious dogma to qualify.  There is a strong view held by some Barbadians that when the Church played a leading role in our society the nation appeared to be in a better place morally, socially and economically.

Most if not all Barbadians have felt the urge to congratulate Rihanna winning the first AMA Icon Award.  BU offers our congratulations BUT acknowledges she is a R&B performer who uses the imagery of sex bordering on smut, suggestive lyrics and dance to peddle her stuff. This is a compromising of the very same values which Canon Marshall has attributed to our success as a nation.  Bear in mind Rihanna is our Youth and Cultural Ambassador although we believe this is an avenue used by government to provide access to a ‘red’ passport.

Our view may not be widely supported but it is ours nevertheless. As a nation we cannot be critical of the lyrics and substandard music which originate in Jamaica and elsewhere and give Rihanna a pass solely on the basis that she is Barbadian. How hypocritical can one be? We cannot be a nation lamenting the slide in our moral standard but lift up onto the hills a Bajan artist who exploits said wholesome standards which Canon Marshall offers as the basis for our past successes. Don’t we see a conflict or are we so intoxicated by the fact local girl makes big that we are willing to toss standards through the nearest window.

For what it is worth Rihanna, congrats on getting a top award from your fans BUT when our daughter grows up we do NOT want her to be like you.

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313 responses to “Rihanna, We do NOT Want Our Daughter to be Like YOU”

  1. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    David even if you got Guyana to adopt Rihanna and her superstardom you will never be able to undo or coverup or hide the fact that Rihanna was BORN IN BARBADOS AND WENT TO SCHOOL IN BARBADOS.

    Regardless of your perception of what she represents she is a BAJAN and her millions of fans around the world know this.
    These fans 10 years on will be potential tourists and some of them will visit Barbados and that is one of Rihanna’s “gifts” to Barbados.

    At least she has “gifted” you the hottest blog/post in weeks.

  2. ac Avatar
    ac

    All this horse s.ht and hypocrisy. Stop it. this girl has put barbados name on the top of the international world.. Now wunna need to get a grip .the reality is that her fame is synomous with barbados. .the same can be said of the Beatkles or Bob marley with their countries all this/bull about morality and yet she is the world top recording artist..HUSH DO

  3. Keeping them honest Avatar
    Keeping them honest

    LOOK | December 1, 2013 at 3:28 PM | Big difference between Rihanna and Nicki Manaj excluding fact that both ladies are native Caribbean.

    What is the difference LOOK? You are a piece of dry shite even the mangy wild dogs wont pull at. Rihanna has done more for Barbados than all the politicians, businessmen, preachers and filth like you. A young woman whose incredible work ethic should be a model for us all is being disparaged by cyber space bullies David BU and a scumbag like LOOK. By the way nothing against Minaj but she is as close to Rihanna in stature as Gearbox is the RT Excellent Sir Garfield Sobers. You not too bright so let me tell you Minaj is Gearbox in the comparison. Rihanna has earned the right to be a national hero all now for where she has taken Barbados. Besides the stinking pup dribbling out your bad smelling mouth people like you LOOK only impact on the world is to make it dirtier and unhygienic.

  4. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    David,

    The argument is not about using Rihanna to demonstrate how Barbados’ traditional moral and spiritual norms and values are conflicting with foreign ones and therefore to some extent being constantly overwhelmed, fundamentally because she and her international entertainment and music and brand products DO NOT represent Barbadian traditional moral and spiritual norms and values, but about how different political financial oligarchies, locally, regionally and internationally are exerting tremendous power and influence (though not totally unchecked) in determining these same shifts in cultural norms and values wheresoever and that if Barbados does not have a sufficiently strong political material financial base, its moral spiritual fabric will continue to be eroded by those persons of those major foreign powers exporting their own brands of cultural wares to this country.

    Moreso, Rihanna and things Rihanna are not being used by those same oligarchs to cause any declines in these traditional Barbadian moral spiritual norms and values but to exploit her to the fullest in their money making commodification brand awareness schemes, wheresoever.

    The principal reason why her recent concert for here was called off was because the organizers looked at the very slow ticket sales and therefore did make a decision not go through with it. If her handlers wanted to undermine, or cause a further decline, in the moral spiritual fabric of the country, the concert would still have gone on conceptually; and were it to have been morally legally offensive enough to any sufficient number reasonable persons in the country, it would have been stopped by local authorities, just like how many of her concerts to certain Islamic dominated countries would have been curtailed by the fact of them being counter to the dominant Islamic cultures, notwithstanding whatever money making commodification brand awareness capacities of them.

    Notice we are making these arguments and up to now Rihanna and many things Rihanna, although involved in the points we are herein making, have not occupied the center of this type of discourse.

    Therefore, David, if you had gone and written and provided a well researched well academically written BU thread on the cultural shitfts dialectics taking place in the country without centralizing and personalizing reference to Rihanna and many things Rihanna, such a thread would have had to be not only less emotional, less subjective, less bias (against her), less superficial, and less polemical than the above thread, but also more intellectual, more objective, more neutral, more analytical, and more rational than the same actual one above in describing and analysing these evolving trends and patterns in the Barbadian cultural arena.

    PDC

  5. David Avatar
    David

    True dat Hants 🙂

    Here is the dichotomy in the argument for those who want to be honest.

    We have a Bajan who represents values in the music she sings and performs which is not Bajan.

    As a people we are expected to develop and hone values which defines us as Bajan.

    Does anyone see the separation and silliness in the arguments?

    To repeat, the BU household will not bring up our daughter to espouse the histrionics of a Rihanna and it has nothing to do with hating her.

  6. ac Avatar
    ac

    Well what is bajan music bajans are cooy caters Not since the merrymen and jackie Opel have barbados been able to set a standard of orginality in the music world. her originality even though it is not representative of bajan music stems from the fact that she is of bajan origin. which brings a whole lot to the table in terms of bajan recognition even if it is by her name only.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    Here it is BU has raised the issue of how as a society we can claw back value standards and many of you run of like a bull seeing a red rag spouting about what Rihanna has and will do for Barbados. Comprehension 101?

  8. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    To repeat, the BU household will not bring up our daughter to espouse the histrionics of a Rihanna and it has nothing to do with hating her.

    David you do realize that children do not always follow their parents advice.

    I certainly did not. Neither did some of my exes.lol

  9. David Avatar
    David

    This is true Hantsie, we all experimented but many returned to base…lol.

  10. LOOK Avatar
    LOOK

    Minaj silly willy Keeping Them honest (poster) enjoys the life of entertainment but educated and believed in an educated mind. Minaj is linked the LaGuardia High School (New York) as is the 1980 television series Fame. Know you didn’t/don’t know this. Students at LaGuardia take a full academic course load while participating in conservatory-style arts concentration. Each student majors in one studio, choosing from among Dance, Drama, Art, Vocal Music, Instrumental Music, and Technical Theatre. Minaj graduated from high school, a famous one. Minaj like Rihanna is famous and an entertainer but unlike Rihanna, She (Minaj) is a high school graduate. This is noticeable.

  11. Askquith Avatar
    Askquith

    In 1992, at a then St. James’ Secondary speech day I heard Dr. Hilary Beckles, in describing how his mechanic started his car. He said that in spite of all the education he had he could not get his car started. This mechanic, he went on to say, took a screw driver and first used his brain, then his hands to start the car. He said the mechanic had the “ability to think, then use his hands” to do something that he with all his education could not accomplish. That day I knew Hilary Beckles was the best brain in Barbados because he has understanding and appreciate people for the better. Not to look down on them because.

    Please allow me to present a little background to get my point across.

    Sydney Poitier in 1963, became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. He was born February 20, 1927 (now age 86) in Miami, Florida to Bahamian parents. He became ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan Assumed on April 15, 1997 . It took the Bahamas 34 years after his historic Academy Award, opening up doors for so many to include Rihanna, to figure out that maybe Sir Sydney, as he is referred to in the Bahamas these days, may be of greater use to their economy. Someone in the Bahamas wised up with a great idea and look what he does for them now. Makes sense right?

    Sir Hilary (the wisest brain in Barbados in my humble opinion) figured out last week that Rihanna, no matter what we think of her, is a dam good cash crop and we better not wait until she is (86) to exploit her in a good way to benefit the island.

    Boy I read some garbage on this site today. We have an opportunity of a lifetime to take advantage of this young woman who is so willing to be exploited for the good of the island and all I hear is how horrible she is and what a bitch she is, like we any better. Rihanna is a sweetbread when compared to the likes of some of us, to include myself. She don’t even come close to some of we. We get drunk, screw our wives friends and our friends wives, look at the young girls when they walk by in their tight up pants and still go to church on Sundays.

    I never met this young lady but I hear her music on the radio and boy she rocks. She has been so willing to help out and to be ridiculed by such harsh language is beyond my comprehension.

    Sir Hilary is on to something. We should take a leaf out of the Bahamian playbook and exploit this WILLING Bajan icon before she gets old, dry up, washed out and forgotten when no body want to see she far less hear she sing.

    I support Sir Hilary and he always makes sense.

  12. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    cow manure David. You did not frame or guide this topic to even explore how Barbados could benefit from Rihanna’s star power.

    If wunna could walk an chew gum there would be a Rihanna shop at the Airport aand one at the Cruise terminal.

    Typical Bajans wunna gine wait fuh some whit peoples from overseas to come an “capitalize”,

    http://www.riverisland.com/women/rihanna-for-river-island-collection

    http://www.theperfumeshop.com/pws/ProductDetails.ice?ProductID=3776

    Meanwhile I hey watching CNN in Toronto and they just had yet another SANDALS ad for St.Lucia and other islands.

    I look forward to the SANDALS BARBADOS ADs so I can tell my Canadian friends they can go to Barbados instead of Jamaica.

  13. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    “He always makes sense”

    This is beginning to sound like an H Austin post.

  14. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Malvolio: “Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.” Twelfth Night

  15. ac Avatar
    ac

    maybe not! but who is the “worlds moral police” cause from where i sit BU morals and the international world morals seems to miles apart .the proof is in the millions of fans and sales. most teenagers and adults alike view her histroncs as an act and that is how she is judged well except for BU who takes her act as being the persons she really is.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    If there is a Rihanna shop at the airport the sales will not come to Barbados for sure. Rihanna is owned lock stock and barrel by outside interest.

  17. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    MoneyB

    “I had the impression that you were far more capable” (of RR)
    “Some of your points are way beneath a person of your class…” (of Cyprian)

    You really don’t get it do you? But no matter now that I know you are….well you know. Kiss

  18. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    One of the fellows in the village had a car they called the MBR,Moving Bed room. On the side of it he painted the words . “Lady don’t laugh at my car, you daughter may be in here.”
    Many of us may already be too late, and do not know it.

  19. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    David

    Again, will you please explore YOUR values with us, the values you ascribe to the ‘BU household’, the values you ascribe to the average Barbadian, and those you suppose that R has in her heart and on her chest.

  20. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    David wrote “Rihanna is owned lock stock and barrel by outside interest.

    So is every cosmetic Brand sold in Barbados.

    I am sure a deal can be negotiated with the Rihanna Brand owners.

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    Don’t worry, her two perfumes are on sale at Cave Shepherd.

  22. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Until we decide who and what we are,based on our true history,we are spinning top in mud and have no base to use in order to pass judgement on any one.

  23. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    David,

    You continue to miss the point, which is, that those managers who have been primarily about Rihanna and things Rihanna have not in the process of the contiuned internationalization marketization commodifcation of Rihanna and things Rihanna been about her representing any Barbadian traditional moral spiritual norms and values, and furthermore too to get her to represent such things in which ever songs, music videos, advertisements that she is involved in and that are perceived by some to be of distaste, erotic, lewd, etc.

    And neither has she been, in her international entertainment music role, about representing herself as one of the keepers of these Barbadian traditional moral spiritual norms and values of which you write.

    So furthermore what is this gross and misleading application and inference as coming from you about some false ideology of yours that as a Barbadian she is EXPECTED TO DEVELOP AND HONE VALUES that define her as a Bajan in this international entertainment music business industry?

    By simply imagining you cannot reasonably create or maintain for her, even at this stage of being a famous adult, this thought of an “expectation” for her or anybody else and then seek to apply it to her/them in the context of her/their being a Barbadian, without at the same time your being having been involved in any agreed role function that she or they and you might otherwise have that emerges out of negiotating conditionalizing for any part of her/their shared existences with them based on any expected norms or values (which are really biases preferences in your own mind that say far more about you and your values than about your intended subject Rihanna or any relevant body else) in the course of her/their social behaviours.

    For, that expectation was the primary tasks of many of those persons of those social institutions and agencies in Barbados, and they would have done their parts in helping to mould define her as a Barbadian with a Barbadianness that she often shows displays on the international stage. In this regard, you need to read or reread carefully some of what Cyprian wrote so tellingly earlier.

    PDC

  24. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    Robert Ross,

    Well said, in your 4.57 post, above.

    David does not know very much what he is writing about. It is so very clear.

    PDC

  25. David Avatar
    David

    @PDC

    BU prefers to be more charitable to you and suggest we can all agree to disagree, we will not rubbish your commentary in the same way Professor Emeritus Persaud did at the Errol Barrow a few years ago.

  26. Mark Fenty Avatar
    Mark Fenty

    Listen! I thank God for Rihanna despite her shortcomings, because I now have something to boast about. When our Jamaican as does our Trinidadian neighbors try to push their superstars down my throat.

  27. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    @Robert Ross
    You are just attempting the lil sniper thing today. Just settle ya rass and talk straight out putting your case clearly. No one seems to have brought it to your attention BUT you have contributed nothing here!

    BTW I will not becoming over there as Bigboy as I aint no bulla!

  28. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    David
    Again I have just come upon so most interesting trivia…..digressing now…the original bell located at St.James church is 150 years older that England’s Great Ben and 54 years older than the famous Philadelphia bell of Paul Revere ” the english are coming ” fame. WOW…. Fellow Barbadians we blessed…..there is so much history on this lil Rock.

  29. Mark Fenty Avatar
    Mark Fenty

    PDC, that was deep…! That’s all I have to say regarding your well written comment.

  30. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Wait…you still on your Rhianna graft?…….Did I not tell you ….you were fighting a losing battle?… We Barbadians love our Rhianna…..I don’t know where you expected to go with this…..your BU household …by count of votes seem out-numbered LOL…..Time to put up the shutters on this one my friend LOL….next post please !

  31. David Avatar
    David

    The problem with you Onions is that unless it is about food and politics you are lost.

    On 1 December 2013 22:11, Barbados Underground

  32. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    So wait……BU’s voting system doesn’t count for anything then?…the consensus is clear….

  33. David Avatar
    David

    @Onions

    Maybe you can’t comprehend this but BU was never about hitching a ride with what is popular, the BU household marches to the beat of our drum.

    On 1 December 2013 22:30, Barbados Underground

  34. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    If one has been following this blog long enough they will be aware of the perspective that “David” takes on these “hot button topics”, soon to follow is a blog on homosexuality. These topics draw out the “the Sunday go to meetings” and the “holier than thou” crowd who are full of condemnation at other peoples’ lifestyles while privately they are engaging in some of the same behaviour.

    Hypocrisy is a human condition, if someone doesn’t like her music or lifestyle there are many other Bajan or International entertainers who can be a role model for someone’s household.

    Better yet use the “off” button on the TV or radio

  35. Mark Fenty Avatar
    Mark Fenty

    The Jamaican actress Grace Jones was a very provocative woman back in the 1970’s. But, have we ever heard or read about the Jamaican public, decrying the manner in which she conducted her personal affairs? of course not! Listen! What Rihanna is and what she ought to be, is of no concern to the Barbados public. She is a grown woman and is at liberty to live her life in any manner she sees fit.

  36. thinker Avatar
    thinker

    I have read most of the comments and can only smile at the hypocrisy and lack of critical thinking to the problem at hand. We want to blame rihanna in contributing to the decay in morals among our young people. Yet still we have a major company allowing our young women to be paraded in the skimpiest outfits with nothing left to the imagination just to represent their brand and for $10,000 .We will continue to decay morally if we don’t stop cherry picking this issue and address it in a more critical and meaningful way. As far as I’m concerned, this decay did not start with Rihanna, but ever since the introduction of the internet and easy access to communication and the so call globalization which infiltrated our customs and conservative value system. So please stop the blasted hypocrisy and blame game.

  37. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    David
    As man…..admit it…ya holding more licks than an ice cream wid this one …..LOL

  38. thinker Avatar
    thinker

    And by the way, I,m not so worried about rihanna influence. I’m more worried about the Tommy Lees The Vibz Cartel and the Lady saws. @ David, who was the influence behind the latest dance craze ,the 6:30? Surely not Rihanna.

  39. David (not BU) Avatar
    David (not BU)

    what i find most amazing is that people talk about these celebs being role models. these celebs did not ask to be a role model. it’s up to you the parent to teach your child what a good role model is. stop putting things on people who did not ask for it.

    as for if i would want my child to be like Rihanna, YES! i see Rihanna as a highly successful young woman. you can talk about all the smut you like David, at the end of the day she is at the top of her game. is that not what we teach our children? be good at what you do?

    the lesson here is do what the ass you have do to be successful because no matter what you do people WILL judge you.

    using Frank Marshall’s name make this posting all the more silly but everyone is entitle to their opinion no matter how mis-guided.

  40. Enough Said Avatar
    Enough Said

    So much talk !
    Grudgeful minded sluts grudge Rihanna

    Some cant even spell her name and talking folly . But I suppose the blogmaster is getting some sort of pleasure for this tirade on Rihanna.
    because I cannot see the good in this folly in the colly. Will the real Mr. Farrell please standup. Grudgeful minded people dont bother Rihanna. One time some woman said that Rihanna only had 20, 000 left in she name. People always talking folly about people who achieve. It aint now start. This Bajan Blog should be SHAME though -really.. The blogmaster need to wheel and come again-

  41. Keeping them honest Avatar
    Keeping them honest

    LOOK you complete ass if Minaj is more articulate than Rihanna then she is a boss. Hearing Rihanna in interviews with heavy hitters like Oprah she is articulate and intelligent in the extreme. Never heard Minaj besides the inane rap music she belts out but if the George Washington wigs and false botsies she sports is a guide she might as well have gone school at the standpipe. Rihanna is at the top of her game because of her world beating package of talent, looks, youth, sassiness, flair, intelligence and originality. The young lady is a fashionista to boot her every thread even perfume is snapped up and copied by millions. Like Hilary Beckles said she is a billion dollar industry and she is Bajan. We are proud of her the only Bajans who cry down Rihanna are morons. You jackass LOOK is the biggest moron of all.

  42. Mark Fenty Avatar
    Mark Fenty

    You should not judge a book by its cover. Now, it is important that we note the words of the American comedian Dave Chappelle when he said:” Because a woman wears a whore uniform, that does not necessarily makes her a whore.”

  43. Fed Up Avatar
    Fed Up

    @ Enough Said
    “…because I cannot see the good in this folly in the colly”. It is simple really; the reason is that the blog master has to keep to keep the blog alive and interesting. Look at the number of responses! LOL. So every now and again he has to come with these topics that create nuff people to respond. Another popular topic is homosexuality or anything having to do with religion.

  44. memyselfandi Avatar
    memyselfandi

    Wait! Stupid ass idiots actually ‘quarrelling’ bout somebody who got summuch more money than them? LOL

  45. Mark Fenty Avatar
    Mark Fenty

    Fed Up: we obviously have to do something to cure the colossal boredom in our lives.

  46. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Keeping them honest | December 1, 2013 at 7:18 PM |

    People like “LOOK” need to ‘look’ carefully at the maxim of “those who are without sin cast the first stone” and ingest it with contrite honesty.

    Could you tell us what Rihanna has done to attract such hate-filled attacks?
    If poor Rihanna was born and raised in the great US of A she would be worshiped by Bajans.

    Up to now, no one can tell us what the pop star has done “wrong”. Is she a paedophile, crook, swindler, liar and fraud like some who are upheld in Bim as paragons of virtue and above the law?

    Rihanna is just human; not a god or pope. “To whom much is given much is expected”; and Rihanna has done great things for herself and others including the promotion of Bim.
    Without the Rihanna’s ‘Barbados shout-outs’ and promotion Barbados would still be viewed by 90% of people on this Earth (if they were to hear of it) as some parish or country town in Jamaica or Cuba.

  47. Mark Fenty Avatar
    Mark Fenty

    What does money have to do with anything though? I’ll take character and a peace of mind over money anyday. Listen! I had a few dollars a couple years ago and it brought me more misery than I thought possible.

  48. Mark Fenty Avatar
    Mark Fenty

    I hear ya Mill…! You speak with the tongue Native American and not with fork of the whiteman.

  49. Mark Fenty Avatar
    Mark Fenty

    Rihanna, to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. Ralp Waldo Emerson

  50. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    memyselfandi | December 1, 2013 at 7:35 PM |
    Wait! Stupid ass idiots actually ‘quarrelling’ bout somebody who got summuch more money than them? LOL
    ……………………………………………….
    Man this is the only submission on this topic that makes sense.

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