Submitted by Charles Knighton
Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, Stephen Lashley, has again stressed the importance of keeping aspects of Barbados’ heritage (traditions) and history in the forefront during the season of Emancipation, “so that both young people and adults can truly appreciate what is being celebrated.” A society that does not either understand or value its history and traditions is a society verging on suicide, for if you don’t know your history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. And what is tradition if not the living faith of the dead?
In her article Tourism defenders (April 15 Advocate), Janelle Husbands leads with the adage that “good news travels fast and bad news even faster” before discussing the importance of the image we portray in attracting tourists to Barbados.
What image of Barbados was portrayed by the recent release of the findings of a study by Dr. Clive Landis that forty percent of Barbadian females’ first sexual experiences came about through coercion or by rape? Though males were not included in this study, with such a high percentage of females reporting such experiences, it seems safe to draw the inference that over half of all children in Barbados are victims of sexual abuse.
Ergo, far from being the isolated incidents of crime Ms. Husbands speaks of, such abominable behavior seems to be a cultural norm in Barbados. How many prospective tourists, particularly females, will be appalled enough at such a state of affairs to seek their vacations elsewhere, taking their partners or families with them?
While I have never been accused of being the brightest bulb in the box, and so am probably missing something, I absolutely can’t figure out what the BAMC has done to incur the wrath of Sir Roy Trotman and the BWU. That being said, Sir Roy’s demand for an apology from the BAMC brought to mind some very sage advice learned at the knee of my grandmother, to wit: “It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people neither expect or want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.”
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