The Presidency is preeminently a place of moral leadership,” Franklin Roosevelt observed in the midst of the Depression; but that was then and this is now. What has changed? – The Moral Authority of Government

A wholesome society many will argue is built on the pillars of law and order. Barbados like many others is a society built on law and order. But is it enough to enact and enforce laws if we want to build the optimal society? What role do human values play in the quality of life we aspire to -values like  honesty, integrity, empathy, humility and the like. How are societal values modified over time to sustain the optimal society. How does a society mesh the individual values of the citizenry to honour the many. Importantly, who should be the ones responsible to codify changing values as time passes.

There was a period the citizenry acted based on norms and values influenced heavily by the world of the non secular. Today there is great haste to separate non-secular influence from how we govern. Have we been able to grow basic human values rooted in the society we have become to fill the vacuum previously  influenced by Christian values ?  Hmmmm

Through the years the BU household has posted several blogs about the weeds which have run amuck in the manicured lawns. When they were sprouts we ignored them because we were distracted by the appeal that is derived from social relativism. Underpinning the breakdown in the Bajan society has been our willingness to surrender and deprioritized Bajan values. Nowadays Barbados has become the warehouse for anything and everything.  Again we are not willing to defend a damn thing that is Bajan. Errol Walton Barrow must be a disappointed man observing from across the Rubicon.

An apt analogy which describes the potta Barbados finds itself is that of the ZR/Minibus culture. Almost three decades ago voices in the proverbial wilderness sounded the alarm to alert the authorities we needed to address issues in the sector. Because of greed and ineptness of the authorities they have mismanaged the sector and in the process exacerbated the social ills of our country. Why should we worry though, after all, we are a society first and then an economy.   If ever one wanted a definition of political rhetoric, there you have it.

Of all the immoral acts which have been perpetrated on Barbados by a public figure in Barbados in the last decade, it must be Michael Carrington’s refusal to pay an ordinary citizen his money.  He had to be ordered by the High Court to pay a 70+ year old man his money. What makes the act so egregious is the fact he is the Speaker of the House of Assembly. The fact he has not resigned is bad enough, the fact this most ignominious act was defended by Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart caused every sinew in the body to go numb of all right thinking Bajans. The Michael Carrington matter now raises the issue of the moral authority of any government in the building of the optimal society.

Michael Carrington you are a cad and Barbadians everywhere should be so ashamed about what you have done to puncture the good reputation of Barbados. All the while the Leader of the Opposition is silent. The media is silent. His colleagues are unsurprisingly silent. And the PEOPLE are silent.